A long time ago I was at a wedding and the father of the groom joked;
My doctor told me to watch my weight, so I put it out front where I can see it.
Yes it makes for a good laugh, a nice ice breaker on the father of the groom speech. And like all good jokes, it contains a kernel of truth, the man was, indeed, fat. The problem is, also like many a good joke, it contains a hidden darkness. Are you ready for it?
Fat is bad.
Oh, gee, thanks Dr. Obvious. I’m glad you said that because surely no one reading a health and fitness blog has any idea that being overweight is bad for you.
Okay, we all know that being overweight is a problem. That’s why you see so few fat people walking the streets of North American cities.
Wait, wut? “Few” fat people?
Right, we all know being overweight is unhealthy, so there really aren’t any fat people.
But there are, lots of them. In fact, we refer to the “Obesity Epidemic.” Do a Google search for “obesity epidemic” and two things leap out.
First, obesity epidemic is not only a Google Chrome auto fill., it’s the first suggestion.
Second, there are 31 800 000 results.
So, maybe we know that being fat is bad, but we don’t really know that being fat is bad. So let’s list some of the deleterious health effects of being fat.
- heart disease
- diabetes
- cancer
- sleep problems
- posture problems
- joint pain
And of course, the best part is that being overweight, you fall into a vicious cycle. Every one of these problems can be relieved through exercise, but there’s a problem. Excess weight makes it harder to exercise. And lack of exercise makes it easier to gain weight, which makes it harder to exercise, and so on.
Being overweight might be good for a laugh in a wedding speech, but it’s no joke.
So, what do you do?
Well, I may have mentioned this once or twice, but I do a lot of yoga, and one of the primary reasons people do yoga is to lose weight.
If one of the problems of overweight is difficulty exercising, then one of the solutions is yoga. A hard yoga class is a complete workout; stretching, resistance training, and aerobics. Get warmed and loosened up, build muscle, and burn calories and do it all on a 3 x 6 mat. Even if you’re overweight, even if you have joint pain, you can still get good, hard exercise.
It also has the salutary effect, unique among exercise programs, of reducing food cravings. So, build muscle, burn calories, and don’t eat crap.
And please when watching your weight, don’t put it out front where you can see it.
