By MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Managing Editor
editor@sbnewspaper.com
Michael Rodriguez
I can still feel myself slipping. As the car sank to the bottom of the ocean, I recalled memories from my childhood. Christmas mornings with the family, the daily games of basketball my friends and I enjoyed, that one day I became violently ill after eating pancakes made from expired pancake mix – ah, yes. I remembered them all. My wedding day also flashed before my eyes, as did the afternoon I saw my byline in print for the very first time.
But these memories felt less like reflections and more like souvenirs, souvenirs that I suspected were following me somewhere. Still, while it was a beautiful thing, I was also afraid of dying young. “There’s still so much that I want to do…that I have to do,” I thought to myself. And just like that, serenity soon turned into panic. However brief, for that one moment I was more terrified than I had ever been in my life.
This was, quite obviously, a nightmare that I experienced recently, but it was also a shot in the arm. After about a week of deep thought, not to mention several people who tried to encourage me to begin living healthier, I decided that I would do all I could to insure my life for another 60 or 70 years or so. After all, weighing over 400 pounds wasn’t getting me anywhere except, perhaps, into an early grave.
Significantly overweight, I started small so as not to hurt myself – a few minutes on a stationary bike, followed by heavy breathing (gasping for air is the actual term I was looking for) and profuse sweating. Anyone remember that scene in Along Came Polly when Ben Stiller experienced a symptom of irritable bowel syndrome? Okay, picture that guy when envisioning me on my first day of working-out.
Shrugging off my initial depression after discovering just how out of shape I was, I kept at it. Soon, two minutes turned to five, then 10, then 20. After 10 weeks, I’m now up to 46 minutes on the bike (at a moderate pace), 16 minutes on the elliptical machine and I’ve only recently begun incorporating strength and conditioning. Coupled with a strict diet that basically eliminates my intake of most, if not all, processed foods, this new lifestyle change is beginning to produce results – albeit modest. My ultimate goal is to reach 180 pounds, which is what I weighed throughout most of my high school years.
I won’t lie to you, though. There have been times when I felt like giving up. Some people have mocked me, others have stared, and there were even a select few who snickered at the mere sight of me. I know I shouldn’t let them upset me, especially since I’ve been experiencing this for the last nine years, but it’s discouraging now that I’m attempting to make a conscious effort to change the very thing for which I’m being judged.
What’s prevented me from quitting cannot be attributed to a single reason. The support I have from my wife, family, friends and co-workers helps to keep me focused, honest and motivated. I’m determined by the work ethic instilled in me by my father, the hardest working man I know, and my mother, a pillar of faith. My pastors, Danny and Lorena Rodriguez of Grace Point Fellowship Church, have unknowingly provided me with the spiritual guidance required to undertake such a journey.
All things considered, the transformation I seek will undoubtedly be one of the most difficult things that I will ever endure, both physically and psychologically.
How exciting!
This is what also drives me: the challenge to not only alter my appearance but also the perception which seems to accompany it. Admittedly, when I’m at my weakest and feeling as though I can’t pedal another minute longer, imagining the look on the faces of those who’ve underestimated me is quite the incentive to keep going. So that’s what I’m doing. I’m pedaling. I’m going. I’m not stopping.
If there should be a point in my life that I look back on fondly, as I did in the dream that I’ve now termed “my wakeup call,” I pray that it’s this day: I’m sitting in my bedroom, with my wife by my side as she looks up Halloween costumes on her EVO, writing the first entry of what I hope will be many more columns highlighting my trek toward “a better way,” as our lead reporter, Heather Cathleen Cox, so eloquently put it.
In the meantime, I encourage those of you who are in a similar predicament to join me. Let’s do this.
To read this story in print, pick up a copy of the September 23 edition of the San Benito News, or subscribe to our E-Edition by clicking here.
2 comments
Don’nt forget to include visiting your doctor for those regular physical examinations..It did’nt take me very long to get motived to loss wt. and with the picture I keep in my mind nobody can discourage me to stop. Every day when I arrived from work exactly when arriveing up my drive way I’d see my nb run out his front door wearing tiny shorts and a tang top . Just like clock work he would do this every single day and come out right as I was passing by his house. I thought to myself how boreing to run every day and the guy is so skinny. After some months of seeing this guy continue to run out from his front door after he got home from work everyday there was one speacial day that changed my mind and I was stung by the fittness bug. That day lke clock work I am arriveing from work and guess what? yes there in front of me my nb running out his front door for his daily run. I arrive home had dinner and after 45 mins or so walked outside to sit on my front yard chair. I sit a while and guess what ? Towords the street to my side I see my nb the runner casually walking cooling off from his long distance run and smoking a big cigar!!!
As the great raido broadcaster and Medal Of Freedom recepiant Mr Paul Harvey would say “Now you Know the rest of the Story”.
Bravo, Mr. Rodriguez! Excellent and motivating story!