The Myth vs. the Truth

One of the hardest parts about losing weight is convincing yourself you have to do it. We all remember our parents staring at us when we were young with the eyes of a war veteran who saw too much as we downed twinkie after fruit snack after 4th slice of pizza. They would say "one day it's all going to catch up with you". We of course, would scoff at this as we found new ways to add chocolate to everything on our plate. "Sure Dad. Don't hate" (for the record, I would never tell my dad not to hate. 1. That wasn't a slang term when we were young 2. I don't look cool when I say "don't hate" *) The easiest way to do this, once it finally does catch up with you, is use weight as the tool. I'm 170 pounds and figured 170 pounds isn't that overweight. I had just come back from the Peace Corps and earned the right after losing over 30 pounds to gorge myself on whatever fantastical treats came my way via the express lane of developed American supermarkets and bodegas. "Yeungling beer? Sure! I haven't had that in two years!" or "Is that cheesecake?? Everyone move to the side please. Former starving volunteer here, i deserve this..." and the list of quotes goes on. Once i got to 170 i felt as if I was t my normal weight. My mom even said(as the pounds began to creep up) "oh, you're filling in" A month or two later it was either my mom or dad saying that exact same phrase in a less than thankful tone. But I was 170 and that wasn't that bad. 170 is normal. I have friends who lok fine and they are 200, blahblahblah. Well, being 170 and being in shape are two VERY DIFFERENT THINGS. if you don't believe please look at the comparison I have made here: This is me at 170 and this is current UFC Welterweight Champion(as of this afternoon) georges St-Pierre. If you can't see the difference, then clearly you are an enabler:


(both of these people weigh 170 pounds.guess which one is me)

So now it's not about losing weight. It's about getting in shape. It's about toning muscle. and most of all, its about finding a phone that doesn't look like all my photos were taken in the darkest corner of an interior decorators basement playtime dungeon. When you look at your weight, you are looking at an illusion. When you look in the mirror, you can only see the truth. Now who wants a beer?

-Anthony

*My new favorite song lyric is "They gonna hate....but that's how you know you're doing great!"-Swizzy. What up.

The upside to being overweight

Moments before getting my ass off the couch and to the gym, I received a call from my friend Paul. He wanted to know if I wanted to come over to his place to drink some beers poolside.

"I was just about to head to the gym," I told Paul.

"Fuck it, go tomorrow."

That's all the convincing I needed.

While sitting outside under the warm California sun, Paul - a not so skinny man himself - turned to me nonchalantly and said, "You know the nice thing about being fat?"

"What's that?"

"More of us to get tan."

Thanks for finding the bronze lining, Paul.

The first text message I sent to Lee the day after we started the weight loss pact(aka today)....

"Dollar pizza 3, Anthony 0.(expletive). I was good yesterday too. Ate a salad and worked out. Today? Not so much..."

So yeah, rough start....rooooouuuugggghhhh start

Day Zero

Over the course of the last two years, my good friend Anthony and I have shared many experiences. Both of us were in the Peace Corps in Mozambique. Both of us are huge sports fans; we often kept each other sane with in-depth, extensive conversations via text message. And in my recent trip to New York, we shared many a delicious meals, visited the Statue of Liberty, and watched Anthony's beloved Yankees lose to the White Sox.

We also came to realize that, after two years of being thin in Mozambique, both of us have put on some serious weight. Not pudgy, diet-for-two-weeks-and-be-healthy weight. This is I'm-disgusted-with-myself weight.

By the tail end of my stay, we vowed that we needed to bring sexy back. We needed to get back down to healthy weights. But there was no way that we could do this alone. We would need the support of one another.

We will check in at least every week to post our weights. We hope that you find this blog entertaining. I'm sure that Anthony and I will be ripping on each other throughout this experience. After all, laughing is just another way to kill calories.

And thus begins our magical adventure to healthiness. Thanks for coming along.

Anthony starting weight: 170
Anthony goal weight: 155

Lee starting weight: 212
Lee goal weight: 190