The Begining...Well Almost

Hi I'm Vinny, thanks for stopping by to read about my journey. I started this as a way to hold myself accountable for my weight loss. I figure if I put myself out there for others to see my progress, I will be less likely to skip out on the gym and think twice about what foods I eat...at least that's my plan. So, let me tell you a bit about myself, what you can expect out of this blog and my journey so far.

I'm 36 and live Missouri, but my heart and family are in Rhode Island and I hope to move back there some day. My days here in MO are spent with my wonderful girlfriend, our great dog and our lazy cat. All 3 are a big reason for me wanting to lose this disgusting weight. I want to be around for them, and I can't do that if I'm in the hospital or worse....dead. So this time has be different, because I have only one option left and that's to just do it! As a side note, I am not a polished writer so don't expect this blog to be 100% grammatically correct. Leave your red pens away from the comment box. :p

Now, I know what your thinking. What do you weigh Vin? How are we supposed to hold you accountable if we don't know your stats? This is a bit difficult for me. I have never really mentioned my weight to anyone (just a select few, my doctor included), so to put it out there for everyone to see is a bit frightening. Well, you can't have a weight loss blog without weight totals so here it is; as of this morning I weigh....303 lbs (wow, I wonder if I will actually hit the publish button at the end LOL). Now there has been progress so far. I actually started my weight loss on Feb 21st of this year and at that point I weighed in at 314 lbs, so 11 pounds lost so far is OK I think. My ultimate long term goal is to be 200 lbs so I have a ways to go but I will make it!

On Feb 20th I had enough of this fat taking over my life so I decided to join a gym. Actually that is a partial lie. I wanted to join a gym for a long time before that but I could not bring myself to go in and sign up. Oh I drove by the gym a lot, I would park, contemplate going in and then I would drive off convincing myself that I would do it that weekend. Ya see, I had been to a gym before and every time I would walk in I could feel everyone's eyes on me...at least I thought. I would hang my head, look to the floor and make a beeline to the locker room. I just knew that all those skinny athletic people with their fancy workout clothes were staring me down wondering what the hell this fat guy was doing in their skinny people only gym.....again, so I thought. Man I hated that feeling, it made it so difficult to go the gym everyday that I just stopped going. So on Feb 20th, 2010 I found myself once again sitting in the parking lot of the gym contemplating going in. This time though there was no next weekend, if I wanted things to change I had to put my insecurities aside and walk into that gym....and I did.

The experience surprisingly enough did not kill me. There were no fat guy alarms going off, there was no one pointing and laughing at the new fat guy and I was able to walk to the counter without any incident. Then again, the counter was only 5 feet from the door LOL. I signed up for a year, and the manager showed me around the gym a bit. I was not really fond of that because as we walked around I could once again feel all the eyes on me...so I thought.

Flash-forward almost 2 months.  I still do the "walk of shame" as I call it. Walk in the door, look to the ground and make a beeline to the treadmill, but it is getting easier. My time on the treadmill is getting easier too. I am up to 1 hour with a 3 incline at 3.0mph. The last minute to 2 minutes of my hour I jog at 4.0 mph. That in itself is a huge accomplishment for me.

So that is me in a nutshell. I hope that along way I can inspire at least one person to start a weight loss journey, and for those already on theirs hopefully we can help each other along.

  -Vinny

Starting weight = 314 lbs

4/14/2010 - 303 lbs / 11 pounds lost on this adventure so far

Treadmill - 1 hr 5 min / 3.0 mph @ 3 incline for 3.17 mi