People Don’t Know They’re Fat.

Me and My 2 Oldest- Easter 2011

Me and My 2 Oldest- Easter 2011

According to a 2012 study 35.7% of adult Americans are obese, and 16.9% of kids 2-19 years of age are. Basically it’s like this, if you have two friends and they are fit and not obese…then it’s probably YOU.

The comment is offered mostly in jest, but also with the intent of getting to a point. People really are not aware that they’re fat. For some it might be denial, for some it could be something else. Like an alcoholic who believes their drinking isn’t a problem over-weight people will continue all the bad habits that created their lack of fitness until such time they realize they have a problem.

I know what I’m talking about. At 47 years of age I finally realized that I was fat. I always knew I was overweight, but I would always say I was only 20-30 pounds from my optimal weight and that wasn’t too bad.

My wife and I watched the movie “Flight”, starring Denzel Washington, a couple of nights ago. (If you haven’t seen the movie skip ahead to the next paragraph because I’m about to reveal some aspects of the movie which aren’t a mystery, but that you may not want to know about in advance of seeing it). Washington plays an alcoholic airline pilot who’s drinking has caused him some embarrassment, and a divorce. But for the most part he remains functional, with the help of cocaine. Because he is functional in many parts of his life he continues to deny he has a drinking and drug problem. He says, “I drink because I choose to”, refusing a girlfriends efforts to convince him that he drinks because he “NEEDS” to.

Washington’s character finally does realize he has a problem when continuing to lie about his problem would have destroyed the reputation of someone else. It was then, as his character put it, “he’s free”.

Call 425-687-0100 if you finally realize what I did.

Call 425-687-0100 if you finally realize what I did.

I’m not a psychologist. But in my understanding of the word “denial” that’s not what most people with destructive lifestyles or habits are dealing with. Whether it’s obesity, or drug and alcohol addiction, or slothful laziness; people are not aware they have a problem. A lot of times it’s because they surround themselves with other people with the same problems and they compare themselves favorably to these other people. They convince themselves I’m not fat. Look at so-and-so. Or they say, this is just how I’m made. “I’m husky”. “I have big hips”. Please understand…no you are not. You’re fat. And you are fat because of what and how you eat and probably because you don’t exercise enough. But most probably it’s what you are doing in the kitchen or at the dining table that has led to your lack of fitness.

Sonja Comparison

My wife and I were in the same boat. When I finally tired of my size and feared the threat of dying young like my Dad, my Uncle, and my Grandfather I didn’t think I had much to lose. I was introduced to AdvoCare by a long time friend who told me I could have six-pack abs. At the time I was about 245 lbs. and said I’d just be happy to drop below 230. I still didn’t get it. I swear, I don’t know how my friend avoided laughing out loud at me. AdvoCare opened my eyes. I lost 30 lbs. And even more, though I reached a weight I’d not been in 25 years, I can comfortably lose 10 more pounds and possibly 20. My wife has dropped nearly 40 pounds thanks to AdvoCare and acknowledges the reason she always argued against my efforts to get her to lose weight was that she didn’t think she had so much to lose. From my perspective I hear that and think she must be nuts. But my wife is no more nuts than I am, or any of the millions of other Americans who are oblivious to a condition that will shorten there lives, and in some cases drastically affect the quality of what short lives they have remaining.

Nobody will change the mind or create awareness for someone who is over weight, or dealing with other negative habits, behaviors, or lifestyles by criticism. Criticize the fat person and they are more likely to think you’re a jerk than change anything they’re doing. Be it yourself, or someone else, be kind in realizing or explaining the problem. As stated earlier more than 1-in-3 are not only over-weight, they’re obese. So they, or YOU, have plenty of company. Plenty of enablers. Plenty of excuses. If it’s you please realize there is no reason you can’t be the size and shape you were after high school. Realize it’s possible. It’s lived every day by most, MOST Americans. You can do it too.

We can help. Call us to get started today. 425-687-0100.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.

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Kids are Spoiled. Do they Know Sacrifice?

English: A peanut butter and jelly sandwich, m...

A peanut butter and jelly sandwich

August 1982 my brother and I packed up our pick up truck and I left home for the first time to go to college at Washington State University. We arrived on campus 3 days before the dormitories opened. For two nights I slept on the golf course. It wasn’t so bad, at first. It’s pretty warm, even at night, in August, in Pullman. A dorm administrator took pity on me when I went to visit my soon-to-be home, and let me in to register one day before anyone else in the building. What little money I had was being saved for my books;  and the only thing I had to eat those two days were a couple of peanut-butter and jelly sandwiches and carrots I’d packed with me when I left my Mom’s house. I have never been hungrier in my life then when they finally opened the dormitory’s cafeteria three days after I had arrived on campus.

I made the decision to arrive on campus three days early in order to find a job before all the other students arrived. It worked. I was hired to work in the dormitory cafeteria. It was a job that barely paid my living expenses during my time in school. I wonder how many kids today would make such a sacrifice today.

Years later after leaving college, attending and graduating from a broadcasting-vocational school I was hired for my first radio job in a little town called Raymond. It paid me only $600 per month and I was paid only once per month. During the one year I held this job I lived on my own. I had no phone because I couldn’t afford it.

Beef Top Ramen Contents

Obviously there was no internet back then, so I had virtually no contact with my old friends and family. I lived on Cheerios, Top Ramen, and Mac & Cheese.

Tesco now carrying Kraft Macaroni and Cheese!!...

Having meat of any kind was maybe a once a week treat. Months later the first time I returned home my Mom cried when she first saw me saying, “You’re so skinny!”. During this time I sold all of my ski equipment to pay for food and rent. I was very lonely. I went to sleep by myself listening to one of the only 3 radio stations that could be picked up in far-away Raymond. Dave Niehaus was my Summer-time pal as I drifted to sleep in my room, in the dark, listening to Mariner games from far away.

A box of Cheerios breakfast cereal.

I made the decision to work in this low paying job in this tiny far-away town because I wanted to work in radio and they gave this squeaky voiced 21-year old a chance. After they agreed to let me be the broadcast voice of the high school football and basketball games I know I couldn’t refuse. It was a tough year, but I was living a dream come true. I wonder how many young adults would make the same decision in order to reach for their dreams.

It was a few years later when I was working as News Director of an AM/FM radio station in Moses Lake, WA when I was asked to make another huge sacrifice. I was 24 years old and had moved up in income and stature in the radio business and was truly on my way to making a career. But my life had taken on the responsibility of two others. I was now married and my wife and I had a baby daughter. During one of her weekend trips home to Seattle my wife had been offered a good paying job at a Seattle TV station. It was for more money than she and I could make combined in Eastern Washington. Though my resume was still pretty sparse and I wasn’t confident in my ability to get a job in the big market of Seattle I quit my job and moved back to Western Washington. The three of us lived in my in-laws basement for about 4-5 months until I could find work. When I finally did get a job it wasn’t in Seattle. It was at a radio station in Mt. Vernon, WA. We got an apartment in Lynnwood and for nearly 2 years I commuted North, while my wife commuted South.

I made the decision to derail my private career path in order to help build a better life for my family and to cure my wife’s home-sickness for her family and the city in which she grew up. Though I loved Eastern Washington and really liked my job and my career trajectory it wasn’t a hard decision. I knew it would make my wife happy. I wonder if today’s young people know to make similar sacrifices on behalf of the spouse to whom they promised a life together.

One of the most selfish things I ever did was start my own company. I left a job in which I had struggled to build an income that had grown to 6-figures. It had taken 13 years. Upon leaving the job I was faced with zero income, and no immediate clients. My family, which was now a family of five, had to learn to do without a lot of things to which we’d become accustomed. It took a couple of years of sacrifice before my company brought my income back toward previous levels.

I made the decision to start my own business because I knew I didn’t want to work for someone else the rest of my life and knew that I wouldn’t be able to leave anything behind for my kids when my time came to an end. I also wanted to give my wife the opportunity to get back to doing what she loved, radio voice work. She’d moved away from her talent in favor of jobs that paid well and provided a security the radio industry never has. She is now our primary voice talent for Total Broadcasting Serviceofficial-logo-jpeg-document-size.jpg

My life has never been easy. My parents were lower-middle-income at best, poor at worst, and never provided me with anything outside of the bare necessities. After graduating high school they determined that I was a man and they never provided me anything else, ever. I know others have had it a lot tougher than what I have. Nevertheless, I’m proud of building a life that has allowed me to raise my kids and be happy; to enjoy some niceties.

They say 26 is the new 21. The same as 21 used to be the new 19. Twenty-six is now the age in which kids are becoming adults. Twenty-seven is the age Obamacare no longer allows parents to keep their “kids” on their health insurance plan. And 27 is now the average age in which guys and gals get married for the first time.

I think its sad. Kids have there colleges paid for by either their parents or by our overly generous (and broke) Federal Government. If they get work they expect a middle income lifestyle right away. Too many don’t seem to have any respect for authority. They believe every night is Saturday night. And I wonder if todays kids even know what sacrifice really means.

Thanks for visiting. Comments are welcome.