Roller Coaster Diet is part one in a series where I explain why our lives are better with Theme Parks. For this post, I talk about a personal experience of mine. Which only serves as a call to action for others to make the same change I did.
Roller Coaster Diet: For a “good” reason
It was May 2019, and the church I belong to held an event celebrating the people who volunteered. They do this once a year, but this year the destination was Six Flags, St. Louis. A sense of nostalgia came over me once I heard that we were going. I hadn’t been to a Theme Park in about a decade. That was for a good reason.
Roller Coaster Diet: Why I stopped going
I have always been a coaster and theme park enthusiast. As a child, I lived for the weekends when my parents would take us to Six Flags. I was nerdy about roller coasters in a way that I could tell nobody else I knew was. However, there was another obsession of mine that came to dominate a good portion of my adult life. That is food.
I was always a rather large kid. It’s one of the defining characteristics of my life. You could say I have done the roller coaster diet my entire life. I would gain a bunch, then lose a bunch, and then put it right back on with extra. This type of up-and-down experience is much better with a lap bar.
Roller Coaster Diet: Those Darn Seat Belts!
I had stopped going to theme parks because I knew that there wasn’t anything good to come out of it. I knew I wouldn’t fit in the roller coasters I wanted to ride. I had experienced the “walk of shame” before and didn’t wish to do that again. Those darn seat belts!
My church invited us, and I said let’s go. I knew our two kids would be too young for many rides, but lunch was provided! Regardless of being unable to ride any roller coasters, something happened to me that day. Something got into my brain and said, “what if I made a change.”
A Change in my Thinking.
I thought about it and mulled it over for about a week. Then decided that I could get off this roller coaster diet and start riding actual roller coasters again. So I signed up for Six Flags memberships for my family and me. I would pay for the complete package knowing I could not use it the way I wanted to yet. The knowledge that every month I would pay to be able to ride the Screamin’ Eagle and not be able to ride it would kill me.
I didn’t go on any crash diet. Instead, I started making better choices. Slowly but surely, the pounds fell off. Anytime I thought about doing something stupid, I would think about being able to click the seat belt on Batman: the Ride, and I kept going.
Never Go Backwards
There was one experience that will always stick with me as motivation never to go backward. A couple of weeks into making my change of mind, I decided to try to get on a roller coaster, in this case, Batman: the Ride. My whole family joined me in the line. Yet, when I sat down in the seat, I was nowhere near able to buckle the seat belt. My four-year-old daughter was very confused.
She was super excited about watching her Daddy ride this massive roller coaster. As we walked away, she kept yelling, “but I want to see you ride it!” I had no way to explain it to her. But I sucked it up, knowing this would never happen again. She would see her Daddy ride this coaster soon.
Truly I tell you that Theme Parks Matter.
This story doesn’t end with me telling you that I have a six-pack and am now a model. However, it does end with me being around 100 pounds lighter than during that awful scene at Batman. I got off the Roller Coaster Diet and instead used Roller Coasters to help me diet. Also, my daughter finally got to see her Daddy ride that big roller coaster! Truly I tell you that Theme Parks Matter.
I was going down a terrible track before going to Six Flags that day. Yet going to a theme park inspired me to be better. I think many things about theme parks accentuate the better nature of humanity.
For you, it might be that you can’t click the seat belt either. Or any number of things that you could be better at today if you tried. Come back for part two of Why Theme Parks Matter, where I will discuss queue line conversation etiquette.
Thanks For Reading!
If you found this review helpful or informative, would you please consider sharing this with your friends, family, and fellow roller coaster enthusiast? Please add your story in the comments below. I would love to hear about your journey. Let me know if there is anything I can do to help. You can keep in touch with me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/themeparkcoastercrazy/ and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Themeparkcoastercrazy.