Go For More

Kudos to Methodist for their 4 page advertisement promoting wellness in today’s JS. I probably should stop this blog right now before I offend anyone who believes that they are just “stout” or feel that excess fat is in and the rest of us are just weird looking and jealous. If this blog offends anyone who is my friend, no problem with me, I’m still your friend.

I don’t expect to see anyone at our Congerville school reunion this Saturday who is what most of us would call fat. Maybe there were some at one time but I’ve been going to our reunions for a long time and I don’t recall any. You won’t find fat people on the tennis courts either, especially on a hot day. Maybe the people in this farming community listened to our “teachers” and want to extend our longevity and quality of life as long as we can. I never had an overweight or sloppy teacher but I’ve seen quite a few of them in Peoria over the last decade or so. And most of them are not school teachers but parents of equally fat kids.

Most Congerville families weren’t very wealthy and didn’t eat out a lot. For many of us TV and Computer games were not a sedentary way of life. Plus maybe our work ethics took care of the fitness part.

Of the entire progeny of dad and mother Donat (Tony) and Lillie Widmer with 8 kids with more kids and then more kids, I only know of one blood descendant who is fat, yes, is a little obese.

I doubt of many of them took fitness classes anywhere. Maybe it was all in the genes including the genes of those they married.

Yesterday, I did my periodic “pig out” at Hometown Buffet. One woman, about 61/2 hands high and slightly less around her girth; I was born on a farm, actually wore a T-shirt that said GO FOR MORE. That’s all the lettering said, go for more. And she did. No doubt a lot of her weight problem was in her “jeans” but unfortunately for the viewer, she was wearing shorts. She was eating when I came in and eating when I left (I ate and read 30 pages of “Eat the Rich”. Her male companion reminded me of that old nursery rhyme “Jack Sprat could eat no fat; his wife could eat no lean----.”

Another younger lady had legs so fat she could have passed for albino penguins joined at the hips except her obscene wrinkles gave her away. You would have thought she wouldn’t go around in shorts but maybe she just wanted to say to people like me “so there”.

For my younger friends who might consider themselves stout and some really are, I don’t mean to offend, but I also don’t want to outlive you.

I’ve already outlived a lot of obese younger people like John Belushi and Nicole something that married a rich old man and died before she could spend all his money. These people and Rosie O or whats-her-name, try may make people believe that fat is in.

It really isn’t and overweight adults and kids are going to continue to overload our health system, spoil a good lifestyle and those paying taxes are going to pay for the obesity of others whether we go socialistic or not.

Depressed people who can’t control their weight should seek help in determing the cause of their depression or change their lifestyles or both. We’re all going to die someday, so you better try to have a life quality now because no one has come back from the hereafter to tell us what it’s like up there. If they did, they haven’t told me; maybe because they feel I’m going to a different place than they are. Anyway, a good way to shake depression is to enroll at Methodist, RiverCity, and Landmark, to name a few fitness centers. Or find a dietician, who isn’t fat; I should mention that my wife, Claire, is a dietician and no, she isn’t overweight one pound. And my first wife, Dee, who reads my blogs, was never overweight either.

Or read Carl Hiaasen or P.J. O’Rourke or the writer who wrote Harmony (Miller?) and other pleasant books. Reading the Bible is highly recommended by many. But reading about a lot of violence and suffering over the premature deaths of our young people usually causes more depression. Plus I’m told worry never accomplished anything either.

I suggest overweight people who WANT to lose weight to stop fooling themselves and stop overeating. But who am to tell anybody what they look like, I’m 10 pounds heavier than when I graduated from college. And I play tennis 2-3 times a week.

Anyway, back to what Methodist advertised; what the ads say is correct. The problem is that you can walk, jog, exercise, ride bikes, swim, dance, or play bridge, these things won’t help much till you keep the silver off the gold in your teeth. Just don’t expect any sympathy from me when you join in the class-action lawsuits that “tort” attorneys are working on as I type this blog.

When I started blogging in August of 2004, I said this was going to be a politically incorrect blogsite. It is, has, will be and will be more so after I finish reading the book I bought yesterday at Barnes and Noble, “Enough” by Juan Williams, of Fox News fame. If I ever get to talk with him, I guarantee we would get along famously. Some one should invite him to the nicely done Civic Center to address this entire community. He’s needed.

Some of my regular readers may wonder why I am not more consistent in my blogging. The real reason if that I’m slowing down a bit and blogs are stressful. Plus I realize there are too many problems about which I have knowledge of and I could blog. But some of them would put off some of my colleagues and other elected and appointed officials. I offend enough of them when I feel they are wrong or playing politics or building monuments to themselves and their egos. Or politicians feeling guilty about all the money they are taking to Springfield and Washington and giving us back things like we need more bad ties at Christmas. Just cash back, please.

Also, I’ve had more than the usual amounts of computer breakdowns and today I learned I was playing with a full deck; oops, I mean disc. And tomorrow I get a new mouse and the stock market will be up and maybe I’ll win at tennis.

Always have something to look forward to. Makes all of us feel better. If we have nothing to look forward to, we should change our lifestyles. Never too late to change; even carrying too much weight around. People have the will to stop smoking; people can have the will to stop overeating too. But like homeless people and drug addicts, they won’t change their lifestyles if they don’t want to.

Includes guilt.