[UPDATE]
In light of recent events, Adam Richman is sadly no longer my hero. I know that it is kind of common for people to let their weight loss go to their head, but that doesn’t make it OK. I am incredibly disappointed at how he treated someone who just wanted to educate him on the weight and controversy the hashtag #thinspiration carries in the weight loss community. No matter who you are, you should never treat someone like that.
Kudos to the Travel Channel for pulling his new show that was supposed to air tonight.

Hey Adam, don’t mess with the digital weight loss community.

Adam Richman Eating All the Things

Adam Richman Losing All the Weight

Adam Richman used to be my hero.
In fact, I idolized him. The idea of being the host for Man v. Food where I could take on those titanic tasty feats of food sounded not only awesome, but possible considering how much a 357-pound man can eat on a regular day. You see, I used to (well…still do) have the sick habit where I would eat as fast as I could so I could eat everything on my plate before I would get full. It was like a race between my taste buds and my stomach. Who won? Nobody. Ever. I would just end up being physically sick for the rest of the day. So when I would watch a show like MvF or Bizarre Foods, I would treat every meal like it was my last. I wanted my meals to be the highlight of my day. When we would eat something light or boring, I would get depressed. Yes, I was addicted to food porn.

Thankfully, after nearly four years on this weight loss journey, my views on food have completely changed where I see it as fuel more than anything else.

So today, there was an article about Adam Richman and how he has lost 70 pounds and how Man v. Food took its toll on him. You should absolutely read the article from TODAY Entertainment, but I want to just post one quote that is so true.

In the article, Richman talks about how he justified the health risks of the show:
“I figured that as long as my blood work and heart were good, I was good. But those efforts were no match for the thousands of calories I’d eat over the course of a shoot.”
Boom.

If you remember anything from this entire blog (not just post, the FFK blog as a whole), remember this: the most damaging thing you can do for your health is to try to justify your unhealthy actions. Sure, I used to have good cholesterol levels and I could run a whole 5k when I was over 300 pounds, but I was still over 300 pounds! I was still very sick in a lot of ways! Like Adam, I had to have a reality check of my own to realize that a cholesterol number didn’t compare to the rest of my chart topping numbers. It wasn’t until after I became real with myself about the direction my life was heading that I could make a real change. 

The beautiful moral of Adam’s story and my story is that you can always still do something about your health! How beautiful is that? It’s never too late. If you want to eat better, start with the next thing you put in your mouth. Make the change, and the rest will follow.

So, Adam Richman, in case you ever read this, I just wanted you to know that you were my hero then and you’re my hero now…for completely different reasons. Thanks for showing us all how change is possible.