April 13, 2016

“Go Fly a Kite Day” ended up being one of the more significant events in my life—and the beginning of my weight-loss journey.

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Me, April 13, 2016.

A children’s activity where my family and I enjoyed a beautiful day led me to one viewing, one simple demonstration, that changed everything.

I had been overweight my whole life. My weight fluctuated, but I was never at a “healthy weight” for me.

I did understand more about nutrition than probably the average person. I also went to Weight Watchers in my 30s and learned a lot. But that was the extent of my nutritional knowledge: self-taught and Weight Watchers.

There were exhibits set up because this event was also meant to promote healthy lifestyles for families. There was one piece of poster board, one small demonstration about sugar, that made me stop. Literally.

I was 42 years old. My son was on his journey to a black belt in Tae Kwon Do. This led to me sitting in a room for long periods of time watching kids work. My mind was already geared toward wanting a healthy life for my son, which meant a healthier life for me.

At this time, I was not at the heaviest I had ever been, but I wasn’t far from it. I had put back on most of the weight I had lost with Weight Watchers. Absolutely, positively no reason for me to gain weight—just my own poor habits.

Earlier that year, my best friend and I fell in love with Lipton sweet tea. And then they came out with an extra-sweet tea.

I remember thinking this was just fabulous. It was so delicious.

I walked up to the poster board. On the left, they had four empty containers of popular drinks adhered to the board.

I remember one being a soda, one was a Red Bull, one was a Vitamin Water, and the last one was Nestlé sweet tea.

On the other side of the board were baggies filled with white sugar. Each bag had the amount of processed sugar in each of the drinks.

Holy. Crap.

If I drink two to three iced teas a day, that means I’m ingesting two to three of those baggies of sugar?!

April 2016

I went home to do some more homework on sugar.

And remember, we know much more now than we did 10 years ago. But what I found shocked me.

Why?

Because when I was young, fat and increased caloric intake were what I understood made somebody overweight. Everything had to be low-fat.

Sugars were not talked about on a doctor/patient level. I was always given a sheet at the doctor’s office: a 1,200-calorie diet. If you stick to this, you will lose weight.

Lower your caloric intake, lose weight.

Only if it was that simple.