Honest talk…up front, to the point, no beating around the bush.
Whoa…it almost sounds like I’m doing a promo for the ten o’clock news on Fox 18 WCCB with Morgan Fogarty and Israel
Balderas.
Simple question: Why do we publically discuss a person’s weight loss more than weight gain?
Example: 1. Are you experiencing a lot of stress? You’re losing weight.
2. I’ve noticed some changes, are you sick and don’t want to tell us?
3. Wow! You look different! Everything ok at home?
Being from both sides of the white picket fence that gives me politically correct permission to shout out.
Weight gain is an extremely touchy subject; instantly you’re branded rude, crude and unfriendly yet if someone had questioned the path I traveled before my heart attack it could’ve been prevented.
I’m no expert but over the past couple of years I’ve deeply studied the cause and effect of what happens when the ego teaches itself to ignore the signs and road blocks the body hangs in front of you everyday. I was convinced that being actively involved with a workout program my chances of becoming ill were lessoned. And that’s where we are wrong.
If I hadn’t been with Master Todd Harris at Martial Arts University I wouldn’t have learned the valuable art of listening to the body speak.
I knew something wasn’t right a month before the heart attack. I sat on top of my house trimming the limbs and without warning signs or an angel’s sweet soft vocal my lungs stopped asking for the future. Gradually it grew; pushup levels dropped to barely ten, I couldn’t run longer than a minute in class, I was no longer participating with members of our school choosing instead to slip the black belt from my waist so I could stand in the back.
The doctor replied, “Your blood pressure is a little high, I can get you a pill. “
He said nothing about being a six foot one inch Montana man that weighs 242 pounds. Records clearly show the preferred weight should be 195.
My addiction wasn’t alcohol, drugs, work or too much play…it was fast food. I constantly craved the mixture of catsup, mustard, a pickle or two topped with a sliver of beef from the dollar menu. To have just one was never enough…the lucky digit was five. I’ll work it off tonight in class. And that’s where we are wrong.
Only one person stood up; Bob from the avid movie premiere patron walked up and placed his hand on my stomach and said, “Maybe it’s time you back off.”
Offended but not as taken back as I am during these extremely controlled days; is it because weight loss is connected to sickness but we’re too afraid to say the other way is too?
This is why I’ve chosen to be like Fogarty and Balderas and ask the questions that truly involve the chapters you write.
We’re six inches shy of walking under the brightly lit holiday spirit but three feet from January and February where we want to work it off.
There’s nothing I can write, share over the intro of a song on the radio or deliver face to face that isn’t going to offend you when in reality it’s nothing more than a six foot one inch Montana man openly admitting he’s been to Hell and doesn’t want you to stop in for a visit.
Why do we publicly discuss a person’s weight loss more than weight gain?
I’ve made the mistake of congratulating someone who wasn’t pregnant. The embarrassment and guilt continue to haunt the path. I also watched myself grow in the mirror and pretended it was muscle but in a more rounded less grocery store magazine way. And that’s where we are wrong.
The web is over saturated with innocent questions based on how to better handle every situation connected to weight; be it gaining or losing too much. The real solution is to physically face a professional. Keep asking questions and never settle on the first answer.
December 2010; inside a week the frame that carries my name dropped seventeen pounds inside seven days. Christmas Eve was spent listening to a doctor scream, “Your body is telling you to slow down!”
And that’s where he was wrong.
My body was telling me the medication he had me taking was reacting in a negative way and muscle degeneration had reached a dangerous level.
Keep asking questions and never settle on the first answer.
And that’s where you’re going to be right.
arroecollins@clearchannel.com
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