Where Did It All Begin?

Yesterday I visited the Home Depot to pick up some tile for our kitchen and the young man who helped us was morbidly obese. My first thought was, "Dude! What has happened in your life to get you in the body that you have today?" Each one of us has a story to tell. Where did it all begin?

Reflecting back, I believe my weight problem began when I became married. Suddenly we were living on our own and starting the next phase of our lives. I quite my high paced retail job I had held for 8 years and got a job standing in front of people and talking all day. Around this same time, my wife and I decided to go back to school to get our Master's degree. Work all day, school at night. Who has time to eat and cook healthy? We lived very close to a Chinese buffet. Endless supplies of General Tso's chicken, fried rice, and Crab Rangoons. Heavenly! Well heaven had a price. The stationary job, stress of getting a degree, and the buffet started packing on the pounds. I finally earned that Master's degree. My time then was spent warming up the couch cushions and watching 6 hours of television each day after work. Over a course of 10 years, I put on well over 40 pounds.

Over those years, I tried every diet imaginable: the ABS diet (still waiting for the abs to appear), the Slim Fast diet, Weight Watchers online (had some success with this) but nothing really helped me get rid of the weight.

It wasn't until I got on the scale and saw 190 pounds that it started to set in. I remember saying to myself, "S**t, I am 10 pounds from being 200 pounds! 10 pounds!!!" Being only 5'6" and pushing 200 pounds was not good for me. I joined Weight Watchers and got it in my head that I was going to get healthy.

Look back on your life. Where did the weight become an issue? For me, it was that my lifestyle was changing from a hectic life to a more sedentary one. I knew I had to eat healthy. That was the easy part. It was getting myself on that darn treadmill everyday that was the challenge.

No one can control your weight. My WW leader always said, "No one is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to eat. You have a choice." Take a look at your life and try to open your eye to what caused you to gain the weight. Once you figure that out, you are one step closer to a healthier you.