Wedding Weight Watch induces hypnotic flashback to high school.

I have accomplished something that I am pretty impressed with myself over. No, it wasn't that I was able to spring out of bed at 5:20 this morning when my alarm goes off (truth be told I usually wake up before my alarm and slowly work my way to the shower).

The truth is that I have now entered a lower numbering association with my weight. The glorious 250's. Now, this is great for me in a few different ways. The first being that it means I am just 9 pounds away from my target wedding weight with around 3 1/2 months to spare. The second is a throwback to the glory days that were high school.

You see, I have not been in the 250's club since those glory days of gel-filled hair, Limp Bizkit, Will Smith and before the movie world knew who Harry Potter was. The late 90's.

I finished high school in the 250's range and spent the next few years succumbing to the freshmen 15. Problem was, is that since I spent almost 7 years in undergrad that meant a few extra years to enhance the art of the freshmen 15. I pushed the limits of human capability and by 2003 I entered into a dark time for my weight. I was in the sad-sack club that is the 280's.

this is me circa 2004 I believe

XXL became a label I had to constantly associate myself with. I'm sure my pack-a-day of cigarettes didn't help any (I know I know, but hey, I've been off the smokes for almost 4 years now).

So I spent the next few years living la vida college. Cheap beer, even cheaper vodka, wing night specials and late hours were the norm. There was also the year I spent living above what I still consider to be the world's best Chinese restaurant, "Empire." Sadly, I realized that eating Gereral Tso Chicken with Fried Rice EVERY DAY was not cool.

Over the next few year's I spent going up and down 5, 10, 15 or so pounds. I never topped my ceiling weight of 280, but after a while 270 became the norm.

Enter present time. I finally have a solid reason to meet a weight-loss deadline. I get to marry my best friend! That has been a huge motivational tool for me.

And so you may ask (or you may not ask, but you're going to get the answer anyway) of how I am doing this.

Well let me first state that It's not some special hollywood diet. No atkin's, zone, slim fast, 19th century leech method or anything like that.

I started by not pushing myself so hard to get to the gym every day and to work so hard at the gym everday. All I was doing was getting annoyed at spending so much time at the gym (and around those guys who wear hat's while they pump iron, have huge arms and tiny legs). This annoyance and push all the time just kept leading to more food intake.

I'd snack when I came home and after the gym. It was not working.

So I set a standard.

• Go to the gym at least twice a week.
• Have a good cardio and maybe some weight lifting as well.
• Eat three squares a day
• No more bad snacking (a handful of veggies is alright)
• Drink lots-o-water (H20 is the way to go)
• Reduce the stress level (work, home and life)

And here I sit, on this cheap computer chair in my cube at work at 259. I'm excited to continue towards my goal of 250 and then see where I can go from there.

Here is a current shot of me at 8:30AM Central Time on Monday morning. I really tried to take a picture that didn't look all MySpace/Facebook but had a hard time since taking a picture of yourself at work can look really weird to people walking by.