I've always been a little overweight, but now I'm just plain fat. For the past four years I have been a VFX artist in Hollywood. That sounds way more exciting then it is. Basically I sat in a cubicle on my ass eating fast food. Normal shifts are 12-16 hours, 6 to 7 days a week. High stress, no activity, very little sleep, and really bad eating habits. Not the best combination for a healthy life. T
he one perk of this job was occasionally I was given the opportunity to travel. In August of 2011 I was asked to move to India for five months to help train our new sister studio. I had never been out of the country (I didn't even have a passport.) For an inexperienced traveler, India was quite the culture shock! Everything about it was new and different. It was love at first sight for me. Not just India, but the Idea of travel. Meeting new people, learning about their cultures, trying their food! This is what makes life worth living. After India, returning to Los Angeles was hard for me. I felt like I was moving backwards. Luckily In December 2013 I was asked to travel again. The hours were long, the work conditions were horrible, but I had Europe in my backyard. This kept me going. Every second of free time I had I spent exploring. I would walk through London at night, or take the tube out as far as I could just to see what was there. If I had two days off in a row I would catch a train, bus, or even a boat and travel. I traveled to places like Wales, Holland, and France. France...
That is when it happened. It was a cold and wet winter in the UK. Actually the wettest on record. Entire towns were flooded. Needless to say, it was miserable. I needed a break. I decided to take a weekend off and booked a trip to Paris. My friend Marnix, from The Netherlands met me there. It was a perfect weekend! The weather was amazing. Perfect blue skies, and warm. So nice in fact that we decided to have a lunch outside, down by the river, with the locals. As I was sitting there, with the sun beating down on me, I realized for the first time in a long time, I was happy. (Luckily Marnix snapped a picture of me at that moment.) This is what I wanted to do everyday for the rest of my life. Find moments to make me happy. Traveling seems to be the key for me. I quit my job, got rid of everything I own and have downsized my life to a backpack. When I started researching my trip I watched ever travel vlog on YouTube. They all had one thing in common. Backpackers are all skinny. Do fat people just not travel this way, or is it a result of the lifestyle that keeps them thin. I think it is the later, but you would think there would be a few of us fatties transitioning into the lifestyle. There are a lot of obstacles you run into (literally and figuratively) as an overweight traveler. I decided I will document mine to encourage others to get out there and see the world. No matter what size you are. Will I lose weight on this trip? Probably. Living on a tight budget means eating less and walking as much as possible to save on transportation costs. It is important that I stress this is not the purpose of this blog. It's just a happy side effect.
