My entire life up to this point has revolved around weight. I do not predict this will change either. I was not enormous as a child, but was definitely larger than average. My family is a wrestling family. I am talking collegiate style wrestling not that fake WWE pro wrestling crap. My father was a state champion and both of my brother state qualifiers. I grew up wrestling. When you live life as a wrestler you are always aware of your weight. So from the time I started wrestling in the third grade until my senior year of high school I always my weight at any given time. 3rd Grade - 80 lbs, 4th Grade - 90 lbs, 5th Grade - 100 lbs., 6th Grade - 120 lbs., 7th Grade - 132 lbs., 8th Grade - 156 lbs., 9th Grade - 171 lbs., 10th Grade - 171 lbs., 11th Grade - 205 lbs., 12th Grade - 189 lbs.
Weight was always on my mind "What weight will I wrestle this year?", "How much weight will I have to cut to make that weight class?", etc. Negative thoughts concerning my weight were also on my mind, "Kids at school called me fat. Am I really fat?", "Man I am bigger than a lot of people. I wonder what it would be like to be small and skinny?", etc. I ended up believing I was fat because of those things, but trust me when I look back at pictures of myself I don't know how I ever thought that.
I thought once I finished wrestling my senior year and joined the Marine Corps that weight would no longer be a major thought in my mind. I was wrong about that. The Marine Corps has pretty stringent weight and fitness standards. The fitness part was never a problem, I could run, do pull-ups, sit-ups and push-ups with no problem. In fact I was better than a lot of my counterparts when it came to fitness. The weight standards are what killed me.
The weight standards in the Marines go by sex, height, and age. They have a chart and look up your maximum weight based on those three things. I am around 5'10 1/2". So it was always a crap shoot on whether or not my height would get recorded as 5'10" or 5'11" for a particular weigh-in. The weight limit for 5'10" was 192 lbs. whereas the 5'11" limit was 197 lbs.
I was scheduled to leave for boot camp September after my senior year of high school. During the summer I was a laborer with a company that framed houses. It was tough work and I was in good shape. I weighed around 210 lbs. In order to go to boot camp I had to be within 5% of my weight limit. My limit was 192 lbs. which meant I had to weigh 202 lbs. or less to go.
The night before you fly to boot camp you stay in a hotel with everyone else from your geographic area that is going to boot camp as well. While others were partying their last night up in the hotel I was in the sauna in a rubber suit jumping rope.I weighed in the next morning at 201.1 lbs. and was able to go to boot camp. I had a duffel bag full of food and drinks ready to go and polished off every last bit of it on the flight to South Carolina. When I got to Parris Island I weighed 212 lbs.
At boot camp I was put on what is called "Diet Tray". That meant at the chow hall I had to have the healthier of the two main dishes they were serving, the only side I was allowed was white rice, and I was not permitted to have any dessert. I remember trying to test the dessert waters one day when we were out at the rifle range. At the rifle range they delivered bagged lunches or "Bagged Nastys" as the we called them. They came with a drink, a sandwich (usually still partially frozen), a small bag of plain potato chips, a fruit, and a pack of Oreo cookies. Normally the first thing the drill instructors do is tell all "Diet Tray" recruits to pass their cookies to the front. Well that day they forgot and I decided to eat my Oreos before they realized their mistake. Well 10 min later they remembered and I had no Oreos to hand in. They decided to use mass punishment and made all of the other recruits smash their chips and Oreos together and eat them. The theory being that having all of them mad at me was worse then them punishing me themselves.I was glad when no one really seemed to care.
The Sunday before you graduate boot camp they give you four hours where you are allowed to walk around Parris Island on your own. It is the first time in 12 weeks you are without a Drill Instructor. You are also allowed to eat at the fast food places that are on the base. Well in order to graduate boot camp I of course had to be under my weight limit. I was 190 lbs. when they measured me and somehow determined I was 5'9". That meant I needed to be 186 lbs. to graduate. Weigh-ins were conveniently being held the night after our four hours of freedom, which of course meant no food for me. I decided I did not like this and chose to "man" up and ask my Senior Drill Instructor permission to weigh-in in the morning before the four hours of free time.
He of course accused me of just wanting to pig out during the four hours. I told him that I did not want to pig out but did want to be able to at least eat something. He yelled for a few minutes and then told me, "You know what, since you had the balls to come ask me, I will let you weigh-in in the morning." The night before my weigh-in ended up being very similar to the night before I flew to boot camp. The other recruits were all happily asleep ready for their four hours of freedom while I was in the showers in a garbage bag jumping rope. The next morning my senior drill instructor measured me at 5'10". He doesn't know it but in my head I repeatedly beat him with that cursed measuring stick after I found out they were not using the 5'9" weight standard. I weighed-in at 184 lbs., two full pounds below the 186 lb. max for 5'9". Of course now that I was magically 5'10" I could have weighed 192 lbs. and been sleeping the night before. Needless to say I enjoyed my four hours of freedom with some Pizza Hut.
The remaining three years and nine months of my Marine Corps career after boot camp were spent in constant discussions of my weight and extra physical training as well as non-recommendations for promotions, and threats of being kicked out because I was over my weight standard. I sat around 230-235 lbs. for most of my time after boot camp. The most irritating thing about it was I was an expert with my rifle, a sharpshooter with my pistol, a Marine combat safety swimmer, and never fell back on a single run yet I constantly got crap just because of my weight. But the guy who couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a firearm, would drown in a puddle, and fell out of every run was okay because he was skinny. I couldn't wait to be free of the Marines and go to college and never think about weight again.
I did just that. I went to college and didn't think about my weight at all. I went out four to five nights a week and ate whatever I wanted. Two years later I was 290 lbs. with a blood pressure of 170/110. Not the greatest time in my life. I felt like crap most of the time, I was winded going up stairs, and let me tell you college girls aren't very interested in a fat 290 lb. guy when they have countless, in-shape 18-23 year old males all around them. It was March 2008 and I was unhealthy, depressed, and needed to do something.
RUNNING TO THE RESCUE!
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