When I was a kid I was big. I wasn’t the biggest in my class but I was nowhere near the smallest. I couldn’t run to save my life and although I did spend a large portion of time outside playing, there was also a large portion inside. Once I lost that weight I didn’t get up to the weight from my elementary school days again until my mid-twenties.
I never really knew how big I was in elementary school. I was too young to realize how I looked compared to others and if I had noticed I’m sure I would have shrugged it off as me being different like I’m supposed to be. And it’s not like I woke up one day and had gained 100 pounds. It happened gradually.
I was always told I had asthma from my parents smoking so I should try not to do anything which would set it off, so I didn’t. That didn’t help the fact that I was losing my childhood metabolism and needed to start doing something to stay in shape.
But Then…
In middle school I joined marching band, just like everyone else in my family, and I lost a little bit of weight during my first season. Then that same year I joined winterguard, just like everyone else in my family, and lost the rest of it.
And I noticed. In the first half of a school year I lost maybe 40 pounds. I don’t remember the exact number but I remember knowing I looked different and weighed significantly less (for the weight of a middle schooler).
I remained active performing for a while until my mid-twenties. Remember when I mentioned that earlier? Yeah. Time for my weight gain.
I don’t know how long it took but I knew I gradually felt worse each day. I was in constant pain and got sick regularly. Then one day, which I’ll go slightly more in depth with soon, I stepped on the scale. My eyebrows shot up with the number. My first thought was, “I haven’t weighed that much since elementary school!” Not the most common thing to be upset about but I keep a picture of myself in fifth grade just to remind myself how big I was to avoid getting there again.
I went to a mirror and turned. I hadn’t even noticed before then that I was at my heaviest that day. Well, maybe not my heaviest, but my biggest. I am around the same weight now but I replaced fat with muscle so it’s a slim heavy now.
So Why The Revelation?
My wife has a similar weight story to mine. Big kid who joined marching band and winterguard which led to a huge weight loss until she stopped performing. One day she told me she was going to start eating better and working out. I could join her or not but she was doing it either way. So obviously, I went with the sensible option of joining her.
She said she wanted to do before and after picture and track her changes. I wasn’t too interested in doing that since I didn’t expect there to be a change since I thought I was already in such great shape. It was just a couple years earlier. That was the day I stepped on the scale.
Since then we’ve been regularly active and are eating better. I’ve got more energy than I did before and I feel great, minus some health complications. We’ve both learned so much about how to stay healthy over the past few years and I hope to share more of my journey and some things I’ve learned with you all.
A Life, Ensnared 