100 Pounds to Berlin

Hi, my name is Charles and I'm a big guy.  I have been since I was a young boy and it's been a constant struggle over the years.

Below is a photo with my wife, Illa and my mother.  Illa and I are expecting our first child in July.  Although I have many reasons to get healthy and lose weight, my primary reason is for my unborn child.  I want to be able to live to see it (we're waiting on finding out the sex) grow up and I want to be able to actively participate in its upbringing.

I'm starting this blog out of a conversation that Illa and I had recently.  We were discussing positive reinforcement and I was trying to coming up with a longer term weight goal and methods to help me attain it.  After some discussion, we came up with the goal of "100 lbs to Berlin", where if I lose a total of 100 lbs from my highest weight, we'll start planning our next trip to Berlin, Germany.

We went to Berlin in 2011 and I fell in love with the city.  I was enamored by its history, life and cosmopolitan atmosphere.  Having studied German history and language for several years, I found visiting Berlin to be a life-changing experience.

This blog is going to be become my personal repository of thoughts, ideas, items of inspiration and updates on my progress.  I will also use it as a sort of virtual travel blog about Berlin to help me keep my eye on my goal.

So, my first update is setting my goal.  Here's a chart of my weight loss history starting in June of 2009 when I first joined Weight Watchers (a great program that I'll talk more about later):

My highest weight was 351 lbs in June of 2012 and I'm currently at 312 lbs.  Therefore, my goal is 251 lbs.  This isn't my ultimate healthy goal, but it is my long term goal that I'm setting as my benchmark for my "100 lbs to Berlin" challenge.  Stay tuned for more updates!