Man driven to shed over 170 pounds after disappointing 4-year-old daughter: ‘Now she’s smiling all the time’
Seeing the disappointment on his daughter’s face as a result of, at 400 pounds, her dad could not play together with her, was the gas one father wanted to flip his life round after 25 years.
“I probably wouldn’t be here if I didn’t smarten up,” David Murphy, 47, informed Fox News. “So, instead of waiting to walk her down the aisle, she probably would have been walking me down the aisle.”
In 1994, Murphy was attacked by three males and stabbed 13 occasions, with one wound simply lacking his coronary heart and puncturing a lung. It took him seven months to recuperate from his accidents, together with relearning how to stroll after dropping half of a calf muscle.
DAUGHTER’S DISAPPOINTMENT FORCES DAD TO CHANGE HIS LIFE:
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“I used that as an excuse to be lazy,” he mentioned. “Over the years, I ate a lot and drank a lot and put on a lot of weight.”
Over the subsequent twenty years, Murphy gained 200 pounds, drank practically on daily basis and struggled with PTSD from the assault.
David Murphy misplaced 170 pounds and overcame his PTSD after struggling in silence for 25 years. (Courtesy of David Murphy)
“I hid it for almost 25 years — from friends, family” he informed Fox News. “I looked like the happy guy at the pub. But I was drinking to escape.
“And then she got here alongside.”
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The birth of his daughter, Chloe, in 2014 sparked a desire to turn his life around. Murphy went to a nearby gym. But just 20 minutes after getting on a treadmill, he heard two men mocking him, saying the back of his neck looked like “a pack of sausages.” Crippling anxiety stemming from his PTSD prompted him to give up and go home.
Four years later, in 2018, Murphy was leaving a playground with Chloe when she asked him to race her home.
“I mentioned, ‘Sorry sweetie, you know dad can’t run,’ and the look of, not simply unhappiness, however disappointment. I’ll always remember it,” Murphy said. “That lit a hearth in me.”
He posted on social media that he would lose 100 pounds in a year and pledged to donate $1 per pound to Can Praxis, a charity for veterans and first responders with PTSD.
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He started boxing, eating healthy and stopped drinking. Murphy eventually lost 170 pounds and got his PTSD under control.
“Now, we race all the time, and she or he’s smiling all the time,” he said of his daughter.
Once Murphy reached his 100-pound goal, people began matching his charity donation.
“My $100 become over $20,000 for these charities,” he told Fox News. “I would not be right here if it wasn’t for first responders. So, I like to pay them again.”
Murphy talks about his journey on social media and on his personal blog. His inbox is flooded with hundreds of messages from fathers who are struggling just like he was seeking advice.
David Murphy, 47, said his daughter, Chloe, 8, is the reason he remains motivated to stay healthy. (Courtesy of David Murphy)
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“I do know I am unable to attain everybody,” he said. “I nonetheless have tons of messages to attempt to undergo, however I’ll get by means of them.”
Almost five years into his transformation, Murphy said Chloe remains his motivation every day.
“I used to generally sit round and marvel what my goal was and why I used to be saved round,” he said. “And then I have a look at her and that is fairly clear.”
To watch the full interview, click here.
