Picture Perfect

My contemporary Jeff, from St. Cloud posted today with pics from his "Big Hair Band Days". At first I laughed that the guy with big hair now plays with a band called "The Receders". They are really very good so I would have loved the Big Hair stuff.

In thinking of the changes Jeff made over the years, I guess time was better to him than me. As a youth in high school, I weighed 145 when I graduated.

Dig the hair and part. I think this was the David Cassidy look. And the tie! that knot was bigger than my fist.

I had an overactive thyroid back then and until I was 30, I never weighed over 165 and wore size 32 pants. Then at the urging of my doctor, I had a second dose of radioactive iodine (the first was in 1980) which totally destroyed my thyroid. I went from super hyperactive to lethargic and listless. I now take thyroid medicine for the rest of my life.

I went from 32 to 34 to 36 in two years and topped the scales at 185 when I turned 40 but still I looked good! as is evidenced by these photos.

The photo on the left is my 40th birthday. and on the right is about the time I got my black belt in Tae Kwon Do. Still looked trim and devilishly handsome...and look I still have all my hair! The best condition of my adult life.

After the divorce from my first wife of 16 years, I went into hibernation mode because I was a single dad of two children under 12. I worked then ran straight home after work and fixed their meals and after they went to bed, I taught myself how to use a computer and ate till bedtime for the next four years.

I went from 36 to 38 to size 40 pants and tipped the scales at 240 pounds. I was a mess.

July 2002, I got sick of being fat and went on the Atkins diet. I started walking every day. I ate fat and meat...lots of it and salad for the next 3 months. In September I was down to size 38 and 195.

Back to the boyish good looks and svelte frame.

In December of that year I met my old schoolmate and we began to talk via email and then phone calls and IM. I began to feel like I did at 40. Continuing my walking and diet.



In early 2003, I popped the question and she said Yes. I had found the love of my life at 43, twenty-five years after we graduated high school together and 34 years after we first met.

I still look at her like this because she saved me from myself and she has the most beautiful smile.

Wedding day July 2003

The first year we were married, I drove 2-3 hours one way to work every day. With nothing to do and a teen age daughter that rebelled about not being the center of my life, I had plenty of time every day to eat and very little time to exercise. I went in to work at 6 AM every day and got home about 8 every evening. I ate dinner and went to bed. On weekends, I was too tired to do anything. By May 2004 we moved closer to my work but the damage had been done.

The jowls are back.

In 2006, my daughter graduated High School. I was now at 250 and size 42 waist.


On right, June 2006

In July 2007, my daughter got married. This is my son and I outside the restaurant afterward.

Now the sad fact. At 47, I weigh 278 and wear 42-44 waist IF I wear them underneath my massive belly.

I have started my diet and exercise routine again and now I work out at the gym most days. The weight and lack of exercise are taking their toll so I know I must make it work before the damage is irreversible. Below is what I want to look like when I get through.

Who says I don't believe in Miracles?

Truthfully, this what i look like in the morning after a rough night of tossing and turning.

I actually have this shirt in Yellow.

Most likely I guess this is what I will look like when I get old. This is my dad at 75.



When all is said and done, I guess Jeff is really fortunate to have changed so little over the years. Sure there is the hair thing, but you can at least see the resemblance between the pictures. In my case, I look like the love child of the Michelin Man and Mamma Cass Elliott. Life can be so cruel.