Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Sick of Being Fat

America is sick. And I mean physically sick. Our illness is fat. One out of every three children are either overweight or obese. Almost 75% of American adults fit that same category. Let me say that again. For every 100 adults in this country, 75 of them are fat! How did we get that way? Were we always this way? Isn't the rest of the world the same way? Why aren't we doing something about it?

These are questions that I hope to tackle on this site. As we go along I am sure that there will be many other questions that pop up. With luck, together we can come up with answers. If not, we can at least come up with solutions. One of the questions I will answer right now. No, we were not always this way. The other questions aren't so easy to answer. But the good news is that if you are one of the 75% of Americans that is struggling with weight problems, there are solutions. I'm not here to sell you products. I'm not here to sell you programs. I'm not here to sell you anything. There are no magic pills or programs that will get the weight off and keep it off. There are only two things that will do that; education and determination.

I will be using my own weight loss journey in our discussions. Up until the age of 27 I was one of those Americans that could eat anything and not gain a pound. Then something happened. I'm not sure what happened, because I really didn't change my eating habits or my exercise level. Something happened physically that changed my metabolism and suddenly my body started ballooning. At the age of 27, as a 5'4" male, I weighed 110 to 115 pounds. Believe it or not, that was actually a healthy weight range for me. By the time I was 28, I weighed 180 pounds. Almost twenty years later, at the age of 46, I found myself at a staggering 233 pounds. I had more than doubled my weight from my healthiest. I simply couldn't take it any longer. I had reached critical mass for me and had to do something about it. Over the past year I have learned a lot about my body and physical fitness/nutrition in general. Armed with that knowledge and the determination to make the changes needed in my life, I began to turn my life around. I'm happy to say that I have lost a total of 50 pounds over the past few months. By all definitions, I am still considered, not only overweight, but obese. But one day at a time, that is changing. One day at a time I am "Kicking the Fat."