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Home > Biography
Biography of Hugh Roth
I was born on November 6th, 1965 (does this really mean that I'm 40? yikes!), and this formerly fat Scorpio has been raising hell ever since. According to my parents, my weight problems started at the age of 4 when my mother visited her relatives in Rome for a month, and left my dearly departed and beloved Jewish grandmother in charge of my daily care. Yes, I am a Italian/Jewish half-breed, a lethal food combination.
Pining for my momma, Grandma Eva attempted to fill the void by stuffing my face with potato pancakes, black and white cookies, and chocolate malts. Guess what, it worked like a charm. By the time my mother returned, I did not want Grandma to leave! Unfortunately, this also marked the beginning of nearly three decades of weight obsession, fad diets, and binge eating.
I think my mother's first words when she saw me greeting her at the airport was "Wow! Look How Chubby You've Gotten!" Chubby, husky, stocky, large-boned were all words used to desribe me through puberty (the word ''fat'' was actually a far more pejorative term to use back in the 70's, believe it or not.) I still remember dreading to play outdoor team sports at school, where the threat of being selected as a "skin" instead of a "shirt" always loomed large in my head.
I believe my first experience with fad dieting was trying the Atkins plan when I was 12. Yes, the Atkins diet has been around for more than 25 years, and people are still falling for it hook, line, and sinker.
You lose weight, but you also lose control of your bowel movements, not to mention your sanity. But the highlight of my horrendous high-school years were the astonishing looks I used to get hauling whole Pineapples to the lunch room. You get bonus points for spotting the Beverly Hills Diet! The faddest of all fad diets of the 1980s, I still keep the original paperback as a collecters item.
Moving right along, I proceeded from my fat teens, to my fat twenties, to my fat early thirties. Along the way, there were periods when I lost enough weight to be considered merely zaftig, sort of like Delta Burke on the first season of Designing Women. But then the never-ending pasta bowls and raw cookie dough would beckon, and it would back to the Big and Tall section of Sears.
It has only been within the past five years that I have managed to turn the tables on fat. This is because I have finally learned to establish control over food, rather than have food control me. In addition, I have successfully learned to incorporate weightlifting and cardiovascular excercise into my weekly routine. Losing weight without exercising simply does not work; I don't care how many late night infomercials you watch.
I want to thank you for taking this weight loss journey with me. I promise that it is going to be one hell of a ride!
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