Welcome Back.

Welcome Back, You've been missed here

Today I am starting a journey back to a place that I should have never left.

To tell this story I think it's important to have a little background on me. My name is Jamie MacDonald I am 23 years old and have struggled with weight my entire life.

I can trace it all back to when I was around 9 or 10 years old. I grew at an alarming pace when I was a kid. in fact, the 6'2 (and a half) I stand today was my height at 12 years old. Yup, I was a giant. My parents let me quit soccer because I was whining and complaining. I became friends with a kid who was really, really, really into video games. he was the skinniest kid in school an absolute bone rack. the opposite of me back then. We quickly developed a strong friendship and my sedentary lifestyle kicked off. Pop, Pizza, fast food and zero portion control launched me to 200lbs by the time highschool started in 2007. We became distant and I began hanging out with a new group of friends who were all great athletes. Something I also consider myself even though my weight has always plagued me.

Over the course of high school I rejoined and played a lot of sports but my eating habits were still atrocious. I had no control and would eat impulsively. fast forward to grade 11/12. I got my drivers licence and my old man's pickup truck. we would eat McDonald's almost every day. my weight just took off.

Then "the day" occurred. From all the other people who have gone through massive weight loss that I have spoken with. It sounds like this moment happens to quite a few of us.

It was September 18th, 2010. I and my friend hopped into my truck and drove out to the valley to go fishing. we stopped at McDonald's on the way. Then we stopped again on the way home. One trip to a fast food joint may not seem relevant but it changed my life.

When we stopped I ordered the following

1 Southwest Chicken Burger Crispy. 664 cal
4 Crispy Buffalo Chicken Snack Wraps 230 cal x4 = 920 cal
XL Fries 610 Cal
XL Coke 410

Now I'm not a huge believer in counting calories but I feel it helps impress upon the people the magnitude of my issue. 2604 Calories...For Lunch

I woke up the next day feeling like shit. Actually, I felt worse than shit. and I swore to myself that was it. I would never feel like that again.

The next year of my life consisted of dropping from 278lbs to 195lbs. not everything I did to get there I am proud of but that's a story for another time.

But this story isn't about that guy. It's about the guy who in the 5 years since then slowly slipped back into bad habits. Granted... not as bad as I was but still not good.

Today is November 29th, 2016 and I took the first step on a long journey today. The journey to get back to my healthiest self. To feel good again. To not be afraid to wear t-shirts again, to not feel this way again. For good this time.

I weighed in at 243 lbs this morning and my goal is a strong, healthy, lean, and mean 200 lbs.

They say every journey starts with a single step. Today my first step was not being able to do half of the exercises I planned out for myself and almost puking after 10 minutes on the stair master. To me that struggle is beautiful. It's supposed to suck, you're supposed to want to quit, say fuck this and go sit your ass on the couch. But this isn't my first rodeo. I've looked this devil in the eyes before and spat in his face. I know without a doubt that I can do this again. And I will.

This is my story and I hope that you follow along through this journey and maybe I can help those of you out there who have struggled the way I have.

I probably won't tell anybody about this blog for awhile because I wrote some pretty painful shit in it today. And I'm going to write some painful shit in it in the days to come. Nevertheless  I plan on documenting every day, and hopefully, I'm brave enough to share it one day.

I'm going to leave this with a favourite quote of mine from one of my personal hero's Connor Mcgregor


I'm not going to get somewhere and say, 'OK, I'm done.' Success is never final; I'll just keep on going. The same way as failure never being fatal. Just keep going. I'm going to the stars and then past them. 
--Connor Mcgregor

My journey reflects both sides of this quote. My success was final, I never kept going like I said I would. But my failure will not be fatal.


-JM