Killing Themselves with Knives and Forks

People aren’t stupid. They are very well aware that being overweight is a sure ticket to diabetes, heart attacks or death. Doing something about it is another thing, as I found out in recent contact with three friends.

One of my friends (I’ll call him Tom) weighs more than 300 pounds, and has diabetes. He loves to play golf, but lately golf has not loved him. He’s in constant pain, especially in his knees and shoulders – which are important areas in golf.

There’s a solution to Tom’s misery: Lose 100 pounds. It might not cure all of problems, but it would help. If you don’t believe it, put nine bowling balls in a bag and carry it over your shoulders. Then you’d know what Tom is going through in everyday life. Another benefit to losing weight is better control of diabetes.

Tom realizes he needs to lose weight, but he just can’t push himself away from the table. And he has no interest in weight-reduction plans. It’s sad, because Tom’s a great guy.

Another friend of mine, I’ll call him Robert, carries about 260 pounds on his 5-7 frame. He looks like a bowling ball.

Robert, who over the years has had various problems with his knees, will be the first to acknowledge that he needs to take off some pounds. The problem is that his 20-something daughter recently moved back home and is now in charge of cooking family dinners. Robert tells me she does a wonderful job.

“I have no control over it,” he said. “She’s in charge of the dinners, and that’s it.”

I wonder what it would take for Robert to gain control over what he eats. Maybe it will take a heart attack, or a week of intensive care. Robert either is running away from the problem, or denying it exists. But his body is a ticking time bomb.

Another friend, Sherman, is a big, muscular guy in his 30s – too young to be thinking about death, heart attacks, diabetes and those sorts of things. Or so he thinks. I’m guessing that he weighs 270 pounds, which is way too much.

Sherman has gone through some rough times after his wife left him and his two kids a few years ago. A couple of years ago, he married a wonderful stay-at-home mom who loves to cook big delicious meals and Sherman loves to eat them.

“I’m comfortable with my weight and how I look,” he said. “I like my life as it is.”

I can’t blame him. But if he stays at this pace, the kids will be without a daddy and his wife won’t have a husband to cook for.

I pass along these stories, not to make fun of my friends. I was in the same boat about 25 years ago when I weighed 235 pounds, and I didn’t feel the urgency to take action.

Then I contracted diabetes, and my world changed forever. I only hope that my friends make changes before something awful like that happens.