{"id":30744,"date":"2024-07-31T18:07:26","date_gmt":"2024-07-31T22:07:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mentordiscoverinspire.org\/?p=30744"},"modified":"2024-07-31T22:41:00","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T02:41:00","slug":"what-a-fat-tub-of-shit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mentordiscoverinspire.org\/what-a-fat-tub-of-shit\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Fat Tub of Shit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chris Kenney
MDI Contributor <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What a fat tub of shit\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That’s what I tell myself when looking at pictures of me from different times in my life. I don’t know if it’s because I hate that person or if saying it just makes me laugh a little while using it to compartmentalize and disassociate from him. I’m a 35-year-old man, soon to be 36. I’ve been a big kid my whole life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My weight wasn’t always about eating or food. Rather, it became my safe place, my identity. I remember being pretty big at 12 years old; I was 5 foot 6 and 190 pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I wasn’t a shapeless amoeba of a boy; I was what they would call in the 90s as “big boned.” I was active, played outside daily, and was into sports. I remember the jeans they would sell called “husky” jeans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What great advertising: “Do you have the waist of a man but the legs of a child? Well, do we have the jeans for you!” Nothing like being a fat kid wearing jeans made for fat kids at school where kids make fun of fat kids. You heard that right\u2014I got made fun of in elementary school for being bigger than everyone else. Now, I know everyone gets made fun of no matter what, whether you are too fat, too skinny, too pale, too dark, too tall, too short etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kids are cruel they say, but I loved it. It just fit with my sense of humor. I would often think to myself, “I can make fun of myself way better than they can; I know me way better than they do.” I truly believe that’s where my sense of humor started. I believe it started as a defense mechanism to show them that they had no power over me. I’m sure it didn’t always show up as a positive thing in my life, but as a man in my mid-30s, I can’t tell you how useful a tool it is to be funny and to be able to deflect with a quick tongue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timing is everything in humor. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I feel like a lot of men out there do this. I feel like, for whatever reason, we do it more than women do. Maybe it’s to avoid being vulnerable and show we can’t be bothered by something as trivial as an insecurity. It’s an interesting thought. As I sit here today, Im 6 foot and weigh about 240 pounds. Two years ago, I was the biggest I had ever been in my life at 285 pounds (what a fat tub of \u2026). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I figured it was time for a change. I started working out, eating right, fell in love with a routine, and I got stronger, slimmer, and mentally happier. Now, when I look at myself in the mirror, I don’t say or think “what a fat tub of shit.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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