Honey, I'll Be There in a Minute! I'm Trying To Get Strangers To Like Me Online...

First of all, before I do anything else, I need to apologize to you. You have been there with me through thick and thin and somewhere along the way I got sidetracked. For that, I'm truly sorry.

How? You ask. Really simple. I let a little popularity go to my head. Popularity, I found out, is a really fickle thing. Once I got it, I found it really hard to let go. Jealousy reared its ugly head, and it started consuming me. I wanted it constantly. What I finally realized is, I don't need it. All I need is the love and support of my close family and friends. I've got a great support system around me and I started ignoring it because I was wanting to be the next "trending" person.

It all started a few weeks ago. Weight Watchers has a great app called Connect. It's similar to Facebook, but it's limited to Weight Watcher members only.  The day after I did my first 5k, I posted a picture, and said, " My first 5k. I came in dead last, but I was faster than anyone on the couch." It blew up on Connect! I started trending, and ended up with over 9500 likes and 1300 comments. It all died down in about 24 hours. Because of that post I was contacted by Weight Watchers to sit in on a national broadcast conference call with Oprah Winfrey. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience! She interviewed me for about 10 minutes and I got the chance toward the end to answer a couple of questions too. After the call I had a lot of people asking questions and I stayed up to 1 that morning talking to people. I was honored to be chosen for such a event! Oprah is such a sweet lady, and I enjoyed it when she even teased me some during the call. 

I enjoyed my 15 minutes of fame and honestly, I was thought I was good, but I got where every time I put something on Connect, I was wanting it to trend. If it only got 20 likes, I deleted it and tried something different. I was really starting to get unhappy, that only a few people liked what I had to say. After a few weeks of frustration, I had break through. I realized that who cares that 3,000 people don't like what I said. What should really matter is me putting my focus back on me and on my journey. I was so desperately craving the attention, I had once received and forgot that I wasn't on this journey to be popular. I was on this journey to be healthy and lose weight.

I had my blinders on and wasn't looking around me at the good things going on in my life. My weight loss is still going down, but it is getting harder to lose weight like I once was. No more 3 - 5 lb weeks, but more like .8 - 1.6 weeks. Ive now lost 92.6 lbs in 7 months. I haven't been this size in 20 years! I've gone from a 56 jeans to a 48! I had been so consumed, that I haven't wrote in my blog in over a month! Well, no more! This is my record of my journey and I don't need to forget about it again. 

This past weekend me and Melody did our second 5k. It was the Memorial 5k in downtown OKC. It was in honor of the Murrah Bombing 21 years ago. This had been something I had been wanting to do for sometime, and finally got healthy enough to do it this year. I was a blast. Hell or high water, I'll do this 5k every year from now on! I was proud I didn't finish last. I was 3,301 out of 3,903 runners, or 81 out of 94 men my age. I didn't beat my personal best though. I think I would've, but 2 trains crossed the path and we had to wait for them to get out of the way. We finished at 1:04:09, which was only 7 minutes off my time. 

We have already signed up to do another 5k in May. This one is going to be a color run. I'm not sure if I am ready to do a 5k where I got people throwing stuff at me the entire race, but we'll see! I'm proud of the fact now that I've had some family members who have started to notice the difference in mine and Melody's journey and are encouraged to start being healthy themselves. I have had some friends and family join Weight Watchers and join our gym too! I've even got some family who are wanting to do a 5k with us! Things are really looking up! We have a family reunion in a couple of weeks and I hope I've hit my hundred pound mark by then, but if not, I'm still healthier than I was this time last year!

24,818 runners. I was one.

I Did A 5K. Well, Really A 3K. I Got Lost. Twice....

If someone, last August, came up to me and told me that in 6 months I was going to do a 5k, I probably would've laughed in their face. I weighed 452 lbs and was out of breath just walking across the room. Yet, here I was walking 3.12 miles without stopping and not out of breath for a moment. Was I fast? Not at all. Did I run? Not at all. Did I finish? Yes. Dead last, but most importantly I finished. It was the first time in my life I WANTED to walk that far! I have walked that far before, but not by choice. One night while going into Norman, I ran out of gas. At 2:30 in the morning, I walked that far to get some gas for my van. This time I enjoyed myself. Melody stayed with me for awhile, but I told her anytime she feels like it to run ahead of me. I'm fine by myself, and I was. She took of shortly after we crossed the bridge. I put my headphones in and walked and just took the time to think about my journey. To be honest, I love my wife, but I am glad that I had those moments to myself. I had 2 1/2 miles just to think about me.

Have you ever watched a reality show on television? One of those where on the final episode they do a recap of everything that lead up to the last show. That's the way things started playing in my mind. Scene after scene replaying of my journey up to my first 5k. Mine would start with the first time me and Melody went to our first Weight Watcher meeting. Walking in and meeting our fabulous leader, Nanci, for the first time. Her warm smile and bubbly personality make each meeting a blast! Then there was the first time I went to the gym and met with Jared. His knowledge helped me so much, but I didn't know what what to even expect at the time. I had my first assessment. Couldn't hardly bend over to touch my toes. Riding a stationary bike for only a few seconds before I was totally out of breath. The first time in my life I had actually worked out. Our first weigh-in where I lost over 16 lbs. in one week! Slowly I embarked on this journey of a new life style. Finding new and exciting ways to be active. Walking a nature trail, to going to a corn maze too. I found the more active I got, the more my body started to feel better. The pain of arthritis was still there, but it was getting way mor tolerable. I was learning how to eat different and exercise daily. I was growing stronger and the weight was falling off. My energy levels started rising. It was paying off too. I was getting compliments at work from customers and other workers. The management team started noticing too. My store manager is now behind me getting a promotion. Every week something new and exciting was happening, and I embraced it all.

With every step I took, I found my self becoming more and more emotional. I kept fighting back the tears as each memory made its way into view. As I crossed the bridge heading back into to town, I had my head down. Thankful for my journey and for all its moments. Then I looked up and I saw her. Melody had went on and finished ahead of me, but circled back to be with me as I crossed the finish. I couldn't ask for a better wife and a best friend. I am not good enough yet to finish with her and her
accomplishment, but she came back to be with me in mine. I love her more than words can describe.
My official time was 57:02. As I crossed I had a bunch of people clapping for me. They knew what I had overcome to be here. I even had a few friends that stuck around to see me finish. It was definitely, as Weight Watchers would put it,  a "Beyond the Scale" moment. I am doing more things in my life now than just losing weight. I'm actually living life!

Me, Melody and Dee Snider (before)

My family and And David Brown trying out for The Biggest Loser (before) 

Me and my Dad (before) 

Me and Melody (before) 

Me, Melody, and Mom

Me at the beginning on my bicycle

The corn maze 

Thinking I saw children in the corn 

Then I heard aliens 

Melody trying her best to not get us lost. 

My 10%charm

2 weeks after starting 

Walking selfie 

me and Melody a few weeks ago going to a OKC Thunder game 

Me, Melody, and Russell Westbrook 

My 5k coming into town 

Melody Finishing

Me finishing with Melody 

                                  

 

At the start

Out on the town after the race 

Before and currently