Wednesday, June 15, 2011

SPOTLIGHT: Mike Badger

Hi I'm Mike Badger,

When you have been overweight your entire life, you learn to love yourself no matter what. When I married Karlie, my wife, I was overweight but considered myself to be at one of my less-fat stages in life. Before we got married, Karlie and I talked a lot about our futures. What we wanted, how we would be. One of the things that Karlie made me promise to her is that we would work to keep out family healthy.

Soon after getting married, I took a job at a car dealership as a salesmen. Even though Karlie and I were downing bowls of ice cream on many occasions, I was always on my feet at work walking the long parking lot with customers all day. While I wasn't gaining weight, I wasn't getting any slimmer. At that point in my life, I was okay with that.

Jeffrey, our son came soon after and I got a great Job with a software company. I went from walking lots to an average daily step count of about 100 plus the 10 calories burned a day that you get from typing on a keyboard. Karlie was pregnant and I was a compulsive eater so we pretty much got way fat in that year. After that I gave up on ever loosing the weight and slowly crept up to an astonishing 524 Pounds. Then I started to have medical problems.

After not going to the doctor for a checkup for almost 2 years, I was forced to because my legs were swelling up like balloons and they started to turn black and blue. Karlie freaked and made me see a doctor. The doctor told me I was way fat, as I expected. He also told me a lot of things I was not expecting. I had lymphedema, sleep apnea, vitamin deficiencies and was boarder line diabetic. I knew I had to do something but didn't know where to start.

I tried out for Biggest-Loser (the real one) and didn't get a call back. Then I decided my only option was surgery. I hate the idea of surgery but I hated the idea of death more. I geared up, met with doctors, talked to my insurance and was ready to go under knife. I wanted to know EXACTLY what it would be like after surgery. I hunted down blogs of gastric bypass patients, articles ... anything I could get my hands on and was still left wanting. I decided I needed to chronicle my weight loss surgery so I started my blog Starting At 500 Pounds

I had never been more ready for anything in my entire life. I went into the doctors office for the surgery consultation. After meeting with the insurance "advocate" I found that my insurance would not cover the surgery without a "doctor approved" 6-month diet. I got angry. Angry that I was in this situation. Angry that I couldn't get the surgery. Angry that I felt like no one, not even my wife, could understand what I was going through. Angry enough to do something about it.

At first I started to exercise and eat right so I could be a good candidate for surgery. A strange thing happened. I started to lose weight. I found new friends online through my blog that encouraged me and pushed me to my limits. The most important thing was I found people who REALLY understood because they had been in my shoes.

6 months came and I had lost 100 pounds. People started to look to me for a source of inspiration. I felt great. There was no chance a doctor was ever going to cut me open at that point. I am still on my journey and have currently lost almost 150 pounds over the past 8 months. My blog has become my passion as people email me about how I have given them hope that they still have the power to change, even at 500 pounds.

Anything you want to know about me is out there for the world to see. You will be my best friend forever if you...
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Much love to all the competitors out there. I look forward to finding out more about you and meeting you lighter and leaner at our final weigh in party.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Horray for half way there

Thank you for all those that sent their results in. I am amazed how well we are doing!! Yet again Jen is our #1 for the third time in a row, way to go Jen!

Month Total
Jen 8.8% 21.11%
Mindie 4.98% 15.58%
Karlie 2.23% 11.44%
Mike 6.36% 9.67%
Lenna 2.93% 7.75%
Tammy 2.33% 6.42%
Kathy 1.06% 5.98%
Lindsay 0% 5.77%
Mandi .78% 4.20%
Jessica 3.93% 3.93%
Joel 1.78% 3.41%
Barbara 0% 3.37%
Alex .82% 3.19%
Don 0% 3.12%
Ryan .98% 2.10%
Tyler .26% 1.85%
Kathy .79% 1.27%
Caren 1.04% 1.25%
Tina 0% 1.13%
Brent N/A
Jay N/A
Aundrea N/A
Vicki N/A
Dawn N/A
Leroy N/A

Lindsay thank you for your spotlight. Just wanted to remind anyone who hasn't done theirs yet send it in to Karlie. Have a great month and I look forward to seeing spotlights and getting to know you all a little better. Thanks!!!!

SPOTLIGHT on LINDSEY!



Hi All. I am so happy to be a part of this friendly, yet motivating competition, and even more grateful that Mindie is allowing me to do it from Wisconsin. (we used to be neighbors)

I am 30, just barely, and currently a SAHM with 3 kiddos: 5, 3 1/2, 18m. But my story of why I am here, with this group, began 9 months after I got married. (over 8 years ago) I rapidly gained 60+ lbs in just 6 months, despite being active with my new hubby. I no longer felt like a cute, young, newlywed... It took me a few more months to get the courage to start medically investigating the reason(s) for what was happening to me. I bounced from doctor to doctor to specialist, had tons of tests run, and was "diagnosed" with many causes: diabetes - no; Cushings disease - thankfully no; lazy lifestyle - what?! So I gave up on the medical world for a couple of years. It was about this time that I weighed my heaviest, and I graduated from college that way... so there are lots of photos of that. Boo. Later, I was correctly diagnosed with PCOS. But even then, there is no magic pill, but major lifestyle changes.

Since those days and now, I have tried many, many, many diets and workout plans. Each one brought discouragement when I would lose a little and then like auto-pilot, gain it right back. It was hard to feel positive about being healthy internally when there were no outward results. It seems petty, but it was true for me. BUT, last year, I found an amazing hormone specialist who worked with MY symptoms - not test results. Apparently, there was a lot my body was not producing on its own. So for the first time in years, and after 3 pregnancies, I am feeling like what a healthy person should feel like all the time. I don't have to crash on the couch every day, preventing me from being active. I LOVE LOVE LOVE exercising, and also don't have a major crash right after. My female stuff (sorry guys!) is working properly for the first time in my life. And, I have actually been losing weight and keeping it off. This has been an unbelievable side effect of proper hormonal therapy. (man, that made me sound so old!) But it's real. And I feel amazing.

I definitely believe in the power of exercise and a healthy diet for maintaining health and happiness. But, I also strongly encourage EVERYONE to get their numbers checked regularly: cholesterol, thyroid, glucose, progesterone, testosterone... These things are not often discussed when you first start chatting with doctors. YOU need to be your own advocate and find a medical professional who will LISTEN to what you know about you and your body. It's all about being balanced.

Good luck to us all!