The Other Day

The other day it happened. Right there, sitting in the middle of the living room while I was watching another episode of Biggest Loser. It was amazing. In fact, it was like nothing you’ve probably ever seen before. One second I was sitting there thin, fit and healthy then BOOM! I gained 60 pounds, acquired high blood pressure and became a pre-diabetic all in an instant!

It was so cool that this happened because I remember when I was little I used to dream of growing up and being overweight. I would sit around and dream of the day that I would be able to hear my doctor say, ‘Ron, you have high blood pressure and you need medication.” Yes, those were the days. Often times my teacher would catch me daydreaming about one day shopping at the “big and husky” store. ‘Oh my!” I thought. “I can’t wait until I can fill up a pair of size 44 jeans one day!”

Sure, other kids were dreaming of becoming firemen or astronauts but I was different. I only wanted to live for the buffet and take 15 different medications every day when I grew up. My only goal was to get as big and unhealthy as I could and to nearly completely limit myself from ever enjoying life.

Ok, wait, maybe this didn’t really happen so fast and maybe it was never a dream of mine at all. In fact, it was more of a nightmare. And, if I’m being totally honest, it didn’t happen in an instant either. It actually took a few years. Either way, it happened.

The reality is that none of us grows up aspiring to be unhealthy, overweight and miserable. But, “life” happens (along with too many chips, salsa and margaritas) and next thing you know, we are everything we never, ever wanted to be. For me it was a gut splitting size 40 plus pants, two X’s in front of my L’s on all my shirts and a nice matching set of chins and one well rounded inner tube of a belly. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the anti-depression medication, the high blood pressure and the ridiculous cholesterol numbers. At one point, I found myself getting a stress test at the age of 27 because my chest hurt so bad. Sad wasn’t it?

Wait, “wasn’t it?” Yes, wasn’t it. Know why I say that? Because it AIN’T NO MORE. For me, I had a critical incident as a police officer and decided within just a few minutes of the incident that I was going to change my life or else die trying. And so I did. I made a huge commitment to myself and then, I followed through.

I began eating as healthy as I possibly could. I didn’t know every little detail of how to eat to perfection, but what I found out was that it isn’t necessary to be perfect, but rather to eat just as perfect as you know how to. The other thing I did was I started exercising, again, not perfect, just as perfect as I could! Within a matter of months I had undone years’ worth of damage from fast food drive-thru trips, late night ice cream festivals on my sofa and possibly thousands of potato chips.

Want to hear some good news? You can change too. Read that last sentence again, a few times if you have to, after all, I wrote it for YOU. I am living proof that a very fat, very unhealthy, very unhappy person can absolutely change their lives forever through healthy eating and exercise. Ironically, to this day I am still not perfect, but I am perfect enough. My size 40’s were traded in for 32’s and my shirts not only lost both X’s but also the L. Now there’s a good looking M sitting there in each of my shirts. I haven’t taken anti-depression medication since I lost my weight nearly 15 years ago. Today I feel great and I truly live a very blessed life full of trips to the pool, shopping where I want to and so much more.

What about you? Are you sitting there waiting for your own BOOM! To happen and all of a sudden you are going to be thin, fit and healthy? Don’t hold your breath. Instead, do what I did. First, make a commitment to yourself to change. Do it RIGHT NOW. Don’t wait. There’s no need to get this right or that right in your life first. No need to wait until you’re crazy schedule is better, it NEVER will be.
Drop all the excuses (along with the bean burrito) and let’s get started.

Find yourself a good, trusted program to get into. Eat clean and exercise every day that you can. In short order, your whole life will be renewed. How would you like that? Trust me; it’s amazing, -more amazing than I can possibly tell you. Soon you will have your own story to tell that goes like this, “The other day I was just sitting there reading THEUBBLOG.COM and BOOM! There it was my decision to change.”

I’ll see you at the pool!

Ron


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