I Want To Get Fitter!

[Jermyn Davidson]

So I went to one of those weight loss places and we spoke. I began our meeting with a joke about how overweight I have allowed myself to become. We all laughed.

They asked me about my weight loss goals. I told them that I wanted to get down to the weight I was when I was in the Marine Corps. I let out a nervous chuckle because I know I am a big man now. The specific weight loss specialist talking with me at this point chuckled too.

She asked to know my age now and my age when I was serving in the Corps.

40 now, 18 - 22 back then. She said some other stuff and I don't remember what she said because I had tuned her out as I thought about how small I was back in those days.

She asked my for a specific weight that we should work towards.

I said 130 - 140. She seemed startled. I reminded her that because of my height that is where I needed to be in order to have a healthy BMI and if I aim for 130 - 140 and land at 150, I would be ok, but near the top of my healthy BMI limits for a man my height.

She put me on one scale to give me my weight at that very moment.

Oh the guilt and shame!


She put me on this other scale and it printed out a hole bunch of numbers and stuff.

We went to her office and she sat me down, looked me in the eyes and told me that it was IMPOSSIBLE for me to ever weigh 130 or even 140 pounds ever again!

I was genuinely shocked. I even became defensive as I swore to her my determination to meet my weight loss goals. "Maybe she doesn't think I am serious about this," was one of my thoughts. My mind was racing as I tried to convince her that I was absolutely serious about losing weight!

She said, "Mr. Davidson, calm down just relax. It is impossible for you to ever weigh 130 pounds again and be healthy because (approximately) 160 pounds of your weight is Fat Free Mass."

"What? What do you mean by Fat Free Mass?"

"160 pounds of you is not fat. You have a lot of mass that we don't need to get rid of. You are NOT (emphasis hers) as fat as you think you are."

I smiled.

"Really? I am not that fat?"

"You need to lose weight in order to be healthy, but you're not as big as you think you are and you don't have to lose as much as you think you do in order to be healthy. I've seen men and women in much worse situations than you. We have helped them and we will help you too!"

Until that moment, I had not felt that good about my weight in such a very long time.

I need to lose weight and I will-- but apparently, I really am "big-boned" and maybe, just maybe, my brain is big too!

I walked out of that office feeling like "the BOSS!"