“He’s just big boned.” One of my coworkers responded to me.
I mull this over for a few moments trying to figure out how to respond.
“What about some of these basketball players, some of them are just as tall or taller than your son but they aren’t overweight.”
“There’s a difference between being tall and being big boned.” He replied.
This wasn’t a hostile conversation we were just chatting. But honestly…
It makes me very sad.
This is one version of something that you hear all the time in our culture.
It’s genetic.
He’s been struggling for the last year or so with a series of surgeries. Some on his knees and various other ones. He’s carrying a lot of extra weight.
I think that not only would carrying less weight help his joints, but being healthier would help his body repair damage more efficiently. I can’t say if it would eliminate all his problems, but…
It would certainly help.
I don’t really know how he feels about it but based on what he and his dad have told me, they have completely given up on the possibility of losing weight.
I really think this is one of the most dangerous things you can do in life.
Giving up your autonomy…
Dissolving your self-responsibility…
Whenever you decide something is genetic because a doctor or the people around you tell you so, without giving it everything you have to try to fix your health, you’re done.
Doctors won’t save you.
Doctors are great at certain things but if you have chronic disease, they aren’t enough. Every single time they prescribe you a new medication and you head back home to go about your life exactly the same way as before, you’re digging yourself deeper into a hole that very few people get out of alive.
Part of the problem is the health establishment has been giving people awful advice for a very long time now.
For example, when we were having this conversation, another coworker chimed in that overweight people have been eating all the meat…wait for it…
WITH THE FAT!
(GASP)
I suspect that if you’re reading this email you aren’t worried about eating animal fats.
At war with my “genetics”
John Michael