Well, it's official!  I booked my procedure today: October 10.  Just bought my plane ticket too.  I was told I need to stay in Costa Rica for 12-15 days after the procedure, so I'm planning on coming back October 22.  My boyfriend is going to come with me, but may not stay the entire time as he needs to get back to work, but will probably be there a week or so.  Now I just need to figure out how long he'll stay so I can get his ticket.  And I need to book a recovery place.

FYI, the procedure is $10,000.  The flight is about $450 roundtrip on United direct from Newark (I don't know if I mentioned I live in NYC).  Looks like most recovery places are about $140/night for 2 people, which includes all transportation to/from airport and procedures/follow-ups, all meals, internet, direct phone line to the US, etc.  All in all, it should be about $13,000.  Boy, writing that is a shocker....it is expensive, but I'm sure it would be a lot more in NYC.

I just hope it's all worth it.

I took some pictures last night of how I look now.  These are the "before" pics.  I'll probably post a few more between now and the procedure (which I'm trying to schedule for October sometime).  I tried to make them as PG-acceptable as possible.  Don't mind the sunburn.  That won't be there for long!

Hi everyone.  My name is Matt.  In 2005, standing at 6'2", I weighed in at just over 330 pounds.  After getting severely depressed and motivating myself to lose weight, I dropped about 90 pounds in 9 months that same year.  Since then, I have lost a little more and am at 222 pounds as of today, Aug. 15, 2014, losing in total over 110 pounds.  Due to losing such a significant amount of weight in such a short time in 2005, I have a lot of excess fat and skin around my midsection and legs that I have tried for years (like, YEARS) to lose through exercise (P90X, etc.) and better eating (as paleo as possible).  But it won't go away.

Finally, I have convinced myself that this skin and fat is not going to go away through exercise, and to be honest, I don't know if I have it in me to change my diet anymore than I have.  I love food.  I know I'll never be 175 pounds like I probably should.  It's just not in my genes and I don't have the desire to be that small.  So, I have decided to go ahead and get surgery to remove the excess.

This, of course, was not an easy decision.  None of my friends want me to have it.  They think I'm ridiculous.  But you never (I mean NEVER) should have cosmetic surgery for someone else.  I want to do this for me and only me.  My boyfriend (we are actually engaged) loves me for me; but, guess what.  I don't love me for me.  So I need to change it.

I have done extensive research on plastic surgery, tummy tucks, lower body lifts, etc. and there simply is a severe lack of information out there as it relates to men having these procedures.  If I see another female tummy tuck before and after picture, I'm going to lose it.  So, I've decided to write this blog and take you through my experience, with the hope that I can shed some light on what it means for a man to go through this, my thinking, experience, recovery, etc.  I hope I can help other guys out there who are also curious, or are depressed because they hate the way they look and are at a loss for what to do.

My boyfriend and I went to Costa Rica a few months ago and he had a male breast reduction and lipo on his neck, as well as a chin implant.  The experience went very well (except for the first 12 hours, which was horribly stressful), and his recovery has been incredible and now looks fantastic.  I am planning to return to the same place to have my procedures performed.

I don't know exactly what I will have done.  I am starting this today not knowing exactly what I'm getting myself into, but I'm going to blog throughout my experience and hopefully someone will read it.  And if not, oh well.