HOW I BECAME A COUCH POTATOE

It is 7:00 am and I have to make myself get moving, time to get to Curves. I hope one day I will really enjoy going to the gym, I should rephrase this statement. I enjoy my workout but I still hate the thought of having to go to the gym, I am convinced Curves is as good as it can ever be for any couch potato. I seriously doubt I will ever be a person who is happy to go for a workout. So woe is me, I hate having to exercise, me and about another million people, or is it another billion couch potatoes.

How did I become a couch potato? I, like all other couch potatoes, have a good excuse. So here is my couch potato story.

I am ten years old. My left hip hurts everyday. My mom rubs it with Bengay ointment regularly. This becomes such a routine, I really can't remember when it all began.
I do remember that I can't run and play with the rest of the kids on my block.

I grew up in Brooklyn New York, the inner city. Most of the time, after school we would play stick ball in the street, double dutch jump rope, handball against the big red building and we played johnny on the pony, coco livey-o, marbles, and of course stoop ball just to mention a few city games we loved to play. All of these games I knew how to played and had played a little, but my hip limited how often and how long I could play.

My brother Joe and I were always together and played well together. Sometimes if I could not jump rope because my hip was hurting, he would jump in my place, like a surrogate jumper. I remember so many days and nights my hip hurt so much that I would cry myself to sleep. Most days I would sit on the steps in our front yard and my brother Joe would bring his friends and my friends into our front yard to play so I never felt left out. It became a way of life, I didn't really realized how much I was missing, I just learned that I was different and couldn't do everything everyone else could do, I never felt pity for myself.

The pain kept increasing and I became more and more immobile. Not only that, I began to limp rather badly. The more the pain increased the less mobile I became. I adjusted my life around my hip pain. I slowly became a couch potato at the early age of ten.

At the age of ten I had to undergo hip surgery. My hip had actually been dislocated, my parents didn't realize this for quite some time, my mother thought I had arthritis, that is why she used to rub my hip with Bengay ointment. Anyway, I underwent surgery. My hip was realigned and three surgical steel pins were inserted to keep the hip in place. This truly was an extremely painful surgery. I remember awakening to the most excruciating pain I had ever felt up til this time in my life, little did I know that this was just the beginning of surgeries I was to undergo. I still remember how very sad my mother and father looked when I awakened from my surgery.

Once at home I was on crutches for at least six months or so it seemed. I missed one whole year out of school recuperating. I remember doing some school work at home for a while but apparently it was not sufficient enough because I was held over and had to repeat the fourth grade. What an experience that was, well that story is for another time.

Recuperation was slow and painful. I could only walk with crutches and sit alot and of course I ate through my loneliness and pain. The one thing I could do was eat.

My father also enjoyed eating, a family legacy. He took us to some of the finest restaurants in New York. I learned to appreciate fine dining. I loved restaurants with fine china dinnerware, linen table clothes and crystal glassware. Champagne was a regular and I have always loved hearing the pop of the cork. Hot crusty baked bread with quality butter was always a favorite for me, but dinner was never complete without desert, the more decadent the better. Chocolate mousse, tiramisu, strawberry shortcake and Italian ice cream otherwise known as gelato. Unfortunately I was unable to exercise and play like other kids my age and so began my life as a couch potato.

How could I have foreseen that the pattern being set for me would lead me to having gastric bypass surgery and to a new a way of life.

To be continued.......