First of all, let me state that this blog is not written with the intention to offend anyone but it is my personal experience that I am writing about here and how I was feeling about being overweight.
I am in college right now and I am an English Literature major, so of course a lot of my homework is based on Shakespeare. As a matter of fact, my class this semester is ONLY about Shakespeare and as such I have had to read his plays. The one we are reading this week is I Henry IV. I have found all of Shakespeare’s literature very interesting and he is one of my favorite authors and playwrights and although I enjoy reading “everything Shakespeare”, I have to say that something about this particular play caught my attention and got me thinking… one of his main characters in this play is Fallstaff, who is portrayed as a jolly and fat (that’s what the play says) man. He is supposed to be a knight to Henry IV, but he does not act like one. He likes well… how can I say it, “the good and ‘bad’ pleasures of life” (alcohol, womanizing and of course food, lots of food). As you know it’s not that any of these things are bad, but in excess they are. The play clearly states that he “is merry”. That got me thinking about this whole idea of being overweight and “merry” or “jolly”. I am not saying that there are not people out there with an overweight problem who are not happy because I know that there are, but what I AM saying is that from personal experience, I was NOT happy, nor jolly, nor merry when I was overweight.
I wasn’t happy about the fact that I lacked energy to play with my daughter, or the fact that I would sometimes have to take naps in the afternoon because I was so darn tired that I just couldn’t help it. I wasn’t happy about taking my daughter to the playground and wanting to leave 15 minutes after we had arrived because I just had no energy to run around with her. I wasn’t happy about all the limitations that I had because I was getting heavier, and heavier, and heavier. I had trouble sleeping, I had trouble moving, I couldn’t run because I had trouble catching my breath. Jolly? Nope, Merry? Heck no! I was miserable and I NEEDED to do something not only for my sake, but for my daughter’s sake and I did.
My overweight problem was actually not a matter of being jolly or merry, it was a symptom of not being happy. I wasn’t happy about moving away from my friends (don’t get me wrong I love where we live, but my closest friends live far away), and I definitely was not happy about my finances or the fact that I had to work so many hours just so we could manage to make ends meet at the end of the month.
However, I knew that I NEEDED to do something about my situation, my weight, my happiness, my finances. Heck something was going to give if I didn’t get off my butt and DO something about it. So I did and I succeeded. I saved up, I bought P90X, I bought Shakeology and I was sponsored as a coach for Beachbody. Here I am 6 months later, my weight is in check, I am in the best shape of my life and my finances are improving drastically. Coincidence? I don’t think so. When you take control of one area of your life, the other areas follow. If you want to find out more just ask 🙂