Meet Juliana!

There’re many other people out there with stories similar to mine, and I feel that if and when they want, their stories should be told along with mine. At the heart of it, losing weight is a solitary journey (or war) because the decisions on what you put in and what you put out are ultimately yours. However, there is an army of untold numbers of people who are identifying with you and your battle right now. Your struggles are theirs, and so are your victories. We are all in this together.

Let me introduce you to my wife – Juliana!

The journey that brings me to today, February 3rd, 2020, began at the same time as Ben’s. It is the journey that has, so far, stuck. The journey that has lasted over eight years. Ben and I, more or less, do everything together. Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between where he begins and where I end, or vise versa.
Sometime during my sixth grade year of elementary school I became aware of my body in relation to food and how other people felt about it (my body). In seventh grade I remember altering my diet, a few times, in order to look “skinny.” I wasn’t concerned about health. I didn’t know anything about it. I just wanted to drop weight.
My current journey is based on overall health, wellness, and aesthetics (if I’m going to be completely honest). I’ve come to realize that my current journey does not have an end. It will evolve as I age, learn, and (psychologically) grow. But, I’ve settled into the fact that it’s lifelong.

I didn’t keep a daily journal, so this is all retrospective, but I remember plenty. I remember clearly enough to know I don’t want to go back to those size 18 jeans, which should have been a size or two larger. But, I was too stubborn to buy a size twenty or more. My thinking was, “If I buy a larger size, I’m giving myself the green light to eat like an asshole.”

The first photo in this post is closest to what my body resembles today. The second I was somewhere around 196 lbs. (my heaviest weight, not pregnant). The last photo was in June 2017. It was a figure competition I did the year I turned 40.