For as long as I can remember, I was always heavy. Despite being pretty active as a kid, I was the chubby one who got teased by the other kids because I was slow or because I couldn't climb the ropes in gym class. I almost always got picked last for dodgeball. I had food thrown at me in the high school cafeteria. I still managed to have a decent childhood with good friends and memories but that part of me would always cast a huge shadow over my life.

As I got older, I started to identify with it. I even would draw attention to it, giving myself nicknames. I figured if I said something first, others wouldn't. It was bad. Year after year, I slowly got heavier and heavier until around 2014 when I almost hit 300 lbs and I realized that I was going to die if I didn't make some dramatic changes. Unable to keep up with my young kids, having chronic lower back, shoulder, elbow pain and upper GI issues, I decided to start being more active. A few dozen fad diets and some minor activity changes resulted in some weight loss but I was having trouble with the lack of flexibility which was discouraging me from doing much more. A friend suggested that I look into yoga to increase my flexibility but to be honest, I really couldn't see myself doing it.

Fast forward a few years and I was scrolling through my Facebook feed and came across Arthur Boorman's dramatic transformation video. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Clearly, if a disabled veteran could do it, I could. So on that spot, I purchased the DVD's and made a decision that I was going to give it a try. On Monday, January 9th, 2017 I started! At first, I just did the workouts as designed. Then I made dietary changes. Cutting out gluten and cow-based dairy. What was happening? I was losing weight! Pretty quickly also. In just 3 months I was down 30 pounds. A few months later, another 20 lbs gone. I was getting stronger and much more flexible. It really was amazing.

So what started happening next was, to me, even greater than the weight loss. I started to believe! I realized that this was not just another fad diet, or 6-week workout plan that I was going to walk away from and rebound the weight back on. This was what I was waiting for my whole life. So, here I am, a month into my 2nd year of DDPY writing this story. Every day I get stronger still. I can run circles around my kids and the relationship with my wife is better than ever. I continue to challenge myself each day. Every day provides an opportunity to be better. I started my journey at 295 pounds (275 when I began DDPY) and am writing this at 205 with 195 just over the horizon. But, even better is that overall health is now my focus and I know that as I work on being better than yesterday's me, there is no limit to where I can go. I now know that only I can stop myself. And I have no plans on doing that.

Update - June 2018

I've continued to lose weight and have now surpassed my original goal of 195 lbs, and have set a new goal of 185 lbs. I have also begun training to become a DDPY Level 1 Certified Instructor.