The fat ass gene is apparently recessive in my family and myself, and my uncle Don (mom-side) were the only ones who won that genetic lottery. My mom's side is also responsible for my baldness (the natural part, not the part I shave), so thank you MOM!!! So what did I get from my dad's side? Well, I'm the odds on favorite to win the lottery for heart disease! YAY FOR ME!!! I'M A WINNER!!!... wait, that's a bad thing.
My family is largely athletes to some degree. My mom teaches aerobics classes. My dad is an avid mountain bike rider, who likes to drone on and on about his bike rides. Here's every bike story my dad has ever told me. "I rode from [insert some uninteresting location] to [some other, even more uninteresting location], and it was looooong." And he wonders why I only call when I need money. My skinny ass sister (former track star/soccer player) is either skinny because of either all the running she does or one of her many drug habits. If you were to take a family picture it would like 1110... or 1101... or 1011... or 0111, depending were I'm standing.
Back in highschool I used to do sports too. Fat people sports like football (linemen), wrestling (heavyweight), boxing (heavyweight), and track (the 300m dash, 400m hurdles, and the high jump... kidding, I threw shot put). During that time I weighed between 205 and 230. Out of highschool I did power lifting with a team with my former linemen buddies. During that period, I got down below 200lbs, for the first time since junior high.
I was in the best shape of my life my last year of highschool, and first two years of college. There were periods when I would run 5 miles a day on top of wrestling/boxing practice. Other periods I would live in various weight rooms in Medford and OIT, doing 2 to 4 hour workouts daily.
Then 3 things happened that killed everything. 1) Blew out my knee doing squats, which not only killed all that running I used to do, but turned my legs an atrophied mess of cottage cheese fat. 2) Power lifting got too damn expensive, entry fees for tournaments ranged from $100 to $200, on top travel and lodging costs. That doesn't even include gym membership fees, suppliments, and equipment. Which meant I no longer had anything to work for. 3)I got a new hobby, DJing (which eventually turned into my career), which meant that I no longer had time to spend hours in the gym everyday.
For the past half a decade, working out for me has been sparse... VERY sparse. As in several long periods of time were I didn't do a damn thing. Except eating alot of CRAP, and balooning up to 330. Before the Belly Buster, I didn't know how much I weighed. I'm scaleaphobic, I have an irrational fear of weighing myself. It's not my only phobia regarding my weight, I'm kind of a hypochondriac. I've secretly feared that a heart-attack is just around the corner. Some night I was scared to go to sleep because I thought I was likely that my heart was going to give out in the middle of the night. Not a good feeling for a 27 year old.
Back in April, I decided to actually do something about it. While my schedule at the time ruled out getting to the gym when they were still open, I decided to get a Bowflex home gym, and I've been using it everyday. I haven't exactly been working out like I did in my power lifting days, but at least I can say I'm doing something. And now I'm ready to step it up with the Beer Belly Buster Challenge, and become the sexy man-beast I know I am.
