Galahad's

     I haven’t always struggled with a weight problem. I was born of average size and was not an immediately obese child.

 

     My first recollection of insecurity due to a weight problem occurred in grade three. My teacher had raised my hand as the victor of a math speed test. She had grabbed me by the lower area of my upper arm, felt some flab and exclaimed with classroom sprawling volume that I had gained some weight. I really hadn’t noticed until then. It was a small action that instantly made me insecure with my body. I am certain that was not her intention, but from that point forward, I felt fat.

 

     My shirt became a shield to keep eyes from my true form. As much as I got along in sports and with friends, my increasing weight grew heavily on me.

 

     I wasn’t really one for candies and chips, but meal times often came with double portions. I drank litres of milk, soda and Slurpees. I just kept getting bigger and bigger. The worst part of it was my chest. For my body, my chest and abdomen were the easiest places for fat to accumulate.

 

     Growing into my teens led to sexual activity, which, believe it or not, I mostly partook with my shirt still on. Many of those whom I was close enough with to be intimate either didn’t, or would very rarely, see me without my shirt on. I was extremely embarrassed by my body.

 

     As a young adult, after falling into some heavy illegal substances, I lost the weight everywhere but my chest. Aside from the breasts on my chest, I was a healthy, slender looking individual. I wasn’t really either, but I looked it. Even with that though, because of my chest, I could not see it until looking at photos years later.

 

     My battle with drugs and alcohol came to an end after two back to back trips to the emergency ward. Those two cruxes of my life were replaced with prescribed medical treatment for my emotional problems. Unfortunately for me, the replacement drugs all shared a side-effect... weight gain... and that effect was not wasted on me. My body took to it like a balloon on an air tank.

 

     Eventually, after years of self-inflicted hardships and embarrassment, I tried something drastic to make a difference. I had cosmetic surgery performed on my chest, twice. The first time, it didn’t take. I did not appropriately change my lifestyle nor my medications, and with how easy it already was for fat to develop there, my breasts soon came back. I went a second time, which did last longer, but failed again. They just kept growing back. At least they never grew back to as big as they had used to be.

 

     I tried different diets and exercise, but I always hit some form of roadblock. Either I wasn’t seeing results or something in life would sneak into the way.

 

     At my heaviest, I was about 253lbs. After some lifestyle changes, research and effort, today, September 4th, 2013, I am down to 157lbs. That is over 95lbs gone. I have lost about 38% of my starting weight. Please, read on to find out how you can do it, too, and how easy it is to win against the weight.