| People who know me have probably heard the story hundreds of times, but for those who are new and might be curious, I wanted to give you a glimpse into where I was and how I got to where I am today. Knowing about my educational background is great, because it shows I am, in fact, trained as a psychologist. The reality, however, is I'm just a guy - a guy who had a MAJOR problem with my weight and overall health. If you want to see the "pretty" version of my story (specifically over the past three years), check out the links to right. Similar to the articles I've written for my company's Wellness newsletter (found here), I've also written three "Success" stories documenting my weight loss since 2007. I'll still cover the information here, in a briefer manner, but my "Mystery Editor" does such a nice job with the newsletter I feel obliged to share his/her work with all of you (the PDF files are from the newsletter). Again, click and save whatever you like. As I say in my articles, I started out big. In fact, I don't know if I've ever been "normal" when it comes to my weight, at least in terms of the Body Mass Index (BMI). I was 12 POUNDS and 24 INCHES at birth. I think everyone will agree I was, in fact, a big baby. In case you need visual evidence, here are some pictures of me from back in the day (click the pictures to enlarge): |
| Dr. Boz's Total Body Wellness Revolution |
| Boz's Weight Loss Journey |
| Success Story #1 (April 2008) Word PDF Success Story #2 (April 2009) Word PDF Success Story #3 (April 2010) Word PDF |
| Now you might say, "Well Dr. Boz, babies are SUPPOSED to be chunky! That's what makes 'em so cute!" And I suppose this is true to some extent. While I wasn't one of those infants or toddlers who weighed over 100 pounds, like you'd see on Jerry Springer or Maury Povich, I was still a big kid. In fact, I was the heaviest child in kindergarten, or at least in my class (believe me, I knew). I was always a heavy kid, make no mistake about it. Nothing really changed through most of my childhood. There were ups and down with my weight, but overall I remained obese. And it wasn't like I was a completely inactive kid. Sure, I played video game, but I also played baseball, golf, tennis, and bowling. In addition, I took dance (tap and jazz) for 14 years (my mom has her own studio). What I wasn't so good with was my diet. I'm a picky eater, even to this day. That likely didn't help when it came to my weight. By high school, I finally started losing weight (and eating a little better for that matter). Perhaps it was also about me losing the "baby fat" as well, but regardless I managed to get to a point where I saw myself looking "normal." I was still technically overweight (again, according to the BMI), but I'm hard pressed to say I felt overweight. Several people who knew me back then would tell you they thought I was "too skinny." I believe it was more that people had never seen me as anything other than overweight or obese, so "normal" looked "skinny" to them. Judge for yourself from the pictures below (one picture each from freshman to senior year, chronologically from left to right). And yes, three of those are prom pictures: |
