“Now That I Have You’re Attention”
Obesity and
Not So Common
Common Sense

Allow me to clear up the apprehension I feel at the moment in respect to what I’m about to say. I’m writing this chapter to enlighten and to help people that are overweight and grossly out of shape or on their way to being overweight and grossly out of shape. In the event you are not able or willing to “hear it like it is” presuming you would want nothing less, then skip this chapter.

The very last thing I wish to accomplish is to hurt someone’s feelings, make someone feel inferior, or turn someone off in respect to fixing the problem, and “problem” is all it is. No different than a cavity in a tooth, or a herniated muscle that will only get worse if not attended to the sooner than later.

The cavity and the hernia can easily kill you with infection and strangulation. Obesity can also kill you through secondary considerations to numerous to mention.

According to the Surgeon General’s Office, better than three hundred thousand people die needlessly every year because they’re overweight. This one even stunned me! If you’re overweight, you increase your chances of contracting Arthritis by a whopping 50%. I never knew there was a connection until now but it makes sense doesn’t it?

I have had no formal medical education what so ever but I have been around for 60 plus years. Science, creative electronics, and music are among my main interests. I’ve raised four kids, observed, learned, and experienced things young professionals haven’t even
dreamed of as yet. However, as an individual, you are one of a kind and
must be cared for in respect to any medical problem with just that in mind. Treating obesity, with no exceptions, should be under the control of a qualified physician that is aware of an individuals mental and physical conditions.

Unfortunately, obesity in the United States has become a deadly disgrace and I’m here to tell you what I’ve learned, what I’ve observed, and what you already know but have become to complacent, stupid, or both, to realize that it is killing you and your children at an astounding rate. We’ll talk about the numerous social ramifications later. All negative and all devastating I
might ad.

For those of you that don’t think you have a weight problem but do, don’t care, not about to see a physician, or in particular, raising fat little tennis balls instead of healthy children, read on. I’ll break down my experiences and acquired knowledge into sections and let you have everything I’ve learned right from the hip with no punches pulled. Like it or not, it’s what I
believe. Again, I’m not out to hurt anyone’s feelings but this is a matter of life and death and if I don’t arrange these words in a manner that grabs you by the ass, your complacency and self-destructive life styles will continue for you and your children.

If I am able to motivate you to take on a new and active concern about your physical condition, great! Absolutely fantastic! On the other hand, if your not able to handle one or more discoveries you might glean from this chapter, in either case, I want you to promise me to consult a physician before you decide to do anything as a result of what you’ve learned if anything. Agreed?
Promise? I don’t want anyone jumping off a bridge because I convinced them fat is ugly and extremely unhealthy. Nor do I want anyone inspired by my words going out the next morning to jog 6 miles and drop dead from a heart attack. At least get a checkup and blood test. You may weigh 300 pounds and still be dangerously anemic. Your red blood cells could be up or down. You could be low on potassium, manganese, or grape jelly, who the hell knows? Do you? I sure don’t. OK? Great, now let’s get to work.

Remember, I’m no physician. The following is simply one mans opinions. Opinions that happen to be right on the money I don’t mind saying, at least for me and possibly for you too. Let’s find out.

Here’s the categories I’ll be discussing in this article;

• Physicians.
• My brother and I.
• Fat people in general.
• Fat parents.
• Fat children.
• Nutrition and dieting.

 
Physicians:

You’ve all heard of the late Dr. Atkins and his low carbohydrate diet plan. It’s been around for decades and it actually works. I’ve known people that have lost amazing amounts of weight according to they’re plan as long as they stuck to it which is another story I’ll touch
on in the nutrition and dieting section.

Most of my personal knowledge has come from listening to everyone and every thing over the years including radio talk shows that were a major part of my early education as far back as 50 years or so. Doctors, religious icons, politicians, you name it, I’ve listened to them all. It amazes me to this day how opposed two Harvard graduates with the same degree’s can be on the same subject.

The point is we need these trained professionals for any number of obvious reasons but you must never forget, especially when your life is at stake that they all have colleagues that vehemently disagree with them on any subject you can think of including and especially,
obesity, dieting and nutrition.

If you lose your money in the market because your broker advised you wrongly, that’s one thing. If you lose your life because of a physician that was wrong or had other motivational concerns such as his wallet rather than your health, that’s something else again isn’t it? Unfortunately, the world is full of physicians harboring ulterior motivations. I’m sure you’ve heard of a few yourselves especially in the dieting and nutrition fields.

I mentioned the Atkins plan because over the years I have listened to dozens of qualified physicians and nutritionists that all argued the Atkins plan doesn’t work for long and worse, it’s potentially, extremely dangerous. From this information I’ve gathered, and
my own knowledge of people, medicine, and nutrition, I would have to completely agree.

The big problem is that none of these plans have been around long enough for life long effects to be scientifically concluded. Some, like the grapefruit diet plan have already been determined dangerous by the bulk of the medical community but most still require
decades of study and human follow-up in order to determine their safety and worth.

The act of dieting itself is highly controversial in respect to the constant up and down weight variability, mental stress, and possible depression caused by repeated long term effort and failure.

That’s enough for me right there folks. There’s a variety of safe, age-old methods of loosing weight that don’t require putting your ass on the line with some unproven and potentially dangerous diet plan. I will suggest a few methods I’ve used and myself over the years in the nutrition and dieting section. It’s simpler than you think once you get in the groove. In the meantime, choose your physician wisely when it comes to your obesity. The cures for your decayed tooth and your hernia are universally excepted but weight loss is still a cacophony of disagreement. If ever the line “physician heal thyself” applied more appropriately in this case to the average Joe, it’s in the field of weight loss.

My advice, use your physicians for monitoring and advising you on your mental and physical condition. Use your nutritionist to plan and monitor your food intake, and use your physical therapist to put your body in shape and keep it that way. Your body is an incredibly complicated machine that may or may not tolerate management mistakes. Realize that fact and be on the safe side by utilizing the knowledge that is available to us all through these learned professionals.
Obviously, they should all work in congruence but you’d best not forget that none of them will succeed without your guidance, control, and your personal motivation to be as best looking, as healthy, happy, and as long-lived as possible.