WHY I LOVE WRESTLING

As a parent, I love wrestling season. No, I don’t mean the perspiration-soaked workout clothes left in a gym bag over the weekend, or watching someone you love get slammed onto a mat at 100 miles-per-hour, or the rank smell of sweat in an enclosed tournament room, or the grouchy teenager who is hungry and needing to make weight. It is more of a selfish reason that I love wrestling.

When I attended college just north of the border that touts the colors crimson and cream, my boyfriend was someone who had wrestled in high school. He was passionate about it, and wrestling was obviously the best experience of his high school years. His best friends were his old wrestling buddies, he was fiercely dedicated to anything he undertook, and he made great grades – a personification of all the benefits of wrestling.

Our relationship was interesting – the occasional arm-drag at a party, a half-nelson move to break up the monotony of a movie. I also knew my boyfriend would be able to protect himself, and anybody with him, in the event he got into a “situation.” Perhaps it was remembering how much this young man loved the sport that I encouraged my step-son, Adam, to participate when he began high school.

Wrestling was not on the top of Adam’s list of sports. As a matter of fact, it didn’t make the list at all. We had to “negotiate.” Our stance was that his father and I expected honor roll if he was not involved in sports or clubs. Hey, he would have two more hours each weekday to study.

“Me wrestle?” Adam asked. “The uniforms are gay.” I think that is one of the first hurdles to wrestling when you haven’t grown up with it – the perception that you wear a skin-tight leotard and rub up against other boys. Yes, the singlets are a little tight, but just think how strong you will become. The negotiations were still being hammered out in January when he was finally talked into trying it… for two days. Still gay. I explained that to really learn about a sport took at least two weeks. Well, the short of it is that he participated at Fargo this past July, and is slotted to be on Varsity this year. Score one for mamma.

Now to why I love wrestling. I was told wrestling was a “family affair.” That means that when one person in the house is on a diet, everyone in the house is on a diet. When Adam started wrestling I weighed more than my 5’6” frame was supposed to hold. About March he quit drinking sodas. That translates to mean that I was never to buy or bring another soda into our home. Instead, I feel as if I solely support the CEO of the Gatorade company. We have purchased a refrigerator to put in our garage specifically for Gatorade – no lie.

It got worse.

I knew Adam was serious about wrestling when he quit eating chocolate. Our family had always believed that chocolate was on the bottom of the food pyramid; it was quite a shock to learn otherwise. Instead he replaced chocolate with things like rice cakes and strawberries. He started to eat vegetables. He checked labels on the back for fat grams and calories. What had I created?

That was when my husband and I decided to change our lifestyle, too. It didn’t seem right to tell a child to go grab a banana if he’s hungry when you are shoveling the entire container of Ben and Jerry’s Cherry Garcia into your mouth. What kind of role model was that? Instead I started to buy more fruits and vegetables, and less “junk.” I quit cooking casseroles. I started using Splenda instead of sugar. Oddly enough, by June I had lost 20 pounds and gone down three jean sizes, and my husband lost 18 pounds and one jean size. Now there is a benefit of the sport they don’t tell you about!

After Fargo, our family relaxed a little. I bought some dark chocolate a few times. We had fried chicken once. We splurged on Red Bull. I noticed I didn’t loose any more weight, although I maintained.

So now that October has rolled back around, it is time to get out the scales for daily weighing, fill up a big jug of water in the morning to drink throughout the day, and see how many sit-ups can be cranked out during a commercial break of “Ultimate Fighter.”  We are back to healthy every day.

One of the by-products of wrestling is that our family has become a lot closer. We eat better and exercise. We make conscious choices about food and encourage each other. So, you see, my reasons for loving wrestling season are pretty selfish. It truly is a “family affair” that has helped us live a better lifestyle through supporting our son in his chosen sport.