Long Time Coming

I woke up to a surprising 240.6 lbs this morning. That means that I lost about 7 lbs since Friday. I know it's mostly water weight (as evidenced by the terrible leg cramp I had yesterday), but it feels good to see the number drop so much.

Back in 2005 I reached critical mass. My scale didn't go high enough to show me how much I weighed, so I went online and found one that went to 350 lbs. I can't describe the feeling of horror and disappointment I felt when I stepped on that scale and it read 345 lbs. I was killing myself, and I didn't even realize it. I didn't know what to do with myself, but nature intervened. Hurricane Rita hit the coast of Texas that September, and we had to evacuate. After the storm, I came back early to get back to work. I had no electricity and no clean water. I lived out of an ice chest for about a week, and every morning I'd wake up in a pool of my own sweat. Somehow I managed to lose 5 lbs., and that was the impetus for this continuing journey. I saw that it could be done, but I still didn't know how to do it myself. I did what I could, but it was a slow process.

In the summer of 2007 I moved from Texas to Wichita, KS. Shortly after that I took my first fitness class from Chris Haines. It's been a bumpy road of weight loss and weight gain since then. No fault of Chris'; I just have some very bad habits that I'm breaking. I had lost about 50 lbs with Chris' help, but I put it back on. That didn't do too much to boost my self-esteem, but thankfully Chris never gave up on me.

I mentioned to Chris that I would like to try a fight at least once, and in September of 2010, Chris offered to start training me. Here we are, seven and a half months later, and I'm down 68 lbs. That, with the weight I lost before I met Chris, is about 105 lbs lost since I sadly hit 345 lbs. It's been a long time coming, but I finally hit the 100 lb mark. I know I still have a long way to go, but I'm more motivated now than ever. My first amateur fight is less than a month away, and Chris has me training harder than ever.

"Do you regret this yet?" Chris has asked me that a couple of times with a smile on his face. I'm not going to lie, this is arguably the hardest thing I've ever done, but I certainly don't regret it. Do I regret losing weight and getting in better shape? No. Do I regret getting healthier and adding years to my life? No. My body aches, and I don't think I've ever physically pushed myself this hard before. I can honestly say that I'm doing this with no regrets.

Having never fought before, I'm dealing with a bunch of nerves and emotions. Chris told me something today that I hadn't thought of. He said to imagine my victory because I deserve it. I do deserve it. I have worked damn hard to get this far, and I'm going to keep working hard until I achieve my goals. Look for me to get my hand raised in victory on May 14th. I deserve it.