Being Obese

"You are obese"
I still remember the very moment the nurse said that to me. I was participating in the annual work place physical put on by our insurance company. What? Did I hear her right? I see obese people practically everyday, and I'm not one of them. Sure I'm overweight, but obese? No, never. My look must have given away my thoughts, as the nurse then added this to send the message home: "You are obese, there is no such thing as borderline or a little obese, you are either obese or your not, and you sir are obese." " You're also a borderline diabetic"

It took a while for that message to really sink in. At first I was like right, and your most likely part of that crowd that says Arnold Schwarzenegger is overweight. How can anyone say he's overweight? I then started to research it a bit myself. I found many online weight charts. They all seemed to agree, that my ideal weight should be around 135 to 167 pounds, depending on whether my frame size is small, medium or large. I weighed in at a little over 245 pounds! That meant I was as much as 110 pounds overweight.

How could this have happened? I remember back when I was growing up, my mom took me to the doctor since I would eat everything she put in front of me, and was as thin as a rail. I had to actually gain weight before the Navy would accept me back in 1982. When I left the Navy in 1990, I was still in great shape and riding my Cannondale road bike for great distances at some fast speeds.

Now fast forward to 2005 and I'm 100 pounds overweight and OBESE? This can't be, I am to limber for an obese person, I can touch the palms of my hands on the floor when I touch my toes. I can stand on my hands with my body parallel with the floor. I can ride a bike for twenty miles without any issue.

Then it started to hit me, I haven't really ridden my bike since the mid 1990s. There were also other little clues, I couldn't see my toes when I looked down at my feet.

I remember the first time I took my future wife to see my wonderful grandma, may she rest in peace. It had been a while since I had last seen her, and what was the first thing she said when I walked into her home? "Terry!" she exclaimed in shock, "You got big!" My wife and I could barely hold in the laughter.

Then there was the time my wife bought me some sweat pants that were one large size that fits all. Before I tried them on I grabbed their waistline and stretched them out with both hands, they must have stretched out over 3 feet across,
"How big do you think I am?!" I asked in shock.
"Just try them on, they are suppose to fit your size" She said.
"Do they look like they could fit?!", "You can fit two people in here easily.",
"Just try them on, I can return them if they don't fit."
So I tried them on, and to my horror, they fit very snugly and comfortably.
"Ne-ver mind" I sighed.
We still laugh about those times.

Little by little I began to realize the nurse was correct, I was in fact obese, even though none of my co-workers or my wife would believe it, yes they believed I was a little overweight, but not obese. Being overweight seemed to be the norm. After some searching on line I found that since my BMI was over 36, I was actually counted as a class 2 obese, or morbidly obese. Here is a simple chart to check your own BMI using height and weight: BMI Chart.

It has taken a while to get my weight in check, I still have a little way to go. At the close of 2010, I weighted in at 173 pounds, by the end of 2011, I weighted in at 199 pounds. I went backwards a few pounds last year. But 2011 was my first entire year under 200 pounds, so it was still a banner year for me. That was significant for me, since I had tried for years to get my weight under 200 pounds and never could until 2010. I never dieted at all in 2011, so riding the bike is the only thing that helped keep my weight down.

This year I made a new years resolution to be under 180 pounds by the end of March and then stay under 180 pounds for the rest of the year. So far I'm on track, at 178 pounds on the last day of March.

It wasn't a single motivation that helped me get my weight down, it was a combination of items. The largest contributor was the "Biggest loser contest" that my workplace held in 2010. I'll go over the different methods and motivations I have used to lose weight in future posts.

I've been a lazy poster so far this year. With all this great weather, I have already put on over 300 miles so far. I'll have to do a catchup post on all the rides.