The Slim Cotton Story - Why We're Here...

When I was six years old, my paternal Grandpa died of a massive heart attack.  He was 49.  My mom’s dad passed away when he was 33, most likely of a heart attack.  My grandmother’s father dropped dead while serving lunch on the railroad when he was 33.  My other grandpa (mom’s stepdad) died at 49 of lung cancer.  My uncle died at 39.  One cousin died of a brain tumor at 42.  Another at 33.  If I didn’t change, how old would my tombstone say I was?

My name is David Simpson.  I have been overweight most of my adult life, just like a lot of people here in the USA.  Not morbidly obese, just overweight.  When I was in school as a kid, I was pretty active.  I played football, baseball, basketball, and back then we all played outside!  It wasn’t until I was 17 that I started to notice a little spare tire at my middle.  It’s no surprise since I worked at Dickinson’s Family Buffet and Eryl let us eat for free.  (He was a great man.)

Every Sunday I would eat ALL of my favorite foods at the restaurant: a huge salad, meatloaf, ribs, mashed potatoes and gravy, finished with a serving of soft-served ice cream and chocolate.  We would take our break after the church crowd rush at about 1:30 pm.  Every night at around midnight I would be praying like a madman in deep distress, “God, if you help me not vomit, I won’t eat like this next Sunday”.  I prayed that prayer every Sunday night for nine months!  Ha ha…  I guess I just thought it was normal to stop eating when your stomach had been full for 10 minutes.

It’s not like I put on a lot of weight at once.  Just a few pounds a year, but over the years that really adds up.  During those years in my twenties, I would go through spurts of going to the gym and getting back in shape and losing some weight.

For a year and a half before my daughter was born, I went to the gym 4 – 5 days a week with a workout buddy.  It was great!  We worked together on the same shift and went directly after work.  We ate healthy food together, talked about fitness a lot, and pushed each other hard at the gym.  I was in great shape, but still had about 10 pounds to lose.

When my little Princess was born, I got sidetracked.  Instead of going to the gym after work, I hurried home to be with my family.  I still went to the gym a few times a week, but never anything consistent.

Then I got a different job.  Me and my buddy had different work schedules and couldn’t get together at the gym anymore.  I started to put a few pounds back on.

Then my wife and I moved our little family from Lynden to Seattle.  It was a good move financially, but hard in most other ways.  I didn’t have any family there and it was just far enough to make trips home a hassle.  I was suffering from depression and was taking anti-depressants.  As you might know, one of the side-effects of anti-depressants is weight gain.  Argh!  Oh, well.  The anti-depressants made me not care about the weight gain so much, anyway.

Moving to Seattle was pretty cool at first.  There are a lot of great restaurants in big cities!  I literally gained 20 pounds trying to find the best pizza place in King County!  It was kind of a joke to those who saw me put on the weight in six months, but not really very funny at all.  I couldn’t believe how much I gained as fast as I did.  I was in my early 30’s by this time and thought my metabolism was coming to a screeching halt.  (It really wasn’t much – I just ate waaaaaaaaayyyy too much pizza!)

We bought an elliptical machine and I was semi-regular about using it, along with the universal weight machine we had.  I started losing weight again little by little.

THEN… the “you-know-what” hit the fan.  Divorce.  Deep depression.  Separation anxiety from not seeing my kids after they moved back to Lynden.  My best friend told me to get off the anti-depressants during the divorce so I could “feel the pain”.  Somehow that made sense, so I did.  I also realized I needed to do something about my health, so I started working out again faithfully.  I lost a little over 10 pounds and felt good, but still had about 25 pounds I needed to lose.

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