Eric Ziegler, a resident of Kansas City, Missouri and active Redditor, recently posted photos online of his weight loss journey. To date, he's lost more than 200 pounds.
Ziegler says he's always struggled with overeating. The turning point in his life came when he decided to get gastric sleeve surgery, which is also known as a sleeve gastrectomy — an operation that drastically reduces the size of the stomach.
Before his surgery, Ziegler weighed 420 pounds and was roughly a 54 in waist size.
Since Ziegler dropped so much weight, his friends decided to reward him with a $400 Visa gift card on his birthday to help him start a new wardrobe, and wrote him a hilarious card congratulating him for his loss.
The card reads:
Congrats! We want you to know how excited we are about your loss and how much we are keeping less of you in our thoughts. Also, happy birthday.
Ziegler told BuzzFeed he became emotional when he was presented with his gift.
"I actually started crying when I opened it and saw the gift card," he said. "I was completely speechless that my friends had taken in a collection and gotten that money for me. I hope one day I can do something for them that is just as breathtaking."
"I've already bought some new pants and shirts. It feels great to have so many options now," Ziegler said.
He added that since people in the Reddit thread were complaining about his suit being too big, he's "looking into getting it tailored and maybe taking some advice from [the subreddit] r/malefashionadvice."
As for what's next, Ziegler says he's going back to school in the fall and he'll continue staying the course with his new and healthier lifestyle.
