Kevin Wertman

It's been a year of big changes. I bought my first camera in October, quit drinking in November, and started running again this year.

At 215 lbs with more to lose but going in the right direction for the first time in years.

I honestly believe taking up #photography has saved my life. 🏃‍♂️‍➡️📷😊

11/11

Flash forward to August of last year, nearly 300 lbs again and super depressed that I let myself get back to that state.

After a lot of prodding from my lovely wife I went back to the doctor and found to the surprise of no one that the diabetes was back.

Lots of crying and sadness ensued.

10/11

Over the course of the next 10 years the drinking increased and the running decreased. Periodically I'd get a some running going again but never got back anywhere near the peaks I had reached in 2016.

It was demoralizing and very embarrassing. The weight was creeping back up year after year.

9/11

In the middle of all of that I had decided it might be okay to start drinking again after 19 years of sobriety.

I had vowed never to drink as long our daughter lived with us, but she had graduated high school and gone off to college.

I felt great, was running daily. What could be the harm?

8/11

After that my running continued, I set goals to finish a marathon (Disney in 2016) and complete a half marathon in under 2 hours (Richmond in 2016).

After completing them I did not set any new goals, and I was now a bit adrift in my running journey. Probably a mistake, but not the big one.

7/11

A "Guide to Diabetes" magazine. A thin man and his beautiful wife are photographed on the beach and it says underneath them "I'm back to being the man my wife married!"

I don't remember how it happened but a local reporter heard my story and wanted to meet, resulting in a short segment in the newspaper.

From there it snowballed into an awkward interview on the local news which is still somewhere on YouTube, and I even found myself on the cover of a magazine!

6/11

A thin man in a blue shirt wears a "U can finish" racing bib. He looks much healthier than the previous photo.

At the beginning running was very difficult, but once I got going I quickly progressed from 5Ks all the way up to half marathons.

Doing that got my health to the point where I was able to come off of all medications and my diabetes was essentially in remission if that's what it is called?

5/11

It turns out nothing motivates me more than wanting to stop taking medication, so over the next 6 months with a strict diet I managed my blood sugar well enough that we were able to stop the daily insulin regimen and switch to metformin.

Shortly after that I started running. 🏃‍♂️‍➡️🏃‍♂️‍➡️🏃‍♂️‍➡️

4/11

I'd been avoiding the doctor for years, so imagine my surprise when I found out I had type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and cholesterol so high they couldn't measure it at the hospital lab.

After being released, a new reality of managing blood sugar and taking insulin shots daily set in.

3/11

A large bearded man in an orange shirt stands in front of a beach in Hawaii. He is clearly overweight and in poor health.

This photo from 2011 is very close to the peak of my poor health. While I'd been sober since '95, I was a workaholic and treated myself very poorly. I was pushing past 300 lbs and probably near death.

Just under a year after this was taken I end up in the hospital with acute pancreatitis.

2/11

Since I make a lot of running posts here I thought I'd share the story about how I came close to death, regained my health, and then threw all that progress away.

Sorry for how long this ended up being, should have broken it up over a few months 😁

1/11

#TheCampfire #running #health #diabetes

Photo of a mostly still lake with the colors of the sunrise from the top of the frame reflecting below. A small heron can be seen in the bottom center of the frame, perfectly reflected on the lakes surface.

My running companion camera doesn't capture wildlife that well, but I still try from time to time.🏃‍♂️‍➡️📷

Today I managed to capture a shot of this heron walking in the shallow waters. Probably only works as a silhouette as the details simply aren't good enough. 😁

#photography #running #herons #sunrise

A large yellow butterfly with dark markings on its wings sits on several small white and yellow flowers. It is facing sideways so you can see one entire wing as well as its thorax, antennae, legs and proboscis. Background is blurry greens, yellows, and the blue sky is peaking through towards the top of the frame.

Continuing #ButterflyWeek with what I believe is a Canadian tiger swallowtail. 🇨🇦🦋

Captured this photo while we were in Fairbanks at the Georgeson Botanical Garden at the University of Alaska. A very beautiful place!

#photography #butterflies #nature

A black and white photo of the "Hotel Wellington" marquee hanging at the bottom of the frame. It is surrounded by tall buildings on either side and the gray sky peeks through the center background.

Lovely story Susan! Sounds like a grand adventure for a 13 year old, blissfully unaware of the dangers lurking nearby.

I think our first interaction on here was when I shared this photo of the Wellington that I had taken during an NYC trip. 😁

We stayed at the Wellington Hotel on 59th Street which was magnificent and ordinary. We were assigned a buddy dancer who was never to leave our side, and an adult chaperone who was to be with us any time we left the hotel. Mornings we danced to drums Uptown in a converted garage. That garage was the beginning of the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Undulations of our backs, hips, and necks would make us ache as if we were starting to dance all over again. But they made us better barefoot movers. Afternoons, we went to class downtown with our ballet slippers and buns at the American Ballet Theatre. Our legs rose ever higher above our ears en développé, and the girl in front of me fainted when Madame Pereyaslavic passed by with her fearsome cane. We were told not to stop dancing, and we did not, for minutes, until she recovered and left class. Nights were our own for a precious couple of hours. One night, we decided to get to Times Square and 47th Street and the Orange Julius store unchaperoned. Only twelve short blocks. It was easy to sneak out of the hotel - there just weren’t enough adults to watch us all. What we didn’t know then was that we would be paralleling, by one block, the infamous Minnesota Strip (see Wikipedia), where young runaways from my hometown were forced into prostitution. Part of me says there must have been a chaperone shadowing us. The other part of me now says that no pimp in his right mind would have touched those little blonde girls, set out on a walk like bait in a trap. But you know, as I am able to write this, that we made it there, got our smooth whipped orangey drinks, and made it back to dreams of nothing more than dancing through another day and finding more treats. How this all happened is a mystery for me now that died with our dance teacher thirty years ago, before I became truly curious about how the whole trip came together. I quit dancing at the end of that summer. Starting to dance again will be a story for another day.

When last at #TheCampfire, I was sharing with you my story about a 13 year old who wanted to be a dancer, and about getting invited to go to NYC with minimal skills and fewer funds to study at two renowned studios - to a chorus of parental NOs. You know we shed mighty tears until we won. Alt Text ⬇️

A sandy, windswept beach under a stormy sky, with a vibrant rainbow arcing low across the horizon; a Labrador dog stands on the left near green dune grass, looking out toward the choppy sea and rainbow.

Good morning. Do you think animals appreciate the beauty around them? I do, this guy doesn’t stop often but he paused for quite some time yesterday to look at this rainbow 🌈 . He may not see it as we do but he liked it. #TidesOutTuesday #ColorADay #BlueTue #Ireland #photography #EastCoastKin

In the center of the photo is a deep orange-red zinnia with a little tan skipper on it and a Gulf Fritillary on the petals with its wings opened wide showing off its beautiful underside of orange, black and white spots that shimmer in silver when the sunlight hits it. The flower and butterflies are surrounded by the green foliage of the plant.

Such a show off 🦋
#ButterflyWeek
#flowers

Love this shot Linda! And totally agree with the sentiment.

I have a feed set up that shows me photos from people that I don't follow and don't follow me which helps me discover new folks all the time. 😊

An Egyptian goose stands with wings open as if to embrace his partner. His partner is standing faci g him and appears to be unperturbed.

Problem with #BlueSky is that there are many creative people. I try to share posts & explore those who may not be as prominent with their work whom I think should be seen. I plan to do more of that. Embrace who you know and don't know! Have a good day x

#UKbirding #UKWildlife #Birds #photography

☺️

Thank you Susan! I'll start putting my notes together, and if I don't make it today I'll definitely share next month 😁

Good morning Susan! Thinking about participating in #TheCampfire if I can get my thoughts together.

I know the story I want to tell but unsure if I can put it together in a cohesive way here. Might procrastinate until next month which is fairly normal for me 😁

Hope you are having a nice week!

Lovely Rina!

Close-up of blue flowers of an African lily (Agapanthus africanus). The background is blurred green.

#DailyFlowers for you 🫶
Enjoy #thelittlethings 🌱🌿

An african lily for #ColorADay #BlueTue #close-up #MacroMonday
#photography #flowers #FlowerReport #bekind #PhotographersUnited #PhotoOfTheDay #onlybeautifulthings #photohour #Bloomscrolling #ArtYear #nature #EastCoastKin

The image depicts a reflection of modern city buildings in a body of water, creating a striking symmetrical effect. Subject Matter: The primary subjects are tall, contemporary buildings with numerous windows, reflecting the sky and surrounding structures. Composition: The image is vertically oriented, with the real buildings in the lower half and their mirrored reflections in the upper half, divided by a clear horizontal line representing the water's surface. Colour Palette: The dominant colours are cool tones of blue and grey from the sky and building facades, contrasted with warmer tones of brown and gold from some building materials and the reflected sunlight. Visual Effect: The reflection is remarkably clear, almost perfectly mirroring the architectural details, creating an illusion of two identical cityscapes meeting at the waterline. This creates a sense of depth and an interesting play between reality and illusion.

An #Abstract of the Samuel B & David Rose Building, my favourite shot of Hearst Plaza.

Happy Tuesday!
Sparty 💙

#EastCoastKin #Photography
#ColorADay #BlueTue #CyanTue
#PhotoHour #StormHour
#PhotographersofBluesky
#Art #Travel #Architecture
#StreetPhotography #NYC
#AbstractAug #Buildings #ArtYear

☺️

That's a very cool butterfly! Nice shot 😊

Squeezey bee 😁

A bee is collecting pollen inside a yellow snapdragon flower. The bee’s body is partially hidden by the flower petals, and pollen is visible on its legs. The surrounding area has more yellow snapdragon flowers and green foliage.

New place on my balcony: The Snapdragon Snack Shack! Drive-ins are for humans, bees have dive-ins.
#naturephotography #insects #bees #flowers #EastCoastKin

Thank you Den!