the shirt that changed my life

warning: this blog is a bit...braggy. i don't mean it to be. it's just a cool story that is worth sharing that may or may not motivate people.

so...if you knew me over two years ago, you know that i was not "healthy." in fact...i couldn't have cared less about health. you could tell this because i weighed 235 pounds by the summer of 2008. trust me, i have plenty of hilarious (not really though) pictures to prove it. i actually have a before and after slideshow that is definitely worth a watch.

i never knew i was heavy. i never thought much about it. actually, i don't really remember feeling heavy, or remembering even noticing i was heavy, until just a few years ago. so what did i do? i tried losing weight. it sucked. bad. i started to "watch what i ate." you know...i literally "watched all the junk food i ate"...and that upset me even more. i also started to run a little. which was also miserable! running sucks in the beginning. it was the classic, "i'm so frustrated i'll now drop 20 pounds" type of thinking. which didn't work. this went on for a long time. and then it happened. i called jenny craig and my problems were resolved. JUST KIDDING...just making sure you're still reading. it all started when i went shopping to get a new shirt for a picture i was having done for the cover of my first cd i released. if you have that album (which was released in july 2008) you can look at the picture of me on the front and you'll see the shirt that changed my life. i remember being in the store, trying clothes on, and being disgusted with what i saw in the mirror. it's like the minute before i was blind, then i put this shirt on, and i saw myself for the first time. i remember seeing the fear in emily's eyes as i came out of the fitting room. i think she knew then that it was different this time. my thought process on losing weight was changed. i was officially determined.

and so it began...i started watching what i ate and started exercising. i actually learned how to count calories and started monitoring this daily. i even put back on my running shoes. i stuck with this for the longest time i'd ever gone before. i think i was up to an entire week. THEN, the coolest thing happened...i stepped on a scale. i dropped weight. that's all it took for me. i needed to see the results to gain the motivation and the drive to keep going. so that's what i did. i kept tracking every single calorie i consumed and kept running and running and running and running. i felt like forrest gump during the part where he is young and he starts running and all of a sudden his braces on his legs come flying off...but for me, the leg braces obviously were a symbol for my fat. i think that was a good analogy, right?

fast forward a couple years (to 2009) and i was there. my goal weight. it was unbelievable...honestly, it still is unbelievable. to think back on what i accomplished is a great thing. but the coolest thing of all is to think of all the other people that have done it, and will do it in the future. that is what pumps me up even more. anyone can do it. and i want everyone that needs to lose weight..to do it! all it takes is getting started...and sticking to it.

i'm a completely different person now. i lost 65 pounds total. i eat healthy and can probably tell you the calories per serving in 75% of the food in a grocery store. i kept running and have ran (and placed) in a 5K and a 10K. i'm currently training for a half-marathon that is in exactly 26 days 22 hours 2 minutes and 47 seconds. after that...you guessed it...i'm training for a full marathon. after that..well we'll see. i even do strength training a few days a week. who would've thought..tony gould in a gym..lifting weights. i do still count calories and track all of the food i eat...and i might be a bit too much of a health nut at some times. but let's be honest here...if you had to pick between one or the other...what would you pick?

"health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospital beds dying of nothing."
-redd foxx