• Keto Becker

    One step, One Day, The journey to health

The few friends I had were gone at the start of High School. I went to Auburn for JROTC whereas everyone I knew and lived by went to Jefferson. The second Football adventure was freshman year. I still wanted to be a kicker. Same story as in middle school. Offensive line and offensive line only. I was never given a chance to play on defense. After a few practices I told the Freshman coach that I wanted to be the kicker. I even was practicing with my mom on the weekends. When I went out during the special teams practice the coach would not let me kick. He informed me I was only there as punishment to chase after the balls. I was too fat to be a kicker. I belonged on the line. He never gave me a chance to show him I made a 50 yard field goal practicing over the weekend.

 

At some point in high school my weight broke over 400 pounds. I always carry my weight well because of my large frame. High school is when my size was really starting to affect everything in my life. I always had to get to class early as only certain desks had extra room. Squeezing into the other desks was very uncomfortable and embarrassing. I always knew when someone left gum under the desk as it would get stuck on my shirt that was being pressed up under the desk.

 

Clothing was becoming a nice challenge. The JROTC instructor had to work some magic to find a uniform to fit me. A simple bowling shirt was a challenge as well. High School was when I got my first real nickname that I enjoyed. Big Kenny. Kind of like Big Mike from the movie The Blind Side. I was pretty much the biggest person throughout High School but everyone that truly knew me would know I was just a big teddy bear.

 

High school is when the fast food desires peaked. This is when I conditioned my brain to live on fast food. My first year of high school my sister would get me food on her lunch and leave it in the car. Once I had my license, fast food was almost daily staple. I would even go to multiple places to order food just so the person in the drive thru would not think it was all for me or just multiple meals with several drinks.