About Me

I was born in June of 1960 in a small town in New York, just up the Hudson from NYC. I am the oldest of five boys and grew up with a loving family home life. I have lived many places in many versions of  "the american experience" and think that it served me well in my life.

As a kid we moved around a lot. We were often asked if  my Dad was in the military. He was not, but he was an adventurer of sorts and was always willing to take the next best job that came up, even if that meant moving to another place. He did everything from being a tool and die maker, to teaching school and even television production. These various jobs caused us to live in differing places. We lived in suburban Philadelphia, a small town in northwestern PA, rural WV, suburban Grand Rapids MI, and many other small town settings in WV and PA. All the exposure to varying cultures (and they were highly varied at times), served me well in learning to accept different types of people and their ways.

I was an average sized kid until the summer between 6th and 7th grade. That year I grew almost 6" and was from then on taller than average. I remained very thin. I remember my first driver's license had my weight at 160 lbs.. That was going into my junior year in high school (age 16). I continued to grow, though, not at the incredible rate of that year when I was about 13, eventually topping out at 6'4" my senior year in high school (you may note that that is an inch taller than my intro. message. I have indeed shrunk an inch since those days, as we all tend to do after about age 40 or so.). At graduation from high school I weighed 185 lbs. and desperately tried to gain weight. I ate huge in those days and never had to worry about gaining. I could eat 4 pb&j sandwiches with two large glasses of milk,  then sit down to dinner and eat everything available.

In 1981 at the age of 21 I dropped out of college and got married. At that time I weighed 195 lbs. and was still very active. But, there is something about married life that tends to slow us down. The responsibility of a home and work and someone else to be responsible for, add up to a drastic lifestyle change (it should be noted as well that my wife is a great cook!).

A few years later I had worked my way up to about 230 lbs. I remember that specifically because I participated in a weight loss contest at my office (I was working in insurance claims at that time) and won, losing 30 lbs. making myself about $60 richer.

Fast forward to 1991 and I found myself employed as a correctional officer (That is the preferred term. Prison guard doesn't sound as important). At that time I weighed in between 240 and 250. In the world inside a prison size can be an advantage, both physically and psychologically. Had I stayed there, It would not really be much of an issue for me. Of course I didn't. The job of a C.O., especially on on the night shift is rather sedentary. I don't mean that we don't have anything to do at night. We do. But, we also have plenty of "sit" time. Worse yet is the lifestyle of a chronic night-shifter. We tend to eat, sleep, work. All other activity seems to go by the wayside. It doesn't have to be that way, and I have co-workers who are the picture of health and vitality, but they are the exception.

Within a few years I had attained the weight of 305 lbs.. The shock of that, along with the fact that a co-worker had a heart attack at the age of 38 (about 3 years older than me at the time), put me into my first fitness frenzy. I began working out with a co-worker who was about 8 years younger than me. This was great motivation, trying to keep up. We were hitting the gym at least 5 days a week, pumping iron. I trimmed back down to about 225 and was looking and feeling great. I was eating healthy, exercising regularly and things were looking good. Then, my workout partner took another job. His new schedule didn't allow for our normal workout times and that fell by the wayside. I continued by myself for a while, but we all know the story. Eventually I traded the gym for a tv remote and protein supplements for snacks.

Jump forward again to 2005 and I had ballooned to a whopping 365 lbs.. That was the year that the county instituted it's first annual employee weight loss contest (remember I'm a former champ from about 1983). By this time I had gotten into motorcycles and the new saddlebags that I wanted for my bike cost $500. First prize for the contest was...... you guessed it! $500! Well, that was in the bag. I embarked on a crazy weight loss scheme. In the 6 months of the contest I lost 95 lbs, smoking the competition. Now that seems great, but, I was to the point where I was only eating 1000 calories a day and going to the gym 7 days a week and staying on the elliptical machine until I had burned those 1000 calories off. Not a healthy or sustainable lifestyle. I did however get those saddlebags!

It was in May of that year, a couple of months before the end of the contest, that I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis, an autoimmune disorder that effects the nerves and muscles of the body. This brought an abrupt end to the workout regimen and landed me in the hospital for a bit. I was still able to pull off the win, but my life was changed forever. MG is a condition where the body mistakenly attacks the chemical connection between nerves and muscles resulting in extreme weakness and fatigue. Mine is well controlled with medication, but I must still avoid extremes of activity or fatigue.

In the 10 years since that time, I have gained back all the weight and more. At my peak I reached 385 lbs. There are plenty of excuses I could cite, but the bottom line is, I eat too much and don't get enough exercise. A few years ago I was diagnosed as a type II diabetic. Now I can also tell you that this runs in my family. Again, the bottom line is, I have been told by my doctor if I was 100 lbs. lighter it would probably not be a problem.

That brings us to why we are here. I have decided to stop making excuses and feeling sorry for myself and take charge of my life. I have worked 25 years in a prison and am ready to retire soon and want to enjoy that retirement. Unfortunately average the life expectancy for a retire correctional officer is only 56-58 years old. I plan to beat those statistics. No crazy starvation dieting, no crazy gym workouts. My plan is to eat right, get reasonable exercise and lose the weight the way I gained it, slow and steady.