I’ve been at least 100 lbs overweight for most of my adult life. With that came the aches, pains and medical issues of being such. 275 lbs is a lot of weight to pack onto a 5’8” frame and I’m sad to say that’s not the heaviest I’ve been in my life. I take 5 pills daily in the morning and before bed just to manage my high blood pressure and cholesterol. Not exactly how I pictured living life at the age of 36. While the way I feel is definitely less than desirable, I have 2 great lights in my life that are the reasons I do anything. My amazing wife, Nikki, and my beautiful daughter, Zoe, are my very reasons for being. There is no line I will not cross and no sacrifice I will not make to ensure they are cared for.  Without them, I can’t say that I’d be here today to share anything with anyone. That said, to ensure that I maximize my time here with them, a change had to be made. Being a wrestling and huge Jake “The Snake” Roberts fan as a kid, I came across the Netflix documentary on Jake the day it was released and watched it several times over the course of a few months. That was the first I’d heard of DDPY. It was great to watch but I never gave it much thought beyond that. It wasn’t until I saw Jared’s transformation video of him reading a blog entry back to himself. I felt much the same way. I knew how to eat right. I knew that I had to exercise. I knew that I shouldn’t have consumed those 10 13% ABV stouts the night before (mmmmm…..but I do love them). I knew I was just going to feel worse and worse. This wasn’t a secret. Worse than that, up until my best friend died over the summer of 2017 from an alcohol related illness, I didn’t care. 37 years old. Dead. There’s no semi-colon there. That’s a period. His story is over. I didn’t want mine to be.
    Fast forward to the holiday season of 2017. At this point, I had mentioned DDPY and showed my wife (whom is down 50 lbs on her own prior to any of this) a video or two. She ordered the Max Pack for us for Christmas and we began DDPY together on January 1st, 2018. Cliché? Yeah. We took our measurements, weights and 6 starting pictures and got to it. We cussed. We laughed. We swore at Dallas. We flexed our quads, flexed our glutes and grabbed that damn ball more than I could tell you. But, a day came where we both started to feel changes in ourselves. There was a growing flexibility in me and a growing strength in her. This woman couldn’t do a pushup to save her life 30 days ago. Now she does multiple 5 count pushups with no modification. She inspires me daily. After 30 days, I weighed in at 253 lbs. and had lost a total of 6”; mostly in my chest and waist. I feel better and I don’t walk around in pain anymore. My knees, my back, my hands, my feet………none of them hurt. I feel like I haven’t felt in over 10 years and I have DDPY to thank for that. I am looking forward to my Day 60 measurements and the day that I can say that I’m under 200 lbs. The Facebook group is incredibly supportive; especially around people who may be down on their progress and maybe focusing on the wrong things (like the scale numbers). It’s funny. This month (February 2018) I haven’t lost a single pound but I’m wearing pants that didn’t fit me at the end of January. Bang.