Numbers loom large in Ryan Crackel's life. In fact, they determine his future.
There's 100 - the number of push-ups and crunches he does each night.
There are one-hour workouts, three times a week, with 1.5-mile runs every other day.
And a larger number pushed all the others - 110 - the number of pounds he had to lose to join the Marine Corps.
When he was a boy, Mr. Crackel heard Army stories from his father, but it was his uncle, a Marine, who put him on a long path toward his ultimate goal.
"They're the elite, the best fighting force known to man," he said.
He remembers that goal cementing in his mind when, at age 13, he saw planes fly into the World Trade Center towers on television.
Mr. Crackel didn't eat well, he always was big and never thought much about the kind of food he consumed.
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So when, in his junior year at Cleveland's Bradley Central High School, he went to the Marine recruiter's office and learned he'd have to go from 350 pounds to 220 pounds to join, the thought was depressing, to say the least.
"I didn't think I could do it at first," he said. "I didn't like to run. Everything was a struggle for me."
He started coming to the recruiting station three times a week to work out with other teens. He struggled with eating well.
Along the way he graduated and watched his friends join the service and come back with stories of boot camp and military life.
"Whenever they left and I was still here it was just devastating," he said. "I thought, 'I've been here so long, when is it going to be my turn?'"
THE JOURNEY
Mr. Crackel wakes each morning to walls covered in Marine posters and a Marine Corps flag. During his journey he looked each day in the mirror, looking for any signs of improvement.
About a year ago he got stuck at 280 pounds and his weight wouldn't budge, he said.
"I just thought, 'I'm never going to get below 280,'" he said.
He'd worked out alone at the YMCA up until that point, and each trip he put his clothes in locker number 227 - his goal weight.
He worked off and on at Baskin Robbins, then at a warehouse and now a Dairy Queen.
"I'm in there, and I'm starving," he said.
But he's got tricks to keep him going.
"Every time I look at the food I'll visualize it as 30 minutes on the treadmill, 100 push-ups, 45 minutes on the treadmill," he said.
He'd switched to cereal for breakfast, fruit for lunch and grilled chicken for dinner, and the pounds continued to melt away.
But he needed more.
That's when he went to the Rush fitness complex where he met Reggie Parker, a personal trainer who also happens to be a former Marine Corps drill instructor.
"I would be in his ear the entire time yelling and screaming and clients would look at us like 'these guys are crazy,'" Mr. Parker said.
The yelling and the pushing all motivated Mr. Crackel.
"That's exactly what the Marine Corps needs," Mr. Parker said. "I think once he gets into the Corps, he's going to do great things."
MAGIC NUMBER
Those workouts began in December 2009, and on Jan. 29 Mr. Crackel went to the Military Entrance Processing Command, where potential recruits are screened for medical, ethical and educational standards to see if they can join.
The complimentary meal at the hotel the night before? He didn't eat it.
The complimentary breakfast the next morning? He didn't eat it.
The workout gym at the hotel? That's where he sweat off more pounds.
Sgt. Colt Miller, Mr. Crackel's recruiter, said most young men and women interested in the military but who have weight problems don't last, he said.
But Mr. Crackel was different.
"I've seen some pictures of him in the past and, yeah, you can tell, he lost a small child," Sgt. Miller said.
At the processing center Mr. Crackel sat the whole day wondering, but when he stepped on the scale he saw the magic number - 230.
Three pounds under what he needed to sign the contract.
More than three years after he first stepped into the recruiter's office, he'd made it.
"It's hard to explain the way I felt; I just had the biggest grin on my face," he said.
He has signed his contract and wants to leave this summer. He'll have to knock off a dozen more pounds before then.
But after shedding 110 pounds, that's no sweat, he said.
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