Week Ten, Day One - United States of ?

I used to live in the United States of Fat. A Fast Food Nation. What would happen if I'd see a McDonald's on the way to work? Wheel in the drive-thru, grab a few thousand calories. Two sausage McMuffins was my thing. I usually got them without egg, but if they gave me egg by mistake, no worries. I live in the United States of Fat. Bring it on. Add the large Hi-C orange drink (basically sugar, water, and orange color), and why not a hash brown too? Sure. Pile it on. I live in the United States of Fat.

What people don't realize is once you live in the United States of Fat, you have a hard time living anywhere else. Fat, grease, sugar... all these things add to the euphoric haze of living there. Euphoria is addictive. Quite simply, eating bad feels good. If it didn't, people would eat healthy food and all maintain blogs about looking better, and feeling better.

I realized when I began this transformation that I had an addiction. I had to admit it to myself to be successful. I just had to admit that all the pull of the sugar and the compulsive eating had simply taken over. I became powerless to control my urge to power eat through 3 candy bars in one 9 minute session before bed, or consume an entire 6,000 calorie pizza as a snack.

In the United States of Fat, we are bombarded day and night with the power of advertisements perfectly geared at making fatty get up off the chair in the hotel and dial up a toll free number to get food delivered instantly. Tonight, after my extensive workout, I watched my Law and Order CI on USA and every commercial break was filled with ads for nothing other than junk food and weight loss companies.

What's wrong with that picture? One ad: Try KFC. Next ad: Go on NutriSystem like Dan Marino and look better. In other words: Eat up Fatty and LOSE WEIGHT YOU FAT PIG! No wonder the residents of the United States of Fat are so confused.

Life on the road is hard. When I get to my hotel room I've got cookies and sometimes candy waiting for me. These items are basically saying: "Thanks for staying with us. Eat up Fatty and enjoy your sugar high. You're valuable to us. You deserve diabetes and a few extra pounds."

So, Esby and I went to the front desk one night a few weeks back. We said: "No More Junk Food! We want fresh fruit, or veggies." They listened and when we got here last week there was fresh fruit in our rooms, instead of the junk food. But, this week we are back to the junk food. The hotel desk guy is really cool, and he offered us some bruised, old bananas after he realized they forgot the fruit this week. I just said, "No worries Dude. That junk food shit goes right in the trash the second I walk in the door."

Why? Because now I live in the United States of Fit. I've become self aware. I'm no longer a drone or a member of the herd of cattle that mindlessly grazes on junk food. I no longer stop at Starbucks three times a day for my Triple Shot Venti Mochas, or twice a day, or once a day, or even once a month, or once a year. Finding a Starbucks used to be one of the most important things in my life. I used to book a hotel based on how close a Starbucks was. Not anymore.

Now, one of the most most important things in my life (other than my wife, family, friends, job, etc., of course) is to some day soon be able to bust out six 60 lb hammer curls (and all the benefits that go along with being able to do that). Then, I'll want 70, then 80, and so on.

Now that I live in the United States of Fit, I'm no longer bothered by things like this Hotel sponsored TV channel line up that would have been a guaranteed Dominos a sale just 11 short weeks ago:
I choose to live in the United States of Fit. And I'm here to stay.

Peace out... :D

JH