Adam Park always felt left out because of his weight. “I couldn’t go on roller coasters, swim, ski, or snowboard,” he remembers. “By my teen years, I didn’t really have any friends. I was never bullied, but I still felt left out because my weight kept me from participating in most of the things kids my age were doing. I was shy, and having to hang back because of my weight added to that. It was very lonely.”
Even though Adam and his mother were both overweight, his father and brother weren’t, and they kept the house stocked with unhealthy snacks. “I overconsumed calories pretty consistently when I was young, especially when it came to snacks and soda,” he says. To make matters worse, Adam admits he sat on the sidelines—and on the couch. Throughout his childhood and into his early teen years, he picked up bad habits.
“We had big family dinners every night with meat, potatoes, and vegetables,” he says. “They weren’t especially unhealthy meals, but we’d fry things and cook with a lot of oils and fats. That, combined with the snacking and lack of exercise, just made it easy to be overweight.”
As he was preparing to enter high school, Adam weighed 315 pounds. Desperate to fit in with his classmates, he realized that getting in shape had to happen now or never.
This is Adam’s story.
