Welcome to my weightloss blog!

Hey Everyone!
Well, this is it. This is my weightloss blog.


Now, let's get some things out of the way:

You're probably wondering why I'm making this public, right?
Well, since winning the chance to become one of the 4 Channel 13 Move It participants, I thought people might like to follow along with my progress. Who knows, I might inspire people. Besides, if I'm publicly doing this, I'm less likely to give up!

Why the heck did you submit a pic of you SHIRTLESS (no, that was NOT a mohair sweater) to Channel 13 for the Move It Challenge?
Well, I had no idea that they were going to put it online and that people would vote for the contestants. I had taken that picture to submit to The Biggest Loser which my roommate and I had auditioned for just a couple of months ago. We got a callback interview where they interviewed us on-camera for 30 minutes or so. We received a ton of paperwork to fill out. Anyway, my boss told me about Move It and I submitted the pic I sent to 'Loser'. When I found out that they were going to put it online, I emailed Sonya Heitshusen and she said that it was too late for me to send a new pic and the pic I had sent them would be fine. I panicked for a bit but got over it and decided that it would be motivation for me to lose the weight. Especially when they put the pic on the news!!! YIKES!

Next, who the heck are you?
Here's a little background about me in regard to my weight:

My name is Dave Williams and I'm 29 years old from Urbandale. I'm 5'8" and I weigh 300 pounds. I've been the heavy one in my family my whole life. I grew up getting teased for being fat, and quickly learned to tell jokes (usually at my expense) in order to disarm the other kids so that they couldn't come up with the jokes to make fun of me. I was voted class clown my senior year of high school thanks to my weight and joke-telling. I grew up worshiping John Belushi and Chris Farley because they were overweight and made others laugh as well and everyone loved them for it.
When I graduated high school in 1996, I weighed about 230 pounds. Though I was heavy, I lifted weights a lot and was in decent shape. Due to having only one kidney, I couldn't play the one sport that I had always dreamt of playing -- football. I think that led to a bit of depression since I couldn't play my favorite sport (doctor didn't want me injuring the good kidney) so I didn't play any sport.
After college I got a job working for the Dept. of Corrections where my weight was more of an issue. I now weighed around 260 pounds and wasn't feeling good about myself. Inmates look for any reason to put you down and try to exploit any possible weakness; my weight was that weakness. In 2002 or so I decided to take an improv class at the Des Moines Playhouse to find an outlet for my stress and my humor and creativity. I soon auditioned for an improv group and was picked to join which led to joining a sketch comedy group and then play after play in the Des Moines area. Though I was doing well, my job was stressing me out and I was eating a lot of fast food. I quit my job at Fort Des Moines in the summer of 2006 to make a healthy change in my life. My weight was up to 300 pounds.
During my college period, I once decided I needed to lose weight. I felt I was too busy to work out as I was working full time hours and going to school full time as well. I ended up starving myself and whatever I did eat (usually just one can of soup a day) I would purge. I had lost 30 pounds in one month. Of course the weight came back on as quickly as it had come off.
While working at Fort Des Moines, I decided to lose weight but was just as busy as when I was in college. I decided to start walking for an hour every day but the weight wasn't coming off as quickly as I'd hoped. I started eating every 3rd and sometimes 4th day and still walked an hour each day. I dropped 40 pounds in one month.
Now having made a choice in my life between making good money working for the state but being unhappy with the stress of the job, I quit and got a job in computers, taking a big pay cut to be happy. My theatre lifestyle keeps me busy while my job makes me happy. I have a desk job now, so I'm rather inactive at work. While acting and doing sketch comedy makes me so happy, I always seem to play the stereotypical fat guy characters. Losing weight and getting healthy would finally afford me the opportunity to play something other than the fat guy roles. I'd finally be able to manage my happiness via a healthy lifestyle as well as having a job that I love.
My oldest brother is overseas in Iraq right now (we assume that's where as he's not allowed to say). I would love for him to see me healthy and fit when he gets back.
This is the opportunity that I need to go into my 30's healthily. This is my chance to prove to myself and others that I can be more than the funny fat guy; I can just be FUNNY.