Fat Man Walking

40-year old Steve Vaught didn’t switch to a vegetarian diet to lose weight. He decided to walk … across the United States. The former US marine and self-described “Forrest Lump” weighed almost 200 kg and couldn’t walk the aisle of a supermarket anymore without being out of breath. He realised he was on his way to an early death and decided enough is enough. In April 2005, the father-of-two picked up a backpack and set off from his home in southern California, determined to reach both his geographical goal - Rockefeller Plaza in New York City - and his mental goal: lose weight and regain his life. By early November 2005, he reached the halfway mark across the USA and after taking a break over the Christmas holidays, he started again in January 2006.

By March 2006, Steve had already lost about 60 kg and was less than 1,000 kilometres from the Big Apple. And while he embarked on his journey for personal reasons and not for charity, today he has become somewhat of a counter-culture icon, attracting growing attention from all over The States. Dozens of newspapers, television and radio stations have taken up his story, and in every town he walks through, someone knows his name. 3,700 km into his quest, he had a book deal, a 700,000 hits-a-month website and has been interviewed by Oprah. Steve kept an online diary which holds up a mirror to life in the US, depicting it as a car-dependent society where quite often junk food is a staple diet. When he left San Diego in April 2005, he passed 21 fast food restaurants in a four-and-a-half mile stretch of road. He walked through the midwest, the breadbasket of the US with acres and acres of farmland and called it one of the most unhealthy places on earth where he couldn’t even buy fresh fruit and veg.

His journey wasn’t always been an easy one – broken bones in both feet, sleeping in abandoned buildings or pitching his tent in a ditch – but the fat man kept walking, refusing commercial offers to advertise weight loss pills, vitamins or smoking patches because he’s unwilling to compromise his integrity.

Finally, at beginning of May, the once 400 pound man made it to his New York destination. His 4,800 km journey ended in a blaze of publicity at George Washington Bridge where he was greeted by a crowd of fans and reporters. He reportedly got through 15 pairs of shoes, 30 pairs of socks and 6 rucksacks over the course of his journey. He said he didn’t keep count of exactly how far he had walked or how much he had eaten along the way. “This is not about obsessing about numbers, or times, or dates, or miles”, he told AP News Agency.

His story has attracted the attention of documentary film makers and he has definite plans to publish a book about his journey with HarperCollins.