LOL! The Dogg is here for you, girl!
Yeah, I’ll let you know about that thing we talked about…hehehehe…
But for now, I’m heading out the door to catch a flight up north. Talk to you next week!
Nate Diggity Doggy Dogg
Great progress, Karma! You are a very beautiful woman.
My wife is on the same path you are on. After our second child was born in October 2000 (our second in 18 months), she had gained a lot of weight and was up to 240 lbs from 150 before she was pregnant with our first child. She wanted to get back in shape, but she didn’t give herself the time to workout. She’s stubborn and wouldn’t take advice from me about training or nutrition. She just followed the same dead-end diets and workout programs.
After a year of this, she finally started following some of the T-mag advice and using the T-Dawg diet in October 2001. She was very dedicated to working out and eating correctly. By October 2002, she had lost over 100 lbs! She kept her weight at 140 for a few months, but then she started to slack off again…currently she’s at about 155.
She’s been wanting to start a strict program again, but lacked the motivation to do so. So I printed off this post for her to read and see your continuing progress…now she says she’s motivated to get to her goal weight of 120 lbs @ 5-6.
I just want to say thank you for being an inspiration to my wife.
Timothy
From a PM, posted with permission:
[quote]That is a great thread you started. My wife always threatens she’s going to get lipo. How did you like it? Does it hurt? Any scarring or scar tissue or anything?
Anyway, you did an amazing job getting back in shape. There is no way anyone can think that you were once 190 lbs by looking at you now.
Cheers 
[/quote]
If your wife “threatens” lipo it sounds like she’s not terribly happy with how she looks. Does she work out? Does she eat well? Obviously, encourage these things first. There are times when lipo is totally reasonable and beneficial for recontouring problem areas. It is NOT a weightloss tool. It is NOT a substitute for dieting and working out. Does she understand this?
As far as how I liked it… Well, no matter what diet and exercise program I may ever go on, nothing is going to change how my body distributes it’s fat. So in terms of changing something that I could not change through diet and exercise, I love it. As it was, if I were to gain 5lbs of fat - 4 of it would go to my midriff and the other 1lb would be dispersed fairly evenly over my “secondary” fat deposit sites. Now, if I gain 5lbs of fat it is distributed relatively evenly over my whole body. The same, but in reverse, applies to fat loss.
Did it hurt? Oh hell yeah. Hurt like a sumbitch. It is not for those with low-medium tolerances to pain. As for scaring, I had 16 quarter inch incision sites and of those only 2 are visible to the uninstructed eye. The others would necessitate me pointing them out and even then, you have a hard time seeing them. But then, I am fortunate in that my skin heals very well. Other than that, you’d never guess I had it done. No ripples, dents, bulges or any of the other possible negative results.
I’d do it again in a heartbeat. If your wife is seriously considering it and has addressed the non-surgical methods for achieving her goals, tell her to go for it.
Pearljam: I can’t see you getting flamed for posting “before’s”. The forum has come a long, long way since I first put a pic up. You got nothing but support for your quitting smoking thread and I’m sure you’ll get nothing but support for this, too.
Jared: You know, I think I should let Subway keep Jared. I’ll pimp myself out to Quizno. Then we could do those “It’s just not fair” type of comparison commercials.
Antiliberal: LOL… Hey, encourage your wife to post! Or at least PM someone for support. Believe me, I totally understand about getting freaked out by posting “before’s”. I had a queasy stomach for two days before I threw those purple thong pics up. It’s not easy seeing yourself at a bad stage like that, plastered on the internet.
But you know what? It’s turning out to be a rather cathartic experience. It’s motivation for me to keep pressing on and getting better. It seems to be motivation for others too. I think it’s great to see that there’s so many others here that haven’t always been athletic and fit. Not everyone has been working out and eating right for the majority of their life.
Put her mind at ease about “grossing people out”. The site hasn’t collapsed under the enormous weight of my ass, it won’t fold if she puts her’s up. 
You know Karma, this thread hasn’t gotten nearly the same attention most threads sponsored or contributed to by you get - which I think is incredible. Here you have shown great improvement coupled with a great personal drive. Keep posting the pics, they’re great fun
Karma, that’s a pretty impressive transformation. Like you said in my picture thread, it’s always nice to see someone that went through a similar transformation.
Karma: you are a M.I.L.F.
Seriously though, every time this page downloads and I see that fine ass, it is a very uh…“moving” experience. Karma, you should be damn proud of yourself for what you have accomplished, and I have to give props where props are due.
It’s easy for any man with T flowing through his veins to say that you are physically attractive. However, your beauty is more than skin deep. As much of an enigma the female psyche has proven to be, I have learned enough to know what I want. There are certain attributes that make a woman more appealing to me. Looks are what attract us initially, but that only goes so far. Coming from someone who has dated his fair share of high-maintenance daddy’s little girl American princesses, it is women like you that give guys like me hope. Here is why:
Some people are dealt a shitty hand early on. Others breeze through life until one day when they are faced with adversity and they fall apart. You really don’t know what a person is all about until the shit hits the fan. I don’t even know you, but I can say with confidence that you are a strong woman with a lot of heart. One thing I’ve learned is that life will knock you down, but only the people who have heart will get back up. Some people feel sorry for themselves and blame everyone else for their misery. You’ve had true character-building experiences and this has made you like tempered steel. You’re secure enough to talk about your past and to post pics of yourself when you were down. That makes you vulnerable, but it shows that you were able to pick yourself back up. It shows that you are a real person who can appreciate the things in life that are important. Your story is one of true inspiration and personal victory and I thank you for sharing it with us.
Some pics from the other day on the boat… This is the only recent side shot I’ve got. Small bit o’ change.
Congratulations on a great turnaround. I wish my sister had the makeup to do what you’ve done. She’s gone through some of the same kinds of things you have, but at this point it seems that running away from everything (including her son) and becoming a homeless crank addict is all she’s capable of. Continued success to you.
~karma~, it’s hard to tell, but are you wearing anything other than the lifejacket? ;D)
Well, let’s see if the third time’s the charm for this pic. Jeff, as you can see, I am wearing something besides the lifejacket(?). Bikini and a green shirt to be precise, no lifejacket in sight. And before any questions arise, yes, I was checking the prop just prior to the pics being taken.
Irondoc: I think your woman should be proud of what she’s accomplished. It takes a lot of hard work, yes, but it takes more of an inner strength to make that kind of change.
RS & mikesmith00: Thanks, guys. Get the pics up when you can!
O’Shea: I have no sympathy for the “I’ve tried everything and nothing works” crowd. I have no patience for whiners. But I have nothing but support and encouragement for those undertaking the task.
Timothy: That’s amazing that your wife’s been able to make that kind of progress! My hat’s off to her. Big time. Is there any chance she’d be willing to participate here?
are you married, if not would you like to be? =)
I guess when I first looked at the pic, I thought it was a lifejacket. In the better pics, I can see it’s a nice shirst, along with a nice smile! :D)
karma,
My wife’s not really into the computer thing, but I could persuade her into posting some then…and now pics too show her transformation and some more detailed info on what she did.
bobo I already ask that
LOL… Nope, not married. Thanks for the interest boys, but I’m not interviewing for that position.
Timothy: Sent ya something… And YES, please do persuade her to put some “Then and Now” pics up as well as letting us hear how she accomplished it. That’s a great thing, and should be celebrated!
'Nother one.
Taken and condenced from several PMs, with permission, because I find this very inspiring.
[quote]"Karma,
I don’t post much on the forum and probably never will and this is the first time I have ever used the PM feature but I wanted to let you know that I would be very interested in your story. I also am struggling with weight issues and while I have made great strides with the help of T-mag and Biotest I still have a long way to go and it is only getting harder with the newly developed heart condition, I think the meds are raising havoc with my metabolism and I have yet to find the formula that will put me back on track. I know that my age is causing me greater challenges than many so I can use all the help I can get.
Frankly I had developed a fondness for you from the very beginning, your strength, fearlessness in saying what you think in the face of controversy and scorn has won you respect on the forum and you have always had mine. While I do not agree with your stances on some issues I still respect your conviction. There has been any number of occasions that I have read a thread for no other reason than that you have posted on it.
I tell you this because I believe that your story will help in providing me additional motivation and I need that motivation now more than ever…
As for me, I had the bad habits I learned during my growing up. I was born in a cloud of smoke and started smoking at 13, I come from a family of alcoholics and started drinking at about the same time I started smoking, I grew up violent and mean. At about 30 my heath began to decline and my weight began to go up and I was out of control. I crashed in my early 40’s, I had lost my job and was on the verge of losing my family. I decided I needed to do something different, I remembered an old quote I had heard years before, “If you keep doing what you always done, you keep getting what you always got.”
So I started doing something different. First I quit drinking, 6 years ago, them I quit smoking, 5-1/2 years ago, then I started on a weight loss, yo yoed for awhile then joined a gym. I’m down just over 100 lbs net and stronger than I have ever been in my life. I don’t have a fixed goal, rather it is an I’ll know what I like when I see it. My biggest problem is a wife who sees the changes in me and fears that they will precipitate a change where she is concerned so I get less than enthusiastic support from that area.
As for the heart, I injured my shoulder and required rotator cuff surgery the beginning of this year, the surgery did not go well. My blood pressure plummeted during the surgery and the meds used to get me back triggered Atrial fibrillation and the episodes have become more frequent and of longer duration until I have now been in A Fib non stop for over 6 weeks, that has brought on the congestive heart failure. Med wise, three prescriptions to control blood pressure, blood thinners, meds to strengthen the heart beat and anti-inflammatorys , so it’s 10 pills in the morning, 5 with lunch and 7 at night. Sometimes it is just about more than I want to face to get up in the morning. The chronic tiredness makes my workouts an exhausting ordeal and they are by no means as productive as they once were.
I have been following your story on line and I was right, I knew that you had been through some hard times, I could see it in your posts and in your strength, you aren’t born with strength of will, it is forged in fire. You have made an incredible transformation, not only in you body, and that is impressive enough, but in your person, perhaps you should use Phoenix as your nic rather than Karma, you have risen from the flames to be far more than you were before.
If you could, [/quote]1)[quote]what led you into becoming heavy, [/quote]2)[quote]what bad habits did you develop and why. [/quote]3)[quote]What was the trigger that precipitated the change, the decision to retake control of those areas of your life that you had lost control of. [/quote]4)[quote]who or what did you lean on and [/quote]5)[quote]did you have any destructive influences in your life and [/quote]6)[quote]how did you deal with them. Gee, that narrows it down.
Karma,
Wow, you and this PM from an admirer is very inspiring.
This is the aspect of the forum that makes me come back for more.
The support and encouragement from others helping you to reach your own personal goals is amazing. It’s awesome that people who may never meet each other can develope such wonderful relationships.
Thank you for starting such a great thread.