As a high school athlete, I let myself believe that eating junk food was OK. I would eat anything and everything from whole boxes of pizza to platters of Chinese food. And as the pounds crept up on me, starting in my sophomore year, I just kept saying to myself, I need to be this big to play football. I knew I was gaining weight, and everyone around me noticed too, but I would lie and say I only put on a couple pounds.
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