After 2 years abscence, ArcticDoomWolf reporting in!

[handymanning]

Used to be roughly 50 lbs overweight at 215 (my heaviest). No longer, thanks both to NerdFitness and the few and far between real life people who've supported me on my fitness journey. Not gonna lie, Steve's articles kickstarted my lifestyle turn around, and continue to provide weekly inspiration and perspective.

I grew up in an odd spot. My dad passed on while I was still young, a car accident to be precise. I was with him, but survived. After I woke from the coma, my then widowed mother packed up and moved us all (brother and sister) to North Carolina. Due to some religious stuff, I didn't have a normal childhood, car accident and resultant laundry list of medical issues aside (ranging from multiple concussions to spinal issues to epilepsy to total retrograde amnesia, to mention the major ones). Wasn't allowed to play with other kids, participate in school sports or clubs, that kind of thing. The biblically justified physical abuse didn't help either.

When I was about ten, my mother again decided to pack us up and move across the continent, all the way to Alaska. We lived with an old family friend of my mother's for a while, but had to leave after they had a falling out over my mother's prescription drug abuse (she was stealing my seizure meds, way to twist the knife eh?). Anyway, in a (presumed) act of desperation, she found a dude and married him after two weeks of dating. Recipe for disaster if I ever saw one.

Up until this point in my life, I was relatively healthy for a kid my age, medical issues aside. The guy my mom married...well, he shouldn't have been allowed to procreate. My sister and I (big brother had moved out when we were still in NC) were removed from the home by the state and placed in foster care. Bounced around for a bit, then finally settled back in NC with some family, an aunt on my mother's side.

The point I'm getting at is that sometime shortly before being placed in foster care, I developed a binging disorder. At this point I had absolutely zero knowledge of proper nutrition. Moving in with my Aunt didn't help, as that entire side of the family was obese (and dropping like flies because of it). After one of the aunts kicked the bucket early in life, I had a rushing realization that I was on the verge of following down that same path.

Now I've always been a Nerd. What I lacked in early life social interaction, I more than made up for by devouring books, comics, games, whatever worlds I could live in that weren't mine. Over time I developed a startling aptitude for absorbing information, which I finally turned to fixing my health. After a short while, I found this community, and the rest is history. I graduated high school, moved to Dubai, and now work at a Technical Consulting and Project Management agency. I'm healthier and happier than I've ever been. Last year I completed my first ever 21km run in under two hours, and have been lifting and fighting ever since. This is my story.

If you've made it this far and have any questions or desire clarification on any details, feel free to PM me.

Thanks for reading!

Before/After

[Three Two Seven]

Thanks for sharing your story.  Welcome back to the Rebellion!