Come on, it’s a pretty funny albeit somewhat self-aggrandizing name-that-tune headline.
Good Christ am I a tub in that shot. (Which shot also features, from left, non-tubs Jackson Ning and Wayne Chang. No, I am not making any 80s-rock related jokes about Wayne’s name up there, either, in case you were wondering. Racist.)
Anyway, for part of Fandor’s week-long celebration of the New York première and Fandor-streaming availability of Preston Miller’s new film God’s Land (which I am enjoined from giving much of an opinion on because, no duh), the delightful Fandor blog editor Kevin Lee asked me to write about my experience as a fat fuck playing a priest in that film, and I complied, and the resultant piece is here.
And now I’m going to the gym. Forever.
I quit smoking and put all the weight I’d worked so hard to lose back on. I’m feeling pretty awful about it.
I’m here to tell you, Bill, you can do it. Two key things: focus on the long game (if you will) and (not unrelated) don’t try to do too much at once.
This shot is from summer 2009, right before I quit smoking, and I’m about 300 pounds in it. In the weight scheme of things, I’m glad I quit smoking before I quit drinking, because the not-smoking weight gain was all but unnoticeable considering the bulk I was already carrying from being addicted to Knob Creek and Stella Artois boilermakers. Once I quit drinking in early 2010, and the phrase “self-care” entered my vocabulary, I was able to really get to work. I now hover around 230–240, depending on the state of my M&M addiction, and hope to make 220 by May of next year. Being realistic really helps.
Also (and I cannot emphasize this enough): DO NOT START SMOKING AGAIN. CLOSE those nicotine receptors DOWN.
“…don’t try to do too much at once.”
Yeah, not much danger of that happening, apparently.
There are various things that factor into this whole scenario, ones that should concern me, but I’m actually doing quite well in all areas – so far – other than just looking, as you say, like a fat fuck. But this shit has to be nipped in the bud, and quick-like. Not in the sense that I expect immediate results, I know better than that now, but I mean I need to buckle down thoroughly.
Anyway, thank you very much for your encouragement, and I do take your advice to heart. Your success has been very inspiring (and infuriating!). Interestingly, about the smoking – it’s been about four months now, and in that time, three days have included smoking to some degree. I consider that pretty good. One of those three days involved a bachelor party, and since, as you know, I no longer imbibe myself, I was wondering how I’d get through the night being the only non-drinker there (while I was the only NON-drinker, there was a guy who barely drank, and thank God for that). But anyway, so I made the basically moronic decision to smoke. I got lucky in that the next day, I had no desire to continue. Not because I felt ill, but because I just didn’t have the urge. Which is good. The more difficult part has been telling myself that I can’t use that experience as an excuse, because that’s how you start smoking again for the rest of your life.
Anyway. With the weight gain, going back to cigarettes would just make me feel like a total waste. Guilt is a strong motivator.
Never heard of Preston Miller, but I’ll check the guy’s track record…
hip hip hip hip
Check the guy’s rock record.
You are unnervingly plausible in that collar, Glenn.