by Angie Nelson

Created on: April 17, 2009

When I was in fourth grade, I went to school with a girl, and for the life of me I cannot remember her name. She called me Wally. It was short for walrus, and it was a mean nickname given by a mean little girl. Now that I think back, she was fatter than me, but she was also taller and prone to starting fights. I tried to laugh it off, but I knew I was getting fat when I would go shopping. I didn't fit into the sizes other girls my age wore. I never got to wear the cute clothes. I don't know how much I weighed, only that I didn't fit in because I was chubby.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /

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I didn't do much about it either. My favorite activities were reading and playing with my enormous collection of Barbie dolls. I didn't like to play outside, unless it was to go swimming, which I did every sunny day in the summer months. What I didn't do was go camping, fishing or hiking; I didn't climb trees or even ride a bike. I didn't have a lot of friends, and the friends I had were like me, sedentary. We like to watch movies and play video games. And eat.

I love food, I have always loved food, and although I am sometimes a picky eater, I like to try new things. When I was younger, I was not so open-minded. I ate the same things on a regular basis. At my friends house it was often chips and French onion dip, and candy. We would walk to the nearby gas station and buy whatever we could with the change we could muster. I loved candy cigarettes. I didn't realize what I was doing was wrong. I was a very responsible child, and I never really had a baby-sitter after the age of eight. I never got into much trouble so my parents trusted me.

What they didn't do was teach my good eating habits. For example, my father's idea of a portion of spaghetti is a dinner plate full of noodles topped with several scoops of sauce. I was always lectured by my mother to clean my plate. If I didn't, she ate whatever was left. Rarely did I drink water, but with most meals I would drink a full glass of 2% milk. In the summer when I would spend six hours a day at the pool, my mom would usually give me a dollar. I came home for lunch while the lifeguards had their break, but while I was swimming, I would always get thirsty. There was a pop machine at the pool, and every day I would get a Mountain Dew, or more likely, a Countrytime Lemonade. It's still my favorite.

I didn't know. I didn't know what a calorie was; I didn't know how much fat was in a Whopper.

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