Wow . . . Exactly one year ago to this day, 2 Fat Nerds went live with our first post. The concept of the blog was simple: Brian and I would randomly post our thoughts on random things like music, technology, food, and most importantly exercise. Would anyone read it? Did it matter if they didn't?

We wanted a system in place to hold us accountable on our weight-loss quest. We figured that publishing our results to a blog, and more importantly to social media, would add a little bit of pressure to help keep us going when we wanted to give up. A daily blog seemed liked an excellent way to do that.

What this blog has turned into, compared to its original intent, is simply astounding. I never thought it would become such a prominent hobby in my life. I never thought it would teach me how to develop web content serving many simultaneous users, or how to encrypt passwords to prevent hacking, or even how to set up a server on which to do all this. Utilizing mysql with php, jquery, and ajax wasn't even close to being on my to-do list. I never thought it would unite people from Buffalo to Boston and everywhere in between, or that I would keep track of someone's marathon training who lives halfway across the country in New Mexico.

Aside from my personal growth, as a group, several of us over the past year have run in our first officially sanctioned road races. A few of us have even competed in multiple events. Four of us are also pushing toward a half marathon a week from now, and for three of us it will be a first at that distance. To see people getting excited about exercise, about running and bicycling is simply awesome. A growing number of people in the 2FNS community have worked out routinely for ten or more weeks. The vast majority of those in this category were virtually sedentary previous to that, and I take pride knowing that this blog, at least in small part, is a motivator for some people.

Today, I thought it would be neat to look at some overall statistics, a year in review.

Total Weight Loss by All 2FNS Members

To date, we have lost an astounding 205.3 pounds, with an average weight loss of 8.92 lbs (over 22 people keeping track of their weight). The top-three users who have lost weight have totals of 48 pounds, 34.8 pounds, and 21.9 pounds.

Total Workout Statistics

We have 1,970 workouts logged into the system (mind you the system only accounts for data from January). In these workouts, we have traveled a total of 8,891 kilometers, or 5,524.61 miles. All of these workouts have contributed to 77,284 minutes, or 1,288 hours.

Usage Statistics

Here is a graph depicting account creation in the tracking system. We are up to 42 registered users, 30 of whom are actively logging.

Not bad for a system I thought no one would use!

To see this system being utilized has really encouraged me to push harder to make it better. I am super excited about what we have in the works, and we hope to have it released in the coming weeks!

My Personal Story

On the left is me at my brother's wedding. On the right was a picture from nearly two months ago, about eight pounds heavier than I am currently.

I also wanted to share some of my personal data. Since I've started this blog, I've lost a total of 48 pounds. Here is a before-and-after picture for ya!

On the left is a picture of me at my brother's wedding. I guess I never realized how . . . large I had gotten. As I approached my heaviest weight (which was actually a couple of months after that photo was taken), I was getting more and more upset about how I felt and how I looked. I guess it got to a point where a change was needed.

On the right is a picture of me at a family friend's wedding a couple of months ago. I was seven or eight pounds heavier in that photo than I am now. Losing that much weight has made a world of difference for me, to be honest. I have a ton more energy and I truly feel better about myself and how I look.

I wanted to thank everyone for making this whole project worth while, and encouraging me every day to keep it going. I really do believe in the power of community, and I know that there is enough love and support to help everyone accomplish their goals. I am looking forward to another awesome year!