Yes my blog is titled "Saving Fatty."
You read it right. It was the only thing I could think of. I like self-deprecating humor, so I hope no one is offended by it. I am entitled to this name, because I am a fatty (hopefully not for long). My name is Greg, and I hope you come back and visit often.
About me
I am a relatively young man in my early forties (my students would not say I am young--of course they think someone over 25 is old). I live in the Phoenix area in the east valley. I am a high school English teacher, and have been so for about 8 years.
I was raised in the burbs outside of Los Angeles. I graduated from high school during the fashion disaster known as the 1980's. I was not always overweight. I have always been a big guy. No one would ever mistaken me for a distance runner, but I was in decent shape. I have always loved sports and was pretty good at a few, but I would not consider myself much of an athlete. What I was, however, was the male version of what John Bender (Judd Nelson) described in The Breakfast Club. In essence he said, there are two types of fat people. People who were born to be fat, and people who were once thin, but became fat. I am the latter.
I developed over time, horrible eating habits. Through college and single life, I ate mostly fast food. Nothing but high fat and high carb food. I drank soda pop like it was water. I rejoiced when places like Seven Eleven, AM PM, and Circle K, came out with drink sizes they called "thristy two ouncer" or my favorite, "The Bladder Buster." But before I got married I had a job cleaning carpets. It was a very strenuous job and I ate and burned a lot of calories during the day. This is where I think that things started to go really wrong. I stopped cleaning carpets, but kept eating like I still had that job. I married at 25 and by the time I was 31 I had gone from 225 lbs (when I got married) to my heaviest weight of 320 lbs. It did not help that I married an amazing cook. But I would not dare blame her, as she managed to stay thin and beautiful.
I got to my heaviest, and it was not long before the symptoms of a type 2 diabetic came. Within two years, even though I was losing some weight, things changed. I had to pee every hour. I had no energy. And then came the symptom that really scared me. I got tingling in my feet. I went to the doctor, and bam. The diagnosis: Diabetic--Type 2.
It has now been almost 10 years that I have been living with this. And I have to admit, I have not done a good job of taking care of myself. I have lost weight, but I am still very much overweight. I am 5'11" and I still way over 260 lbs. My weight is sitting between 260 and 265 right now. My goal is to get down to my weight when I was 21--205...The AMA would still consider me overweight, but I am a broad shouldered guy, and to go lighter would probably be unhealthy for me.
I am doing this as sort of a self-motivator. As I said, I have lost weight, but I am still overweight. I need to do more. I need to take better care of myself. I have two wonderful children who lost their mother very suddenly about 5 years ago. I have remarried, but I don't want them to be without their dad. But most of all I am doing this for me. I want to live and live more healthy. I hate the way I look and the way I feel. I want to get that energy back.
So, my hope is that by keeping up with this blog, I will keep myself motivated and I will make my goals.
