Dom gets #Fit4RTX

This is Dom aka @kapnmunch on the website. He is just your average (but totally awesome) guy and is a close friend of mine. Six months ago he decided it was time to get healthier. Over that time he has worked hard and made some serious progress and I couldn't be more proud of him. This is why I asked him to write something up for me to post so that everyone else who is working hard to lose a few pounds can find some inspiration, encouragement and a little push to keep working! Please give this a read and share his story on the site! And don't hesitate to send him some congratulations vis his twitter.

I am by no means an example of great physical fitness. I'm not the type o...

Dom gets #Fit4RTX

This is Dom aka @kapnmunch on the website. He is just your average (but totally awesome) guy and is a close friend of mine. Six months ago he decided it was time to get healthier. Over that time he has worked hard and made some serious progress and I couldn't be more proud of him. This is why I asked him to write something up for me to post so that everyone else who is working hard to lose a few pounds can find some inspiration, encouragement and a little push to keep working! Please give this a read and share his story on the site! And don't hesitate to send him some congratulations vis his twitter.

I am by no means an example of great physical fitness. I'm not the type of guy to preach or suddenly become a personal trainer. Although I'm a big sports fan, I would never refer to myself as an athlete. I'm overweight, and I always have been. I can't exactly help it, my body seems to enjoy being heavy. I'm the type of guy that can eat a single grape and gain 6 pounds nearly instantly.

I'm not sure what exactly motivated me to start working out. Part of it was noticing that I was gaining even more weight than normal. I spent the previous year transitioning from a job where I was physically active to a job where I'm sitting all day. I guess my dad was my inspiration for running. The guy is a beast! He's not only a saxophone player that's twice my age and still smokes, but he somehow runs 3 miles everyday.

It started with me adjusting my behavior. Skipping fast food for lunch and going for a salad instead. Avoiding the temptation of 35 cent sodas from the work vending machines and only drinking water. I felt better, but knew I had to do more. At that point, I made the commitment to start running a mile. Nothing crazy, just a simple mile. It didn't have to look pretty, I just had to make the effort and do it. I found a free app that tracks running distance, and ran until I made a mile long rectangle. I struggled the whole time, but eventually made it.

Around the same time, I started tracking the calories I was eating. I was surprised how helpful that was! Part of me needed to see how many calories individual items were. It's the fastest way to figure out what food to avoid if possible (So glad I gave up soda. That's normally the hard part!). After I started seeing some success, I wanted to make sure the quality of food I ate was better. For me, I knew I couldn't just give up eating certain things completely. I started eating more vegetables and fruits each day. One thing I didn't expect to happen was that my desire for unhealthy food went down. For each day that I consumed more fruits and vegetables and drank more water, there was less space for junk food.

I needed to track my weight, so I asked my mom if I can borrow her Wii Fit that was collecting dust. It's probably a bit much just to use as a bathroom scale, but it's fun to use and it's nice to automatically have graphs to show my progress. My latest milestone is one I never thought was possible. I ran my mile without slowing down or taking any walk/breathing breaks. I know I'm only scratching the surface of what I'm capable of! My next goals are to improve the actual time it takes to complete my mile, and to start running 2 miles instead. The main thing I have to constantly remind myself is that the mile is never going to suddenly get easier, but I'm always going to get better at it.

December 3:
327 pounds
1 mile in 18:18

May 15:
290 pounds
1 mile in 12:06

...and I'm just getting started.

Here is a chart of his weight loss over time:


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