When one decides to better his or her health the obvious two things one has to do is eat better and exercise regularly.
But when one is a fatty and is stuck in a routine of inactivity and excessive eating, breaking out of that routine and into one that features healthier food options and repetitive movements is akin to Kim Kardashian's desire for marriage.
A good amount of gyms promise guidance of a trainer but the last thing a fatty wants is to be yelled at for being fat and out of shape. Another thing most fatties hate – I'm guessing – is working out in public.
The idea of me taking my disproportionately top-heavy frame to a gym to lumber about while breathing as loud as the sound of a plane taking off and creating Lake Michigan-sized pools of sweat wherever I stand for a few minutes is stupid – even though it's the best thing to do.
There are so many different "experts" on the best way to train and lose weight that the information really can make a person dizzy after hours online on stuck paging through a magazine.
"Experts" are different from people who are genuinely able, willing and want to help, because the "experts" come from a place of condescension where as the genuinely helpful people are motivated by empathy.
I've received so many wonderful words of encouragement through Talkbacks, emails, text messages, Twitter and Facebook. I sincerely thank you all for your genuine care and for reaching out. I'm looking into every tip that was sent my way. You people are the type of community that fatties like me need.
Similarly, there are so many different approaches to eating healthy that trying to make a decision between all of them is enough to make a person stay home and get delivery.
Popular diets like South Beach, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, 17 Day Diet, etc., all require different things and have different philosophies to losing weight and they all try to sell you on why they are the best way to lose weight, for YOU.
Embarking on a journey like this has led me to have a case of the grumpys, and I decided that I need to expel that negative energy before I derail myself and house four bacon double cheeseburgers with extra cheese from Burger King.
Call it whining, b*tching or whatever, but I'm going to "clear the mechanism," as Kevin Costner's character Billy Chapel says before pitching in the movie "For Love of the Game."
When I quit smoking years back, I never had the grumpys. When I quit drinking over a year and a half ago, I didn't catch the grumpys.
But this food addiction, this horrendous and heinous Medusa, has a firm grip on me and she doesn't want to let go.
Without further ado here is my irrational addiction-inspired rant about why everything sucks – and hopefully by the end of this, after I've spewed my last word of venom and hurled my last insult, I'll be able to move on to building some positive ideas about what lies out there for me and the promise of a life changed.
For those who find themselves frustrated about the struggle to lose weight, I encourage you to post your b*tching in the Talkback section below.
FOOD
Low-calorie diet food sucks!
The whole "it tastes like the full-calorie version" is a host of hogwash and bologna. While there are some diet foods that aren't too bad, there are far too many terrible tasting diet foods to really get my food motor running in the right direction.
Vegetables are dumb!
I am deeply envious of my fellow humans that absolutely live to eat like rabbits and other herbivores. My taste buds dislike most vegetables so much it's like I'm allergic to them or something.
All those low-calorie diet foods that suck and all of those vegetables that are dumb are made so much better by adding various condiments to them or by smothering them in dip, but condiments and dip are bad for you and therefore you can't make the sucky dumb food taste better!
There are 140 delicious calories – 130 from fat – in 2 tablespoons of Ken's ranch dressing, my favorite. In what world is 2 tablespoons of ranch enough ranch for anything?!
Don't tell me that low-cal ranch is just as good. It tastes like death.
Butter has 100 calories in one tablespoon. How does one use less than three tablespoons on two slices of toast when seeking maximum butter coverage?
Who in the hell created these portion sizes and why were they so stupid while doing it?
The more organic foods or preservative-free meats and fishes are 5,000 times more expensive than the stuff that gives me headaches and makes me feel lethargic and terrible. With the extra money left over from buying the cheap junk I can afford my ibuprofen and acetaminophen and still have money left over to buy some more cheap crap.
WORKING OUT
Why aren't gyms more fatty friendly?
Can't there be a separate area for fatties to work out away from the good-looking and fit people that use the gym for staying fit and finding hook-ups?
The idea of displacing enough water in a pool to create a flood is ridiculous, but the fear of my man-knockers bare and floating for everybody to see is terrifying and thus, there should be a separate pool for fatties and that area should be dark.
Why does working out have to make you sweat so damn much?!
Do yoga, they say. Do yoga? Yeah, right, OK! The idea of bending and contorting around my rolls of fat and breaking wind with every turn and adjustment sounds awesome! Just awesome.
SELF
How in the world were you so stupid as to let yourself get this fat and out of shape?!
In high school you were athletic, in college you were active and now you are squat and you have a wife that escaped death and a wonderful son. What, is having a family to live for and be healthy for not enough motivation for you fatty?
How in the world did you squander any of the good health you gained when you were previously able to lose weight? Why did you let yourself gain it back? You had it. You lazy prick!
Look at you sitting there typing this, scared and embarrassed by the fact that you made your weight struggles public. Hey, dope, everybody who has ever seen you already knows that you're a fatty. This isn't news, genius! You knew, they knew, everybody knows. Get over it and get back to work!
Well, I think that about covers it. Honestly, it felt good to sit and gripe for a minute because those are all things that I've let fester in my mind for far too long.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Born in Milwaukee and raised in the Milwaukee suburb of Brown Deer, Concordia University Wisconsin alumnus Poppe has spent the majority of his life in or around the city and county of Milwaukee.
As an advocate of Milwaukee's hip-hop community Poppe began popular local music blog Milwaukee UP in March 2010. Check out the archived entries here.
Though heavy on the hip-hop, Poppe writes about other genres of music and occasionally about food, culture or sports, and is always ready to show his pride in Milwaukee and Wisconsin.