Behind the Blog: IndianapolisEater Revealed
Author: indianapoliseater | Filed under: Announcements/NewsWIBIA and I have been discussing shedding our anonymity recently and since I feel that I have nothing to hide regarding career or personal decisions, now is as good of a time as any to reveal myself. Sadly, you won’t be getting my home mailing address, my employer name or my last name, but I will give you some “interesting” details to chew on.
Name: Ryan
Age: 30
Hometown: Noblesville, Indiana
Job: Wellness Report Analyst at a Fortune 500 company
Alma Mater: Indiana University where WIBIA was my college roommate (note: The WIBIA staff jointly are IU football season ticket holders, so that’s going to lead into an interesting feature that we’ll be introducing this fall called “Tailgate Tour” where we post photos and recipes of items we are cooking at our tailgates).
Interests: Football, baseball, basketball, tailgating, boating and drinking too much beer (helped by my boating and tailgating habits).
Favorite TV show: Chuck (NBC), The Office (NBC), Man v. Food or Dinner: Impossible; I can’t decide.
Favorite movie: Naked Gun (I love all three movies, but the original is the best).
Favorite comfort food: Spaghetti with meat sauce (I swear I’m not nine years old!).
Favorite restaurant: Portillo’s.
Favorite restaurant food: Italian beef sandwich served wet with sweet peppers from Portillo’s (I would eat one every day if there was a location nearby).
Greatest cooking accomplishment: Beating WIBIA and winning a chili cook-off earlier this year.
Greatest eating accomplishment: Can’t decide between four Burger King Whoppers in one sitting or 51 chicken wings in one sitting.
What I’m eating at lunch: Oatmeal, pretzels and a Diet Wild Cherry Pepsi.
I once weighed 350+ pounds (I never knew the exact weight because I was too ashamed to step on a scale) and I’ve lost 160+ pounds. Below is the story of how I got there and back accompanied with a few pictures per a previous request from Bear since I’ve brought it up here before.
I always played football in high school and was a muscular 215-220 pounds, so I was in good shape. Once I got to college, I kind of let myself go since I wasn’t playing sports anymore and ballooned up. Years later, I even won a beer belly contest at a minor league hockey game and got twelve cases of Coors Original beer (AWFUL) for my trouble. Anyway, enough of the delay, here are the pics…
I was probably hungry when that was taken.
This first picture was taken in late 2004, I believe. It’s crappy quality because it’s a cell phone picture back from when cell phone cameras first started appearing, but you can get the general idea of how big I was. If memory serves me correctly, this was at or near my highest weight.
Here’s a clearer picture that was taken in early 2005. I wasn’t quite at my highest weight point anymore, but you still get the general idea of my total girth.
It was hot in that arena!
When I got to about 25 or 26 years old (early 2005) and the apex of my weight, I had some stress in my life that that caused me to lose twenty pounds over three months. After that, I thought that I kind of liked this weight loss thing so I dipped my toe in the water and started exercising (I did absolutely NOTHING before) and lost a few more pounds. Well, after walking on the treadmill for year and getting bored with it, I figured I’d give running a shot in early 2007 and truthfully, I thought it would last for a few weeks and then my knees would hurt too much and I’d go back to walking. The running thing stuck and the weight just started falling off faster than I could buy clothes to keep up.
When I first started, I was running half a mile at a twelve minute per mile pace and it was killing me to finish. Now, I’m still doing it two years later and I’m running about six miles several times a week at a pace around seven and a half minutes per mile in addition to riding bikes, lifting weights and spending hours on an elliptical machine. Next spring, I plan on running the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon for the first time (WIBIA and EatHSE have been running it for several years).
Because of all the weight loss, my shirt size has gone from 3XL to medium, my waist size has gone from 52″ to 33″, my neck size has gone from 19″ to 15.5″ and my feet have actually shrunk too! Needless to say, my life is totally different in all perspectives now.
So, without further adieu, here’s what I look like after all the changes…
I'm a male model...
I still eat a ton from time-to-time as the Fat Stanley Challenge and the Wall of Flame Challenge have shown you, but I do eat right the majority of the time. Now, I only eat fast food only once or twice a week (this is where my reviews come from) as opposed to twice daily and I’m actually moving around as opposed to just sitting on my couch. Hard work and dedication…it’s a good recipe for weight loss. Imagine that!
Anyway, that’s me in a very large and hopefully not boring nutshell. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them in the comments section. And no, I won’t give you my phone number unless you pay me, are a supermodel looking for a hunky stud or are a modeling agency looking for your next big star. Ha!
Tags: Behind the Blog
Very cool. Quite an accomplishment….and not just the 4 Whoppers in one sitting….that weight loss story is incredible.
Go Ryan! Awesome weight loss. Awesome cuteness.
Congrats on the weight loss, but glad that we see a glimpse of the fat version of you from time to time.
Btw, you stand no chance at this year’s chili contest.
“supermodel looking for a hunky stud” Really?! Ha..
Anyway, congrats.
The four Whopper story is kind of like an epic legend amongst my friends. It might actually be more impressive than 51 chicken wings, but I can’t decide.
Yeah right…I’ll win the chili contest again this year. I’m not going to show up with the same old tired recipe. I’ve got ideas on how I’m going to improve it, so basically I’m taking a great recipe and making it better. You stand no chance!
Damn! I never realized we had SO much in common. I too was about 120 lbs heavier than I am now….same story, playing TONS of sports in high school but after that I continued to eat the same with little to no exercise. At around 20 I decided I’d had enough of it and got into running….now I do 5-10k every day…it’s like breathing to me now, I love it. I eat tons of oatmeal too….and apples
“Greatest cooking accomplishment: Beating WIBIA and winning a chili cook-off earlier this year.” – FTW!
I think the 51 wings is better
I’d love to hear those to tales.
Awesome job on your weight-loss and maintaining it. I love to hear stories like this….and I love to see the man behind the blog. Looking forward to WIBIA’s!
Bear, my story is far less interesting…. You might be waiting a while for the reveal!
Yeah, I eat oatmeal for lunch just about every day and have been doing so for a few months. So far I haven’t gotten sick of it, but we’ll see how long that lasts.
I’m in the low to mid 190s now, so I’m actually smaller than I was when I graduated high school.
WOW, Ryan…I’m speechless! I had no idea you were ever that overweight. That first picture of you I didn’t recognize you. WOW, WOW, WOW. And the picture of you as a groomsman, WOW again…smokin’ hot!
It’s like you’ve been given a second chance at life and it sure shows. You are truly an inspiration to others. You have clearly accomplished your goals and now you are striving for new ones…amazing, Ryan. Again, WOW.
Oh yeah, it was bad. I’ve got countless stories of how lazy I was and how much I ate and stuff like that. Definitely not a time period that I’m proud of.
But you’ve risen above so be VERY proud.
Damn, doesn’t even look like the same person. I think I’m heading the opposite direction you are.
By the way, 4 Whoppers? You deserve a medal for that one.
Oh it’s the best. I’ve, no joke, been eating it every single day for breakfast for 3 years now…..so good, I still dream about waking up to it
Yeah, I’m actually way smaller than I was in High School too, I was always trying to bulk in school….now I’m lean for the distance running. My favorite race is the Bay to Breaks every 3rd Sunday in May in San Francisco….so much fun.
http://baytobreakers.com/
When’s you race?
I am still not completely convinced that those 2004/2005 pictures are of YOU!!! You have come such a LONG way and should be so proud of yourself. Oh and on a side note, Portillo’s…duh. One of my favs. Italian Beef…absolutely amazing! Again, great work. You truly are a wellness champion. (that sentence was meant to be half sarcastic, half serious)
Ha, ha, thanks for the sarcasm Natalie! Nice tie in to work!
@Bear: Next year’s Mini-Marathon is May 8, 2010.
As for oatmeal, I love sprinkling a little Splenda in it and it tastes wonderful. I have doctored it up with syrup, raisins, etc. before, but I like it simple with just Splenda in it.
Lookin’ sharp, Ryan! That was a very inspiring story, and definitely interesting. I was at 247 in January of ’08, and I’m now at around 185 or so. I feel like I need to lose another 15-20 to be happy with myself, but it’s progress! Thanks for the inspiration
Good job! Keep it up!
Ryan…I was going to take the year off with the Mini this year but I may have to do it again just to run it with you.
You better be ready for the race of your life!
I have to say at either weight you are quite a cutie. Still, I am so, so, so happy for you that you are healthier at a lesser weight.
Very AWESOME job! I wish everyone understood that there is no magic pill and would simply eat responsibly and exercise frequently to accomplish what you did!
You should be extremely proud.
Nice tux btw. When will YOU be the groom, inquiring minds want to know. LOL [I am so kidding - I am not that nosy. Just that much of a Mom
]
Thanks for the compliments!
I won’t be the groom anytime soon, but I do hear that quite a bit from my own mother. It looks like I’ve picked up another one. Ha!
I too eat a lot of oatmeal and am into distance running. But I was never a fat ass
Just kidding. But I actually used to be really jacked. It’s no fun trying to keep yourself on that kind of a strict exercise regimen though, so I switched over to running just for fitness/stress relief sake. When I was doing ROTC I was maxing the Army’s APFT, running about a 6:30 mile and doing 100+ pushups consecutively. Now I’m slow as balls and run roughly an 8:15 minute mile and can squirm out maybe 70 pushups. But I’ve also been told I’m less of an asshole now, which is an acceptable tradeoff.
LOL, yes, that is definitely an acceptable trade-off.
Good job dude! Amazing! Also, what is a Wellness Report Analyst?
It’s someone that sits around and surfs the internet all day. Ha!
Actually, it’s kind of like a data analyst or whatever. Basically I sit around and produce reports all day.
Very nice piece. I am always impressed with people that can lose weight and then keep it off. It really takes changing your life and lets face it, that is very hard to do. Note if you are running 6 miles at a 7:30 pace regularly then you will have no problems with the Mini. Even if you didn’t train any differently, you would finish it no problem and probably have a pace of 8:00 to 8:30. If you train to get used to the distance, then you might be able to get used to your 7:30 pace throughout the entire run. Best of luck to you in your training.
Ryan-
You make stomach stapling look very attractive. Where did you have yours done?
LOL, I know who this is that made this post and I have to say it was a good effort at humor. For those who don’t know that he is kidding, there was no stomach stapling involved.
Congrats on the weight loss. I’ve always been “skinny” but as I get older I find my weight heading north ever faster each year. When I passed the 200lb mark it was time to take action. I really don’t want to get back to my “skinny” state but the overall goal is “healthy”.
Keep up the great work!
Wow–just found your blog and I love it! I’m a vegetarian, but I still like to read all kinds of food reviews, and you are very funny. I actually found you from This is Why You’re Fat! But really, congratulations on the healthy weight loss-you did good, and truly you were cute before your weight loss (and after) as other commenters have said. I also like your review of Michael Pollan.
So did you end up running the mini this year? I ran it under an “alias” purchased on Craigslist at the last minute (couldn’t pass up the cool weather). For a woman that’s seven months pregnant, I posted a respectable time. For a man in his very late thirties, it was an okay time.
@BigRedEater: Yep, I did run it and had a lot of fun. Finished with a time that I was ecstatic with and I’ll definitely do it again.
Hey, I’m from Noblesville too! Did you graduate from Noblesville?
Yep, I graduated from Noblesville in 1997.
I was 1999. I wondered how a review of Syds made it in here. LOL