4XLT

A little competition can be a good thing – especially as a motivator for awesome weight loss. So, I decided to pick a fight with one of the F.A.T. Coalition’s newest members, Craig. (If you haven’t checked out his blog yet, be sure to go introduce yourself and give the guy some comment love!)

As it turns out, Craig and I both wear the same size pants right now: 46’s. And, perhaps less surprisingly, we both don’t want to be wearing them for too much longer (the size, not pants in general… at least I want to keep wearing pants, Craig might be a crazy sicko, who knows?)

Both of us have size 42’s in our sights, hopefully near the end of this year. Particularly, the size has emotional / mental game significance to me, as it is the same size I wore in high school. So, I’d like to get back there ASAP.

We have yet to settle on the terms for winning the bet, the stakes, or anything much more than the race, but I’m sure it’ll come in time. Craig, I know you’re reading this: got any thoughts?

More Motivation to Lose Weight

I go in tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon for my third and final interview with a company for a potential new job. Without elaborating, this is a significant career change (moving fulling into web design / development and away from nonprofit / ministry work full-time and design on the side) with a guaranteed paycheck.

Long story short, my nonprofit income has hit a major, major wall these past two months and something dramatic had to be done. Ergo, the job hunt. This would be a set forty hours of work a week with room for freelancing and nonprofit work still part time in the evenings and on weekends. I still plan on being involved with nonprofit work for the foreseeable future, but now I’ll actually be able to pay my bills, pay off debt, and not worry about overdrawing my account around the end of the month!

So, cross your fingers, and if you’re a believer in prayer, say one on my behalf today. I’d appreciate it.

But the motivation to lose weight? How’s this: I need a new sport coat for the interview as my other sport coat and suit are both so large the fit like double breasted jackets now. It’s ridiculous.

I’m now wearing a 54L suit coat. This is fantastic alone, in the context of my weight loss. But, I found out most stores don’t stock larger than a 46 or 48 at the largest. Some are able to order a 50 or even 52, but a 54 seemed to be positively out of the question.

Even though I mentally know I’ve lost a full hundred pounds, driving from store to store and wandering around the mall not having any luck made me feel just like the fat guy I’ve always been, which sucked. Then, at the big and tall (aka for fat, obese guys) stores, I saw jackets up as high as 62 and wondered if I was near that myself.

Yeah, I felt rather morose while shopping today, but it quickly set in as more revolve to lose the next several inches off my chest and gut. And that resolve fueled the fire of a grueling rowing machine and HIIT on the elliptical machine cardio set at the gym this evening.

I’ve taken some time to look at some size charts online. Right now, my chest size is 54 inches. XXL’s medium range is 48 – 50, while XL seems to average around 45 – 47. That gives me five inches to aim for to get comfortably into XXLs again, and able to buy clothes from “normal stores.”

I’d love to hit this mark by Christmas. I haven’t been tracking my chest sizes (or any other body measurements, apart from sporadic “gut checks,” so I don’t know if this is feasible. The numbers tracking will start today, though!

Past that, it’s a full eight or nine inches to reach the mythological land of XLT shirts. That’s what I’m really aiming for, and it’s only a matter of time.