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.
Thank you for this eye opener...I am working hard at loosing weight right now and " Why is it so hard for Americans to realize that every candy bar, every little treat they get their hands on isn’t necessary" is exactly what I needed to see!
ReplyDeleteI definately went through the same sort of transitions that you did. In high school, I played sports all year round, and did not pay attention to what I ate. When I came to Winona, I was no longer in sports, and weight did start to accumulate. I am running and actully ran a 5k this morning. It is hard to loose weight, but I do agree that some baby steps should be made to fix ths problem in our country. The only thing I disagree with in this blog is the boarder line fat shaming in the last paragraph. I have family friends that are trying to loose weight, and getting off the couch just doesn't cut it. Your way worked wonders for you, but it is much harder for people that do not even know were to start. Otherwise good job!
ReplyDeleteI agree we are a very unhealthy nation. I would like to start off by saying that weight does not determine health, these concepts are too often confused and while being very obese isn't healthy weight alone is not an indicator of health status. Also, we subsidize the wrong foods. Sugar, corn, and all sorts of other crap foods are cheap and the producers get checks to produce it while organic foods and vegetables get little to nothing. I think at least a small tax on unhealthy foods and a switch of subsidies to better health foods would be a great contribution. Also we need to get more exercise. You differentiated your 8th grade and high school self which weighed the same by saying you were 5 inches taller in high school. But since you were in sports you and I know that you were of course healthier, and not just due to your BMI being lower. Nowadays being lazy is easy, but exercise is also easy. If someone is too cheap or nervous to work out in public at a gym they can spend the exact same dollars they would spend on entertainment on entertainment and exercise by for example getting a Wii.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, 70-80 wings or 8 Big Macs!!! I can see why you feel strongly about this and understand your word choice in this blog. Truthfully, a lot of what Ashley stated came to mind reading this and I have to say that choices are limited for some. That being said, I commend your wanting to make a difference by helping people to look at the hard facts.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting some mixed signals from your post, specifically in the last paragraph where on the one had you're advocating for being skinny and on the other saying "love who you are" (which goes along with a lot with the body positivity movement). And I do take some issue with the notions of "Skinny = healthy" and "Skinny = self control" the first is because not only is "healthy" kind of ambiguous, and "skinny" is even more so. Plus the "Skinny = self control" is also not the case when people are just naturally skinny no matter how much they eat, or naturally bigger no matter how much they don't eat. I'd suggest you take up a body positivity style, where you can be healthy at any size.
ReplyDeleteSome large people are healthy and some thin people are unhealthy. You can have eating disorders where you starve yourself or gorge yourself. People can have eating disorders to have control, deal with emotions, or feel societal pressure. Body image for all sexes is an issue. Is thin in? Is curvy in? Why do we need to be any certain way other than healthy? What are some other examples in our society
ReplyDeleteI liked that you wrote about your struggles and how you decided to change your life, but as a bigger girl myself, I feel that you are saying being big is not acceptable. As Courtney stated before me, you can be overweight and healthy, and thin and unhealthy. It's all about who you are and how you feel about yourself. I'm glad you made a change to make yourself feel better, but just know that you don't have to fit into this stereotype of what you should look like. People are different sizes for a reason; God made you that way and you should embrace it. I do think that if weight is something affecting your health, steps to change it should be made. I am trying to loose weight for myself right now, but not because anyone told me I need to. Just be careful to not classify people into two different categories: fat and thin. Motivate people to change if they want to, but only if THEY want to.
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