Rich Wood 2

Food is Fuel

A Journey Through Weight Gain, Weight Loss, Diabetes and Lifestyle Change

I was not an overweight kid. I played sports, rode my bike…all the normal things that a teenager does. I trace my weight gain and my battle with food back to February of 1990. I was a passenger in a serious car accident. The result of this left me with extreme soreness all over my body. I stayed home in bed for weeks. This was the catapult for me no longer caring about what I ate, when I ate, or how much I ate. I would eat whole bags of chips while I was waiting for a pizza to be delivered. After I ate the pizza, it was time for dessert. I say all this to be as honest as I can because you may see yourself in these traits. I would eat fast food all the time. I would eat fried food all the time. Vegetables and salads were not a part of my life at all. I didn’t exercise, and I carried around a tremendous amount of stress (more on that later). 

All these things led up to feeling terrible, not sleeping well, and not being happy. I was 24 years old and I was going down a dangerous path with my health, and I didn’t care. Food meant so much to me, and it was so visual for me, that if I saw someone eating something, it would set off a craving in me. It didn’t matter if I had just eaten and wasn’t hungry, I wouldn’t be satisfied until I got the food I wanted. It took me years to find out that this is an addiction just like any drug or alcohol – it’s filling up a need for something you’re missing in your life. I want to paint this dark picture for you because I can’t stress enough how bad I felt and looked. I would stop at fast food restaurants and eat in the car on my way home to have dinner. I would pretend like I hadn’t eaten yet. This pattern would continue for many years at an alarming rate.

I’m giving you a glimpse into what I was going through in case you can relate to it, to help you to start making the changes in your life that you need to make. Back then, I wouldn’t have admitted to how I was conducting my life. Through hard work and surrounding myself with knowledgeable, positive people I can look back at those days and share these memories because I’ve found a way to never return to that lifestyle again.

Next week: My first uninformed try at fitness and nutrition – and why it didn’t last.

-Rich Wood