I liked the movie "The Sixth Sense" and it's famous quote, "I see dead people." Ooooh, chills....
I also love my sweet mother. I had major self esteem issues as a child. By age 10 I was putting on the pounds and kids would call me fat. That made me sad. Mom would tell me that I wasn't fat, I was "big boned." She helped me to reject the fat label and improve my self image.
I do have to insert a funny interchange that I became aware of when the father of a friend told my friend that "you need to be careful with what you eat or you will start to look like Stephen." I guess inserting that means I haven't fully recovered from that lovely insult.
Because I played high school football, being chubby was beneficial. I played on the offensive line and was named "All League - Honorable Mention." (Yes, only honorable mention, but it was one of my first major awards!). I embraced the fact that I was destined to be between 210 and 225 lbs.
Early in our marriage, Jenny told me that she thought I could weigh 175 lbs. "No way honey. The last time I was 175 lbs was when I was 9." I didn't think I was built that way. Remember, I was "big boned."
As I started to lose weight and see the progress I had made, I started to see how much further I could still go. Suddenly 175 lbs seemed possible.
And that was the difference, I embraced the label of "fat." Because I was. I could no longer brush off the BMI scale and say "Well that doesn't apply to me." I was moderately obese. That means fat!
The first step to change is to recognize. I recognized the person in the mirror. He was fat. And I could finally see the fat person that mattered.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
Our Story: Part 2
"I have what doctors call a 'Little bit of a weight problem'. As a kid I used to eat bear claws two at a time and they'd get lodged, right in this region here!"
It was nice to be the chubby kid in high school who could do the Chris Farley impersonations and quotes from the movie Tommy Boy. Did it set the stage for a sustainably healthy life? No.
I got fed up with his weight in early 2011. He only saw one option. Urine.
No, not really urine, but HCG. It seemed to be a fast and relatively painless way to drop 20-25 lbs in one shot. And I really needed a kick start.
So I got my Melba Toast and cucumbers. I even bought a little red meat, which made the house stink and made Jenny cranky. I was very pleased with my after photo compared to the before.
A miracle you ask? No. It was just a rapid weight loss that was in no way sustainable. In fact, I found after HCG I had lost strength. I felt lighter on my feet when I ran, but I felt weak. I know some of the 25 lbs I lost initially was muscle.
To that program's credit, I have never ballooned back up to my peak weight of nearly 240 lbs. And I was grateful for the early momentum in provided. But it did not set the stage either for a healthy lifestyle. That required a change in context, in how I viewed myself.
It was nice to be the chubby kid in high school who could do the Chris Farley impersonations and quotes from the movie Tommy Boy. Did it set the stage for a sustainably healthy life? No.
I got fed up with his weight in early 2011. He only saw one option. Urine.
No, not really urine, but HCG. It seemed to be a fast and relatively painless way to drop 20-25 lbs in one shot. And I really needed a kick start.
So I got my Melba Toast and cucumbers. I even bought a little red meat, which made the house stink and made Jenny cranky. I was very pleased with my after photo compared to the before.
 |
| One of my many fat pictures |
 |
| Right after HCG |
A miracle you ask? No. It was just a rapid weight loss that was in no way sustainable. In fact, I found after HCG I had lost strength. I felt lighter on my feet when I ran, but I felt weak. I know some of the 25 lbs I lost initially was muscle.
To that program's credit, I have never ballooned back up to my peak weight of nearly 240 lbs. And I was grateful for the early momentum in provided. But it did not set the stage either for a healthy lifestyle. That required a change in context, in how I viewed myself.
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Our Story: Part 1
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead? No. Not quite.
Fat? Yes.
Sick? Yes
Nearly Dead? Well, I guess we are all one breath away right?
In 2008, Jennifer and I were definitely fat and sick. According to America's least favorite calculator I was definitely "moderately obese" and had been since 1991. Jennifer was definitely sick. And as her husband, I can safely say Jennifer was at least overweight, er, chubby, uh, wait, plump? I'm getting a stare and an elbow to my side. I'll stop.
Our third child was 6 months old. We also had a 21 month old and a three year old.
We were enthusiastically moving at "Ludicrous Speed" to start what many would call a "big family."
Well, one day we were visiting a fellow, picking oranges from the small grove he and his wife had in their back yard. Suddenly we had a book in front of us that became one of the top 5 books that changed our life.
You see, Jennifer was suffering from a few ailments besides being plump…uh…curvaceous. She had been on anti-depressants since late high school. Her thyroid was dead, killed by some guy named Hashimoto. She had terrible allergies and weekly subjected herself to allergy shots, which caused her arms to swell like pustules. She was tired, needing at least 10 hrs of sleep a night to keep up with the fatigue that had set in. Finally, she had been to a doctor and offered "Prednisone" a steroid for her up and coming "rheumatoid arthritis." In other words, her hands hurt.
This 20-something young mother of three was already feeling broken.
"Breaking the Food Seduction" spoke to her. It challenged our thinking about diet, nutrition, and our overall health. Summed up, the overabundance of animal products in the typical American diet was the source of many of the ailments we face: diabetes, obesity, heart problems and auto immune diseases.
Suddenly we were in the middle of a 21-day Vegan Kickstart. At least, Jenny was. I was a supportive husband, maintaining a flask of chocolate milk hidden in the toilet tank for a rainy day. We found our vocabulary expanding to include words like quinoa, millet, tempeh, seitan, tofu, spelt, amaranth, and texturized vegetable protein.
A month later our fridge got a makeover. No more home made bacon egg-mcmuffins for breakfast. Cheesy Chicken? Haven't had that in years. We were "veganizing" favorite meals and creating a brand new "make again" list. I continued to cheat and when Jennifer did, the pain in her hands came back and lasted for 2-3 weeks. Every time she "cheated" her resolve to completely abstain from dairy products and her beloved cheese increased.
The result? Jennifer began dropping a lot of pounds. Apparently I enjoyed the whole grains and legumes a little too much and fattened up some more. But at least for our family's "Early Adopter" Jennifer was already on the road to feeling Less fat, less sick, and much more alive.
Fat? Yes.
Sick? Yes
Nearly Dead? Well, I guess we are all one breath away right?
In 2008, Jennifer and I were definitely fat and sick. According to America's least favorite calculator I was definitely "moderately obese" and had been since 1991. Jennifer was definitely sick. And as her husband, I can safely say Jennifer was at least overweight, er, chubby, uh, wait, plump? I'm getting a stare and an elbow to my side. I'll stop.
Our third child was 6 months old. We also had a 21 month old and a three year old.
We were enthusiastically moving at "Ludicrous Speed" to start what many would call a "big family."
Well, one day we were visiting a fellow, picking oranges from the small grove he and his wife had in their back yard. Suddenly we had a book in front of us that became one of the top 5 books that changed our life.
You see, Jennifer was suffering from a few ailments besides being plump…uh…curvaceous. She had been on anti-depressants since late high school. Her thyroid was dead, killed by some guy named Hashimoto. She had terrible allergies and weekly subjected herself to allergy shots, which caused her arms to swell like pustules. She was tired, needing at least 10 hrs of sleep a night to keep up with the fatigue that had set in. Finally, she had been to a doctor and offered "Prednisone" a steroid for her up and coming "rheumatoid arthritis." In other words, her hands hurt.
This 20-something young mother of three was already feeling broken.
"Breaking the Food Seduction" spoke to her. It challenged our thinking about diet, nutrition, and our overall health. Summed up, the overabundance of animal products in the typical American diet was the source of many of the ailments we face: diabetes, obesity, heart problems and auto immune diseases.
Suddenly we were in the middle of a 21-day Vegan Kickstart. At least, Jenny was. I was a supportive husband, maintaining a flask of chocolate milk hidden in the toilet tank for a rainy day. We found our vocabulary expanding to include words like quinoa, millet, tempeh, seitan, tofu, spelt, amaranth, and texturized vegetable protein.
A month later our fridge got a makeover. No more home made bacon egg-mcmuffins for breakfast. Cheesy Chicken? Haven't had that in years. We were "veganizing" favorite meals and creating a brand new "make again" list. I continued to cheat and when Jennifer did, the pain in her hands came back and lasted for 2-3 weeks. Every time she "cheated" her resolve to completely abstain from dairy products and her beloved cheese increased.
The result? Jennifer began dropping a lot of pounds. Apparently I enjoyed the whole grains and legumes a little too much and fattened up some more. But at least for our family's "Early Adopter" Jennifer was already on the road to feeling Less fat, less sick, and much more alive.
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