I’ve been overweight all my life. In 1984, I discovered treadmills. I bought one and made it a commitment to do a minimum of 30 minutes of treadmill runs every morning before I leave home. I lost a lot of weight and kept it off for a very long time. By the time my husband and I got married in 1989, I was on my 5th treadmill. For the first year, I kept it in our extra bedroom and was exercising inside the house. My husband is naturally fit and does not exercise at all. In the last 30 years since we’ve been married, he’s exercised a total of no more than 30 days. He looks good, can eat what he wants and does not need to exercise. That’s all perfectly fine with me if he doesn’t have to work as hard as I do, but it’s not good with him. He complains about my exercise, complains if I eat carb, or if I don’t eat carb. He makes fun of me no matter what I do to lose weight. He doesn’t get that others have to work harder to get what he has. When we moved to our first house, he made me put the treadmill in the garage. Every morning, I go to the garage to exercise because he would not let me put it in any other room inside the house. Since this item is not his or important to him, then it’s just not important at all.

When we moved to our current house 22 years ago, I put the treadmill in the basement and kept on using it. After five or 6 years, my treadmill broke and I needed to buy a new one. A work friend offered to help bring my new purchase home in his truck in exchange for me to stay at the office to finish a project I was helping him with to meet an urgent deadline. When my friend came home, my husband told him to leave it in the garage. My husband told my friend he didn’t want to burden him with carrying the treadmill downstairs. Asked him to leave in the garage and later my husband will take it downstairs himself. My friend was very thankful and came to the office and told me what my husband said. I told him I wasn’t sure that would happen. My friend then told me that if my husband doesn’t take down by the following week, he’ll do it himself. He said “I promised you to take it to the basement and I’ll do exactly that”.

My friend came to our house the following week, carried the treadmill from the garage, we he had left it that week before, and put it in the basement where I had originally asked him to put it.

I’ve gained a lot of weight over the last 30 years and every time he gets a hint of me trying to diet, he’ll begin his bullying, making fun of me as a gainer, not a loser, and whatever I eat, he’ll say “that’s disgusting”. I’ve learned to stay away from him during meals because of his treatments, and the rest of the time for the same reason.