Conquering Obesity
by Joseph Brush

When I was in kindergarten, I was ninety pounds. Oblivious to myself and my size, I did not care about my weight. That is how it all starts, denial at its prime. The kids around me pointed and laughed as if I was some kind of freak. They treated me as if I had had no heart and no feelings. I asked my mother once about why everyone was looking and poking fun at me. She replied saying, “Joseph, you are different and no one can take the best of you, ever.” Those simple words changed my outlook on life and slightly made me a bit more oblivious. Life went on and eating became my best friend and my cancer. Going on through elementary school, I was eating my life away and taking other people’s lunches like I was the garbage disposal. I graduated fifth grade weighing two hundred-thirty pounds.

At eleven years old and two hundred-thirty pounds, I was the largest kid in the graduating class, double the size of the next biggest kid. The pain penetrated me like a dagger to my throat with all the name calling and looks. No pain could pierce through the armor of my self-esteem that was built up by the simple words that my mom had said to me. I was still fighting strong until the fatal day when the savior became the enemy. The same person, who told me no one could take my indifference away, became my mortal enemy by turning on me with those utterly cruel words, “You’re a fat shit.” My mother told me the only thing that I did not want to hear. She had been my only defense and then she took it away from me!

For years, I did not speak the same way or look at her the same way again. Going through junior high with my own mother ranting on about my weight was becoming unbearable; I could not take much more. My only salvation was the Lord and what He did for me. God gave me the courage to continue on. In the eighth grade, I became even bigger. Graduating at three hundred and sixty-six pounds was not pleasant. Although I eventually found the word of Jesus, I was considering committing suicide. Jesus was not the only person watching over me. My grandfather also gave me strength. He said to me, “Joe, do not give up. Never let weaknesses like suicide get to you.”

I felt that considering that I went to an all-boys high school that it would be easier. Of course I was wrong. They were nastier. By this time, I was peaking at four hundred pounds and I began to realize my weight problem. Sitting in chairs was very difficult and getting up stairs was very hard for my breathing. Eventually I tried losing weight. I went on Weight Watchers and the Atkins diet. They all failed me for I had not put forth effort. Food was spiking my judgment punch to favor the quick cancer that was coursing through my intestines. Nothing was working until one day a miracle came onto my lap; my grandfather bought me this exercise video called “Richard Simmons: Sweating to the Oldies.” I lost forty pounds my freshman year and a road to success was being built. My sophomore year, I lost another thirty pounds. I could not have been happier in my entire life.

I was hoping for great success, but just like the last two years, I became even more distraught. My grandfather was diagnosed with esophagial cancer and went for a procedure to only find out that it was inoperable.

“I want to die. I give up,” were his exact words that he said in the hospital. When I heard that, I was livid. My only defender again was swept from underneath me. After three months of chemotherapy and wanting to die, he got his wish. That was the final nail in my coffin for losing weight. Now that he was gone, my world was falling apart.

Senior year in high school, I weighed my maximum at a grand total of six hundred and ten pounds. Considered morbidly obese and not fitting into anything, my case had now become hopeless. The word of God was not going to help me this time. My life was crumbling to pieces and now I was getting chest pains as I walked from class to class. Why must God toy with me? What have I done to deserve this grief, or was it a sign to get over it and keep thriving?

At the time of banishment, the mortal enemy pulls out from the dark clouds and shines a ray of hope on me. My mother introduced to me the medical opportunity called gastric bypass. This gave me new hopes of solving my problems. Eventually I did all these tests for it and lost a lot of weight for it. The weight loss was only a small part of the big picture. In August, I got the surgery and it has changed my life forever. I can still hear a faint voice slowly fading away in my mind. It was the faint voice of the cancer that had been plaguing me. Now weighing at three hundred and ninety pounds, I can say I will beat my worst enemy of all - my weight. Of course the war is not won, but I have been victorious. This is Joseph Brush and you’re not.