My challenge with weight loss has been ongoing for some years now. While I was in the Navy (98-02), I was at what I deemed an acceptable weight, being around 200 pounds. The Navy thought differently, and I failed Physical Readiness Tests before even taking them simply because of my weight.
After my Honorable Discharge, I returned home to Michigan and after working for 9 months at a small juvenile detention facility, I was hired at a major hospital, initially as a clerk in the Emergency Room (ER). I don't remember paying much attention to my weight at this time, but I loved living alone in my apartment, and relished being able to eat whatever I wanted. I think my weight around this time was somewhere around 230 pounds.
I clerked in the ER for about 3 years, and grew tired of it. The Security department appeared to be more fun, and so I applied and was hired. I was already living with my girlfriend (who would eventually become my wife), and together, we both gained weight. Eating was something we could do together, and it was something we both enjoyed, and so we packed on the pounds. We were both very self-conscious about our weight, and our looks, and so we started thinking about a weight loss program. My wife's sister and brother-in-law were both losing weight through L.A. Weight Loss, and they recommended we try it.
The LAWL center was in a small plaza, and right away we noticed that the girls working there were all skinny and attractive, and it was very apparent that they had never struggled with being overweight, or the struggles that go with it. Through no fault of their own, it immediately set a level is distrust. How are we supposed to believe and trust these girls who have never done what we're attempting? We still put 100% into the diet, which consisted of measuring all your food, and accounting for it in a food journal. We also had to go to the LAWL center three times a week to weigh-in, and have them inspect our food journals. We noticed right away that it took much longer to prepare our meals because we had to measure and weigh everything, and check our journals to see how much of each food we still had to consume for the day. In addition, we had to go to the grocery store more frequently to buy fresh produce, which got annoying.
We both began to lose weight on this new diet, and we were excited about it. I lost weight slightly faster, but we were both seeing results. We did occasionally hit a short plateau, but each time, we'd break through and keep losing.
After several months though, we both began to get frustrated. Not so much with the diet, but with LAWL itself. They were adamant that we come in three times a week for weighing in and to have our journals checked, and it proved very difficult. We lived about 20 minutes from the center, and so three times a week we were spending at least 40 minutes just in driving time to go weigh in. Also, we never saw the same girl twice at the center. Every time we went there, it was a different girl telling us how to eat. And they were never consistent with their instructions. They would tell you one week not to eat a certain food that you were eating a week ago, and they never said anything about it then. And lastly, they insisted that you buy their snack bars. They came in a box of 14, at $10 per box. So one person goes through a box in a week. But there were TWO of us eating them. So we were spending $20 a week just on the snack bars, not to mention the money we paid up front for the weight we were SUPPOSED to lose.
We were both getting fed up with LAWL and their prissy staff. When they told us that they were soon closing the local LAWL center, and that we would have to drive to another center 60 minutes away, we stopped going entirely and dodged their phone calls. We just cut our losses and moved on. We tried to follow the diet we had been on for six months, but we slowly fell back to our old habits, and back to putting on the weight we had tried so hard to lose.
After my Honorable Discharge, I returned home to Michigan and after working for 9 months at a small juvenile detention facility, I was hired at a major hospital, initially as a clerk in the Emergency Room (ER). I don't remember paying much attention to my weight at this time, but I loved living alone in my apartment, and relished being able to eat whatever I wanted. I think my weight around this time was somewhere around 230 pounds.
I clerked in the ER for about 3 years, and grew tired of it. The Security department appeared to be more fun, and so I applied and was hired. I was already living with my girlfriend (who would eventually become my wife), and together, we both gained weight. Eating was something we could do together, and it was something we both enjoyed, and so we packed on the pounds. We were both very self-conscious about our weight, and our looks, and so we started thinking about a weight loss program. My wife's sister and brother-in-law were both losing weight through L.A. Weight Loss, and they recommended we try it.
The LAWL center was in a small plaza, and right away we noticed that the girls working there were all skinny and attractive, and it was very apparent that they had never struggled with being overweight, or the struggles that go with it. Through no fault of their own, it immediately set a level is distrust. How are we supposed to believe and trust these girls who have never done what we're attempting? We still put 100% into the diet, which consisted of measuring all your food, and accounting for it in a food journal. We also had to go to the LAWL center three times a week to weigh-in, and have them inspect our food journals. We noticed right away that it took much longer to prepare our meals because we had to measure and weigh everything, and check our journals to see how much of each food we still had to consume for the day. In addition, we had to go to the grocery store more frequently to buy fresh produce, which got annoying.
We both began to lose weight on this new diet, and we were excited about it. I lost weight slightly faster, but we were both seeing results. We did occasionally hit a short plateau, but each time, we'd break through and keep losing.
After several months though, we both began to get frustrated. Not so much with the diet, but with LAWL itself. They were adamant that we come in three times a week for weighing in and to have our journals checked, and it proved very difficult. We lived about 20 minutes from the center, and so three times a week we were spending at least 40 minutes just in driving time to go weigh in. Also, we never saw the same girl twice at the center. Every time we went there, it was a different girl telling us how to eat. And they were never consistent with their instructions. They would tell you one week not to eat a certain food that you were eating a week ago, and they never said anything about it then. And lastly, they insisted that you buy their snack bars. They came in a box of 14, at $10 per box. So one person goes through a box in a week. But there were TWO of us eating them. So we were spending $20 a week just on the snack bars, not to mention the money we paid up front for the weight we were SUPPOSED to lose.
We were both getting fed up with LAWL and their prissy staff. When they told us that they were soon closing the local LAWL center, and that we would have to drive to another center 60 minutes away, we stopped going entirely and dodged their phone calls. We just cut our losses and moved on. We tried to follow the diet we had been on for six months, but we slowly fell back to our old habits, and back to putting on the weight we had tried so hard to lose.
Weight has certainly been a challenge over the last several years. I suppose I've always had issues with it, but they got worse after high school.
ReplyDeleteI am proud of how far you've come and what you are doing. I hope you are not getting too discouraged. Discouraged or not, I will stand by you through your journey!
You can do it
ReplyDelete