I started my WFPB journey on February 14, 2019 and weighed 190 pounds. On March 25th—just 39 days later—I weighed 170 pounds. I’d lost 20 pounds in less than 40 days! Over the past sixteen months I’ve lost a total of 25 pounds and have kept it off. I’m currently within five pounds of what I weighed during my senior year of high school—which was 36 years ago (back when I was a lean, mean four-eyed nerdy machine!). As of this writing I’m 54 years young, weigh 165 pounds and wear a size 32 waist pants, which I haven’t been able to wear in years.
But my biggest achievement since going WFPB is that I can again perform a feat of dexterity that I haven’t been able to do since my early thirties—climb inside of a clothes dryer and shut the door. This was something I discovered I could do in my mid-twenties while working in the warehouse of a local appliance store and was dared to do one day. But for the past two decades I’ve been unable to do this because of excess weight and stiff/sore joints. Both are now gone. Realize that I’m 6 feet 2 inches tall, wear a size 12 shoe and weighed 165 pounds when I did this on February 10, 2020—which was just 4 days before my one-year anniversary of becoming plant-powered. And the part that amazed even me is that I was able to get in AND back out in less than 30 seconds—and I did so while wearing my fashionable Bob Ross® leisurewear. (Happy Little Trees!) You can watch me perform this outrageous feat below.
[ WARNING: DO NOT try this at home, your local laundromat or
anywhere else! I am a professionally trained dryer climber-inner. ]
Another thing that has improved since becoming WFPB is my sense of balance. One thing I can do now that I couldn’t even dream of doing before is put on my Converse Chuck Taylor All Star high tops while standing up. I balance on my right foot, put the left shoe on, tie the laces, then switch feet to put the right one on. And I can get them both on in less than thirty seconds. It’s a weird thing to be proud of I know, but I now put my socks and shoes on while standing up. Sneakers and dress shoes were a cinch. But it took a while to work up the courage to try the high tops. Below is a photo of my purple paint-splattered Chuck Taylors. I decided that since I was able to back up my claim of climbing inside a dryer with a video of me doing it, no video would be needed to prove my balancing act.
