My Journey

Before I started my journey, the loose fitting, African styled top you see me wearing in the picture was a staple of my wardrobe. I had different patterns, colors, etc. While I really enjoyed wearing these tops, there was another reason that I loved to wear them: they covered my fat stomach and ass! But, even my seamstress, who would make all my tops, had to mention that my girth was starting to stick out a bit more than usual. And when her measuring tape read more than 50 inches as she closed the tape across my navel, I soon realized that my loose fitting tops could no longer hide the emotional and physical scars that I’d put my body through.

January 1, 2003, marked the beginning of my weight loss journey. I weighed 310 pounds and 44% of that was FAT. I had yo-yo’d for the majority of my adult life and was determined to stop the cycle. Once I stepped on the scale and saw that I had hit the 300+ pound mark, I knew that it was time to do something about it.

So, through much trial and many errors, I started my slow walk to single digit body fat percentage. It has taken me more than 4 years to reduce my body fat percentage from 44% to sub-10%, my current percentage. Oh, and along the way I lost over 130 pounds! ;-) Let me be the first to say that it was far from an easy task, and if anyone tells you that losing weight is easy, you better hold on to your wallet and step away slowly because it ain’t! Although my numbers and pics may look impressive, I still haven’t reached my goal of having a clearly defined six-pack, which has been my goal since the beginning. Basically, I’m going for the body of a gymnast or MMA fighter!

When I’m not masquerading as Mr. LowBodyFat, I’m just an ordinary English professor at a Community college in southern California, where I’ve been working for the past 10 years.

For a more detailed account of my journey, check out the series of posts below:

  1. My Weight Gains & Losses By the Year – Part I
  2. My Weight Gains & Losses By the Year – Part II
  3. My Weight Gains & Losses By the Year – Part III
  4. My Weight Gains & Losses By the Year – Part IV
  5. My Weight Gains & Losses By the Year – Part V

My Blog’s Logo

Adinkra Symbols are traditionally printed on cloth and find their origin in present day Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. These symbols have been used by the Akan and Asante people since the 16th century for royalty, funerals, and other special occasions. Many of these symbols can still be seen in modern architecture in these West African countries and, of course, on clothing. Most Adinkra symbols come from proverbs or common expressions from the Akan and Asante people.

One symbol that has been used frequently since Ghana’s independence in 1957 is the FAWOHODIE which comes from a proverb that states:

Fawodhodie ene obre na enam

The literal translation is:

Independence comes with its responsibilities.

Fawohodie Adinkra Symbol

So, what in the world does this symbol have to do with weight loss or my weight loss blog? Well, I chose this symbol not only because it looks like a person holding his arms above his head with a nice waist line, but because I want folks to know that if you want freedom from your fat, then it comes with responsibilities that you must accept and fulfill to keep the weight off.

Basically, there ain’t no free lunch! You must be accountable to yourself along your weight loss journey, and using this symbols reminds me, and hopefully you guys, that this accountability does not end once you’ve lost the extra fat.

To read up more about Adinkra symbols and their rich history, check out the following sites:

FYI: Just in case you guys were wondering, all of the tattoos that I have are adinkra symbols. So far I have a tattoo of the following symbols: Gye Nyame, Nsoroma, Epa handcuffs, and Sankofa. My latest tatto, which combines yet another adinkra symbol (Sesa Wo Suban) with a phoenix, was created and done by Corey Miller, a southern California tattooing legend.  Many may recognize him from his work on the TLC show LA Ink..