Hello and welcome to the first of many (I hope) posts that will document my journey to losing 100 lbs in one year and culminating in me completing the Yorkshire 3 Peak Challenge on my 50th birthday. I'll post more about the 3 Peak Challenge in another post. The 3 peak challenge is a goal I hope to complete, but the real reason for wanting to lose this weight and get my fitness back is a purely selfish one. I want to be around long enough on this earth to see and enjoy the amazing things that my children, my grandchildren and my great grandchildren will accomplish. It might also be nice that while I'm enjoying all those things that I can be mobile and not slowed by my current physical limitations because of my weight.
My one year, technically starts today (Saturday) but I have been preparing for this challenge for about a month now. I didn't actually think I'd be ready to make this public today as I thought it would take longer for me to feel comfortable with the changes I've made in my routines. On Monday, June 1, 2015, I weighed in at 275 lbs. (That's 19.5 Stones for my British friends. For my American Friends, 1 Stone = 14 lbs). As of last Monday, June 22, 2015, I weighed 260 lbs (18.5 Stones) for a total weight lose of 15 lbs (just over 1 Stone).
This is NOT going to be easy and I know it. 100 lbs is a LOT of weight and many would say it's an unreasonable goal and I'm just setting myself up for failure. I disagree...100 lbs is a target I'd like to make but maybe it takes me more than a year. Regardless of when I reach my goal, I will not consider it a failure if it doesn't happen at the end of a year. Losing 20 lbs, 50 lbs, 70 lbs are all successes. Becoming more fit is a success. Getting off my blood pressure and cholesterol medication is a success. Getting my sleep apnea under control will be a success. Eating better is a success. In fact, I can't think of anything that could happen where I'd call any of it a failure.
I guess I can't cover everything in my first post but there's one more thing I want to tell you about. Besides being overweight, having severe sleep apnea, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and being borderline diabetic, the one ailment that causes me the most pain and limits my activity the most is my arthritis. I suffer from very advanced osteoarthritis over much of my body. It affects my knees the most and I'm a candidate for knee replacement surgery on both knees (more on that in another post). It also affects my shoulders and lower back but thankfully, not that much...yet. I'll never get rid of the arthritis and it will probably get worse. What I can do is make it much more bearable by getting rid of the excess weight that my knees are holding up. We think of arthritis as an "old person's" disease but I promise you it is not. I was diagnosed about 10 years ago and had more than one doctor tell me I had the knees of a 60 year old. Fast forward 10 years and they're now probably much worse. I've learned to control it with medication but it is still something that alters my life style every moment of every day. With that said, part of this year long journey will also include me trying to raise £2,500 (about $4,000) for Arthritis Research UK. You may notice a few links on the left side of the page. One is a direct link to the Arthritis Research UK. Please visit their site to learn more about arthritis. The other link is to my JustGiving page that you can use to donate and help me reach my goal. It's a small amount over the course of the year but I feel like I want to help as much as I can and bringing awareness and raising money are two easy ways I can help. For my American friends, £5 equals about $8.
As far as this blog is concerned, I'm going to try and update it every week with an update on my progress. I will also post from time to time about the things I'm doing to lose the weight. I'll share my tips and secrets along the way. And from time to time, I'll just share for sake of sharing. In return, please share with me. Give me your advice and your encouragement by using the comments section. Spare no punches. I'm a big boy (literally) and have thick skin. If you're here reading this then you're with me on this journey and I respect your opinion. I don't just need your support raising money. I need your support to keep me on track to lose the 100 lbs in a year. I'm doing this publicly so I'm held accountable by everyone. Times will get tough but with your help, I'll reach all my goals and be a better me in the next year. Thanks for stopping by...see you soon.
Blake (260 lbs, 27 June 2015)
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