Overweight people are accustomed to awkward, embarrassing moments. We’re much more susceptible to them than our skinnier counterparts. The most common uncomfortable and embarrassing moments we encounter include:
- Sitting down at a restaurant and the booth/table being not far enough apart
- A chair (work, school, restaurant, etc) that squeaks, moans, and/or breaks after sitting down
- Any summer event that involves water and taking off clothing
- Doctor office weigh-ins — or anytime someone else sees your weight
- Seeing distant relatives again — the ones that love commenting on your extra pounds
Personally, the last one about relatives is my favorite. Nothing says Thanksgiving like going to see that rude Uncle who doesn’t mind calling you a tubby in front of your entire family. Not like I’ve experienced that or anything — right.
A recent weight-related embarrassing moment occurred just over this last Christmas. My wife and I were at her parents house and my sister-in-law wanted us to play their new Wii Fit game. I heard about all the craze over Wii Fit, so I wanted to try it out. Well, to do so you have to step onto a “balance pad,” which acts as a scale. You step on and it can generate your Mass Body Index (BMI) for you — tell you about your weight, whether it’s healthy for your size, etc.
So, as I was saying you have to step onto this scale to start the game — I should have ran away, but I didn’t. I stepped onto the scale, stood for about 10 seconds, then this huge error message appeared across their television and, worst of all, line of sight:
Sorry, you weigh too much to play this game.
They had an awkward laugh. I was uncomfortable, but I played it off: “I don’t weight that much,” I said. I said that, but I knew it wasn’t true.
Fast forward to this morning. I’m in my office planning my wife and I’s last Valentine’s Day alone together — our baby will be here on or around March 22, so I wanted to make this one pretty special. I realized my plans can’t include any out of town excursions as my wife and I are going back to her parents house (where the evil Wii fit is) the Sunday after Valentine’s day for her baby shower. I decided to look up the weight limit to play Wii Fit — 330. Know what that means? In late December my weight stopped me from doing something I wanted really wanted to do — and only about 6 weeks later, that won’t be a case.
If I can lose another 8 pounds in 13 days, I’ll be able to hop onto the Wii Fit and shock the hell out of everybody. I weigh myself again in another couple of days and hopefully I can cut that 8 into half — if I can, I’ll be well on my way.
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Yeah, like when they greet you with, “My, you’ve put on weight!” and then when they realize how mean that was, they try to follow it up with “but it looks good on you”. Not only is it not true, but it doesn’t make it any less hurtful either. I’ve also been told that I didn’t look like I’d been missing any meals. That one almost made me cry. :(