A Little Fitness Background

My first vivid memories of poor eating habits where from my childhood. I remember being over to a friends house. They kept a ton of junk food around. One day, my friends told to eat whatever I wanted. Hah! I was like a kid in a candy factory, only it included cookies, chips, and pop. From then on, I always tried to mooch stuff when I went over.

At home, there was sugary cereals. I liked to sneak into them and eat all the marshmellow bits. I would get in trouble, but I still did it.

My activity level was normal. I played outdoor games with the neighbors like kick the can, hide and go seek, and tag. I rode my bike everywhere. None the less, I got fat.

By the time I reached 4th grade, I was the butt of jokes and quite porky. I might ask if my parents were to blame. To some extent, they probably were. But only for then. I don't blame them for my current condition. That 4th grade year, we moved. Where we moved, I saw a flyer for midget football. So, the summer preceding 5th grade, I joined the football team.

There was a problem though. I guess for safety reasons, there were weight limits. In order to play a game with those in my age group, I had to be under a certain weight. Guess what? I was too heavy. My mother put me on a diet and I exercised hard with the team. Eventually, I lost enough weight to play. From then on, I continued to play sports through my sophomore year in high school. I was never skinny, but I was physically fit.

Then came college. I lived on campus. The dorm meals were all you can eat. I played a little volley ball. I can't remember what these sports were called, but they were just teams that competed against other teams at the college. No coaches or anything. I also played raquetball. None the less, I packed on the weight with terrible foods I chose to eat in abundance.

While at college, I became engaged. During the summer I got married, I went on a "diet" and lost quite a bit of weight. It was one of those weigh the food, count exchanges type diets. I tried to keep it up after the wedding. I sort of did for a while. I also made a habit of going to the gym to workout. Once, I went to graduate school that all stopped. Over the next few years my weight went up and down. The problem was that each time the weight never went down as much as the previous time and always went higher than the previous.

About 5 years ago, I went gung ho on an exercise and eating program for a good 9 months. Then I got strep throat which through my routine out of wack. I never quite went back to the routine I had before I got sick, though I tried. From time to time, I would allow myself some indulgences which I would not have done previously. Soon, the cookies, ice cream, and candy became more regular and the exercise less regular. Some where in there, I just gave up the healthy lifestyle I previously enjoyed. I kept telling myself I would go back to it, but it did not happen until about 1 month ago.