This article is amazing. It is so hard to get Mike to talk about himself, but his struggle with food is so familiar.
Quote:
Henze's story touches on elements of obsessions and addictions, the struggle of someone who once weighed more than 300 pounds and the constant threat that he could easily balloon back to that weight.
"If, in that cupboard, there's a package of Oreo cookies, every waking hour in the house I know those cookies are there," he said.
Quote:
A tennis player in high school and solid athlete, he had struggled with weight most of his life. He didn't necessarily eat bad foods, he just couldn't stop.
He weighed 240 in college, 270 on his wedding day and more than 300 when he hit a breaking point during a golf outing in July 2003.
"It was hot, and by the 13th hole I was dragging my bag behind me because I'm out of shape," he said. "I thought, 'Who are my skinny friends?' The friends that kept the weight off were the people that ran, so I said, 'I'm going to run.'
"I started out by running a block and walking a block. I had a four-mile loop and it didn't take very long, probably about three weeks to be able to make the whole loop."
His approach to food was one he quickly applied to running: "One mile is good, five miles is better, and 20 miles is even better."
(Not that being a Boston qualifier is anything to sneeze at...I don't think I will ever run that fast. That's very admirable too!)
