motd Thurs May 15, 2008

[Guest guest]

TICK, TICK, TICK...

Thursday, 15 May 2008

On my radio show, Lighten Up on Sirius Satellite radio last Sunday, I heard a lot of "ticking" while I was on the phone with many of the people who had sent me E-mails. I talked to people who were 200, 300, 400...up to 560 pounds in weight.Some of them told me that they had bad childhoods. Others had just made some wrong turns or decisions on their journeys through life. Many of them told me of the illnesses they now face and about the medications they have to take to control them. And through all of their confessions, I could hear the pain in their voices.They told me about the things they used to enjoy doing but can no longer do because of their weight or how limited their mobility has become. For instance, they tell me they can't walk up a flight of stairs anymore or even to the mailbox in front of their homes without pain or getting out of breath.

They tell me how other people have to help them get dressed including tying their shoes for them. They tell me they're uncomfortable and have restless, sleepless nights. And they tell me how they've tried every diet out there and that none of them seems to have worked for them. They also tell me that they exercise on and off but mostly...off. And as sad as many of their stories are, I have to tell them that they are walking time bombs and they really need to get serious about their weight-loss. On Lighten Up, I talked to one lady who'd just had an aneurysm. But even after that scare, she still wasn't taking her weight-loss seriously.

I talked to another lady who'd recently had lap band surgery to help her lose weight but she was not following her eating program whatsoever. After her insurance company had paid-out $22,000 for the surgery, she's only lost 20 pounds so far. Hey, that works out to about a thousand dollars a pound you know!I also had a lady in my audience who'd recently had a kidney transplant. In fact, her own daughter had given one of her own kidneys so her mother could live. So, is the mother now taking better care of herself after receiving a kidney from her daughter. Well, I'm sorry to say no, not really!I guess we all think we're infallible, don't we? But you know, that's not a very realistic line of thought. If you're at a point in your life where there are more things you can't do for yourself than you can, well, it's time for you to see a physician and get serious about snuffing out that time bomb and saving your own life.Can you hear the ticking?Love,