If it sounds too good to be true……..

I was at the YMCA for my early morning workout recently and noticed a young man on a treadmill that I had not seen previously. He appeared to be college age; maybe a little older and also appeared to be someone like me who had struggled with weight issues, maybe for most of his life.  I was glad to see him taking action and figured I’d give him a little encouragement if the opportunity ever presented itself.

A little later as I was shaving this same young man went by me and it sounded like he was saying something about being too fat.  I poked my head around the corner as he was heading back toward the shower room just past where I was shaving. I said Hi, ah….. excuse me but it sounded like you said something about being fat.

He was holding one of the YMCA towels in his hand and said he was too fat for the towels. I told him I had seen him on the treadmill and that he was doing the right thing. I very quickly shared that I was 263 lbs. when I was 25 and tried to encourage him to keep doing what he was doing. I think he realized I was being sincere and he thanked me for the comment.  

After not seeing him for a few days, I did see him again near the end of last week so he is back at it.

I mention this incident because not long before this, I had heard a story about another young man, a very bright fellow who had graduated from UNF (the University of North Florida) and had gone to work for the family business. This young man, named Marty, had struggled with his weight; he smoked and had high blood pressure.

I assume that this young man, Marty, had tried to lose the excess weight. Maybe he had even used the same treadmill in the same YMCA. I understand that he had tried to stop smoking which might have caused him to eat more and aggravate the excess weight issue.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could enjoy all the rich decadent food that we wanted? We could even use food as a comforter on stressful days. When the inevitable weight gain turned into 50 or 75 or even 100 extra pounds we could just book a visit to the local liposuction clinic and have the excess pounds sucked away. We could then recover and continue to enjoy all the food we wanted knowing that another trip to the liposuction clinic was always an option to cure the effects of excess consumption.   

For some unknown reason, when Marty was 31 years old, he concluded that liposuction was the way to remove the excess body weight. He signed up to have all areas of his body done at the same time. A father to two young children, at 31 years old he passed away within hours of the surgery.

When I heard this story, I realized that it could have applied to me, or maybe even the young man I saw on the treadmill at the YMCA recently. Certainly; eating all the rich decadent food that one wants and just having the resulting fat sucked away and washed down a drain with no ill effects would be too good to be true for many people.

I understand this. Maintaining a healthy body weight is hard work. I know many people try and give up. But it can be done, the old fashion way, through diet and exercise. Hard work that will produce real results.