Thanks for stopping by YesterdaysFatGuy.com.  My name is Rex.  Like millions of people across the U.S. and around the world, weight has been a struggle for the better part of my life.  From my teen years, through my early adult years to the present, being overweight has been a BIG issue. I could point my fingers at many things in the past from bad experiences to my health, but the truth of the matter is that I’ve always loved to eat but

have never been a big fan of exercise.  Exercise has always been a struggle.  How I made it through three and a half years of the toughest PT the Army had to offer is beyond me.  I hated most of it with a passion. 

There were two significant factors that contributed greatly to my loathing of physical exertion.   The first contributing factor was weakness of mind.  I’m convinced, today, that if a person wants to achieve peak physical condition in life that mental conditioning MUST be a part of the equation. 

The second contributing factor was a life long issue with a bi-cuspid aortic heart valve that went undetected (even through multiple military physicals) through mid summer of 2005.  While I won’t use the heart valve as an excuse (the simple truth is that exercise and fitness were not a priority to me either mentally or physically) it did explain why my body rejected intense physical activity for many years. 

On October 3oth, 2008 I was given a new lease on life through the replacement of that defective aortic valve.  While the recovery was, by far, the least pleasant experience of my life, as I began to recover, I noticed some amazing changes taking place in my body.  It was only a couple of months before I began to develop a sense of wellness that I had never experienced.  The more I healed, the better this sense of wellness.  As recovery continued I began to notice that physical exertion was not the problem it was in the past.  Before long I could walk for a half an hour, non-stop, and not feel like I was going to die when I was done.

Through all of the medical testing that lead up to the valve replacement, even though I was significantly overweight, outside of the bad valve, my overall health was pretty good.  This lit a bit of a fire under my butt to start shedding the pounds. 

The last two years leading up to surgery were rough.  The worse my heart got, the less I could do.  I turned to food and stacked on a lot of weight.  In fact, the day of surgery they operated on me at well over 330 pounds.  Through recovery and limited activity, I stacked on even more weight.

After seeing myself on video, in that condition, I knew things had to change.  I was miserable with myself and just couldn’t stand the thought of another year, trudging my way through life at 330 plus pounds. 

Earlier this year I launched a campaign on YouTube and my blog issuing a $1000 challenge to anyone who could beat me to the 100 pound loss mark by the end of 2009.  Unfortunately, even $1000 wasn’t motivation enough to keep people in the game.  Many started, but no one followed through.  I even got frustrated and almost gave up. 

Amazingly, the way my body was working in comparison to the past motivated me to keep moving forward.  It wasn’t long before the half an hour walks, mandated by my cardiologist, started to, get this, become fun!  I started enjoying the exercise!  With that, I decided to turn up the intensity a bit.  I had some success with fitness bands last year (before my surgery) so I picked up a new set and added that to the daily exercise routine.

I really became motivated when I started to see a little results with bands.  I found myself getting out of bed in the morning, looking forward to the workout.  My energy levels were increasing, I started eating healthier and began to invision myself becoming fit.  As I walked the streets of La Mesa, CA I would invision myself on a treadmill at a fitness center.  I started to see my new body taking shape when I used the bands.  Each time I would exercise my body, I would exercise my mind at the same time, visualizing the results I want to see in the future. 

The Law of Attraction is an amazing thing!  It wasn’t long before that focus and meditation brought me to a 24 Hour Fitness center not more than a mile and half from where my wife and I are living, at present.  I checked them out online, went in for a tour and signed up.  I haven’t missed a day since I joined.  I weighed in at 321 the day I joined the gym and when I got off the scales this morning (7/31/09) I’m happy to say that I have only seven more pounds to go before, at long last, I’m back below 300 pounds!

In all of this, I’ve learned some amazing things.  If there’s one thing I’ve learned and supercedes all it’s that if we want to live a life of health, wealth and happiness then we must use the power of our mind to create that.  Exercising the mind is every bit as important as exercising the body.  Hundreds of thousands of people, world wide, embark on missions to lose weight, but end up failing because the development and fitness of the mind are never taken into consideration.  To gain full control over your body, you must have control of your mind and this comes through exercise.  Just as physical exercise strengthens the body, mental exercise strengthens the mind.

YesterdaysFatGuy.com has been created for a couple of reasons.  First, it keeps me accountable.  Second, it’s gives me a place to document and share my results… to record and share the journey.  Most importantly, though, it gives me a way to share what I’ve learned with others in the hope that they can take something from here, apply it to their life, and get results.

My hope is that this will become a place where those who are seeking to become fit and those who already are can connect, learn and grow.  Those who need to make the change can use this resource to find friends, motivation and knowledge.  Those who have the knowledge to help people reach their goals can use this site to connect and share through comments and connections through social networks like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and more.

I will have a web based forum attached to YesterdaysFatGuy.com within the next week where people can connect as well.

Thanks again for stopping by and I hope to connect with you soon!

Cheers!

Rex