At LAC 2017 last Saturday Jungle Jim was a regular paparazzi, running around taking shots of anyone and anything that moved. He is LAC’s unofficial photographer.  As most good photographers try to do, he snapped many pics of people in their natural state rather than the unnatural “everybody say cheese” pose where the photo is perfectly centered. If a picture is truly worth a thousand words then you get a much more revealing story that way.

If you interpret this shot as “Andy is always on his phone” ding ding, you’re a winner. I interpret it as HOLY CRAP AM I FAT! 2 years ago I weighed 209 lbs. At 6’2″ it’s slightly heavier than I’d like to be but I wasn’t embarrassed if someone took a profile pic or a photo of me in a swimsuit. In this photo, had I known the camera was on me, I would skedaddled out of the frame. But here it is and now I have to look at the version of myself that I barely recognize as me.

I hate this picture so much that I finally broke down and paid for a gym membership and worked out for the first time since I had arthroscopic knee surgery about 6 months ago. Today I start my journey at 249 lbs. My goal is to get down to 190. Sound ridiculous but that’s just about what I weighed when I got married. Besides, you reach 0% of the goals you never set.