I found a piece on PJMedia about the ‘Lizzofication of America’. It’s behind a paywall, dontcha know. However, its starts out with some words about how the largest among us suffer when traveling. Did you know that the seats and toilets on a plane aren’t fat friendly? Who knew.
No mention about how others suffer when a super-dooper size person squeezes into the seat next to them. I’m my heyday of traveling I’ve I had the misfortune of having two of them in my row, with me squished in the middle. Or one in the middle, squeezing me into the wall or the aisle.
But he (Stephen Kruiser) heads down the path of what it’s like having put on some extra ballast:
I feel like crap.
Not just physically, either. I’m embarrassed that my clothes don’t fit. When I first went to visit family after COVID, I saw the looks in their eyes when they first saw how much weight I’d gained. I hate my reflection when I’m out for a walk and I see myself in a window. There is absolutely nothing about this that is “positive.” I’ve been able to b.s. myself about a lot of things over the years, but even I’m not capable of the level of self-delusion it would take for me to think any of this is OK
STEPHEN KRUISER
Oh the stories I could tell.
I had a summer off from traveling. Things slow down in the summer, and I had a project that kept me at home. End of the summer, I had a gig in Chicago. So I land there, setup, go hit dinner, as was my habit. In the morning – first day of class, I found that my pants really didn’t fit any longer. I squeezed into them, but they were mighty uncomfortable.
After class, I got my fat ass to Men’s Warehouse and bought drawers that fit. God bless Men’s Warehouse. (I probably could have simply gone to Walmart and bought more jeans. But we were expected to dress on the higher end of business casual.
I’ve gained and lost weight at least four times in my life. First was when I was a young man, and was tired of being a fatass, changed my diet and started exercising. I lost 65 lbs, starting at 235 and ending up at 170. Second was after my third kid was born I stopped running and found myself at 235 again. So, diet, start running again. I think I did Atkins that time. Third time, because travel does this – I was at 270 or so. Cancer fixed that. End of the year I was 205.
And most recently, I tipped in at 275 and am now 229 and falling.
And yes, I am aware that some people’s struggles with weight aren’t the result of personal choices. Let’s be honest, though: that doesn’t apply to most of us. This is a country that, despite inflation, still finds a way to keep crappy food affordable. The McDonald’s “$1 Menu” may now be the “$1 $2 $3 Menu,” but that hasn’t really priced anybody out of the game.
STEPHEN KRUISER
Like him, I see pictures of myself and cringe. Most recently from a youth event. Geez, I was huge.
Here’s what I’ve done that works.
First, the only diet book I’ve read that makes sense was one that (I think) was called ‘eat for life’. Not sure. The thesis was that different blood types needed different nutrients. I’m type “O” – more protein. Herself (hock, spit) is “A” I think. More fruit and veg.
The other one was given to me by a doctor when I asked about the juicing diet. He said they all were some iteration of watching what you eat. Just get an app, set it for 1500 calories a day, and a guy like me will lose 5lbs a week.
Works like a champ.
And in my case, with climbing blood sugar, easy on the high glycemic carbs. I limit those to 3 servings a day. That could be 2 pieces of bread on a sammich, and 1/2 cup rice at dinner. What the app does is train your brain so that you can look at a serving of food and guess how many calories it it. For instance, a slice of cheese is around 100. Do you have to have that on your burger?
Here’s what I do:
- No booze. I can’t control my intake, and it piles on the calories.
- No snacking. That’s where I broke from ‘Slim4Life’. I don’t snack, I don’t want their stupid protein chips. If I find myself starving, I’ll have fruit, or some cheese.
- I generally eat eggs in the morning with some sort of meat. Sausage, usually. I may or may not have toast. This keeps me well into the afternoon.
- Lunch I generally have a salad of some sort. If I have something else, a sammich or a take out meal, I’ll have salad for dinner.
- Dinner is light – a meat, and veggies. Usually two like green beans and broccoli. Sometimes I’ll have rice, sometimes taters, but always a small serving.
This is just general. If I’m going out to eat at dinner, I’ll lighten up lunch. I’ve gotten to the point that I rarely use the app. I pretty much know what’s calorie expensive.
The other half of this journey is exercise. Do some. Back when I started, I’d walk the dogs in the morning, walk for myself in the afternoon. Then I added biking as I lost enough to not punish the bike or my ass on that small seat.
It takes discipline to start and get the ball rolling, then it’s easy as you have loss of weight and muscle gains.
I can’t watch the superfat people shows like I used to. They have zero discipline, and most have other issues that need to be solved. The one that sticks out in my mind was a 400+ lb woman that got bariatric surgery. Before that happened, I watched her with fascination as she ate. I never have seen a human chew that fast. So she drops down to 180 or so, only to become a barfly. Hoof! what a waste of money.
So get fit. It’s part of the motto – Get out of debt, get fit, learn to live simply, and buy guns and ammo while you still can.
Inspected By Pat 