Final Kickstarter Update

As of 11:10 AM Eastern, Dad’s Garage Theatre’s Kickstarter campaign to buy a forever home ended. I would say it was a success, and then some.

We met our goal of $116K with over a week to spare. At about the same time, an anonymous benefactor announced that he, she, or it (wealthy robot?) would match all Kickstarter donations up to $150K, so that became our new goal.

I am so proud to say the people of Atlanta and the world stepped up and helped us meet that number with 20 hours to spare. Even then, donations continued to pour in until the very end. We ended up at $169,985.

I donated as much as I could without selling anyone. Then my parents came up with a well-meaning scheme to help me contribute more: they would donate $10 for every pound I lost during the 60-day span of the Kickstarter campaign.

In the allotted 60 days, I’ve lost 29.8 pounds. Mom, Dad—thanks for your $298 donation to Dad’s Garage’s Kickstarter.

My technique, which I intend to continue with a couple of slight modifications, was this:

• Avoid Sweet. Not just sugar, also artificial sweeteners. I didn’t go hardcore—I know that lots of non-sweet products (like American bread) sneak sugar in. If it was less than a gram or two I wouldn’t exclude certain things. But overall no sweets, no fruit, no juice, no sodas, no dessert, NO HALLOWEEN CANDY!

• No Booze. I couldn’t justify the empty calories. I did ignore this rule for two special occasions (my anniversary and a client dinner).

• Intermittent fasting. For the past 60 days (with a few exceptions), I consumed all of my calories for the day in an 8 hour window. This typically took the form of an ample breakfast and lunch with no dinner and no snacks, although a couple of days I skipped breakfast instead.

Moving forward, I’m going to continue avoiding sweet. I’ve found that it’s made it surprisingly easy to avoid that hangry feeling by avoiding the sugar roller coaster. I also have felt great since I started the intermittent fasting, so I’m going to continue doing it for at least five days a week. And I’m going to restrict alcohol to weekends only, and obviously avoid sweet drinks.

I’ll let you know how it goes.

Mysterious Donor Double Down

Stepped on the scales Sunday morning for my four-week weigh in. Four weeks ago, I weighed 295 pounds. Sunday morning I weighed 271.4.

That puts us at 23.6 pounds lost so far. (That math took me waaay longer than it should have.)

If you haven’t heard, I’m losing weight not just for my health, but also as a cockamamie fundraiser for Dad’s Garage Theatre. (I should probably stop using the word “cockamamie” in normal conversation.)

Dad’s Garage is raising money to buy a permanent home, as we got kicked out of our previous shanty by developers. It’s a storyline that could inspire a low-budget ’80’s move—and perhaps it should. (I’ll file that one away for later.) You can learn all about our fundraising effort and our possible new home here.

My parents, in lieu of a traditional donation, have promised to pledge $10 for every pound I lose. So, as of today, they’re in for $236.

And we just learned some very good news.

A donor who wishes to remain anonymous has agreed to match every dollar donated to our Kickstarter up to $150,000. Holy poop. Which means that every pound I lose earns Dad’s Garage $20. Unless, of course, we don’t meet our goal. That would suck donkey butthole.

Twenty in Twenty-One

Quick update: As of yesterday I’ve lost 20.4 pounds in my quest to lose weight and simultaneously help Dad’s Garage Theatre raise money to buy a new forever home.

I’m 21 days into the effort. I was really hoping for 21 pounds in 21 days, but then I realized if we were on the metric system it would have no significance (9.25 kilos in 21 days). So I’ll take 20 gladly.

Also, if you’re trying to lose weight, go by pounds. More of a sense of accomplishment. Maybe grams!

The money is coming from my parents, who have volunteered to donate $10 to Dad’s Garage Theatre’s Kickstarter campaign to buy a forever home for every pound I lose. Click on the link, and you’ll learn all about Dad’s Garage and what a ridiculous place it is.

As hard as I’m working, there’s not a chance in hell that I’m going to lose 3,000 pounds—so I can’t do this alone. Please consider chipping in any amount. Seriously, anything. Can I have five dolla?

The Dreaded “3”

Three weeks ago I had a doctor’s appointment. I stepped on the scale there, and the nurse jotted down a sobering number: 301.2.

Sure, I was wearing jeans, and shoes, and my belt … but still. I had never seen a “3” at the beginning of my weight ever. It was a wakeup call.

Two weeks ago I was challenged by my parents to lose weight. They volunteered to donate $10 to Dad’s Garage Theatre’s Kickstarter campaign to buy a new home for every pound I lost.

Today’s scale reckoning: 279.4 pounds. Almost 22 pounds from the scary 301.2, and 15.6 pounds from my weight two weeks ago, the day my parents issues their generous challenge.

Mom, Dad—you’re in for 156$ so far.

Anyone else wanna cheer me on? Make a $15 donation to Dad’s Garage‘s Kickstarter right now!

Next update in a week.

One Week. Ten Pounds. A Hundred Bucks.

You may have read that my parents have combined my weight loss efforts and my fundraising efforts. They’ve offered to donate $10 to Dad’s Garage Theatre’s Kickstarter campaign for every pound I lose. The campaign ends Tue, Nov 11 2014.

Long story short, Dad’s is a ridiculous Atlanta theatre company that I’m part of. We were made homeless last year, but we’ve found a potential forever home. To buy. Of course, not-for-profit theatre organizations tend to have shallow pockets, so we’re getting creative—thus this Kickstarter campaign, which is only part of our multi-tiered fundraising effort.

I’ve already cleared out my kids’ college funds, so now I’m getting creative too. I’ve got about two months to also kickstart my weight loss campaign, and hopefully raise more money for Dad’s.

PROGRESS REPORT

Seven days in. I hit the scales this morning, and have lost 10.4 pounds so far (295.0 to 284.6). Let’s round down and say that Mom and Dad are in for at least $100, barring a total relapse.

My approach this week:

No sweet. Not just no sugar, nothing that tastes sweet, including artificially-sweetened stuff and even fruit. This has really helped me control cravings. Yeah, it’s pretty impossible to completely avoid sugar—I know I’ve ingested plenty this week in the form of salad dressing, bread, and even chicken sausage. I’m just doing the best I can.

No booze. No Friday evening reward beer. No post show improv beer. No “cheers the kids are in bed” celebration. God that was hard, but though I love a good IPA, I recognize that it’s empty calories, and thus not a good choice for weight loss.

No fried. I actually had some baked buffalo chicken wings for lunch last week. Not bad at all.

Intermittent Fasting. The idea here is to ingest all my calories within an eight-hour window each day. So I have breakfast at 7:00 AM, lunch around 1:00 PM, and then I’m done for the day. I did this every day this week. A real lifestyle change, but once you get your head around it it’s not actually that hard.

Next report coming in a week. Wanna help me stay motivated? Donate a few bucks. Stay tuned.

Dad’s Garage Getting Bigger. I’m Getting Smaller.

My parents know I have two big-ass goals right now. The first is to lose weight from my big ass. The second is to raise money to help Dad’s Garage Theatre Company purchase a big-ass forever home.

So they gave me a challenge: they’ll donate $10 for every pound I lose.

If you don’t know Dad’s Garage, you should. Founded in 1995, Dad’s is a comedy theatre in Atlanta that brings improv, original scripted comedy, and a lot more to Atlanta and the world. I’ve been performing there since 2000. I’ve improbably been cast in plays and musicals. I’ve written plays and musicals. I cherish it.

If you don’t know about my weight … well, let’s just say my XXL shirts are getting tight. Time for a change.

Back to Dad’s Garage. In 2013, developers purchased our location from our landlord and knocked it down to make way for a parking deck. (Sounds like an 80s booby comedy, right?)

Since then we’ve been homeless, performing at 7 Stages Theatre and anywhere else with a stage and a light grid that will have us. We appreciate the kindness of 7 Stages, but we need a space of our own to continue our mission of bringing original comedy to a new generation of theatregoers.

We think we’ve found our forever home. It’s a nondescript church in the fantastic Old Fourth Ward neighborhood in downtown Atlanta.

Not much to look at, but it had the square footage, parking, environment, and infrastructure we need. And just imagine what it can become.

We’re raising money to buy the place, and a relatively small part of that money needs to come from our plucky Kickstarter campaign. (Please consider donating yourself.) I’ve already dug deep, so when I hit up my parents, they introduced this cockamamie concept. It’s strangely motivating.

I started Sunday 9/14/2014. I have until Tuesday 11/11/2014 to lose as much as I can and convert that into a donation for Dad’s. Keep your eyes on this space for updates, and thanks Mom and Dad!