I've Been Here Before

If you've ever seen those commercials where someone's giving a testimonial about what made them decide to finally lose weight, you'd know that it usually involves some poor fat bastard seeing a picture of himself looking like Jabba the Hut, stuffing his face with food.











Later on in the commercial, we see him slimmed down, playing in a yard or lifting some disease-ridden infant over his head and spinning around to demonstrate his strength and superior parental love.

Well, the image below was my inspiration from about 2003. I was working a different sedentary office job at the time and was not shameful about using my beefed up salary to fatten myself up with all the beer, whiskey, and fast food I could find.


















This is me climbing a mountain in Germany...I think it was called Shoefenspitzel. I was so horrified by my fat body in this picture (and the exhaustion accompanying this climb) that, upon returning home, I almost stopped eating completely until I got down to 142 lbs.

Luckily, I no longer have to worry about some random photograph to surface, since I can just remember a few clues from 2003 to remind me when I'm getting overweight again.

A) I struggle to walk up a flight of stairs without hunching over.
B) I can feel my body fat jiggle when I hit bumps in the road while driving.
C) I consider throwing myself off of some German mountain to avoid having to walk back down.