This morning I weighed myself on my official Weight Watchers scale (even though I am not on WW) and this is the weight that popped up… I tried it a few times just to verify and was so insanely happy with the result.

If you remember , I had set a goal for myself to be down from my all time high weight of 220 and started at the beginning of the year to reach 160 by June 14th. It is 25 days before that original goal and I have not only met the goal, but exceeded it.

I am very happy with the results, but am now going to concentrate on toning up. At the gym, I still do primarily cardio, and have stuck to my Atkins meets South Beach diet pretty well over the past few months. There have been obvious slip ups, but overall I am glad I was able to stay on track.

Here is a picture of me last night (ironically I did break my diet last night, but I just really was craving a slice of pizza) waiting for my slice. Then here is a picture of me in December with Ellen at my former company’s Christmas party.

I also wanted to find a job where I could feel free to express myself that would be an extension of all of my passions. I took the first job I was offered after moving and was very happy there, but I didn’t like that it was located 25 miles away from the city I drove 3,000 miles to be close to, and that I was living even further outside of San Francisco. I didn’t feel free to come and go as I wanted. Three weeks ago I gave my notice at my previous job providing 3 weeks of lead time for them to find someone to hire, and I could train my replacement before I left.

At the same time, I have accepted a job offer in a field which some may or may not understand. I mentioned earlier, I wanted a job that completely encapsulated what I care about, what I enjoy doing, and who I am. The job is essentially the same as the last company I was with, in that I am managing multiple servers, websites, newsletters, and all of the IT backend. I will also be handling AV aspects of the company, including video streaming, etc. This is a great opportunity to branch out my knowledge and passion for video which I has laid dormant since my high school days.

I really feel that my love of visual media, and love of technology management make this a great move in companies, but there is one other factor which plays into my choice in working for this company. The company is very involved in promoting the messages of safe and consensual sex between men. This is something I harp on daily on other sites where I write. I think the prevention of spreading sexually transmitted diseases is a message that needs to be expressed in the gay/bi/lesbian/straight community. This company provides a safe and secure location, as well as protection for everyone who visit their locations.

They also provide weekly testing and even someone who comes in and will sit down one-on-one to offer advice or someone to just talk to about your concerns. The company works closely with Public Health Departments, Community Based Organizations, county and state HIV/STD officials, the CDC (in U.S.), the research community (UCSF, UIC, CAPS) and many others - to create collaborative relationships which support and expand HIV and STD awareness and testing programs while also maintaining outreach initiatives that are effective, user friendly, and creatively inspired.

This is who I am as a person, and I don’t want to lie or be ashamed about that. Many people have asked me about this in the past, and until now I have been less then upfront and honest, mostly because I was afraid of what others might think. I now honestly don’t care. I have always tried to be a very open person about my life, and don’t know many people who openly admit to living in their car for over a year or any of the other crazy things I have done. I feel that in the spirit of being open and honest that I would like to express that I am bisexual. While I have never had a relationship with a guy, I feel as if I would be ready to if that opportunity presented itself, but likewise the same goes for a woman. I don’t feel as if a person’s sexuality should stop you from caring about someone for who they are.

The company you work for should be an expression of your own passions, and I feel as if I have found one that has truly allowed me use my talents while at the same time not having to hide who I am. I understand that this news might shock some people, and others not so much. I have not said any of this sooner, because up until now I have felt too scared to. Even as I write this I am trembling. Due to the nature of who I am, and based on past experiences, I do not wish to disclose the name of the company which I will be working for, and hope that you can respect this. The company is very reputable and has offices in the US and Canada, which will allow for some travel with the job as well; something I am looking forward to greatly. I will be working in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro district and have found a place to live within walking distance of my new job.

That being said, I appreciate the support of those who have found out this information through various means, you have helped me more then you could know. This is something which is very difficult to do, and I am glad to have such great friends to help me through this time. I look forward to your comments and feel free to drop me a line anytime.

Thanks for listening,

Nick Starr

Wow…I am below 170. I can’t believe it. Sticking to my diet and doing lots of cardio at the gym. I also spent Saturday walking around San Francisco for a good 5-6 hours before the Flickr 4 party. I had a great time at the party (got to meet Stewart Butterfield the founder of Flickr and guy who personally banned FlickrLicio.us from using Flickr to host my Babes of Flickr site), and then at dinner afterward, and then the party across the street after that…needless to say it was a long, but very fun night.

I didn’t even get home till around 4 or so in the morning, and I slept until 2pm the next day. I was so wiped out, I barely made it to the gym, but I did go in and started working on some bench pressing, and other weights. I have been concentrating on cardio as I have/had a lot of fat to lose. I didn’t want to replace the weight with muscle mass yet, but I think I am low enough to start trying to build up some muscles and hope they replace the fat.

I am feeling better about myself, still not where I want to be, and 160 might be a goal that while attainable, might not have me in the shape I would like unless I start to build some muscle mass. I think that my goal should be able to be reached….but getting to where I feel comfortable with my shirt off is a new goal.

Other then that, I’m getting a lot of requests from people asking if I am glad I moved and if I am enjoying the area. The answer is a resounding yes, I am glad I am out here in the San Francisco bay area (besides the weather which is so cold at night and hot during the day). Besides my rough start, it has been all uphill from there.

Until later…buh bye.

At the beginning of the year, I made a vow (New Years Resolution if you will) to lose weight this year. How so cliche that is, I know. As it turns out, I joined a gym, and am going regularly. I also have been dieting and I think the above picture shows the results.

I was looking at myself in the mirror the other day thinking I hadn’t really lost a lot of weight in my face, guess I was wrong. I feel lighter all around, and I can see my tummy shrinking slowly but surely.

As I mentioned in my Life As Nick Starr blog, I would like to get down to 160ish by around June, when I plan on heading home to Florida to visit my family. I estimate I was around 200 at the beginning of the year (give or take) and now I am down to 175…only 15 more pounds to go…

I went out finally and bought the scale I had been wanting at Costco (which involved me paying for a Costco membership as well). The membership is worth it, since I am eating a lot of meats and buying in bulk will save money, plus they sell Alli in 150 packs at a pretty good discount.

Well I get home and the scale is acting all funky. Different measurements every time ranging from 160-205….that thing is going back. The one measurement that was consistent was 177.5-177.9. This is obviously a really good drop from the 182 I was at. Looks like the June deadline of 165-160 might not be that difficult after all.

I took a picture last night while I was out for the Dawn and Drew 365 project and have gotten some good comments on it about how I look thinner. It is the picture below. I still have a lot of weight in my face, tummy and other areas. I am trying to stick to going to the gym at least every other day, but days when I work both jobs it can be difficult.

I’ve started phasing out sausages and other fatty meats and am trying to concentrate on turkey and chicken. I also love broccoli and am going to add that into my diet in small portions.

So that is the update on the weight….hopefully 165 comes sooner then later. Until later, buh bye.

Four months from today (121 days to be exact; or 17 weeks 2 days), I want to publicly publish a goal of reaching 160 pounds. I know that 165 sounds more reasonable, but with my weight floating between 182-186 (depending on the scale) losing 22-26 pounds in 4 months doesn’t sound all too unreasonable. The average weight loss on a 1200 calorie diet is 1 pound per week, so if I am able to keep dieting as I have been (pretty much Atkins meets South Beach) and going to the gym at least 4 times a week (hopefully more), I don’t see why this isn’t obtainable.

I am going to buy a digital scale, and be using that as my own means of measurment. The scales at the gym all seem to be a bit different.

I will be honest, yesterday I broke down and cheated on my diet some. I forgot my Alli at home, and ended up eating 3 of the small sized pieces of candies.  I didn’t do anything besides that to break the diet, but I felt guilty. Today I am back on track, taking Alli, eating very low carb items, and went to the circuit gym during lunch today.

My goal for the gym is to do as much cardio as possible. I am currently doing a half hour max, and want to work up to at least an hour every other day.

I think that these simple 22-26 pounds will be life changing for me, but I think it is a long road ahead. I have been pretty diligent about going to the gym and sticking to my diet since the new year.

I also plan on participating in Dawn and Drew’s 365 Flickr self-portrait project (my pics). Keep your eye on the pics there to chart the progress of my weight loss as well.

I can’t wait till June to see the results, and hopefully I can stay motivated. Until later, buh bye.

I can’t believe it. I was at the gym this afternoon, and weighed myself, 182. This down from my all time high of 220 is amazing to me. My old jeans are now slipping right off, and even the new jeans I bought recently have a bit of give to them.Since the new year (or right after that) I have bee dieting by virtually eliminating all sugar, lowering my carbohydrate intake, and trying to eat foods that are lower in fat, or less amounts of these foods. I also joined the gym the day after MLK Jr. day, and have been going virtually every day. At first it was hard, but it is becoming more of a routine now.

I have also started this past week taking Alli, the some what controversial OTC FDA approved weight loss drug. This isn’t a miracle drug where you sit back and loose weight. It helps you lose weight by blocking 25% of the fat that you eat. There are “treatment effects” if you eat too much fat, but fortunately I have yet to experience any of these.Ultimately my goal is to get around 165 or maybe lower and at this pace it seems like it could be a reality.

Until later (when I’m even thinner) buh bye…

Most days in the past, I would get dressed in my same outfit as I do every day, thus eliminating precious time in the morning spent on trying to decide what to wear. If I had to work at Blockbuster that night, I would throw a pair of khakis and my Blockbuster shirt in my car, and be off for the day.

Now when I say, “off for the day” I literally meant that. I would leave the house by no later then 7:30am and head to work by 8am. My day job is M-F 8a-5p with an hour lunch. If I work at Blockbuster that night, I drive the 10-15 minutes down the road to Blockbuster, and work from 5:30pm-11:30pm (or 12:30pm on Fri/Sat). The drive home from there is around 30 minutes (no traffic that time of night), and I am home by Midnight or later, to wake up the next morning at 6:55am and do it all over again the next day.

Doesn’t leave much if any time to myself, but I am also still in a rebuilding phase and need the extra money where I can get it.

Now that I have started going to the gym, and I went last night to the Petaluma branch, which that place is huge and worked out for over an hour. I am quite sore from the day prior, let alone last night. I am now going to try to hit up the gym near my work (15 minute trip there and back) during my hour lunch and do a 1/2 hour workout at circuit training facility.

This makes my getting ready for the day a bit more complex…I now have to get my regular outfit, my work clothes for Blockbuster, and now gym clothes. BTW, I haven’t ever really been to the gym much, and with most of my clothes and personal belongings stolen, I don’t have much in terms of gym clothes either. I do still have 2 black mock turtleneck short sleeve shirts for the gym, and one pair of “workout” pants I guess you would call them.

It just seems like chaos…I started wearing the same thing every day to simplify my morning routine and make life less complicated, now I have to prepare 3 sets of clothes in the morning and find time in the day for myself as well.

Oh well, I don’t really know what the point of this post was, other then just to rant some…I don’t have a ton of people I can talk to out here and just chill out with, so I guess writing on here helps me let out what I’m thinking sometimes…

Oh well, till next time, buh bye.

Today I joined 24 Hour Fitness….now when I was in Florida I was a member of the YMCA, but I almost never went to work out. I’ve really been feeling the need to get into shape so I’ve started dieting and thought that adding a regular workout would help aid the process.

There is a 30 minute circuit branch of 24 Hour Fitness branch very close to my work, and I decided I would go check it out a few weeks ago. There was this amazing sale for $29 down, $0 processing fee, and $29/month…Compared to their $45-$55 a month this sounded too good to be true. I went and liked the facility, but when I got back to work the offer was gone…

24 Hour Fitness has a sale every Monday from 9am-1pm PST, and I got back and finished my order around 1:05pm….sucks. A few weeks later and they now have the same sale, this time for 48 hours (so get your order in by tomorrow before it is gone again). I signed up, paid my $89 total out the “door” charge online….BTW there is something ultimately wrong about signing up online for a gym.

During lunch today, I drove down to the gym and met one of the guys who runs the place. He showed me each piece of equipment and had me do a minute on each. That is how this circuit thing works…5 minute warm-up on the elliptical, then 1 minute on each of the 25 machines.

Let me tell you what, I was counting the machines, and by number 7 I had already broken a sweat and it didn’t get any easier from there. I think I worked muscles that I didn’t even know existed. The worst is at the very end, there is this giant ball you have to put between your legs (which are killing you already at this point) and lie on your back and bring your legs up and then down to the floor. I didn’t make the full minute on that one.

I was planning on going every day during lunch, but after today’s “experience” I might cut it down to a more manageable 3 times per week. I want to check out the main facility which is closer to where I live to see all of the other equipment they have. I also think I will stick to mainly cardio type things there, as this circuit training facility seems to do a good job at kicking my ass as it is.

Ultimately, the goal is to get in shape, but also to feel good about how I look. I haven’t really liked what I see in the mirror for years now, and now that I am getting older (yes I am less then 3 years from 30) I would like to try to get prepared for the years where the metabolism doesn’t work as well as it does now (which if you have seen me isn’t very well). Here is a recent picture of Kara Murphy and myself at Matt Mullenweg’s (of Wordpress) 24th birthday day party.

All of that being said, look for more personal updates about life and things that are going on in the future on this blog, and you can always add the feed to your favorite RSS reader here: http//LifeAs.NickStarr.com/feed/

Until next time….buh bye.

I’ve had a storage unit with a lot of my stuff including some big couches, bed, etc for some time now. We got most of the small items out over the last month or so, and some of the large stuff out the other day. With the wedding though there has been no time with the truck to get everything out.

The truck is now down in south Florida with my brother as he is on his honeymoon. The storage unit was supposed to be cleared out by today, the last day of the lease. There is still 2 couches, a bed and bench/coat rack in there. I don’t know anyone else who has a truck that can help me get it out. My brother’s friend was supposed to help today and he was going to keep the couches, but he has been MIA most of the day.

On top of all of this, my check engine light came on today. I believe that the guy who pumped my gas didn’t put the cap on, thus causing the light to come on, but I am going to see about heading out to the dealership on Monday early to double check.

It’s been quite the stressful week. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the 51″ Sony HDTV that I paid over $1,600 for a few years ago has gotten ZERO feedback when I’ve listed it on Craigslist twice. I am going to see if I can get a pawn shop locally to give me a few hundred for it.

UGGGGGG! I can’t wait till all of this madness is over, the tv is gone, the stuff in storage is gone, and I am on my way to California.