There is just no getting around it. I am a big man. I’m too big. I haven’t always been this way. I started on the road to obesity while quitting smoking five years ago. Then I was a slip of a lad at a mere 200 pounds, but juggernauted toward my current weight of 265 pounds since. No one need tell me the excessive weight is bad for me. It is apparent to me everyday.
Strangely, despite the added weight, my breathing is better than it was toward the end of my long years of smoking. Do not get the idea that I am rationalizing, though. I know my respiratory system could be less impinged. I also know that when I injured my foot a couple of months ago the recovery time was lengthened by the additional weight I carry, plus the books for 15 credit hours, including three literature survey courses, and an eight year old laptop computer. My blood pressure, however, seems to be in good shape and I do plenty of daily walking.
Most news services run regular reports on obesity in America but I wanted to see what some of the latest studies were showing so I checked the Consumer Edition of Health Source and found a new article. Ken Ferraro, a professor of sociology from Purdue University, and graduate student Markus Schafer, studied how obesity influences hospitalizations in health records over a 20-year span from 1971-1992 as part of a federally funded national health and nutrition survey.
According to the report, “More than 60 percent of the American population is considered overweight or obese based on the body mass index, which is a formula determined by height and weight. Obesity can lead to chronic conditions, such as heart disease, hypertension and Type 2 diabetes, that can affect the quality of life or lead to morbidity.” Further, “Ferraro and Schafer found these obesity complications often were the reasons people were hospitalized. Once in the hospital, however, these illnesses alone were not sufficient to explain the amount of time people were staying,” Ferraro said.
Ferraro, Director of Purdue’s Center on Aging and the Life Course, suggests, “We need to act now to reverse the obesity trend in our younger people. Although it is hard to project the future from these data, the likely scenarios portend a diabetes epidemic.” More information can also be found in the December 2007 Journal of Health and Social Behavior.
So where am I going with all of this and what does all of this mean to someone getting along in years like myself? Hopefully, I am moving toward a future where smaller-sized clothing will be necessary. Yes, it is time to get more serious about shedding the extra pounds once and for all.
Is it reasonable to believe that I will ever get back to my twenty-something weight of a buck ninety? I doubt it. Certainly, though, it is possible to drop enough weight to get closer to the deuce I sported in my late thirties, so that will be my goal. To that end, I intend to drop about ten pounds a month over the course of the Spring 2008 semester and get down to around 225 pounds by May Day. If you have any words of encouragement, they are always welcome. If you want to pledge to do something like this for yourself but along with me this semester, by all means drop me an email. We’ll make the whole school just a little bit lighter, together.
Mark Clover can be reached through his NEIU student email address – M-Clover@neiu.edu