Healthy improvements reshape morale, life

The pressures and obligations of life place many priorities on our plates and sometimes we don’t know what to eat first.

Whatever anyone chooses to wrap his or her lips around, taking care of one’s self should be in the main course.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that in 2010, 35.7 percent of U.S. adults and 17 percent of children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 were obese.

During the past 20 years, the U.S. obesity percentage in adults has been steadily increasing. In 1985, the heaviest states’ obesity levels were between 10 and 15 percent.

Today, the heaviest states have obesity percentages of more than 30 percent with lighter states chiming in between 20 and 24 percent. California is at 24 percent, and Mississippi weighs in as the fattest state in the country with 34 percent of its adult population being overweight.

Americans love their cars, homes and electronics. We clean them, repair them when needed and pay for insurance on them and other materialistic entities.

It does cost more to eat healthy and it is painful to get off your ass sometimes and run those three or four miles a few times per week, but it’s worth it.

Last April, I stepped on the scale and after the dial spun to the right a bit more than I had expected, it stopped at 195.

“The last time I was this weight was in 2006 when my son was born,” I thought. Cheeseburgers, milkshakes, french fries and Grey Goose “Dirty Martinis” swirled through my shaking head.

It took one year to drop that 40 pounds and it was back. I could grab it and shake it as it surrounded my midsection. I also noticed other physical changes superior to my appearance — shortness of breath, feeling lethargic and increased stress. I was not the same person I had been without the extra weight.

Symptoms of my inheritance of the Woodson family’s “bad knees” began to rear their ugly heads as pain in both of my knees struck when I either stood or sat for too long. I knew then I had to drop some chub to relieve some pain and improve my diminishing health.

It’s common knowledge that being overweight comes with its life-threatening qualities but it is easy to second-guess the severity of them. Many people live long obese lives and some of them are very close to me.

Their lifestyles were fine in their younger years, but later in life many of them developed diabetes.

A study posted on www.empoweryourhealth.org reported that 90 percent of people who develop Type 2 diabetes have a body mass index (BMI) of more than 23. A BMI is a number calculated from a person’s weight and height which can indicate most people’s body fatness.

Between 18.5 and 24.9 BMI is a normal weight level. Overweight is 25 to 29.9, and 30 or higher is obese.

After losing 30 pounds in the last year, my BMI as of now is 23.7, which is normal for a 5-foot-10-inch adult weighing 165 pounds compared to the 28 rating I was in April of last year.

Honestly, I feel great.  At age 24, I would have never thought that I would run my fastest or jump my highest when I was pushing 29 years of age. However that is the case, and aches and pains have ceased to exist.

Losing weight is not about looking good — that just comes with it. Losing weight is about being healthy and keeping yourself in decent running order. Take care of your body, you only get one.