2 more pounds = 8 total

I am not going to say much today. I dont have much time. But suffice it to say 8 pounds is almost 10% of the way to my goal. So I have tithing'd off 8 pounds. My fast offering if you will. The hardest thing for me to give up has been my beloved Dr Pepper. I used to pump through that stuff faster than a BYU coed on free ice cream day at Hogi Yogi. I only allow myself one a week now, and thats only if I hit my goal of lbs lost that week. Once I get to 260(still horribly ridiculous) I will take my first progress pic. Anyway, see ya next week.

Dr Pepper=Crazy Delicious

Current ridiculous weight-264

Total lost thus far-8

Pounds to go till goal-74

# of times BYU has been to Final 4=ZERO

# of times Utah has been to Final 4=FOUR

2 more pounds and a 5k!

Ok, first of all, 2 pounds this week makes 6 total! So far so good. Part of my weight loss journey consisted of my wife and I running the SLC 5K. Here is a picture of me before the race;

It was my first race and the building block to eventually a marathon. So, my wife kicked my trash. Im not going to tell you what my time was, but lets just say she beat me by 10 minutes. It took her all of about 25 yards to pull ahead of me. She likes to rub that in, but as I tell her “you try putting on a back pack and fill it with two 40 pound bags of flour and run with that! That’s what its like for this hefty” Not only did she beat me, but I also got beat by Spiderman! Not the real Spiderman that would actually be an honor, but some nerdy dude dressed up in a full on Spiderman costume. Pretty pathetic that I let that guy take me down. Anyway, since I didn’t win I thought Id pick out someone and make sure I beat them. So, there he was, some little freaking 6 year old kid who kept passing me then Id pass him then he’d pass me back. It was rather annoying for several reasons, most of them being that he is 6 and Im 28. Anyway, as we turned the final corner into the Gateway his mom yelled “Come on Gabriel, lets go” then he bolted off and I was like “oh no you don’t” so I took off sprinting too and raced all the way to finish line in front of my little friend…..Scoreboard Gabriel! Boo yeah!!!! Now he’s got to tell all his little 1st grade friends about some fat 28 year old who owned him in the race.

At the finish line

Starting weight=272

Current ridiculous weight=266

Weight lost this week=2

Total lost-6

First Weigh In

4 pounds lost!




Ok, so it was a week and a half and 4 pounds is not a TON but its a start, I guess. I apologize about the awesome graph up there, but I am new at this and can't figure out how to put the graph in on its own, so I had to take a pic of my computer screen(ghetto I know-but now that I think about it my wife grew up in the ghetto, so its more for her anyway) 4 pounds down, but in the words of Rick Majerus, me losing 4 pounds is like throwing a deck chair off of the Titanic. I still have a LOONG way to go. The first week of eating better wasn't as hard as I thought(thats what she said) but then again it was only the first week. Check back in 4 months and see if I'm as gung ho. We all know how the fat Johnsen brothers start these weight loss plans and give up a week or two in. All I know is I have 14 shirts that still have the tags on them because when I bought them they were too small and I was going to "shrink into them" and its time I start doing that.

Current ridiculous weight=268

Weight lost=4 pounds

Pounds remaining=78

Here I go....

Jake Johnsen Today

Jake Johnsen 5 Years Ago

9 and 1/2 years ago I had a kidney transplant. My brother donated his kidney to me. 5 1/2 years ago I married my beautiful wife, Erin. 18 months ago my gorgeous daughter Lydia was born. That is why I am doing this. I went to my Nephrologist(kidney doc) a few weeks ago and he told me that because of my excessive weight my kidney would not last longer than six months to a year. Since I have been married I have slowly added pound after pound. I am an unhealthy, overweight big fella and that ends today. I decided that I will chronicle my weight loss for everyone to see. My hope is that by doing this I can come here for motivation. If I am slacking or being lazy I hope that this will push me to hold myself accountable. On top of that maybe it will motivate some of my chubby brothers to do the same. Every week I will post my weight loss success and failures. Every 10 pounds I lose I will post a picture wearing that same Utah Utes t shirt above. I have owned that shirt for 3 years and never been able to wear it. I plan to wear that same shirt to the Utah vs Michigan football game this fall. And by next summer I hope to be back to my marriage weight of 190 lbs. That is 82 freaking pounds!!!! So each week, look for updates on my progress, starting with my first update a week from this Saturday. Wish me luck!!!

Current ridiculous weight=272 lbs

Total weight lost=0 lbs