I am a 28-year old Senior-level Customer Service agent for a web-based independent publishing platform in Charleston, SC.
In a former life, I was a City Planner living in Hutchinson Kansas. In April 2010, in a time of existential crisis, I quit my job to "figure things out." I gave myself several cover stories that I told various people: "exploring different career options," "thinking about going back to school" (for, depending on who I was talking to, Spanish or Graphic Design), and "starting my own event planning business" (even made business cards).
After floundering around Kansas in a state of under-employment, I moved back to South Carolina in November 2011. Between October 2010 and May 2011 I lost about 30 lbs. Between September 2011 and January 2012 I gained almost all of it back. Spring & summer of 2012 I managed to get my weight back down to about 318 pounds, and I've been within 10 pounds of this point for about a year.
The original impetus for this blog was a trip to Panama in September 2010 for a friend's wedding. During my trip to Panama, I was uncomfortable, mostly due to my weight. The flights to and from the country were cramped. The 7 hour bus ride from Panama City to David (and back) was borderline miserable. Walking around the town of Boquete, up and down hills, at a moderate altitude, with humid air thick with diesel fumes, I nearly had an asthma attack - and did wind up getting a respiratory infection. A trip that should have been an amazing life experience was overshadowed by being out of breath, cramped into chairs too small for my fat butt, swolen feet and other maladies that were direct results of my obesity. On the bus to David, at one point an old man sat beside me. He was fairly chatty and we wound up having conversations about a variety of things - his farm, his children, why I was in Panama, and what the U.S. is like. People in Panama, like in most Latin American cultures, are more direct than in the U.S. He said to me "You are fat. Do you like being fat? Are you not uncomfortable like that?" I told him that I was, in fact, not comfortable. "I hear that many people in the United States are fat - so fat they make themselves sick. Why do they do this to themselves?"Our conversation went on, and I explained the overabundance of fast food and a culture where more people drive than walk. That conversation stayed with me. Why do I do this to myself? Why do I eat so much I make myself sick and uncomforable?
In Panama it was easy for me to cut back on eating. I was taking antibiotics to prevent Malaria, which gave me heartburn from hell, for the first half, and the 2nd half I had a nasty upper respiratory infection, so I didn't have much appetite. When I returned, I decided to try and continue this trend of limiting my calorie intake. I also decided to try and eat more healthy, homemade, well-balanced meals. Part of what lead to my weight gain was too many meals in restaurants. The motivation to eat at home is eased by my current perpetual brokeness.
I started this blog as a food intake journal, but it has grown to include recipies, tips for healthy eating and weight loss, and a fair bit of navel-gazing.
Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Any tips on blogging, healthy eating, or anything else you'd like to share are welcome. I hope you find this project helpful in achieving your own healthy living goals, or at least a source of comic relief.
If you are interested in restaurants, food sources, events and foodways of central Kansas, please visit my now-defunct other blog, http://eatingacrosskansas.blogspot.com.
All the best,
Amy
