Obesity
– like climate change it is a plague sweeping over our nation. Why though? Why
are we so prone to shoving copious amounts of food in our face holes to stay
level headed or keep ourselves busy?! DOES ANYONE REALIZE YOU CAN LOSE LIMBS
FROM DIABETES AND YOU GET DIABETES FROM BEING OVER-WEIGHT?!?! So, I wonder how
it will look. As China invades in 2050 creating WW3 or 4; their army finds us
bloated and already dead from choking on chicken bones and not being able to
walk. That may be a little extreme, but I have personally experienced both
sides of the fence.
Growing
up, I was an overweight kid. I had extreme eating problems. I would eat and eat
and eat. I would eat when I was watching tv and I would eat before bed. I guess
this isn’t so far out of the ordinary, but I would eat and eat and eat. Every
time I would eat, I would eat so fast that I would make sure I was full. If I
felt empty again, I would start eating again. Talk about an eating problem
right. Put it this way…I weighed about 250 pounds when I graduated high school,
but in the same note, I weight 250 pounds in 8th grade as well. The
difference was I started playing sports more in high school and I shot up 5
inches in height.
While playing sports my diet never
changed. I kept eating continuously. Eating more and more and more. I kept the
weight off with sports. As soon as I graduated high school, I started playing
college football. My daily diet consisted of about 5,000 calories. With morning
lifting and running, the weight never affected me. I didn’t feel like I had an
eating problem anymore. I worked hard and I kept working hard. This seemed to
keep anyone from noticing my eating problem. I went to all you could eat wing
nights at Buffalo Wild Wings and would put down 70-80 traditional wings at a
time. I would go to McDonalds and eat 8 Big Macs at a time. All of my friends
were just impressed.
After transferring to Winona State
from Moorhead State, I got a head injury from football and was unable to play.
That didn’t keep me from eating though. I seemed to eat more because I wasn’t
able to do anything physically. 250 pounds turned into 275 pounds and pretty
soon I was 300 pounds. This all happened in a matter of months. This was my
sophomore year of college. I decided to quit football and try focusing on my
studies. If I weren’t able to focus, I would eat.
I got a job at Fastenal Co., which
entailed a lot of physical labor and work. I began to drop some of the weight
and I began more self confident in myself, but not because I looked better, but
because I was beginning to lose the weight. In December of 2011, I set out on a
mission, I wanted to be as lite as I was when I was in 7th grade,
230 pounds. Months and months of determination and hard work started to pay
off. I went from 285 pounds to 225 pounds in 5 months flat. I cut my weight
down 60 pounds through healthy eating and controlling my calorie intake. I was
only consuming about 1,200 calories a day for rapid weight loss.
Why is it so hard for Americans to
realize that every candy bar, every little treat they get their hands on isn’t
necessary. We need to stand up for our right to go from FLAB to FAB. We don’t
need to be unhappy and live in a pool of fat and lard. Everyone can be happy.
Everyone can have the desire to control who they end up becoming. So why don’t we?
Why don’t we get off of our fat asses and do something about our flabby mid
sections? Who controls your destiny? Stand up and fight for your right to a 6
pack. For your right to be skinny; love who you are and love being loved.
