OBESITY: AN EPIDEMIC

Overeating is an addiction

Up until recently, I have never been overweight in my life. Now that I'm well into my seventies, a time when a normal male is supposed to be losing the weigh he usually gains in his sixties, I'm having trouble loosing the ten pounds the chart says I'm overweight. It's all around my waist. I think I'm running ten years behind the normal. However, I have been a little abnormal all my life.

Back, what seems three lifetimes ago, I look upon a lifetime as around 20 years, i.e., the time I spend with one woman before moving on to another life. Right now, I'm 12 years into my third lifetime. Anyway, it was in the early 1960 and I was just starting lifetime number one. The Navy assigned me to a Shore Patrol unit in Jacksonville, Florida where I met some unforgettable characters while patrolling the downtown area.

Most were hookers, but I met two rather jolly individuals. One, we'll call him John, the other, we'll call her Mary, and I believe that was her real name. In fact, she went by Fat Mary. They both were happy, vociferous, and not ashamed of their obesity, at least outwardly. John boasted of tipping the scales at over 400 pounds plus or minus fifty as he put it. He had his goal set on reaching 450. He wanted to join the circus and become a trapeze artist. Ok, he would do his painting of trapeze artist on the side and sit on stage as the fat man to earn his keep in the circus.

Mary was not quite that heavy. She had the foulest mouth of any woman l had ever encountered up until then, i.e., I was only 21 and had virgin ears when it came to foul mouthed women. I met many since then that would put Fat Mary to shame. Every time I encountered her, she grabbed me up with a bear hug, pressing me into her rolls of fat to the point of suffocating me. "One of these days, you cute little f***er you, I'm going to catch you off duty, and f*** the S**t out of you."

I made sure I never went down town when I was off duty.

My first wife was overweight, not when we first met. However, after 5 kids and 6 years into our marriage, she had gained quite a few pounds. My brother and sister-in-law introduced me to her with the idea that she was a promising partner. When I informed them we decided to get married, they changed their tune.”Can you afford to keep her in Cokes and cigarettes?"

Long story short, she died in her early sixties from emphysema. I visited her once when I was between my second and third wife. She was still grossly overweight and still had a Coke sitting beside her at all times. I remember scolding my oldest daughter, who was a younger image of her mother, for smoking in the same room with her mother attached to and oxygen bottle.

The odd thing is, through the years we were married, she seldom sat down with us at mealtime. It seemed to me, I ate three times what she did. Looking back, I ate horribly then. I could and did eat everything and anything sat before me, things that would kill me on the spot if I ate them now.

As for me, with my gluttonous eating habits, I was never overweight in my life. I drank too much, and I smoked into my late thirties. Three years from the time, I declared myself smoke-free and eating healthy, I learned I had bladder cancer. My oldest brother, the one that introduced me to my first wife, died from this at the age of 72. Once, when he learned I no longer drank, he made the statement, "I don't trust anyone who doesn't drink." I wonder if he felt the same about non-smokers. He never gave up either habit until he died.

Have I been lucky or what? I know it's not because of a divine being looking over me. I do not believe in them nor have I ever asked for their help. I guess what I'm saying is it's different for everyone, and luck or prayers has nothing to do with it. I do believe one stands a better chance by taking proper precautions. I speak from experience most of which came the hard way.

Do you know your ideal body weight? Check your proper weight here. I was surprised to learn I am 10 pounds over my ideal weight. Like I mentioned, it's all around my midriff. I have been eating healthy for over twenty years now and I still have a cloistral problem. My problem is, I'm eating too much healthy.

Here is one on my recent experiences. For the past year or so, I have been carefully watching my diet and 98% of it consists of vegetables, fruit, and nuts, lots of nuts of all kinds, and no, or practically no refined sugar or fat. It's nearly impossible to find food that is both fat free and sugar free. I exercise the required 30 minutes a day six days a week. Yet I cannot rid myself of my midriff roll. I cut out some of my snacks and drink more plain water. Instead of eating cooked vegetables, I went to eating them raw and organic. If I don't live to at least 102, I'm going to scream bloody murder.

An example

Let's say we have a group of 30 people who venture to a place where they must exist on their own without any aid from an outside source. Everyone must do his/her part in order for the group to exist. Let's say, a third of the group who are heavy eaters and the group has no restrictions on how much one is allowed to eat. They have an open door policy to their supply stores of food. They grew enough for them to exist on until the next season. I think you see what lies ahead.

The one third is going to eat two thirds of the food. They will continue to gain weight until they can no longer do their share of the work. They become sick more often than the others thereby exhaust not only the group's food supply but also their scant supply of medicines. They drink more of their water supply, which has to be hauled up from a deep well. They can no longer do their share of the work because it is more difficult for them to get around. Everyone else must do more to take up the slack.

Should the group ration the food, put someone in charge of distributing it or charge a tax or fee upon it? Should they ban the ten laggards, run them off with sticks?

Is this group of 30 any different from the group of 300 million in the U.S.? We over eaters are taking the food out of starving babies and children, not only in this country, but also in countries around the world. If we keep up the way we are, there is going to come a time when the world is not going to sustain all us gluttons.

"We're living in a food carnival, constantly bombarded by food cues, almost all of them unhealthy," Kessler 

What's the solution? It seems obvious to me that we individuals (especially individuals like me, who believe we are the product of all our life's choices) are not going to take it upon ourselves to do what is required. We are just too damned used to having it our way. I do not believe our government has a solution either. They seem only to aggravate it, especially with their school meal selections. Their answer is, they give the children a variety and the kids choose what they want. I watched a food documentary yesterday where a school brought out huge portable shelved twice a day loaded down with every candy bar on the market. When asked why they sold this crap to the kids, the principal said, "It's what the kids wanted, and it brings in money to fund other projects in the school" Where do they find these anal jerks, and they are teaching our kids. That principle had a big smile on his puss the whole time, like it was a big joke. That's it. I'm finished and disgusted. Thanks and have a pleasant day. Ray