thedrifter
03-10-06, 06:54 AM
Youngstown native sheds pounds, demons on cross-country journey
40-year-old is wiser, lighter after almost a year on the road
Friday, March 10, 2006
Joe Blundo
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Despite stress fractures in his feet and his marriage, Steve Vaught keeps walking. Vaught, 40, weighed 410 pounds when he left San Diego last April on a quest to lose weight and find a new direction in life. He planned to walk to New York. He is now in Ohio, a lighter-but-wiser man at about 295 pounds. Yesterday, as he headed toward Columbus along Rt. 40 north of Dayton, Vaught said he now realizes that walking across the United States was not the answer to all his problems. "I actually don’t think it’s a grand idea for losing weight. It’s more of a great adventure." Vaught’s aching feet were encased in size 12 EEEE walking shoes. He carried a 30-pound backpack and fresh fruit, evidence of a recent diet makeover.
He is a Youngstown native but doesn’t remember the northeastern Ohio city fondly. His family was on welfare, and his father, who never married his mother, was mostly absent, he said. He left town at 17 to join the Marines.
Vaught later settled in San Diego, his last Marine posting, where he worked in auto-related businesses and began attending college.
In 1990, though, while driving at dusk into a blinding sun, Vaught struck and killed an elderly couple crossing the street near a bus stop. He was convicted of a misdemeanor and served 10 days in jail.
The accident, he said, threw him into a depression. He dropped out of college and began overeating. Medication helped the depression, but his weight continued to balloon.
The turning point came in March 2005 while he struggled to walk through a department store with his wife and two kids. At that moment, Vaught said, he decided he had to do something drastic to lose weight and deal with guilt that had followed him since the accident.
"Go ahead," his wife, April, told him.
By mid-April, he had begun the walk, an endeavor that has attracted increasing national attention.
Vaught chronicles his journey online (thefatmanwalking.com) and has appeared three times on NBC’s Today. Partway through the journey, a New York publisher gave him a book advance that enabled him to stop camping and stay in motels instead.
Shortly after reaching Ohio in early February, Vaught decided to leave the road and spend four weeks with a North Hollywood, Calif., fitness trainer. He said the respite helped him improve his eating habits (more fruits and vegetables, less refined grain and fat) and tone up his still ample torso.
He returned to the road last week — in Vandalia, just north of Dayton.
Yesterday, he navigated the narrow Rt. 40 shoulder with two reporters and two photographers. At one point, he stopped to take a call from a producer for Oprah Winfrey.
Vaught’s Internet journal begins with him describing himself as a happily married man, but in a recent entry he revealed that he and April plan to divorce. The walk, he said, isn’t the reason.
"My time away cleared the channels for better dialogue, and we realized we’re better as friends than we are as husband and wife."
Vaught, who expects to pass through Columbus early next week, hopes to reach New York this spring. His long-term goals are uncertain, but he knows he faces a lifelong struggle with weight.
"There is no end. It’s not like I get to New York and I’m cured. I’m learning how to live my life better."
jblundo@dispatch.com
Ellie
40-year-old is wiser, lighter after almost a year on the road
Friday, March 10, 2006
Joe Blundo
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Despite stress fractures in his feet and his marriage, Steve Vaught keeps walking. Vaught, 40, weighed 410 pounds when he left San Diego last April on a quest to lose weight and find a new direction in life. He planned to walk to New York. He is now in Ohio, a lighter-but-wiser man at about 295 pounds. Yesterday, as he headed toward Columbus along Rt. 40 north of Dayton, Vaught said he now realizes that walking across the United States was not the answer to all his problems. "I actually don’t think it’s a grand idea for losing weight. It’s more of a great adventure." Vaught’s aching feet were encased in size 12 EEEE walking shoes. He carried a 30-pound backpack and fresh fruit, evidence of a recent diet makeover.
He is a Youngstown native but doesn’t remember the northeastern Ohio city fondly. His family was on welfare, and his father, who never married his mother, was mostly absent, he said. He left town at 17 to join the Marines.
Vaught later settled in San Diego, his last Marine posting, where he worked in auto-related businesses and began attending college.
In 1990, though, while driving at dusk into a blinding sun, Vaught struck and killed an elderly couple crossing the street near a bus stop. He was convicted of a misdemeanor and served 10 days in jail.
The accident, he said, threw him into a depression. He dropped out of college and began overeating. Medication helped the depression, but his weight continued to balloon.
The turning point came in March 2005 while he struggled to walk through a department store with his wife and two kids. At that moment, Vaught said, he decided he had to do something drastic to lose weight and deal with guilt that had followed him since the accident.
"Go ahead," his wife, April, told him.
By mid-April, he had begun the walk, an endeavor that has attracted increasing national attention.
Vaught chronicles his journey online (thefatmanwalking.com) and has appeared three times on NBC’s Today. Partway through the journey, a New York publisher gave him a book advance that enabled him to stop camping and stay in motels instead.
Shortly after reaching Ohio in early February, Vaught decided to leave the road and spend four weeks with a North Hollywood, Calif., fitness trainer. He said the respite helped him improve his eating habits (more fruits and vegetables, less refined grain and fat) and tone up his still ample torso.
He returned to the road last week — in Vandalia, just north of Dayton.
Yesterday, he navigated the narrow Rt. 40 shoulder with two reporters and two photographers. At one point, he stopped to take a call from a producer for Oprah Winfrey.
Vaught’s Internet journal begins with him describing himself as a happily married man, but in a recent entry he revealed that he and April plan to divorce. The walk, he said, isn’t the reason.
"My time away cleared the channels for better dialogue, and we realized we’re better as friends than we are as husband and wife."
Vaught, who expects to pass through Columbus early next week, hopes to reach New York this spring. His long-term goals are uncertain, but he knows he faces a lifelong struggle with weight.
"There is no end. It’s not like I get to New York and I’m cured. I’m learning how to live my life better."
jblundo@dispatch.com
Ellie