| Colin's Story: Obesity to Anorexia |
Page 1 of 2 Throughout my youth I was always a heavy bloke. Subsequently, I was bullied during high school because of this. I hid how much this hurt me very well, from both friends and family. I used to join in on this bullying and make fun of myself, because I found this made the bullies pick on me less. Once I left School and went to College, I passed my driving test; this made me lazier and gave me more access to fast food restaurants, etc. I also started working in a pub/restaurant and then turned 18, which led to me going out drinking all weekend, every weekend and soon my weight went through the roof. I knew I was overweight, but I had a close group of friends, both male and female and was always having a laugh, that it didn't bother me.In September 2001, while out drinking with some mates, I had a picture taken of my best mate and me. When I had it developed, I couldn’t believe how big I was. I was over 20 stone in weight and looked terrible. I felt sick at the sight of me and that’s when I decided to do something about it. I started eating more sensible and soon I had lost 2 stone. I was very happy with this and decided to join a gym. I started going a couple of times a week and about 8 months later I was down to 16 stone. I couldn’t believe how easy it was and was so happy with myself, but still needed to lose more. If I could lose this much, so quickly, how hard could it be to lose even more? I started going the Gym on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and on the other days would go cycling or something like that. The weight was falling off me and I felt great but I still wasn’t happy. Every time I looked in the mirror, I didn’t see how much weight I lost, I still saw the 20 stone man I was before. I started eating less and less. Some days I would be starving, so would chew gum to curb these cravings. I was weighing myself at least twice a day and if I put the slightest bit of weight on, I would feel guilty and disgusted with myself and would eat even less and workout even harder in the gym to make sure I lost that weight. By November 2003, which is when I turned 21 and a mere 2 years after I started, I was down to 10 and a half stone. I had family and friends saying I had lost too much weight and I looked ill, but I ignored them. Other people were coming up to me and saying how much weight I had lost, which made me feel great, so this spurred me on. I thought I looked good but still thought I needed to lose more weight. I still looked at myself as overweight, so I kept it up. I was now eating barely anything. I would have a tin of fruit salad for breakfast, a cereal bar for lunch and would have something like beans on toast or a bowl of cereal for dinner. I was exercising everyday, which consisted of a five-mile run and weight training. I was obsessed. It didn’t matter what was happening in the day, I would have to go the gym and if I missed it, I would be hell to live with. I was always getting ill. I was constantly going the doctors with one problem or the next. My liver and kidneys weren’t functioning right and had starting to develop gout in some of my fingers. I believe this is something people who drink a lot can get and the reason I had got it was I wasn’t eating any food at all, but was going out drinking with my mates all weekend, every weekend, which meant this was the only constant thing that I was putting in my body. I was always constipated too, so took laxatives everyday nearly. I found this helped the weight loss too. There was no way I was going to be that fat again, so would do anything to keep the weight off. |