Even after losing nearly 200 pounds in the last 10 months, Jay Wornick, 30, of Fulton, often still feels like the big guy he had always been. Although he now weighs 168 pounds, Jay still sizes up restaurant booths, silently questioning whether or not he'll fit, and he's surprised when he's jostled and pushed around in crowds -- something that never happened when he truly was a big guy.

On Jan. 1, Wornick and his wife, Angela, kicked off a New Year's resolution and weight-loss challenge Angela had cooked up. The deal was, they would both try to lose weight and whoever lost the lowest percentage of body weight would be required to have the other person's name tattooed on his or her body.

When Jay stepped on the scale that first time, it read 366 pounds.



"I almost passed out," Jay said. "We actually had to go buy a bigger scale, because the one we had just kept (saying 'error'). I thought it was broken, but it could only weigh up to 330 pounds.



"Back then, a regular meal for me was a 20-ounce steak and three potatoes, and I drank 12 to 14 Mountain Dews every day. I would just eat until I couldn't move, basically," Jay said.



He met Angela Doran in 2004, and they married in 2009. Angela, a licensed practical nurse, watched Jay gain almost 100 pounds in the their years together. She warned Jay about diabetes and heart disease, and gently but unsuccessfully invited him to join her when she exercised at the YMCA. But she had no clue how bad his problem was.



"There were times when Angela would go to bed and I would get two large pizzas, a box of Ho Hos and a 12-pack of soda," Wornick said, "and I would eat it all by myself at like 1 in the morning after eating huge meals all day." He also recalled going to fast food restaurants to pick up food for the family, where he would gorge on two triple cheeseburgers and two chicken sandwiches in the parking lot before returning home to eat another smaller meal with the family. "She never knew," Jay said.





While Jay was getting bigger and bigger, he never weighed himself. "When people would say, 'Wow! You're a big guy! How much do you weigh?' I would say, '300 pounds,' but I was trying to cover up," Wornick said, "I never really knew. I had to keep buying bigger clothes, but I never saw myself getting bigger."



When Angela proposed the challenge, she assumed Jay would blow it off and she would be the winner. "I've always been active -- played softball, went to the gym three or four days a week. I hoped it would motivate him, because I didn't want to nag him."



Jay didn't take the challenge seriously at first. "I thought I would lose 20 or 30 pounds, then just gain it back," Jay said.



But after the first month, Jay had lost 40 pounds. He decided to keep going. After the second month, he had lost another 30 pounds. The rapid weight loss helped Jay greet each new day with anticipation and kept him motivated to keep losing.



As of Monday, he has lost 198 pounds -- two pounds away from his 200-pound goal.



After he lost 75 to 85 pounds, Jay, who doesn't smoke or drink, went to see his doctor for blood work. "I wanted her to monitor it all," Jay said. "It was encouraging because all of my blood work was perfect, even though I had abused my body and I hadn't seen a doctor in 10 years."





Jay attributes his dramatic weight loss to eating 1,500 to 2,000 calories a day, loading up on high-fiber foods, fruits and vegetables, lean meats and water instead of the 7,000 or 8,000 calories a day he and Angela estimate he had been consuming before starting the challenge. Jay also works out at the Fulton Family YMCA two hours a day, six days a week, doing an hour of cardio and an hour of weight training each day.



"The Y has been a huge support system for me," Jay said. "They're very friendly and welcoming, very helpful."



Jay lost his job as manager of a local movie rental store a year and a half ago. He and Angela take classes at Cayuga Community College. Jay is working toward a history degree, and hopes to be a museum curator and a personal trainer. Angela will soon be a registered nurse. She works part-time at the college while Jay primarily takes care of the kids -- Marcus, 9, Allyson, 8, and Jayce, 4 -- and the house.



"I couldn't afford a nutritionist or a personal trainer," Jay said. "People think they need all that stuff, which is great if you can afford it. I just wanted to see what I could do myself. I Google everything and get a lot of diet tips from 'The Dr. Oz Show.'"



Angela, who describes herself as Jay's biggest cheerleader, shared his story with producers at the show, and Jay taped a 30-second clip to be aired some time in the next couple weeks.



"If he hadn't made a change, he wouldn't have lived to be 50. It means everything to me that he will be here to see our three children grow up, to see our grandchildren, to walk my daughter down the aisle some day," Angela said.



Since Jay won the couple's weight loss challenge, Angela will have Jay's name tattooed on her back as soon as she has the time to do it. But Jay also got a tattoo -- a tattoo of a wedding band on his ring finger -- because his titanium wedding band kept flying off his hand and couldn't be properly sized to fit his now slender finger.



Jay said he wasn't comfortable the way he was, nearly 200 pounds ago. "Don't get me wrong, the food was delicious and I loved eating, but I was sweating and out of breath just walking up eight stairs. I was like a bear waking up in the morning. I'd get out of bed and go straight to the couch to lay down for another hour. I had a 50-inch waist, now I wear 28 and 30-inch waist pants. I was wearing 6XL shirts, now I wear large or XL. Every time I went anywhere, I always scanned the room or the restaurant and I'd think to myself, 'Yup, I'm the fattest one here.' I felt horrible about myself; I felt like everyone was staring at me."

Jay said he encouraged Angela and their children to do things and to have fun without him. He didn't want to join them because he was embarrassed by how big he was. He also couldn't do things that others didn't think twice about. Jay recalls an outing at Darien Lake, when, as everyone looked on, a ride operator removed him from the ride because he was too big to close the safety restraint.



Angela and their children love how much energy Jay has now. "We went camping for the first time this summer," Angela said. "He's able to swim and play with them, to run around and throw a ball. He had never been active with us before."



"My oldest son always tells me how proud he is of me, and the youngest shows off his muscles and announces he's going to work out," Jay said.



"I never thought I'd be able to stay with it, but I have not cheated in over 10 months, not once," Jay said. "I've turned it into my lifestyle. It's not a diet. To me, it's just how I live now.



"I want overweight people to know that there's hope. You don't have to give up or settle, you can be healthy and active. I know what you feel like."

