This will sound very contradictory. Mr. Schwarzenegger has been one of my biggest role models for Me my Entire life.

That being said, I suppose many will still consider Me to be young at 31, and even odder is the fact I am 489 lbs with two bulged disks in my back. Actually the bulged disks happened when I was weight lifting with a trainer when I still weighed in at 300.

I’m actually down from 520, so that’s progress that I’m happy for, because frankly for those who have never experienced obesity or have no family members who fight obesity, it feels like Cancer. It’d hard to tell whats self inflicted for me and whats not. Fighting Bi-Polar from age 10-15 I feel like anti-depressants definitely messed me up, and I still hold to the belief that they caused long term damage to my body. I say this because until I was about 13 (3 years after starting anti-depressants) I was a normal (relatively) scrawny and fast kid. To add to that my family has no history of obesity, and I’m not guilty of eating terribly.

But, without typing a biography of my own on the forum, ultimately I swim, and am slowly beginning a workout routine again as I fight to keep my back in order. I have aspirations to get myself down to 300lbs (which I feel is reasonable) My BMI if it holds true would place me at 10% body fat at 250lbs, so I figure 300lbs is a modest and achievable goal to start with. MAKE NO MISTAKE, it’s not the final goal!! I want to be able to run, jog, climb, and do all the things I’ve missed doing for 15 years of my life.

For the record, I know obesity and cancer are two different things in many respects. But when you wake up every day and wonder how many more your body will hold out til something really breaks loose it doesn’t really seem to be that big of a distinction if you know what I mean.

I’ve been reading about Mr. Schwarzenegger since I was a kid, and he is one of very few public figures that has remained a inspiration and a role model for my entire life.

Here’s hoping we all have great success in our individual goals and aspirations! Salute!