It’s a whole new day….

So, it’s a whole new change to this long stagnant blog. And a bit of a story as to why…

Over the weekend I found out that my niece, who graduates from college this month, is getting an award from the faculty of the Nutrition program as Best Nutrition Minor. Very cool!! But while talking to my mother about this, it came up that the reason she decided to minor in Nutrition was to learn all she could about it to help me lose weight.

Now, as you can see, I am not a small person. My current weight is around 440 lbs. It hasn’t always been that way. I was a very active child and young adult. When I served my mission in Argentina, I came home weighing 165 lbs. All this on a 6’4” frame. As an example, here is one of those photos that you hate to have around, but will show that I wasn’t always such a hog!

This also furthers the rumor that I was the subject of Napoleon Dynamite!

Well, since finding out this news, I can’t just sit idly by and watch myself expand endlessly. My weight has been constant for some years now. I fluctuate a bit, but I’m not getting larger or smaller by any great amount. I have been performing with the Utah Opera Chorus for many years, and have recently started performing with Hunt Mystery Dinner Theater. The people I perform with are wonderful, caring people, and I love being around them. But my weight is getting to be a bit of a problem. I have to have special measures taken to accommodate for me. When doing the Hunt shows, we are mingling with guests before and after dinner, and, not to be gross, but I sweat. A lot! I have 3-4 handkerchiefs to mop my brow during the show. It’s not pleasant and it’s not a secret, either. Also at the last show we did, a (I’m sure) very caring audience member (who shall remain nameless, although I could blab his name around, I have his business card!) struck up a conversation with me after the show asking about the shows, how often we perform, etc. Then he very casually passed me his card and said, “I coach people in losing weight. Give me a call!” To say that I was taken aback is an understatement. To say that I wanted to flatten the guy (and let’s be serious, I could have done that by falling on him!) would be a gross understatement. I wanted to leave nothing but an oily stain on the carpet after I got through with him. But instead, I smiled and said something like, “Yeah, I’ll do that.”

Now all this rambling brings me back to the point of this post. I decided that if I’m ever going to get serious about losing weight, I need to create some kind of accountability for what I am doing and especially what I am eating. So, in the twisted back of my mind, I decided the easiest and quickest way to do that is to change my long neglected blog into my fat journal. In the coming days, weeks and months, I will post my eating habits, exercise and thoughts on all things heavy. Hopefully, by doing this, I will become accountable for all the mistakes and selfish habits that have gotten me to this point, and can change them to make a thinner, healthier me for my wonderful and long-suffering wife, and also be a better dad to my fabulous children. And if it helps anyone else to see that it is possible without surgery (because I do not want to go under the knife to lose weight, nor do I think that in my current condition it would be wise to be under general anesthesia) then it will all be worth whatever humiliation I may suffer in so public a forum.

Well, there you have it! Come along for the ride, or don’t. Your choice. But I will be adding to the total dreck pushed out on the internet in my own twisted way. Join me won’t you? (Why, are you coming apart?)