My weight loss journey

So I decided about seven months ago that I really needed to lose weight. Back in February I was 300 pounds a very good friend of mine was 450 pounds. Being 39 years old at the time I realized that being over 300 pounds at 40 wasn't a great idea so together we made some changes in our lives for the better. To start we both went to the doctor and started a program called Orion. Orion is a program where you reduce your caloric intake to 1200 calories a day and only take in 20 grams of carbohydrates a day that coupled with exercise and taking 10 mg of phentermine an appetite suppressant and mild stimulant.

 The beginning of the journey was not easy it had taken me decades to put the weight on. I was a wrestler in high school so I  maintained a pretty constant weight in high school. I wrestled 152 pound weight class for my whole high school career. After high school I was pretty active in college and shortly after and weight wasn't an issue. After meeting my now ex wife I got comfortable and started putting on weight that was my early to mind 20s. After my daughter was born I really started gaining weight at 25 I was 240 pounds. I continued down that path for the better part of the next decade and a half and as I said at 39 I was 300 pounds  

So as I said I started with the diet and exercise February and it really helped. The first week I lost 10 pounds and that really motivated me. The next week I actually gained a pound which was a little disappointing but the doctor said that was common and was probably water retention. I continued with the diet and started going to an mma gym 4 days a week. After the first month I was down 20 pounds which was great. I continued going to the mma gym 4 days a week and started going to planet fitness 3 days a week after the second month.

I really enjoyed the mma gym and met some really awesome people there and they encouraged and helped me continue to lose the weight. Paul the instructor used to be a body builder so he gave me some pointers and really worked my butt off both figuratively and literally. My buddy Doug was with me the whole journey as well as I said he started at 450 pounds and he was the one who introduced me to the mma gym called extreme mma. We both continued the diet and exercise and after the third month I was down 50 pounds and Doug was down 75. Doug's wife Kathy who is not heavy at all helped us as well she would cook for me and doug every night and I became a fixture at their house at dinner time.

 Well fast forward to last month I had reached my goal of 200 pounds around the 15th so I went to the doctor as had become my  routine every week for my weekly weigh ins and said good bye to Page the medical assistant that did the weekly weigh ins and felt really great 

Later last month on the 26th the day before my 40th birthday me and Doug competed in a new breed tournament. I won the 30 to 40 year old 200 pound decision and took home a gold medal for my effort and Doug won the absolute division which has no weight class no age limit or skill level and actually had an active fighter from the UFC 

that's the whole team from our gym

that's Doug and our instructor Paul Doug is the big guy with the belt

that's me from a recent picture for another post and my journey is still not over I have since the tournament lost another 5 pounds and put on 2 pounds of lean muscle. Now at 40 years old I am in better shape than I have been in since I was in my early 20s so the moral of the story is you are never to old to accomplish anything that you set your mind to just set a goal and start. Even if it doesn't happen over night if you stick with it you can accomplish anything

  As always thank you for reading and have a great night