How I Got Fat

While on my mission I walked everywhere. We didn't have enough money to take the bus even to our area, so we walked. It was very common for us to walk 10-15 miles everyday. I wore out the two pairs of shoes I had brought with me in just the first three months.

For all the walking we did, we ate as much as we could. While the families were poor they shared their staple of bean, rice and tortillas with us. A typical meal consisted of a bowl of beans and a side of cactus. Instead of utensils we ate with fresh corn tortillas. Every bite was ingested with half a tortilla. It was not uncommon for my companion and I to finish an entire kilo of tortillas between the both of us at every meal we ate. If I had known enough about calories I may have asked for a fork. Because the water was mostly unsafe to drink we usually had 3-4 sodas everyday to stay hydrated. Despite eating so much, the walking burned off the extra calories and my muscles filled out. When i ended my mission I was 185lbs.

It didn't stay that way for long. Getting back into real life meant finding a job and settling down. Just 6 months after I had come home I was married and had a desk job working for an insurance company. My weight was already up to 225lbs. While I didn't miss all the walking I used to do I wasn't about to stop eating corn tortillas. I had grown addicted to soda as well and typically drank at least a half gallon a day.

As the years went on I started eating out everyday. Combined with an extra large soda each meal was in the 1500 calorie range. The weight piled on.

At some point I knew that I needed to lose the weight. I became a yo-yo dieter. Each diet i tried brought me down some, but when the cravings to eat overcame me and I threw my diet plan out the window I would bounce back.

I was never that preoccupied by my weight though, although I was annoyed when my clothes did not fit me well. I reasoned that I was just a big guy, but still healthy. I never got sick and never felt like I couldn't do anything.

Things really changed for me (the first time) when I took my daughter to the health clinic for a ruptured ear drum. She was afraid to let the doctor touch her so the doctor showed her how to read the blood pressure using my as an example. After the visit the doctor pulled me aside and sain that i needed to get checked out. My blood pressure was through the roof.

When you have children growing up you start to ose that feeling of invincibility. You want to make sure that you are there for them. So, I made an appointment with a doctor. My weight was at an all time high of 350lbs and they wanted to give me medication for my blood pressure. There was even talk of immenent diabetes. So, i started to change my diet.

Sugary soda was the first thing to go. I made the switch to diet soda and that alone brought my weight down to 300lbs in just a few months. While I knew enough to be more judicial about what I ate I still was very sedentary.

Eventually I realized that I would need to start exercising. It is hard to squeeze exercise into a busy life, so I encorporated cycling into my commute. I've always liked the idea of cycling for weight loss because once you get somewhere on a bike you have to ride back.

The bad thing about a traditional bike is that after awhile they start to hurt you, especially if you are overweight. After using my bike to get to work and back everyday for over two months the pain in my neck and forearms was almost unbearable. I had lost over 20lbs and did not want to give up the bike. So, I started looking for other pedal vehicles. I found a peadl car and while it was much more comfortable it was way too heavy and slow to make it practical for daily transportation.

That's when I discovered the recumbent trike. Here was a pedal vehicle that had comparable speed as my bike, but was extremely comfortable. I soon became a trike addict. I rode 25-40 miles every day and the weight was flying of. I was dropping about 5lbs a week. The best part was that I could eat whatever I wanted. I did track my calories to be sure, but I was OK with 1,000 calorie meals at McDonalds being a part of my diet.

I reached a 10 year low of 235lbs -- I looked and felt great. Unfortunately, I had not yet learned the lesson from my post mission weight gain. As winter approached and snow was on the ground I stopped riding. I didn't replace my daily trike riding with any other exercise. I did continue to track my calories, for a time, but that wasn't enough. I started to revert back to my previous dietary tactics and the weight continued to come up. As the following springs and summers came and went I found it hard to get back into my daily rides. It was easy to justify not riding because of my busy work schedule.

So, the weight eventually came back up until I was once again at 298lbs. With the holidays approaching and the family getting chubbier I knew that we needed to make some lifestyle changes.