“I can show you how to eat a box of chocolate all year long”
My little brother and I were at the bus stop waiting on the school bus with the usual group of kids that caught the same bus. Rick was there too. He had been a thorn in my brother’s side for a long time with his relentless bullying. I’d always been an “A” student. I had never been in a fight. Little did I know that day, would be the last day that one of these statements would no longer be true.
I grew up on the south side of Indianapolis. I’ve lived in Indiana my whole life. My mom’s side of the family was as at risk as you could get and grew up in poverty. My dad’s side, not so much. If me and my brother grew up poor, we didn’t know it.
My dad’s side of the family loved food. Celebrations were food and having food was a celebration. My dad was overweight and over his lifetime he was what I would consider an extreme weight-loser. At least 3 times in his life he gained and lost 100lbs. He loved to run the mini-marathon and he did it every year. My mom grew up where she learned to ration and portion. She was never an over-eater. She was one of 5 kids and if they had a mini bottle of coke, it got split 5 ways, a piece of gum – it got split 5 ways. She could receive a box of chocolates as a gift, and she’d freeze it and make it last all year. That’s just how things were. These types of memories stayed with me and I believe impacted me. They taught me about food and eating, and I didn’t even know it at the time.
What led me to weight watchers at 118lbs?
I never really had to think about eating or how I ate growing up. I’ve always been fortunate in that I took after my mother and her eating habits. Fast forward … I’m married. I weighed 118lbs and my husband was struggling with his weight and wanted to lose weight. He asked me to attend Weight Watcher’s meetings to learn the tools and tips and then come back and teach him so that he could lose weight. So, I did it. Needless to say, I was not a favored woman at the meetings. But I went and I learned the tools and tips and brought the knowledge back home with me to my husband.
After helping my husband practice those tools and tips, he was able to drop 34lbs! Yay for him, right?! Well, the bad thing is that it turned my focus to “food, food, food”!! Before going to the meetings, I wasn’t really thinking about food that much. The more focus I put on food, the worse it got for me. Crazy right?! If felt rigid in a sense. I think my focus on the food, gave it more power than it needed to have. All of a sudden, if I was told I couldn’t have something, then I wanted to have it right then! Since Weight Watchers, there’s been this kind of tension of “can I eat this” or “can I not eat this” and this thing of, not wanting to live life feeling like I can’t have certain things to eat.
Then one day, I met this woman at church. She had this magnetic personality and charm and I thought to myself, I want to know this person. So we met, and I liked her right from the jump. Later on, I learned that she owned a fitness studio and I thought, oh, now I have to go check out this studio! I did and I loved it!! But not for the obvious reasons.
It was love at first “site”!
I loved the studio right from the jump too! I loved it for the sense of community. I’ve been a member for over 3 years and it’s not until recently, with the pandemic, that I’ve realized just how much that community means to me. Since the pandemic, I have not been able to go to the studio at my regularly scheduled times and have had to do FCL (aka Fit Chicks LIVE) from home. So, yes, I miss my regular workout buddies at my regular times. And, I miss the ladies who are leaving just as I am coming in, as well as, the ones who come in, as I am leaving. But also, I love the new ladies I workout with on FCL that I now get to see regularly. My community has grown since COVID. In addition to that, Fit Chicks has helped me to break some of the “food mindsets” I had and that I had learned while helping my husband. I am so grateful for these things.
…Oh! I almost forgot to tell you how the day at the bus stop ended!
There was a definite fire in me that day and at that moment to stand up. I do not remember all the details of that day. AND I am pleading the fifth if anyone asks, but I do believe, that I may recall, an umbrella breaking across the top of Rick’s head and both of us being sent down to the principal’s office. He got paddled. I did not. But the call down to the principal’s office was more than enough punishment for me. And that was that. In the blink of an eye, my fighting career was over. He never picked on my brother again.
Over my lifetime, God has shown me that, Cheryl, I need you to fight, but I need you to fight in different ways. I need you to fight in prayer and in other ways. That fight in me comes from my mom and her side of the family. I still carry that fire and fight in me, to this day, for the underserved and the underprivileged, for my family, my friends, and also for my own health and happiness.