My name is Steve Vaught, and this is my website, TheFatmanWalking. It is a chronicle of my life over the last couple of years, beginning with my fateful decision to walk across America to lose weight and regain control of my life, the fallout of that decision, and my life since.

I decided to attempt something so radical because somewhere along the line I’d lost control; I’d lost myself. In life I transformed from a skinny boy, to a fit U.S. Marine and ended up an obese man, approaching middle age and it was obvious that I was no longer able to cope with the course my life had taken. In most respects I should’ve been happy, I was married with great kids, had a marginally successful career in business management and no real problems to speak of, or so I thought.

Since taking that first step towards my cross-country goal, I was surprised to discover that being obese was never about the pounds or mounds, instead it was about not being happy in my own skin and more importantly, never facing that fact.

“To lose weight and regain my life,” that is what I said when I started out on the walk. However, having successfully completed the walk and losing considerable weight I returned home with much more than I ever expected. Once back I had to face an entirely different world and was not prepared for it, a world that I should have faced many years ago but somehow didn’t. That is when the true journey really began, when things fell apart.