A Scrapbook of Skinny and Not-so-Skinny Photos…

Photo 1a — What I looked like at my fittest

Photo 1b — 1992 – Me at the Hotter Than Hell 100 Bike Ride

Photo # 1a shows me when I was at my fittest.

(click any photo on this page to enlarge it)

When this Photo 1awas taken on May 31, 1990, I weighed somewhere between 155-160 lbs.

That was during the period where I was cycling on a regular basis.  Each week, I would do 4-5 rides a week.  My average ride on Saturdays during the summer was somewhere between 40 and 60 miles.

I was very fit.   I even rode a century in 1992, the Hotter than Hell 100, which is a 100 mile bike ride. (See Photo 1b)

Then, I went back to school.  Graduate School. I stopped riding and the pounds started adding on, slowly but surely.

By 1995 or 1996 I had gained 20 or so pounds and weighed around 190, (See Photo 2).  Photo 2 also shows you approximately what I will look like when I achieve my current fitness goal which is to get back down to 190 lbs.

Photo 2

When I graduated with my Masters Degree, in May of 1996, I was lucky and got work almost immediately.  I got a really good job that took a lot of my time.  A desk job.  A computer desk job.  Sitting.  At. A. Computer.  All.  Day.  Only two doors from the break room.  More eating and sitting.  Less cycling. Need I say more?

By 2000 my weight had ballooned up to 240 lbs.

Photo 3 and Photo 4 are a couple “progress photos” that I took because I was trying to loose weight.  They show what I looked like at that point.

Sorry about the small file size and grainy resolution of some of the photos on this page.  They are very small size because they are files from my old website.  I wanted to get this post up and used the files I had on hand.  I’ve got the original photos around somewhere.  In my abundance of free time *LOL* I’ll try and find them, rescan the photos and put a better, larger size image here.

Photo 3

Photo 4

Needless to say, I was no longer biking by the time photos 3 and 4 were taken.  :-p

Somewhere in late 2000, I started dancing as part of a country western dance team and went to my first dance IAGLCWDC convention and competition.

Photo 5

Memorial Day Weekend, May 24-28, 2001.  Thank goodness I was doing *some* kind of exercise.  Otherwise I would have been even bigger.  By the time of the convention I had dropped down to around 210 or 220 lbs.  (See Photo 5)

My weight from 2001 to now, 2011 has gone up, and down, and up, and down, and up, and down and up and up and up.  I have lots of photos, many of them dance photos that show me at different weights.  I became very good at choosing clothes to minimize and hide my true weight.

Here is a slide show that shows me at
different weights from 2001 – 2012.

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I’m blessed with a body that carries the weight well.  People are generally shocked when I tell them how much I weigh and because they are obviously shocked, I believe them when they say that I don’t look like I weigh as much as I actually do.

Photo 6

So, now you have an idea of what I’ve looked like in the fairly distant past.

Here are a few last photos for your *ahem* “viewing pleasure”.

It was the photo to the left, Photo 6, that, in part caused me to do some serious thinking about my fitness and my health and my weight.  Photo 6 was taken in July 2008.  I weighed 275 lbs.  This is my unofficial “Before Photo” because it shows me at my heaviest.

I was horrified at how I looked.  Who was this guy in the photo. Well, I managed to knock off a few pounds, but continued on the cycle of weight loss and gain.

In 2010 I joined Jenny Craig

Photo 8

Photo 7

Photo 7 and Photo 8 were my official “Before Photos” taken Feb 26, 2010, on the first day of the Jenny Craig Program, where I weighed 270 lbs.

In 2010 from February through December, I lost a total of 37 lbs.  Yay me!

2011 — The Year from Hell

At Jenny Craig May 4, 2012 – 287 lbs

However, in 2011,well, let’s just say that 2011 wasn’t a good year, in a lot of ways but in particular, on the “Health & Fitness” front.

Which brings us to now, Dec 25, 2011.  At the beginning of this month, I set a new record.  Unfortunately it is not the kind of record I ever intended to set:

• Weight (at home): 287.9 (Dec 25, 2011)
• Weight (at Jenny Craig Center – Dec 8, 2011): 287.4
• Body Fat: 41.4 %

Because I now weigh more than I did when I started Jenny Craig, I took a new “Before Photo” at the Jenny Craig Center. I’ll post it here as soon as I get a copy of it.

Into the Future…

From this point forward, I’ll post a single photo each week that combines a front and side view, taken in the same spot so that at the end of 52 weeks I can create a slide show that will show the weekly progress toward a fit and healthy me.   I’m also posting the same photo on my Flickr page in a set called:

“52 Weeks – 52 Photos – A weight loss photo log” – There will actually be 54 photos because after posting the first two, well, did I mention that 2011 was the “year from hell?”  I thought I did.  But I’m back on the wagon now.  I’m not saying there won’t be setbacks but no matter what, I know that I’ve started a journey down a path that will see a healthier me, for the rest of my life.

See ya on the dance floor!