Me at the beach in Jamaica in 2005, when I weighed 30-40 pounds less than I do today (and likely sucking my gut in for this photo).
Let’s face it – nobody likes looking at a half-naked fat ass on the beach. It tends to churn the stomach, scare small children, make dogs whimper, or at the very least, cause people to uncomfortably look away.
While I live in Alaska and don’t exactly make it to the beach on a regular basis, we usually take at least one vacation a year to someplace warm that typically involves a beach. And while I enjoy going to the beach as much as the next person, I’ve always been pretty self conscious about taking my shirt off and just walking around in swim trunks. Often times, I’ll end up wearing a tank top around (even in the water), instead of going shirtless.
I certainly don’t need to have the most perfectly ripped and toned body with 3.7% body fat before I’ll feel comfortable going shirtless at the beach, but I do need to get down to a respectable weight before you’ll see me happily taking my shirt off in public.
I guess this isn’t limited to just the beach, but really any sort of social situation that calls for me to go shirtless – the pool, a shirts-and-skins basketball game, or helping my buddies spell out our team’s name on our bellies at a hockey game.
One thing I can promise you though – no matter how much weight I lose, and how good of shape I get in, you will never catch me in one of these at the beach:
{ 8 comments }
Hi Brandon,
I just found your blog through Twitter! Just wanted to say hello and congrats on your success so far!
Jenn
Thanks Jenn, I’m glad you managed to find my blog, thanks for stopping by!
I wear something like that all of the time, is there a problem, Brandon?
I’m not one to go shirtless either, especially now. For that reason I’ll avoid the beach entirely (even though I love it), I wouldn’t go to my apartment complex’s swimming pool, and I won’t even swim at my moms if there are alot of people around.
Aahhhh, my eyes, my eyes!
Mr. Banana Hammock needs to find a t-shirt and some sweatpants!!! But I feel you on the swimsuit – I found a decent suit last year and the confidence was there, but I know that the more I lose the more confidence I will have walking the beach! Even if the beaches in Nebraska are on lakes instead of oceans…
Brandon–I’ve been working towards my goal of 170 pounds for over two years. I’m about 7 pounds away and started at 221 pounds. I STILL don’t like to take my shirt off. I’m not sure I ever will. Don’t be discouraged by something like this. And actually, I’ve asked normal weight people about looking at over weight people and they don’t usually even notice…At least that’s what they told me! Keep fighting!
It’s funny but no one really cares but we all imagine everyone is staring at us. I won’t take my shirt off comfortably yet and possibly never will.
I’m sure you’re probably right Andrew – people don’t really notice as much as we think. But it’s hard to not feel self conscious about it. I sure hope I can get to the point where I feel comfortable with it, but only time will tell…