Let's pick up in August 2003, the time of my marriage to Melissa, when I weighed around about 170 or 175 lbs. Seen here, in one of our engagement photos: RobMel_engaged.jpg. Not too bad, eh? Kind of skinny, but not too skinny, if you know what I mean. I was 27, almost 28, and I had just accepted my first full-time job after graduation a few months before. So, I was sitting at a desk for 40 hours a week, and I was now married. That's a dangerous combination, as I was about to find out. I was heavier than I wanted to be, but I wasn't terribly unhappy with my weight. But it sure didn't take long for me to start expanding. It happened incredibly fast, in fact. I don't know for sure, because I wasn't weighing myself a4t all, but I imagine that I gained 30 pounds in just a few months, and more than 40 within a year. It really snuck up on me too. I just realized it all of a sudden, and it wasn't easy to deal with. Here are a couple shots of me that were taken between 10 months and a year after we got married:
Rob013.jpg RobandBillBeach2.jpg RobMelSF.jpg
Remember, I had been a scrawny kid with exposed ribs, so to be over 210 pounds was mind boggling. It didn't help either that some people would comment on it when I would see them for the first time in a long time. These people should be punched in the face. Did they really think that I didn't know I was gaining weight? In their minds, did they think they were doing me some huge favor or something by reminding me that I was now fat? I mean, in my head I already thought that I looked like s***? So for someone to mention it to me didn't really help the esteem. It is a weird phenomenon, when people are ignorant enough to make comments like that. There weren't that many people who would do this, thank goodness, but it is just the few that ruin things.
I know that there are plenty of other friends and family members that were blown away by my weight gain, considering my scrawny former self, but they were sensitive enough to my plight not to mention it. And I appreciated that. I do remember having talks with my Dad about my weight, but he wasn't one of those people I was referring to. He talked to me about it out of concern for my health, which I understood and appreciated. He didn't want it to eventually get out of control and cause health problems for me my entire life.
This weight problem constantly hung over my head (and over my belt!). I had a hard time being happy when I would look at myself and it totally bummed me out that I weighed a lot more than double what my wife weighed. But Melissa was incredibly supportive through the whole thing, even though she was probably thinking, "this isn't what I signed up for when we got married!". But on occasion, when the opportunity presented itself, she would encourage me to try and make a change. I know that's not an easy thing to tell your spouse—you don't want to ruffle feathers.
I kept complaining about my weight, but I wasn't really doing anything about it. I was eating out a lot for lunch, I wasn't working out, and I was working a lot of hours. It was a pretty sedentary existence. My personality is such that when I start something, I always (or almost always) see things through till the end. I just often times have a hard time getting started. Motivation is not one of my strong suits.
So, in late December 2005, my friend Lance Oscarson, whom I sat next to at work at the time, said something to me one day. He said, "we should have a competition to see who can lose 30 lbs first." Now, Lance is a pretty big guy. He is probably 6'-3", and is a hockey player, but was carrying a little extra weight that he wanted to lose. So I said back to him, "you're on!" We decided to plan our competition to start after the holidays, the first week of January 2006.
I knew that I had weighed in at 212 at one time, and actually, I think I weighed more than that at one time, but, I'll go with 212 as my all-time high.
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