About Me

Buffalo, New York
Approximately 100 Million Americans are obese, and I am one of them. Now that I'm married with two young children, I'm starting to take my health more seriously. But while I've been converting steaks and chicken wings into love-handles and a gut, close to a Billion People Worldwide have been going hungry... What if we could do something about both problems?
I've started this blog to chronicle my own weight-loss and efforts to raise money and awareness to battle global hunger. If weight is an issue for you, I hope you'll join me; and if it's not, I hope you'll support me or someone like me as we work to lose weight so others can gain it.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Unofficial Update

I didn't own a scale. After my initial weigh-in I thought it might be hard to find one that went high enough.... My wife found me a "Biggest Loser" scale that claims to be accurate up to 450 pounds. I haven't had a chance to see how close it is to my doctor's scale, but its consistent so I'm assuming it's fairly accurate. We'll call these unofficial weigh-ins, but it's been a week already so here's the update:

My Current Weight is: 351.5 pounds
Change this Week: lost 17.5 pounds
Total Change: lost 17.5 pounds :)

Thank you to everyone who's supporting this, that's over $1200 already! Actually, it's over 5000 meals already!!!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Wow (Again)

More pledges came in throughout the week and, after sharing at the 3rd service this morning, I'm just over $73 per pound! That means that if I hit my goal of 70 pound we'll raise over $5,000! That's over 20,000 meals! More good news too- two more people have joined! Fred Claus and Pam Kristich will both be losing weight and raising money and awareness to help the hungry. Hopefully we will be the first 5 of many!

And Then There Were Three...

My friend in Texas, Rebecca Minter, has officially joined the movement! She has her own blog and access to all kinds of people whom I never could have gotten involved. If you're thinking about sponsoring someone feel free to contact her, and if you're on the fence about joining, follow her example ;)

Friday, February 18, 2011

It's Spreading!

I officially have my first partner! She has waaaaaaay less to lose than I do, but a big thank you to Jan Garrison who is going to get healthier and help feed some starving people! Hopefully she'll be the first of many. And, actually I have a friend in Texas who, I think, is about to join, and two in Rochester and one in NYC who are thinking about it....

If you need or want to lose weight, even if it's not a really big amount, please think seriously about joining with us- I can already say from experience that it's touching, and humbling, to see how people will get behind your efforts to get healthier and you'll gain a whole new perspective on food and eating when you're aware that those who don't have any food are impacted by your decisions.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Official Weigh In

Yikes. Well, apparently, this was long overdue... I got my official starting weight today: 369 pounds. I'll post a video below of my doctor confirming that weight (though, it's running inconsistently on my browser...).

 My original goal for the next 6 months was 50-60 pounds, but, since I'm like 40 pounds heavier than I imagined, I'm going to set my goal at 70 pounds (which would take me below 300...). I'll keep you posted....

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Wow...

I was able to share at two (out of three) services this morning and we're already upto $38 per pound! I'll share again next week (at the biggest of the 3 services) but I'm already blown away by the response... Right now, for every pound I lose, we'll supply 152 meals to people who need them- if I hit my goal of 60 lbs., that's nearly 10,000 meals! Wow.

Saturday, February 12, 2011

First Sponsor

Tomorrow morning at church I'm going to share this plan and look for sponsors there- I already got my first sponsor though. A big thanks to Joe (and Bobbie) Ludwick who pledged $2.00 per pound! Email me if you want to be sponsor number two :)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

Official Dates

I'm going to have an official weigh-in on Wednesday 2/16/11. I'll post a video or some pictures afterwards. I'm going to do this for 6 months, so I'll schedule an official final weigh-in for as close to 8/16/11 as possible.

How It Works

Have you ever been in, or supported someone who was in, a walk or race where you raise money by asking for donations by the mile (like- you pledge 5 dollars per mile and then they walk 8 miles and you donate $40)? Well, the idea here is basically the same, only I'm looking for people who will pledge by the pound instead of by the mile (and so could you).

I'll get a starting weight, then see how much weight I can lose in 6 months (though you could do 1 or 3 or 12, whatever you can find sponsors for) and at the end we'll multiple the pledges by the number of pounds lost and start collecting donations (of course, if people want to just make a set donation instead I wouldn't turn it down). Once its all collected, I'll submit it to Feed My Starving Children so they can do their work. You can do the same by mailing contributions to:
 Feed My Starving Children
  401 93rd Avenue NW
  Coon Rapids, MN 55433
or you can email me if you'd prefer to make other arrangements.

It only costs $0.24 for each meal, so if you can get 20 people to sponsor you for just a quarter per pound then you'll be paying for 20 meals with every pound you lose! Together we can not only get healthier, we can give the gift of food to those who desperately need it.