On being fat...(part 2)

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According to the National Institute of Health, Obesity in the United States is the #1 cause or contributing factor to most of the negative health related conditions in people of all ages.  Blah, blah, blah....

Statistics never changed anyone.  Warning labels never changed anyone. It's a little bit like the old-school substance abuse deterrent program they used with kids...D.A.R.E. It stood for...some thing with the word "Resist" in it....anyway, they found that for all the millions of dollars they spent on the program throughout the U.S., all it did was make white teenage boys who weren't going to do drugs anyway feel a little better about not doing drugs.

Obesity statistics just make me want to go eat a cheeseburger.

But here is something that is trying to motivate me: I feel terrible, and there are a lot of weight-related physical symptoms that are piling up and making me (and other people) miserable.

I snore like a freight train.  Of course I don't know this because I'm so tired from snoring all night the night before that I fall dead asleep the next night.  My poor wife has to find other places to go or ear-plugs, or fans, anything to drown out the rattling.  I snored before I  lost the weight in 05-06.  Once I lost 50 lbs, the snoring stopped.

I have silent reflux.  (That's acid-reflux that doesn't wake me up. Why doesn't it wake me up?  See the above paragraph.)  From 2000 to 2006 I led 5 to 7 extended worship sets a week.  At times I was teaching 10 hours a week and counseling.  At my fattest during that time, I lost my voice, literally.  I couldn't make it through 1 song and I was blown.  I went to a an ENT who specialized in vocalists.  He said my vocal cords were fried from the reflux and that he couldn't guarantee I would get my singing voice back.  This was a major motivator for me to lose the weight.  I took prilosec at night, laid off the coffee, drank a lot of water,and rested my voice. After a number of weeks I returned to the specialist.  He said it was one of the most complete turn-arounds he'd seen.  He didn't see any residual damage.  I know I'm in the same boat again.  I "music directed" a high school theater camp this summer.  During some of the rehearsals we put the actors on vocal rest, so I had to sing.  It was (as Charles Barkley would say) terrrrrr-a-bl.  I had nothing.

My back and legs hurt.  Now, I already have arthritis, and some kind of hip-pointer thing, and my feet fall asleep, and my poor body is screaming, 'Enough already with the fatness!"

My Dad has prostate cancer and is starting treatment.  He has a great prognosis, but I could tell it shook him up.  My folks came down to see us recently, I think one of the motivators was he wanted to talk to me about my health.  As I think about it now... my mom has had cancer, my dad has cancer, my aunt died of cancer, Grandpa Pete died of emphysema when I was in 7th grade, Grandpa  Huck died of heart disease when I was in 6th grade...hmmmmmmm.

(On being fat...part 3 on 496)