Hey There, Decided to Join!


^(Me over a year and a half ago… didn’t know pictures posted in the beginning of the post… would have been better if it went to the end =P)

Hey there everyone! Long time reader, first time poster. I figured I would finally join and actually start posting, but I wasn’t sure where to introduce myself, but this seemed like the most appropriate place.

I guess i’ll share information about me and whatnot, for anyone who cares =P

My names Dave, and i’m sixteen years old. Yep… sixteen. Can’t say im real proud of it becuase people my age tend to be stereotyped as being morons… but I can’t really blame anyone for that…

Anyways, i’ll share my little story about how I came about coming here and whatnot… We’ll start with how I got fat and whatnot:

When I was in fifth grade I got Rhumatic fever. For anyone who doesn’t know, it’s a pretty serious disease that attacks your body, and makes your own bodies defense turn on itself and attack your own body. Not a great explanation, but thats basically what happens. I could hardly walk becuase my joints were so inflamed. I was mis-diagnosed thre times before my parents finally took me to the hispital because I was in so much pain, and we actually found out that I had this disease.

By that time though, it had already messed with my heart. One of the valves in my heart that closes after blood enters to make sure it doesn’t “go back” was damaged and blood started to kind of flow backwards. They needed to fix it, and I got open heart surgery. During the time I had rhumatic fever,during the sirgery time, of course, and afterwards I wasn’t aloud to really play sports, especially physical contact sports.

Thats where the problem began.

Without being able to do sports or much physical acticvities at all, (including gym at school)I got pretty lazy. Never really did much becuase, well, I wasn’t supposed to. By the time I was in ninth grade, I was about 230-240 pounds at around 5’11" ta… Not good.

Don’t ask me what sparked it in me, but in 2004, the summer after ninth grade, I decided I wanted to lose some weight. I go serious with exercising and eating healthy. The weight came off extremely fast, becuase I had never been very active, and ate fast food and drank pop every day all day before I started, so I guess my body had such a change that it started losing that fat quickly. Around December of that year, I got down to about 160-170 pounds, which is about 60-75 pounds. Not to shabby, eh? I have a picture from when I was quite big and around the december after the weight was lost, which i’ll include a little later.

I started actual weightlifting in around october before that December that i’m talking about. (December of 2004, not 2005). I had no idea what I was doing, and did it pretty much all wrong up to that point. I didn’t know very much even a few months into 2005, but I did my best. I’ve actually known what i’ve been doing (relatively) for about 8-9 months now, and have gotten my weight up to about 200 pounds now. Not to bad, I guess. Obviously not all muscle, but hey.

Anyways, I found out about this site around the time I started “getting it” about 8-9 months ago when I found the “Merry Christmas Bob” article, and thus, this site. I’ve been coming here almost daily and have learned A LOT. So I have to say thanks to many of you… even though you don’t really know me at all yet, I “know” you, in a way =P.

Anyways, i’m going to try and post a picture of me when I was fat, a month or two before I started to lose weight… hopefully it works =P


Alright, now, here is a picture of me about one year ago, after losing quite a bit of weight, and at my “smallest” point before really starting to lift some weights and gain some weight.

I just recently got a new digital camera, and will be taking some more current pictures. Unfortunately, for the past few weeks ive had mono and havent been able to work out, and wont be for another week or so. After I begin working out again, I will post pictures after I get back some of the muscle i’ve lost over this six-week “break” =/

KEEP IN MIND that that picture is from over a year ago, just showing the weight loss portion of my new lifestyle =P

Shit man, you LOOK like a troll with that hair.

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:
Shit man, you LOOK like a troll with that hair.[/quote]

Yeah, like I said, that was from a whiiile back =P

I’ve got it cut pretty short and nice now, fortunately.

Keep working hard and let us see how you progress. Good luck!

Danny

greetings and salutations.

[quote]Valar Morghulis wrote:
By the time I was in ninth grade, I was about 230-240 pounds at around 5’11" ta… Not good.[/quote]

FYI, me too … I was 5’10" and 240#s heading in to my sophomore year. Fun, huh?

Welcome man … eat this sh!t up!

Dan

[quote]Valar Morghulis wrote:
Alright, now, here is a picture of me about one year ago, after losing quite a bit of weight, and at my “smallest” point before really starting to lift some weights and gain some weight.

I just recently got a new digital camera, and will be taking some more current pictures. Unfortunately, for the past few weeks ive had mono and havent been able to work out, and wont be for another week or so. After I begin working out again, I will post pictures after I get back some of the muscle i’ve lost over this six-week “break” =/

KEEP IN MIND that that picture is from over a year ago, just showing the weight loss portion of my new lifestyle =P
[/quote]

I posted before I saw this post. Good job.

[quote]Valar Morghulis wrote:
Alright, now, here is a picture of me about one year ago, after losing quite a bit of weight, and at my “smallest” point before really starting to lift some weights and gain some weight.

I just recently got a new digital camera, and will be taking some more current pictures. Unfortunately, for the past few weeks ive had mono and havent been able to work out, and wont be for another week or so. After I begin working out again, I will post pictures after I get back some of the muscle i’ve lost over this six-week “break” =/

KEEP IN MIND that that picture is from over a year ago, just showing the weight loss portion of my new lifestyle =P
[/quote]

Nice progress, dude. Don’t listen to the nay-sayers on the site. It is about making yourself better, day by day. Keep it up.

Good job on losing the weight, most people don’t have the heart or the balls to do half of what you have already accomplished!

Crongats. Your miles ahead of other kids your age. Keep at it and keep us up to date with your progress.

Welcome.

Thanks a lot for the nice comments everyone : )

I’ll do my best to keep this up to date. Like I said, i’ve had mono for weeks now and havent been able to wrok out, plus having a reduced appetite, so i’ve lost some muscle… but hopefully muscle memory will bring it back pretty quickly to take some pictures… been about a year since that last one =P

hey man, welcome to the Nation and keep it up!

Congrats on losing all that weight, and welcome to T-Nation! It’s quite admirable to see a 16 year old who has already made such a huge change in his life! I don’t know what’s harder, being a “fat kid” or losing so much weight! Now you know that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to. :slight_smile: Keep up the good work!

[quote]halfpintdd wrote:
Congrats on losing all that weight, and welcome to T-Nation! It’s quite admirable to see a 16 year old who has already made such a huge change in his life! I don’t know what’s harder, being a “fat kid” or losing so much weight! Now you know that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to. :slight_smile: Keep up the good work![/quote]

Agreed. Good job on a comeback.

Thank goodness you don’t have a shitty camera, and you AREN’T holding a shoe.

Congrats on the progress, man. Keep going!

Question - What the fuck are you wearing in that first picture? It looks like chick’s underwear over your pants.

It is great that you made the choice to be healthier and stronger, in spite of some difficulties that most of us never have to deal with, especially at a young age. I also like that you are analytical without being “anal”. Good work, keep it up, and I look forward to seeing more progress pics!

[quote]halfpintdd wrote:
Congrats on losing all that weight, and welcome to T-Nation! It’s quite admirable to see a 16 year old who has already made such a huge change in his life! I don’t know what’s harder, being a “fat kid” or losing so much weight! Now you know that you can accomplish whatever you set your mind to. :slight_smile: Keep up the good work![/quote]

Aye, thanks. Thankfully, even when I was fat I had a quite a bit of friends who gave me a lot of support and helped me along the way. But yeah, the self-conciousness associated with being fat really does suck.

Oh, and to the question about what i’m wearing… i’m fairly sure something ridiculous from hot topic. A few years back I thought I would be awesome if I wore pants from hot topic… haha. Can’t believe I wore that stuff… =P