Dwight Sneathen, associate professor of accounting at Georgia Southern University, was approaching 300 pounds in the summer of 2012, when a seed was planted during his daughter’s high school graduation trip to Orlando. As of September 2017, he has competed in 18 triathlons, the majority of which ended with a spot on the podium.

During the ride home from Orlando, Sneathen said he listened to his wife and two children rave about how awesome the ride was. “He was his normal, jovial self,” said Dwight’s wife, Susan Sneathen. He didn’t let on that missing the ride bothered him at all.

“I spent the whole time standing on the side because I was too fat to get on the ride,” Dwight Sneathen said. “That drove me nuts.” Despite this humiliation, Sneathen continued to gain weight. “When you’re 300 pounds, you deal on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis, with all kinds of little things that just drive you crazy,” Sneathen said.

More than a year had passed since the trip to Harry Potter World when Dwight Sneathen heard an advertisement for a health program on a radio show.

“For 20 years, I watched him try different programs and continue to gain weight,” Susan Sneathen said. That was until Dwight Sneathen came home to tell his wife about the new health program. “I was standing with my back to him and something in me said, ‘but what if this is the thing, and you shoot him down’?” Susan Sneathen said.

“Two weeks in, I was blown away,” she said. After five months, in May of 2014, he had lost 70 pounds.

Dwight Sneathen on his bike. (Photo Courtesy of Don Borowski)

Around the same time as his weight loss, Sneathen said Bradley Odum, former owner of Swim.Bike.Run. in Statesboro, wanted to train a group of people for a triathlon. In August 2014, Sneathen competed in his first sprint triathlon, which consists of a 250-meter pool swim, an 11-mile bike ride and a 3.1-mile run.

“I’ve never been an athletic guy,” Sneathen said. A combination of being a self-proclaimed “obsessive compulsive” and the fellowship in the triathlon community fostered a love for the sport, Sneathen said. Since 2014, he has participated in a number of triathlons; four in 2015, five in 2016 and eight in 2017.

“Having the target, for me, there’s always that impetus,” Sneathen said.

“He never complains,” said Don Borowski, current owner of Swim.Bike.Run. “He just embraces the ‘suck’.” Borowski and Sneathen, who both share a love for triathlons, quickly became best friends. “They always say when you die, if you’ve got five good friends you’ve done well,” Borowski said. “Dwight’s at the top of that food chain.”

Sneathen (left) and Borowski (right) relax after covering 70.3 miles. (Photo Courtesy of Don Borowski)

Borowski and Sneathen train together regularly and recently competed in the IRONMAN 70.3 Augusta triathlon on Sept. 24. It was Sneathen’s first time competing in a race of that distance: a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, and a 13.1-mile run. “He jogged right in with a smile on his face,” Susan Sneathen said.

Dwight Sneathen is quick to respond to any praise of his accomplishments.

“I’m just a fat boy in recovery.”

After relentlessly scrolling past them in my Pinterest feed for easily a year, I decided to give one the old college try. Why? There is no good answer for this, other than that I’m a schmuck for fad diets.

I got off work at 9 p.m. Tuesday night and rushed to the Walmart Marketplace, armed with my shopping list. It was conveniently provided in the most highly recommended three-day cleanse by my grandmother and Pinterest.

At first glance, this doesn’t look terrible; the shopping list was extremely helpful. I felt so healthy, as I spent 80% of my time in the store wandering up and down the produce aisles.

The feeling of approaching the checkout line with a cart stocked to the gills like this is unmatched. In my mind, I had already succeeded without even starting.

However, the pink cloud turned grey when I was given my total at the register. With this kind of price tag for three days worth of cleansing, failure is literally not an option. Note: I did not purchase the lavender drops or Epson salt. I don’t take baths and I knew for a fact that I would not follow through with that act.

I drove home and tried to get excited about prepping for this endeavor. I had an early morning the next day and knew I wouldn’t be in the veggie-chopping mood before the sun came up.

The breakfast smoothie was extremely easy to prep. I love you, little breakfast smoothie.

For the lunch smoothie, I had to break out the cutlery.

While I was prepping this one, it never dawned on me how an entire cucumber and four celery stalks might taste in drink form. It just didn’t taste like anything until it did and by then, it was too late. I decided to wait to prep the dinner smoothie until I had a break in the following day, as it was getting late.

The next morning, I was awake before my alarm. Does anyone else get this excited about a break in routine? I’m not sure if that’s normal.

I started my day off with the morning detox tea. I thought long and hard and I can say this with confidence: this was my first day without a morning cup of coffee in eight years.

However, I love green tea and I drink it often as a midday pick-me-up. I sipped with confidence.

I drank the breakfast smoothie in the Reflector office. I rarely eat breakfast and this curbed my appetite quite a bit. Usually, by 1 p.m. I’m starving and fantasizing about what I’ll eat when I get home. This day was different in that respect.

When I arrived home around 2 p.m., I opened the fridge to retrieve the lunchtime smoothie. Again, I’ll say I wasn’t hungry, but I had a plan to be follow. The first sip was nothing short of terrible. It wasn’t the taste, but the texture; grainy and thick, less like a smoothie and more like a sludge. I forced it down the hatch.

To be quite honest, this is the point I started to lose it. Knowing that I had to drink that again tomorrow and the day after that was a horrifying nightmare. The thought of not chewing anything for three days was beginning to sink in. I wondered if gum was against the rules.

I went about my day, attended a few meetings, and by 5 p.m. I was interviewing a source for a separate story. I began to feel the lunch smoothie coming back up. I felt exhausted, famished, and wholly green. I stared across the street at a Chick-fil-A, a heavenly beacon in the distance.

I left that meeting and nearly wrecked trying to retrieve this beautiful package of love and hope.

Just like that, it was over. Did I fail? I suppose in some ways I did, as I did not finish the said three-day detox cleanse. However, as sheer luck would have it, I wound up meeting Zach Akins, a senior at the Medical College of Georgia.

I spoke with Akins about my recent experience and he explained that most detoxes are in fact hoaxes. The body naturally detoxifies itself by way of the liver and kidneys. Additionally, a well-rounded diet including proteins, fruits, vegetables, and carbohydrates will aid in keeping your liver and kidneys healthy, Akins said.

Hearing this from a student of medicine was a relief. There is no need to put yourself through the torture of a cleanse when your body does this naturally. These cleanses claim to rid your body of toxins, but Akins pointed out that the more you hear someone talk about toxins, the less they know about medicine.

“Toxins” is not a buzzword, nor a hot topic. Toxins are more appropriately used in conversation about Ebola, for example. At the end of the day, I learned something and still have a refrigerator full of produce. I’ll call that a win.

According to LiveStrong.com “college students who do not exercise face the risk of weight gain, declining social lives and academic problems.” We’d like to have those totally perfect chiseled abs or those smooth toned butt muscles. Instead of hitting the gym, you’ve decided with your friends to chill, eat pizza, and play beer pong all night. 

It’s okay to not know where to begin, or to be lazy for a while, but now is the time to get up and get active! Learn all there is to know about regular exercises or just about getting started

Rule #1 : Make exercising your new daily habit!

Until you get into a daily routine of exercising you are not going to get results. You need consistency, but do not overwork yourself. Start off with smaller exercises every day, for at least thirty minutes. Doing this will eventually make your body more comfortable.

Joining a group fitness class or subscribing to a gym membership maybe a good idea to start with however, this  is not an always effective method  It is important to learn your strengths and weaknesses and to also take the time to set your own personal goals without the burden of competition. Some examples of great beginner exercises are cycling and walking.

Rule #2: Switch it up!

Don’t get stuck on the treadmill. After you have become comfortable with the smaller exercises, switch it up a little. Try something new each day. Remember to not be afraid that you might hurt yourself. There are various workout routines to try including workout DVDs and on youtube.   

Trying the same exercises may feel like you’re getting good results but you are really just overworking the same muscles. Also, with each individual exercise try to increase the number times you do them and the level of intensity.

Rule #3: Stay away from greasy foods!

Our calorie intake and the types of food we consume are the number one contributors to weight gain.. Limiting the amount greasy foods and overall calorie intake alone can help lose those few unwanted pounds and prevent potential health risks in the future.  

According to the USDA the recommended amount of daily calorie consumption for men is 2,640, and 1,785 for women. Before you stand in the never ending line at Chick-Fil-A or buying that snicker from the vending machine, think twice about it. Some innovative ways to keep track of your daily calorie intake is to download a calorie tracking app which will assist in tracking your amount of exercise and calorie intake by letting you input the type of activities and meals you eat each day. You can also make your own healthy meals and snacks to eat while on the go to class, work, or to the gym.

As you follow these rules you will see results, but it take consistent work and dedication to implement these into your daily lifestyle. Make it fun!

While those are all great things for me to do for my physical and overall health, that’s not all there is to it. Sometimes health can be completely out of our initial control.

For as long as I can remember, my mother has had high cholesterol. It’s been that way for so long, she actually has deposits of cholesterol under her eyes that have steadily been growing ever since her metabolism began to slow down. She could no longer eat like she was 25 and apparently, she couldn’t even when she was 25.

After realizing my family history, I decided to go ahead and get myself tested and guess what – I have high cholesterol.

unsplash | Jeff Licciardello for Reflector

You’d never know by looking at me. Most people associate high cholesterol = overweight. I’m actually in a very healthy weight range for my age/height. But I eat like crap. My diet includes a lot of fast food on campus or in between class. I’m a big believer that drunk calories don’t actually count. Carbs are actually a food group in my opinion.

I always figured since I was young, I could get away with it. All knowing mothers would remind me I wouldn’t have this metabolism forever. My reaction? Might as well enjoy it while I have it. I mean, yeah, like every self-critical person I always think I could stand to lose five pounds, but I also don’t feel the need to shy away in a bikini. So I was good, right? I could worry about healthy eating later in life, once my metabolism really did start to slow down or after I had kids or whatever. That was a problem for then.

Except that is such dangerous thinking.

I’m putting myself at a much bigger risk for heart disease or stroke, especially if it builds for years over time. Those deposits my mom has on her face? I already have one budding under my own left eye. These are actual real-life risks.

I could easily sit back and say “screw it,” blame it on my genetics, take medication and change nothing. But at some point I have to recognize that I am responsible for my own actions and while my circumstances may be bad, my choices can make them better.

Recently I wrote an article about the Paleo diet and interviewed a fellow GSU student, Roy Williamson, who also decided to make some changes after realizing his current lifestyle wasn’t doing him any favors. He made a drastic change in his diet, lost a significant amount of weight, and continues to make healthy choices even after seeing the results he desired. Ultimately, I had to recognize I needed to do the same.

So me, the girl who eats Chick-fil-A a solid 3-4 times a week, adds steak and extra queso in her burritos and works in a Mexican restaurant that serves arguably the best chicken nachos in the country, was ordered to cutout the amount of animal fat in my diet by at least half.

I learned to view it as a positive thing. Instead of thinking I’m denying myself food, I’m simply choosing it for another day. Two days a week I don’t eat any meat at all. This isn’t something I plan to continue forever, but I figure to get the initial issue under control it would be a good way to start. Another two days a week, if I do eat meat, it’s chicken or fish and only grilled or baked. Nothing fried. Another big change for someone who’s usual fallback is hitting a drive-thru late at night rather than the grocery store.

Now that does leave me with three days a week I can eat fast food, red meat or fried foods. That’s still not super healthy but I have to measure my expectations to what I can accomplish. I can’t expect to go from eating fast food five days a week to not even remembering what a chicken nugget tastes like because I’m loading up on salad and kale.

unsplash | Jeff Licciardello for Reflector

I also learned to embrace healthy foods. I pinned a ton of recipes for chicken, seafood, vegetables and alternatives to butter, etc. And actually, I can’t complain. A lot of it is pretty yummy and if I budget it right, I’m not spending anymore than I was before at the grocery store. In fact, I’m probably spending less since I’m cutting out the drive thru.

I chose not to go on medication to control my cholesterol. While it is recommended for some, my circumstances weren’t quite severe enough. My doctor assured me that changes in my diet and level of physical activity should be enough to get things under control. In six months, I’ll go back and get re-tested and hopefully it will have all paid off.

The purpose of this post isn’t to brag about myself or anyone else. The purpose is to encourage people to pay attention to their health now. It’s strange to think of an almost-21-year-old having cholesterol-related health problems but it’s not unheard of. Case in point.

The other purpose is to encourage people to take control of their lifestyle and make sure they’re taking care of themselves for the better. Being young is no excuse for not caring. Youth does not always equal health. We’re all smarter than that and we’re definitely a lot better than that.

Each and every student at Georgia Southern has an open-ended opportunity to be a part of the RC and get their conversation started. The mission is simple: to ensure that your voice may be shared and your opinions heard. If talking about the rights of humans versus the rights of animals is your passion–let it be heard, if you’d like to explain why it’s acceptable to wear slip-ons and athletic shorts every single day–let it be heard, from video game crazes to thoughts on marriage equality, here in the Reflector Community, each opinion is invaluable.

As GSU students, and more importantly, thinking and active members of the world community it is imperative that our conversations be heard by those who are willing to listen. Let this not be your personal diary, let it be an informed and opinionated blog to share your experiences and ideas with the community around you. As a generation of progressive-minded adults it is our responsibility to unite and reflect on life’s many opportunities; however, it is our moral responsibility to also discuss the hard stuff.

What you have to say matters, so let’s start the conversation.

Macy Holloway,

Reflector Community Editor