For some time now I’ve known that I’ve needed to make some personal changes. It first started back in 2010 when I found out that I had 8 kidney stones: 3 in the left kidney, 5 in the right. Maybe it was 5 in the left and 3 in the right. Regardless, having already passed one stone back in 1992 in the Dominican Republic was more than enough pain for a lifetime. More on these stories in the future.
I had successfully gone cold-turkey on giving up caffeinated/carbonated beverages and I felt better for doing so, but I knew that I still had work to do.
Like most people, I put off losing weight because “it’s not that bad” or “I wasn’t that big” or “at least I don’t eat/look like that guy/girl over there.” I had heard that the average person puts on 5 pounds per year. I wasn’t adding that much, so I was okay (or so I thought).
Over the years, my waist-line inched up little by little. From 2003-2009, whenever I had to buy new clothes, it was usually because the “old” clothes were old and getting worn out, not that I was actually getting bigger. Well, that was sort of true. It was easy to ignore I was getting bigger because I would replace one size for another instead of having a mixture of sizes to remind me.
But I kept deluding myself and kept getting bigger. Not huge though. Not a lard-ass! I still looked decent in the mirror (or at least that’s what I kept telling myself).
I found out I had sleep apnea and got a CPAP machine. I think part of it was because I was gaining weight, but after using the machine I can look back and recognize that some of the symptoms were even there when I was finishing up high school.
After I got married, my wife said I had to go on a diet. Oh, how I hate that four-letter word. The images “diet” conjures up aren’t pretty. That person who only eats a salad! No more delicious foods, like sugar and candy.
I’ve never been one to like myself alone in photos, but now that I was married, my wife started pointing out how I was getting a big belly. “Are you pregnant?” she’d ask. I’d look at it. It wasn’t that bad, was it? Of course not. Here and there I’ve get new pants, but now the “old” ones weren’t really “old” just overly-snug. My 32″ waist in 2000 had become a 40″ waist.
It was more on my mind, but we’d still eat out a lot. I’d overeat on everything. This was Houston after all! Not that I’d gorge myself, but usually after I’d think “maybe I shouldn’t have had those last 3 brownies”.
Ice cream cones here, doughnuts there, licorice whenever I could get it. Free food at work, “thanks for stopping by” pieces of candy at doctor’s offices. Free samples at Costco and Walmart. Free food at church. Farewells, homecomings, birthday parties, anniversaries, and holidays: the list could go on forever.
In early 2016, we moved apartments. She wanted me to get rid of some old clothes. I looked at the old clothes. I had 3 pairs of 40″ pants. I had 10 pairs of 38″ pants (7 khakis and 3 denim). I even remember that it didn’t seem like that long ago I worked at home and those 38″ pants were huge and I could even put them on over pajamas in the winter and go shopping. Even with pajamas they were big. But wait! I haven’t worked at home since 2009. Had I really changed that much? I really didn’t want to toss out perfectly good 38″ pants, but I sure didn’t want to buy more 40″ waist, or heaven forbid 42″ pants. That was putting me in “Big and Large” territory.
They say everything’s bigger in Texas. Turns out they are right. In 2010, Texas had 5 cities in the Top 10. At one point Houston was Fattest City in America and when we dropped to number two, behind Detroit, I joked out loud, “Come ‘on Houston! Slackers! You can regain the title!”
It all adds up, slowly building over time getting ready to explode like a volcano or one of those zit-popping videos on YouTube.
Then it hits. Where’d my figure go? Where’d my energy go? Why am I tired after walking up one flight of stairs? Why am I so lethargic? Oh, look cake, cookies, and ice cream…and they are on sale two for one!
“Funny” or “sad” because it’s true!?!
Finally, the point hits where you’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. You realize you can’t live like you’ve been living anymore. In part, you’re getting old and can’t do the same things you did in high school and college. But there is the slow realization you that you might just be killing yourself. Not in a gruesome, five o’clock news kind of way, but definitively slowly and methodically.
You finally realize that you NEED to change and WANT to change. But how? If you look on the internet there is so much (mis)information. I’ve never thought of myself as food-literate. Where to start? Every article that is “for” something has another article “against” that same something.
Even the “before” and “after” testimonials seem very suspect. Here are two examples: this link is from a guy who went from “fat” to “fit” in about one hour.
Seduced by the Illusion: The Truth About Transformation Photos
And here’s a lady who says she “lost 15 pounds in 15 minutes“.
Personal Trainer Exposes ‘Before & After’ Secrets on Instagram
They are exposing the “truth”. What is real out there? Is it all a scam? Stay up late enough watching TV or flipping through channels and you’ll probably see something that appeals to your baser self and a fast fix.
- Get ripped in 6 minutes a day without sweating!
- Eat all you want as long as you take this pill 10 minutes before every meal!
- Think your way to being thin!
- Oprah’s doing it, why aren’t you?
Every industry has people hawking its products. I needed something more concrete. Something that would work. Something based in a real something and not some made-up, jacked-up, talked-up something that later would be revealed at the fad of the day.
Coincidentally, around this time, The Fat Marine my friend and former co-workers started blogging about at The Fat Marine about getting fit.
I suggest you take a look and heed his advice. I am and it’s been a great help.
Note: The Fat Marine is not a life coach, nutritionist, or food expert in any way/shape/form in the medical or fitness world. He is an expert at all things Morrissey, though.
So, why am I listening/reading his story. There’s a number of reasons.
- Trust. I trust The Fat Marine a lot. When working together on a contract in the city of the birthplace of Eric Dickerson (which shall not be named), he was the “point man”. Although not officially, he was my supervisor out there while we did documentation for a military facility. He had a lot of insight into the military aspect of the job. On our long rides to/from work we’d talk about many things (mostly how much the hour plus drive sucked) and I learned to appreciate his insight into many things. Not only that, but frequently he’d tell me about a lot of “behind the scenes” things from our job. Mind you, he never disclosed anything he shouldn’t, but he wouldn’t hold back on anything.
- Proof that change is possible. I’m amazed at The Fat Marine‘s transformation. His photos show it. I never saw The Fat Marine as “fat” because to me he was always just this really cool coworker. I don’t know that I would have even described him as “heavy”. He always joked how much he always looked like Wilford Brimley. I kind of agree.
Wilform Brimley, his doppelganger The Fat Marine, and The “Getting Fit” Marine
- My Story. His story is my story (and your story). One day we’ll all “wake up” and be old and gray. Our youth will have passed us by. Most of our better days will be behind us. We won’t be able to pull all-nighters or partake in all-you-can-eat pizza buffets with abandon like we used to. We’ll ask ourselves “how did I get here?”
Well, none of us got here overnight and we won’t have our “glory” days of youth back like we want, but we can take back our health.
The Fat Marine‘s story has given me a lot of courage. I’ve asked him a lot of offline questions of which many have made it into his articles in one way or another.
Who hates the word “Diet”? I think everyone. D-I-E are the first three letters and I think most people would rather D-I-E than go on a diet. DIET sounds so repressive, so limiting, so antiquated, so defeating. It’s like you are getting grounded from eating food.
But, I think that’s part of why “diets” fail. I think they are set up to fail. If all “diets” were as easy as pill wanted them to be an as commercials claim, no one would be fat. The diet industry would put itself out of business.
I think The Fat Marine is onto the key: it’s not about “diet” it’s about a “healthy food lifestyle”. Some people might say “well, it’s the same thing” or “it’s just semantics”. In both cases you are focused on food, but in diets I think the focus is more on “this is what you can’t have because you are BAD” whereas a healthy food lifestyle is focused on “look at a better way to eat”.
To me that’s huge. It’s about an attitude and a positive mental shift about food, not about how need to deprive yourself of things because you are bad.
I’ve been doing this for almost two months and not only have I felt and seen a difference, but I’m hopeful and excited to see what’s next.
This article has gone on far longer than I wanted and I have a lot to share, so in closing I’ll share my stats.
- March 10, 2016: 231.6 pounds (although at my heaviest I was 237).
- May 10, 2016: 212.0 pounds
Change can be hard, but it is also possible. What do you have to lose by trying this? The last thing you want, is a call from this guy.
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