I See Fat People

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.