Brutal Honesty

I have struggled to stay at a healthy, comfortable weight most of my adult life. For the most part, I have stayed in a range that has allowed me to do many of the activities I enjoy: hiking, camping, canyoneering, lots of outdoor stuff. But my weight has definitely inhibited my ability to do some of these things as well or as comfortably as I would like to. I stopped playing pick up basketball and skiing largely because of my weight. Over the years, being overweight has also made buying clothes a chore rather than something fun. It can be challenging to find clothing I feel good wearing. Because of this, I have never been fond of gifts of clothing from others. Christi has learned this the hard way, as I have not shown much gratitude (translation: I've been very grouchy!) when she buys shirts for me. So she doesn't buy them very often.

Recently I have lost enough weight that it is noticeable. Thinking that now I would love it if she bought me clothes (insert eye roll here), Christi came home with a shirt for me the other day. I tried it on and didn't really like the way it fit. She insisted it looked great on me, but I wasn't sold. So she gave it to Taylor. Yesterday Taylor was wearing the shirt. As he walked in our room, Christi said to me, "I can't believe you don't like that shirt!" I replied, "I don't like it on ME. It looks great on Taylor." Taylor who is about 10% body fat. Taylor who has been working a landscaping job for the last month and a half and has developed more muscles than he's ever had before. But she wanted me to try it on again, so I did. I looked in the mirror and pointed out the ways it didn't look good on me. "It just looks so much better on Taylor!" I said. At this point Tay chimed in: "Well dad, to be brutally honest, pretty much all of your shirts would look better on me." We all cracked up. He continued: "And to be fair, pretty much all of my shirts would look better on Chris Hemsworth."

Point well taken, son. I should probably be a little less picky about how I look in a given shirt, especially if my sweet wife took the time to pick it out and she likes it on me.

-Jeremy