March 2013. I woke up one morning and decided to step on the scale. The scale absolutely frightened me. I knew I was heavy, but ONLY in the 300’s. the scale took a moment, then a number popped up that nearly put me into an emotional meltdown: 399. I was one pound away from the dreaded 400 pound mark. I’m a tall guy: 6’3”. I was proportionate, but in no means anywhere near being healthy. My waist was 54’. I wore a size 4xl shirt (I was creeping into a 5xl) shirt. I knew I need to make a change. I just didn’t know how. Enter Arthur Boorman.

I needed to find my motivation. To me, motivation is ¾ of the battle. At the time, my son was 2.5 years old. My biggest fear was dying one day and having him grow up without a father. I needed that extra kick of motivation, so to speak. I was on Facebook one day and came across the Arthur video. I watched it and cried. I watched it three more times and cried each and every single time. Here was an American Hero, broken down for various different reasons. Arthur made no excuses, and worked through his pain and adversity. He went from barely being able to walk, to not only walking, but running. If he could do it, so could I!

I immediately talked to my wife and said this is it, I can do this. I ordered the DVD’s immediately and waited eagerly for them to arrive. At this point, I knew exercise alone wouldn’t be enough. I needed to overhaul my diet. I said goodbye to fast-food, processed food, added sugar, and soda. I said hello to lean protein (grilled chicken, fish, bison), water, fruits, vegetables, and fiber. Lots of fiber. In fact, I focused on three main things while dieting: calorie intake, protein intake, and fiber. The DVD’s arrived and I dove right in immediately. I set one giant goal for myself, and several small goals. My giant goal: as silly as this sounds, I wanted to be able to walk into J. Crew and buy a sweater off the rack. I had never been able to buy clothes off the rack before. My other goals were smaller: get down to 350 pounds, get down to 325 pounds, get down below 300 pounds, and so on.

My first week in, I dropped 11 pounds. The yoga program helped me tremendously. My muscles started to ache, but in a good way. It felt amazing to do something physical and actually see some results from it. By the end of the first month, I was down to 373 pounds. I had dropped 26 pounds!!! I knew from then on, there was absolutely no doubt that I could do this. Every day, It took my about 2 months to reach my goal (67 days, to be exact). I was 350 pounds! I felt great. I continued on my path, knowing that I had much more work to do.

My second goal came in August of 2013. I was under 325 pounds! It only took 4.5 months to lose 75lbs! Not only that, my waist was shrinking 50”, and my shirt size was as well (3xl). I didn’t feel like such a fat slob, and I started to have confidence. True confidence. Over the next several months, I was shattering my goals left and right. By the time May 2014 rolled around, I took a fateful step on the scale: 194 pounds. I had lost a total of 205lbs! I was down to wearing a size L shirt, with a 34” waist. My energy skyrocketed. My blood pressure was sitting at 112/68, and my resting pulse was 56. I finally felt “normal”. I was also able to purchase my sweater at J. Crew (though I couldn’t wear it for a few months because it was so hot outside). I have not stopped doing DDPY. In fact, I probably never will. I still want to tone up a bit, but for the first time in forever (sorry Frozen fans), I felt like I was me.

I wanted to thank several people along the way: my wife Rachel, for being completely supportive of me throughout my journey, my son Greg, whose smile helped motivate me on days where I didn’t want to get out of bed and move, DDP, who without this program I may not be even alive today, Arthur, for providing me my original inspiration, and my current Yoga friends now whom I talk to daily to provide and receive support not only in health topics, but life topics as well. As The Avett Brothers once sang, “decide what to be, and go be it.”