Ok, this post may make some haters out of my readers but since we aren’t allowed to stay silent, I’ll put my spin on something I believe in. I fully believe anyone out there can lose weight and I am sick of hearing people tell me they can’t. (I realize this may or may not matter in the grand scheme of Important Things, but I will try to make it.)

I am sick and tired of people getting all up in arms about saying words like ‘fat” and ‘diet” as if they are forbidden. Weight is such a touchy subject these days because so many Americans are, well, overweight. I believe I have earned the right to be blunt and open about weight and fat and losing it because I was once BIG.

I’m not even kidding folks. I once ate food like it would go away tomorrow. I ate entire boxes of mac and cheese by myself. It’s 3 AM? Sure, let’s eat a pizza. We frequently ate McDonald’s for lunch AND dinner, not ever having eaten breakfast. I was a misshapen sack of lard compared to the athletic child I once was. This all took palace in college where I struggled to figure out what in the hell I wanted to study and just who I was. I suppose I ate to feel better… or to feel anything at all. It was a rough time.

I was the person in high school who lied about having asthma (though I did suffer from it) just to get out of having to walk the track in P.E. Before moving when I was 14, I was a swift runner, a natural gymnast, and I swam all three years of middle school. Somewhere along the way, I stopped caring what I put not my body and let myself fall into disuse. Your body is a machine and I feel it should be honed and toned.

Ash and I did  lose weight together in 2004 and 2005. Search my site for ‘Gold’s Gym” and some entries will come up detailing our weight loss. I went from 171 pounds to 127 at my absolute lowest:on my wedding day. Two kids later, I was 18 pounds away from that but the weight had redistributed itself and I was back to being a blobular mess.

As I have written about before, I started running six weeks after Isaac was born because I saw how much weight my husband was losing by doing it, though he did it for completely different reasons. I ran two miles every other day and just about thought I’d die. Isaac is twenty one months now and though I am still 8-10 pounds away from pre-pregnancy weight, I have run multiple races at decent times (between 9 and 11 minutes miles, depending.)

I think we can all lose weight regardless of size or injuries, etc. I have knee pain all the time but with the help of Glucosamine supplements and a knee brace, I’m good to go. My asthma has actually improved since I began running.

This is something I want to impress upon my kids. I think it’s really important they know about my struggle and how they can eat healthy and exercise and be involved in sports, etc. It’ll make their lives richer.

I have watched Biggest Loser in passing and I see 3-400 pound people being forced to run up hills and do push-ups and I think, that must be awful! But they’re doing it and most of them find success. I don’t believe everyone can reach some ridiculous goal of being muscled and fit but I do think that anyone can run and do something and the vast majority of folks who whine about being fat are just afraid. They don’t know where to begin. I’m sure this is offensive to some but that’s my stand and I’m sticking to it.