As any fat person can tell you, taking a profile picture for your Facebook or Twitter account is daunting. You have to throw so many away. You want the one that makes you look just ever-so-slightly less fat. And you tend to update often, being unsatisfied with what you had before. (If you’re like me, and hate seeing yourself in pictures anyway, it’s even worse.)
So, I was going through some profile pictures I took over the last month, and I had an idea. I decided to make this:
Now, these are just camera phone pictures. That I took of myself. And I’m guestimating at the weights, because I haven’t been keeping a journal or anything (though I should have – I need to find a good tracking site for weight loss.) Also, it is not an intentional psychological trick that my head is closer to the camera in the first (looking larger) and further away in the last (looking smaller). I just picked the pictures that seemed to be in generally the same position, so a comparison could be made.
When I put these side by side, I can see it. I am at the phase of weight loss when people start to really compliment you. It’s a good place – 21 pounds lost, and about 4 inches off my waist – but I still look at myself and see how far I have to go. So it’s helpful to look at myself and see how far I’ve come. And if there’s one place in particular that I am glad I’m slimming out, it’s my face. I’m tired of being a fat-head.
What I don’t have is a picture of me at 304lbs., which is where I started the year. (For that matter, I don’t have a picture of me at 312lbs., which is where I was at the end of 2008, and the most I ever weighed.) I do have a nice collection of pictures of me just being fat, though. Like this:
Or this:
Or even this, where it appears that I am dangerously close to transmogrifying into the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man (notice how the camera can’t even focus because I’m so globular):
Once, to put things into context, I made another comparison image. Years ago. Because for the last decade I’ve been constantly freaking fat, but I didn’t always used to be:
Oh, the Huge Manatee!!
Granted, I don’t want to be that skinny anymore. After high school I was healthier:
And even in college, not so bad, despite that tent of a hideous shirt I was wearing:
And actually, that last picture is right around my goal weight. Around 240. That picture was taken in Europe, in the Fall of 1999, and it was a very good time. I ate like a horse, but I hiked the world, and I had the stamina to do it. I wasn’t carrying around an extra 60 lbs or so, which is how I started the year this year.
The Primal Blueprint has been good to me. I’ve been at it just a couple days shy of two months, and it’s not getting harder. If I knocked out the few drinks I have on the weekends, I’d probably lose weight even faster. But slow and steady, right?
To be honest, I never post pictures of myself. Certainly not the unflattering ones. The only reason I’m doing it now is because I’m convinced that I will not be that guy anymore. I’m not going back to the fatty fatterson club. Life is too enjoyable to ruin it by eating the wrong things, laying around, and feeling and looking like crap.
275 lbs. is the next major milestone. I’m hoping I can hit it by April.
Steve Skojec is a husband, father, storyteller, writer, and podcaster who dabbles in photography, filmmaking, and graphic design. His commentary has has appeared at outlets such as The New York Times, Foreign Policy, USA Today, The Washington Post, Fox News, and The Washington Times. He lives in Arizona with his wife Jamie and their many children.
