When the doctor told Kenneth Lacy that he was an inch away from being a diabetic, he remembered his dad who died of a stroke. The chance of not being able to walk to Vaught Hemingway anymore, or meeting the same fate as his father, inspired Kenneth to toss the sweet tea, and take his first run at Lamar Park in a very long time.
“It was like I was carrying around 3 or 4 bowling balls, he said. “The first day I barely made the loop, and I hobbled back to the car.
Instead of starting his day off with a 5:30 am run, his day used to start with breakfast at Wendy’s, a quick break from his music store, Austin’s Music, for lunch at another of the fast food joints on Jackson avenue, and then something to go on the way back home.
Many Oxonians can’t stand the thought of giving up fried chicken tenders, green bean casseroles, or hush puppies. However Kenneth didn’t even entertain the idea that switching to no carbs and water would be tough.
“My doctor told me that I was a 5.8 on a 6.0 scale for having diabetes. I decided right then and there that I would not have it.”
We live in a place where obesity is the norm, at least if you relied on statistics alone. Here, “organic” and “low calorie” foods are discussed as frequently as our favorite MS state football players.
This may be what’s caused the strange reactions his mother and friends have had to his new appearance in the 16 weeks since he lost 68.5 pounds. Before he was a size 40 in the waist and weighed 225 pounds.
Two or three people asked him, “You ain’t ill are ya?” Another friend told him about how his son looked sick after doing what he did.
However the exact opposite happened after only two weeks. The doctor told him he no longer had to take his high blood pressure pills anymore. It was 14 years ago that he started taking them, around the age of 40.
“If I would have known that all I had to do was cut out carbs and sugar, I would have stopped taking those pills. I wish I would have known that was what was causing the symptoms the pill helped alleviate.”
Shopping at the local Kroger now consists of checking every label for sugar or carbohydrates. It’s yet another habit he’s picked up along with his early 3-4 mile runs, which he can also run non-stop now.
“The deal is making up your mind that you want to be healthy. To start thinking about what you put in your body.”
The only uncomfortable part of losing the bowling balls is abstaining from the food at his church’s potluck dinners, and resisting the temptation to eat his mother’s home cooked meals.
“I can’t walk in my mother’s house without her trying to feed me!”
None of it has been enough to make him try to stop his efforts to slim up. Although he still has 14 pounds to go he says, he is very happy to have lost an average of 5 pounds per week.
“I feel like a completely different person. I feel like I’m in my 20s again! When I get done with my exercise in the morning, and the sun’s coming up, it’s like I’m reborn.”