No Excuses!

Excerpts from various chapters:

If you are an Overly Fat Person, if there is one reason above all else to change your lifestyle and lose that disgusting weight, it is for the reason of health. If you can't seem to want to do it for yourself then do it for a loved one, a spouse, your children or grand children, your girlfriend or boyfriend, because, believe it or not, your family would probably like you to be around for a while.  And it is almost impossible to argue against the overwhelming evidence that connects obesity to an alarming number of health issues. So, if you're obese, are you so self-centered that you don't care if your children are devastated by your heart attack because you lack the self-discipline or self respect or general desire necessary to maintain some semblance of normalcy?  If you are obese and are not doing something to change your life; then that means you don't care about yourself or your loved ones. And then my friend, I feel extremely sorry for you.

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Now lets think about what words we presently use to describe fat people.  One of the words/terms that bothers me the most is the term “Full Figured.”  For anyone over 40 years of age it is quite apparent that this term has changed tremendously over the years.  “Full Figured” previously meant or related to women who were significantly endowed with respect to their breasts.  Names that come to mind of women who fell into this category are Jane Russell, Raquel Welch and other large breasted but thin/normal women.  The key is thin (by today's standards because back then thin was normal) and large breasted.  Unfortunately today “Full Figured” is some fat culture rationalization and de-stigmatizing term for women who can't control themselves around food and drink.  “We can't control ourselves and have fat bodies, but we need to somehow gain respect from others who are not as disgustingly over indulgent as ourselves, “state the fat women.” Fat women state, we can't think of ourselves as fat, which would be depressing, so we think of ourselves as “Full Figured.”  Yeah, great for our country, huh! (See the end of chapters for examples of other “words” that attempt to de-stigmatize)

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Let's summarize the various physical and mental ailments that go with being an Overly Fat Person. I will touch on them briefly here and then go into more detail with regard to specifics a little further on.  There is the issue with heart disease, stroke and heart rhythm problems. There is the problem with the increased risk of diabetes and all the diseases and ailments that accompany diabetes. How about the added stress on bones, muscles, joints and tendons? Or, let me see, how about the effect fat has on the brain and how being fat makes the brain age faster. Or, how about the mental issues of depression or lack of self-image due to being fat? And there is much evidence that being obese increases the risk of many types of cancer.  

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It's funny because women always use the hormone excuse.  Well, us guys should start doing this also.  Hey, let women try to deal with our high levels of testosterone. For instance, does a woman know what it's like when I am walking down the sidewalk of downtown Portland on a hot summers day with a breeze blowing and I am following two slim teenage