Wednesday, February 22, 2012

I WAS HUMILIATED- into losing weight!

If you read my introduction, I touched briefly on something I call life changing humiliators. I have this theory that  fatties like myself, will only make the serious lifestyle change to lose weight for the following two reasons: 1. There is a serious pressing health issue that requires us to lose weight 2. We have been humiliated enough times to ignite a change in our bodies. Thus, we derive the term "humiliators" which are the people and life events that have humiliated us in such a way that we lead to a decision to make a permanent change in our lifestyles.

I want to share my humiliators with the world because:
1. I need to let this go and don't let these people and situations haunt me forever.
2. I want to acknowledge my humiliators because without them, I probably wouldn't have ever been pressed to get healthy

So here we go... Loo Loo's series of humiliators

1. When I was in the 8th grade I was taking Spanish class and we were learning different vocabulary. The next word on the list was gordo or fat in English. We had to make sentences using the vocabulary and read them aloud. One of the boys read: Alexis es mas gorda or Alexis is very fat and the entire class laughed and the teacher didn't do a thing.

2. I was on a flight to Denver, CO to see my mother. I sat down in the seat and tried to buckle the seat belt , but I couldn't do it. I was fighting with the seat belt so bad that the stewardess just blurted out "you're going to need an extender for that- it's not going to fit."

3. I was on a separate flight to Miami and I had the window seat. There was an older woman sitting between me and another gentleman who was on the aisle seat. The woman began complaining in spanish to her friends across the aisle that she was uncomfortable and squished ( I know enough spanish to also have picked up on her not wanting to sit in between two black people as well, but thats another story.) When the flight attendant came by she called out to her and asked her if she could have another seat because I was too fat and she didnt want to sit next to me. I was mortified. Then the lady began telling me how I needed to lose weight even though "I wasnt that fat"  but still pretty fat. The flight attended ended up moving me to first class, but I was mortified and all of the other passengers heard the whole ordeal.

4. I went on a vacation to Costa Rica and my weight affected my whole trip in the following ways:
a. I went canyoneering and the administrators had to get me a special harness because they were worried I was so fat that the rope would break and I'll fall to my death
b. During that same canyoneering incident we had to climb back up the hillside to get to the top of the waterfall and I broke down because I couldn't climb up all of those steps. I held up the group for about 40 additional minutes.
c. On a banana boat ride we got thrown (in fun) off the boat and needed to climb back onto it to keep going. I couldnt pull myself back up on the boat and neither could ALL of my fellow boat riders
d. We went on a horseback riding trip and the facilitators took one look at me and went back inside to get their strongest biggest horse they could find in the stable.
e. On our snorkeling trip to tortuga island- again I couldn't pull myself back up on the boat: A man had to use all his strength to pull me in and all my weight made the boat rock.

5. Last but not least, I went to an amusement park with two of good friends. I love roller coasters so naturally I got in line for the biggest baddest roller coaster there is. I got in the seat and couldnt buckle the seat belt. The ride administrator came over and pulled with all his might but he couldnt buckle me in either..i was too fat. I had to get kicked off the ride in front of everyone my friends included because I was too big to ride the rides.

Im sure there are countless more humiliators in my life but these are the ones that have really stuck with me and are my driving force to losing weight. I never want to be this person again. I'm set to get on a plane in two weeks and hopefully I will have been down 20 lbs by then and can buckle the seatbelt no problem.

I'm saddened that I've been through these hurtful things but I'm even more motivated to make sure I never deal with this again!




2 comments:

  1. Most of us have probably suffered from similar blunt comments or humiliated-in-public instances. Way to use those unfortunate memories as fuel to drive your weight loss journey. But I'd like to remind you that there are a lot of positives that come with a healthier lifestyle; those negative things are good for an initial boost, but you need to be in this for the long haul. Best of luck!

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  2. I totally agree Jack...I'd say that yes these experiences are what got me started because I began to become more conscious of my body and what I looked like. I've avoided mirrors for so long, I forgot! But I'm definitely sticking with a healthier lifestyle not for them- but for me. Thanks for the encouragement!

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