Much like many of you that are reading this and are overweight or extremely obese, I was overweight through my childhood. It wasn’t the kind of overweight that you see on Maury Povich, I wasn’t 10 and 350 pounds or anything. I can’t recall an exact weight from my childhood, but I was always probably about 20 pounds heavier than I “should have been.”
I don’t know what “should have been” means, but if you were overweight as a child, you know what I’m talking about.
While I was overweight growing up, I was also always active. I played sports all the time through school or through the YMCA. The Y was a big part of my upbringing — I played both soccer and basketball for 3 years during middle school. During middle school and into my first year of high school I played basketball and football after school. As I said, I was always active, I just had a typical southern diet at home.
In case you’re not sure what a typical southern diet is for a teenager:
Breakfast: Poptarts, honey smacks cereal, biscuits, repeat
Lunch: School cafeteria (check below) + soda
After school: Chips, cookies, whatever processed food we had
Dinner/Evening: Dinner w/ second helping, takeout, + 2/3 sodas.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that applies exclusively to the south.
High School
After my freshmen year in high school and completing my one year of compulsory physical education, I stopped exercising. Homework became the first thing priority after school, followed by going to work to pay for car insurance and to have spending money. My parents weren’t rich, and while they did a great job providing for me, it was up to myself to buy the trendy clothes, shoes, gadgets, etc.
Eating healthy during high school was extremely hard. That’s not saying I tried to eat healthy much, but I did a few times when I’d start a new diet/gym regimen. To eat healthy during school, I would have to get the same packaged salad for lunch everyday or bring something from home (which I was too lazy to do). So, fatty, terrible foods it was.
With the exception of one packaged salad, here’s what my high school food court offered up daily:
- French fries
- Cheese and/or chili fries
- Chicken fingers
- Pizza
- Cheeseburgers
- Phili cheese steaks
- Candy galore
- Soda
- Bottled water (didn’t want to pay $1 for water)
I’m not sure why fruits and vegetables weren’t offered. That’s not saying I would have chosen to eat them if they were, but still.
Could it be because all junk foods are extremely cheap to make and are extremely profitable, while fresh grown fruits and vegetables are much more expensive to buy and offer such a drastically lower profit margin?
That’s my guess, but who knows. Regardless, at the end of high school I was probably 40-50 pounds overweight.
After High School
I’ve always been an entrepreneur — instead of going to college after high school, I decided to create my own business. I’m a self-taught guy. I have a library card, I read newspapers, industry magazines, non-fiction books, etc — but I digress.
After staying home for a year after high school and watching my business flourish, I moved into my own apartment. This is where my lifestyle and my weight finally decided to take the plunge into the third level of hell. After working hard through high school and not having money my entire life, I finally had some money — and, being by myself, I didn’t cook much — so, you guessed it, I went out to eat. I went to restaurants all the time. Most of the time it was fast food, other times sit-down with whichever girlfriend I had that month.
After about half a year of working, eating, and playing video games in my spare time, I decided that I needed to get into shape. I call this failed diet/gym regimen attempt #9. This diet was no different than the ones in high school: I saw myself fail within a week’s time, binging worse than ever when I was done.
Do you know that a Chinese buffet tastes the best right after ending a diet?
Love and the Marriage
I reckon when I got married I weighed about 250 or 260. I’m tall and I have an athletic build, so it’s not like I was a butterball — even though it looked like I had a couple of them in my stomach. Advice: if you don’t want to gain weight, don’t get married. Okay, I don’t actually suggest that, but it’s true. After joining a new family, moving into a house with a new person, and realizing my life is now intertwined with someone else, my weight was the least of my concerns — and it stayed that way until last July. In July of 2008, on my two-year wedding anniversary, I decided to enter into my 10th or so diet regimen (I wonder if I get a prize for my 10th try?).
Of course, that failed within a few days. It always does — except this time. I swear to God it won’t this time.
As of today, the 28th of January, I’ve been on my new diet/exercise lifestyle for two weeks. That’s the longest I’ve ever made it before. And while I’m still obese for now, you sure as hell can’t call me sedentary.