My Personal Weight Loss Story Chapter One: How It All Began
My name is Bill Ivory Larson. When I moved from Chicago to the Philadelphia area in 2005 I was 400.6 pounds which was my heaviest (at least I think that was my heaviest – it could have actually been more since no scale in any doctor’s office could weigh me).
My weight has always been a touchy subject with me, ever since I was an overweight kid. I had the perfect storm of factors that contributed to not only childhood obesity but also led to me being an overweight adult:
Perfect Storm Factor Number One: I ate poorly. Not because my mom didn’t do the best she could (she certainly did and I love her for it) but we didn’t have lots of money when I was growing up. Therefore, we ate what foods were cheap. We also didn’t cook at home having very limited resources. So, as a consequence, we ate out a lot and at places that didn’t serve healthy foods – Chinese food, fast food and pizza parlors.
Perfect Storm Factor Number Two: I never learned what portion control was. Growing up without money meant sometimes we didn’t know where our next meals were coming from. So when we ate we ate, and lots of it. Also, foods tasted good. Why not have them in abundance? While there certainly wasn’t the healthier push there is now for portion control and health I stuffed myself until I was full more times then I care to remember, and that was bad.
Perfect Storm Factor Number Three: Poor eating habits and learning a sedentary lifestyle. When I was in grammar school (1st – 8th grades), we’d have to eat lunch in only 10 or so minutes (unhealthy in itself) and then sit the rest of the day. Very much like so many of us do as adults. Except I was doing it as a kid! Multiply that five-day-a-week activity by nine months in a school year for eight years – you can see how behaviors became a part of my lifestyle.
As I grew into adulthood I carried those learned bad eating habits with me. The older I got the more I could eat. But the more I ate the bigger I got. And the bigger I got the unhappier I became. There began the vicious circle of my obesity. There also began my downward spiral to over 400 lbs. I remember one day specifically. I went to work that day after eating two McDonald’s breakfast sandwiches, hash browns and large Coke. Then for lunch I ate a full order of my favorite Chinese food – BBQ pork noodles and kung pao chicken and three (count ‘em, three) egg rolls and more Coke. Then I went home and had a big dinner. While I don’t remember exactly what I ate that night for the day I had to have put close to ten pounds of food and soda into my body. A tremendous amount that my body couldn’t possibly burn especially when I wasn’t exercising at all at that point.
My biggest sin, though, was not heeding the words of my doctor. She would tell me that my encroaching health problems could be solved if I lost weight. I was unhappy and I couldn’t even be weighed on the scale in her office. When I went out I got stares from people especially in restaurants. I had to shop in Big & Tall stores because no other stores carried anything close to my size except in socks, gloves or shoes. When I boarded planes I could see the “please, God, don’t let that behemoth sit next to me” look on the other passengers. Yet I was in total denial about it all. “I’m young and strong,” I said to myself. “I’ll be o.k. and I can lose this weight any time I want to.” Yeah, right!
That’s how I gained all my weight. But when did I decide to start losing it all? Click here for Chapter Two: My Weight Loss Journey Begins
