What sparked the Journey?

As I explained in the previous post, about a year ago I came to realize something had to change. I had gone past the point of being charmingly plump. I was now more in the range of a disgusting pile of lard. And more than that, I was a disgusting pile of lard who consumed at least 1,500 calories a day in soda.

Yeah, you read that right. At least 1,500 calories a day in soda, and often times it would be more. An average adult should consume about 2000 calories a day total. I was getting almost all of that just in soda. I love me some soda. Coke, Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi, A&W Root Beer, Sprite, Sunkist.... Love it. LOVE it. Loooooovvvveee it.

I could down a 2-liter with a meal, plus almost a six pack and several 20 ounce bottles a day. One of the local convenience store/gas stations has 44 ounce fountain sodas for 99 cents. One or two of those were also in the mix each day. I was an expert at watching the sales and getting my best deal so I could buy as much soda as possible with what I had budgeted for my habit.

Other than the occasional candy binge, I wasn't eating a lot of sweets. I didn't eat bigger meals than anyone else. In fact I've got several friends that would easily consume more than me when eating. Granted, I wasn't a poster-boy for healthy eating, but it didn't seem that bad.

Obviously a big step in the right direction would be to cut out the soda. Not cut back, cut out. Completely. I knew I couldn't cut back. I couldn't just have some. At various times I had halfheartedly tried to cut back. If anything I wound up drinking more.

It was time for a drastic change. And I wasn't looking forward to that.

What led to the Journey?

Last post I introduced the Journey.  Now is time to begin to elaborate on what I'm talking about.

I'm fat. I know that may come as a shock to some of you, but it's true. Some have used the term "morbidly obese". But I think that doctor was just trying to be a meanie. I've been fat most of my life, with a few exceptions.

My freshman & sophomore year of high school I was in wrestling and thanks to Mr. Short's coaching I was in decent shape. My first four years out of high school I worked in the timber industry and it was an extremely physical job. I was actually in really good shape then.

And then I moved to Wasilla. For the first time in my life I had easy access to fast food. And I continued to drink large amounts of soda. Although I was active, I wasn't nearly as active as when I was logging. And because I had always been at least chubby, I didn't notice that I was getting fatter & fatter until it was too late.

Well, that's not entirely true. I noticed. Everyday there was reminders that things weren't right. But I did my best to ignore them. It's like people do with personal finances. They know they are in debt, but avoid actually adding up how much because the amount will scare them. But that doesn't fix the problem. Often it makes it worse. Denial isn't just a river in Egypt.

So there I was a little over a year ago. I was down to just a few clothing items that actually fit. Physically, more and more things were getting harder and harder to do. It's not a good thing when you can no longer get bent over to tie your shoes.

I knew things had to change. And I knew it wasn't going to be easy. And I'm a big fan of easy.

So, I began the Journey...

Introducing You to the Journey

This begins a new theme to this blog. My posts up to this have come in spurts on a variety of topics. And I will continue to post on Geocaching, personal finances, and pursuing God.

But I am now going to also focus on a Journey that is already a year in the making.I'm talking about my transition from a man to a woman using hormone treatments and eventually surgical gender reassignment.

Ha! I'm just messing with you! I got your attention, though... I'm way too ugly to be a woman.

So, what is this Journey? Stay tuned to find out...