Do Your Heart a Favor

There is no end to the excuses people give for being fat and out of shape. Just now I heard a new one, and this is a hoot: "Chronic debilitating migraines" is the reason given by one woman for her excess girth. (Not to go too deep into it, but when I was a youngster, and until age 23, I had those. They sucked, and one thing they caused for sure is a lack of appetite. Somehow this lady got fat despite those headaches. Go figure.)

I'm pretty sure getting fat is caused by eating too much and not exercising. I'm not a doctor or a scientist, but I am a person who, one month ago, fractured a couple of ribs. That caused me to give up my daily fitness walks and lay about the house weeping, interspersed with sobbing, and of course, eating. I gained five pounds, and I don't like them one bit. But I'm still recovering, I tell myself. I am much better, and the sobbing and the weeping have stopped, so in one sense I'm getting even less exercise than ever.

Then today a friend told me about a friend of hers who suffered a massive heart attack. The woman, almost my age exactly, is now on life support. She's a fattie, about 60 pounds overweight. I went for a walk.