I Was a Big, Fat, Unhealthy Mess

So the other night the lovely Wendy and I were having dinner, which consisted of some grilled chicken and asparagus. Simple as it gets.

I remarked how I was kind of surprised that I was a fan of asparagus considering I probably never even tried it before age 35.

Wendy looked at me like I was an idiot.

“Dude, you didn’t do much of anything as far as any vegetables were concerned before age 35. Asparagus isn’t unique there.” (btw, ‘dude’ is pretty much the standard term of endearment between the two of us.)

Her focus then moved back to my expertly grilled chicken.

Thought about it for a minute, and realized, yup, she’s right. Before age 35, my main vegetables would have been potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and iceberg lettuce. And that would have been if I had a side salad at some shitty restaurant, or in the case of tomatoes and lettuce, if I went with the Whopper instead of the BK Big Fish. And yes, french fries =’d potatoes back then.

Of course, before age 35 I was also a big, fat, unhealthy mess.

Nine years, a career shift, and a couple of beautiful children later, and things are a bit different.

For starters, I’m pretty sure I haven’t had a Whopper or BK Big Fish in nine years. And, yeah, now I eat more vegetables and I exercise more too.

At 44, I’m a whole lot healthier than I was at 35. No, I’m not perfect and I never will be. There is no such thing as perfect. And that’s the point of undieting. You don’t need to drive yourself crazy thinking you have to eat ‘perfectly’, and then mentally flog yourself when you don’t. Who wants to do that?

If, on occasion, I want pizza, I eat pizza. Not shitty pizza mind you. If I’m going to eat occasional junk food, I’m eating the highest quality junk food I can. Life is too short to bother with shitty pizza.

And after I have the pizza, I don’t feel an ounce of guilt. There is nothing worse than having a wonderful cheat meal and totally fucking it up by wrapping yourself in a big pile of guilt and self-loathing afterwards. Face it, it was just pizza, and it was good. Enjoy it for what it was, and move on.

And when you’re an undieter, moving on means simply recognizing a treat like pizza for what it is, a treat, and understanding that it isn’t going to make you five pounds fatter overnight. As an undieter who eats lean protein, plenty of fresh fruits and veggies, seeds, nuts, legumes, and drinks enough water most of the time, you know that a single pizza event is simply a tiny blip on the radar of life.

Of course, before I was 35, pizza wasn’t a blip. It, along with lots of other overly-processed, high-sodium, calorie-dense, nutrient-deficient junk food pretty much covered my whole radar screen on a daily basis. Thus, the reason I was a big, fat, unhealthy mess.

But, the point of all this rambling is that I changed. And if you’re on the path I was back then, no matter what your age is, there’s no reason you can’t change too. I’m not special. (Although my girls think I am. My youngest just told me she loves me more than Storyland. That’s right, daddy rocks. But I digress.)

I’m no different than you, and it’s never too late to change your lifestyle. Undieting has no age limits.

I don’t care if you’re 35, 25, 45, or 75. You too can become cooler than Storyland. You’ve still got lots of time left above ground, don’t you think it makes sense to make the most of that time? Maybe even squeeze out a few extra years of time? If I was able to do it, so can you.

I firmly believe that I’m going to live a longer, more functional, and happier life now than I would have had I continued doing what I was doing nine years ago. I know, I could get hit by a car or have a piano fall on my head tomorrow, but we all live with that uncertainty every day. Some shit you can’t control.

And some shit you can.

I can reduce my chances of having a heart attack. I can reduce my chances of having a stroke. I can reduce my chances of contracting cancer or diabetes. I can keep myself healthy and strong so that I’m not driving one of those electric carts around the grocery store when I’m 50. I can stay active now so that I hopefully don’t need someone to give me a sponge bath and wipe my ass when I’m 75.

I can do some simple things to be as healthy as I can so that I can live to see my daughters graduate from college, bitch about the cost of their weddings, and get to run around with and spoil rotten my as yet unborn grandchildren. (My daughters are 7 and 4 years old as I write this, so I’m planning ahead.)

Or I could have kept eating Whoppers.

Seems like a pretty easy choice. Undieting rules.

Dude, pass the asparagus.

~Dave

Dave Soucy is an entrepreneur, coach, trainer, motivator, husband, dad, and former fat guy. Learn more about him here.