I've been fat nearly all of my life. Husky as a kid, chubby as a pre-teen, and then, well, pretty much fat since then. Back in 2004 my then-girlfriend (now my wife) and I started working out and eating a lot less. Grilled (foreman grill) chicken, broccoli, and white rice was a pretty constant staple in our diet back then.
I was working from home and didn't have the constant access to the free soda machines at work, ate a lot of yogurt, slim fast for lunch. Stuff like that. For about eight months, things were going really well. Erin and I were engaged in May of 2005 and married in October later that same year. After our engagement pictures, when we both probably looked our best in our respective adult lives (she's about seven years younger than me, almost), things began to slide a little bit. We went on a cruise for our honeymoon, and really enjoyed the constant food there. All the while we had the intention of getting back into our healthy eating and work out habits when we returned home.
We didn't. Then came along our daughter (and a few years later, my youngest). Lack of sleep (I still hear the low tones of Hexic HD in my head from late night playing on the Xbox, while holding her, because she wouldn't sleep when we tried to put her down), and unhealthy food that was super cheap sort of led me to bulking (not in a good way) back up. I'd dropped down from about 290 lbs to 240 (where I kind of plateaued for a while) when we were being healthy back up to just over 300 pounds. (I'm more in the range of about 285 now).
I like Doritos and peanut butter M&Ms and cherry coke/pepsi/anything and the list goes on forever. Recently, things have gotten to the point where long hours at work, getting the kids situated with either dinner (for them), homework, baths, bedtime, etc. basically put my wife an I on a pattern of getting fast food to eat after the kids went down.
Back in January my wife set foot on a dream to play in roller derby. She accomplished that dream on June 20th when she actually played in her first exhibition bout - you know, not a scrimmage, but an event they made flyers for, and she was on a team, and we paid actual money to go in and watch.
She's not satisfied with just that, though. She's giving serious thought into joining the pro league in Utah. Sadly it's not the kind of pro league where they pay her crazy amounts of money to play, but you pay to participate. Sort of an exclusive club. I'm very proud of her for running (well, skating) after a dream and capturing it. She doesn't want to let go until her body won't let her do it anymore. I fully support that.
I've never really had a dream. Not like that anyway. Fantasy of playing football when I was young, but I'm not the most athletically gifted person. Could bowl pretty well. But bowling and golf are kind of fat guy sports a lot of cases, and the really good players are still fit.
Then I caught an ad online, it might have been one of my "friends I've never actually met in real life" on Facebook that might have put something up on his feed. The ad was for the Spartan Run. Now, here in Utah, they run the Super. It's like the second level. Eight to nine miles over natural terrain (not a flat track) and 20+ obstacles. I can't imagine what the "Ultra Beast" (26 miles w/ 50+ obstacles) must do to a body.
It piqued my interest. It looks HARD. It looks like something that'll take DAYS to recover from. And for some reason, I. WANT. TO. BEAT. IT.
"The difference between the impossible and the possible lies in a man's determination." ~ Tommy Lasorda
So, here we are, looking at my story. Just at the beginning. The road is long, and time is running short.
Let's go.
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