Everyone has a trigger - a point in time where you decide
to finally take action. For some, it's a trip to the
doctor's office. For others, it could be a special occasion
where you want to look your best - a wedding, a reunion, or
a beach vacation. For me, it was one of the socially
awkward situations that fat people often find themselves in.
So there I was, breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. I
had just "sprinted" (or as some might call it, "rumbled")
through McCarran International Airport to catch the last
flight back to the East Coast on a leisure trip to Las
Vegas. My bags were strapped around my chest and digging
into my ample man cleavage. You could hear the groans and
huffs directed at the late arriving passenger as soon as I
got on the jetway. Those quickly turned into eye rolls and
squished faces as they saw my sweaty, fat self turn the
corner and board the plane. I struggled to fit my bags, my
gut and my rump down the extremely narrow aisle (it was
later I realized that the aisle was so narrow because half
the plane was as fat as I was, they just weren't sweating
because they were on time). I arrived at my row to find
that I was rewarded with a 757 middle seat...a fate worse
than death for a fat man. Not only that, but the entire
plane is waiting for me to stow my bags and get seated so
we can make the long trek home.
So as I struggle to fit my bag under the seat, I could feel
the eyes focused on my big, fat sweaty butt bent over,
undoubtedly brushing the shoulder of the person across the
aisle. Unfortunately, my rear was so big that I had kind of
lost feeling in the farthest reaches of it, so if I was
hitting into something I didn't really know it. I got my
bags wedged in under the seat in front of me, and now it
was time for the fun part - wedging my rump into the seat.
I could see the lucky person in the window seat fidgeting
as I entered the row, staring out the window blankly with a
scowl on her face. She knew that, not only was she going to
be sitting next to a sweaty, fat guy for 4+ hours, but that
if I needed some extra space I would most likely be leaning
in her direction, as she was smaller in stature than the
woman occupying the aisle seat.
I get into the seat and struggle with pulling the seatbelt
out from under my weighty butt. The entire time I can see
the beads of sweat flying to and fro and landing on the
floor and seat in front of me - enough to make even me
throw up in my mouth just a little. I am muttering to
myself, praying that I won't need a seatbelt extension.
Luckily I have enough abdominal strength to suck in just
enough to get the seatbelt around me. When I breathe out
again and try to sit back, I can feel the vinyl armrests
digging into my sides and the cold sweat-soaked shirt
slowly sticking to my skin all up and down my back. The
woman on the aisle gave me a look of disgust as she sat
back down, Mrs. Glass House that she was.
As the captain made his announcements, I could feel my
heart rate return to "normal" and could also feel the rash
forming on the sides of my gut from the relentless armrests
- I certainly had a case of the Dunlops (my gut had
"dun-lopped" over the armrests!)
Luckily, the woman on the window had a bladder like a
camel, because I closed my eyes and fell asleep - probably
filling the entire plane with animal-like snores from the
excess neck fat I was carrying. I didn't want to risk being
awake when the snack cart came around.
What was, in reality, 15 minutes from the time I got
through airport security to the time I was seated, felt
like an eternity to me. That happens when you are
navigating through a most dreaded experience.
That was my watershed - or in this case, my fatshed -
moment. It was then that I admitted to myself that I was
fat and needed to do something about it.
----------------------------------------------------
Matt Lisk is a fat loss expert who has used his knowledge
to lose over 70 pounds of body fat, reduce his body fat
percentage to under 10% and to resolve a variety of health
issues he was experiencing. He is the author of Lean State
University's Fat Loss 101 Newsletter at http://leanstate.com
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