7 Day Fitness Blog

         Well, it was hot, like I said, and her air conditioning went out.  So, she called and scheduled an A/C technician/friend to come over and repair it. Then, she called one of her closest friends and invited them and their mom to go out and eat.  She just could not take the heat.  They went to a Mexican restaurant and by the look of the receipt (I found after her death) they ordered and ate a lot!  Immediately following, she told her friend she did not feel well and asked if she could take her to the hospital.  They checked her in.  It was Friday.  We would visit her, still not making that great a deal out of it.  The next day she called me and let me know that she had finally forgiven herself for something that she had done to me as a child… some spanking that went too far (in her mind) that she could never let go of. The next day, she had a stroke and fell to the floor.  Hospital staff were not really equipped to deal with this big of a person.  (They later told me.)  My mom went into a coma, had severe brain damage and on Friday we had to pull the plug leading to her death twenty minutes later.  She had been doing some exercises and this was no good for her as her heart was already struggling to pump that much blood as it was.  She was only 49. 

         You see, growing up with her was good for me, but a struggle for her.  People would point at her and stare and make little jokes.  She was enjoying a carnival once and when I saw the jokes, I walked straight up to them and ask if their mom ever taught them that it was rude to stare.  I was ready to fight for this woman.  I still remember the day when they told her she was too big to ride the Ferris Wheel. She said it was okay, but I could see her heart was so heavy.  I swear, life was different after that.  She also loved to ride horses and couldn’t do that, either.

         Looking back, I really wish I would have had her on a meal plan or created one for her myself.  Seeing how she lit up when all the things were there on her tray.  It didn’t matter to her that they were low in fat or fat free.  She delighted in the presentation.. The completeness of it all.         My mom really needed to diet down before attempting that exercise.  I believe that’s why she went.  If your parent, family member or friend is going through something similar to this, it is an EMERGENCY that they get the help at home, also, ESPECIALLY if they are going in and out of the hospital.  While I was at the hospital that week my mom was in the coma, the nurses were confiding in me that there were a lot of people dying because of things like hypertension due to being extremely overweight, and that you just didn’t ever hear about it.  You know how you never hear about stuff until you’re going through it and then they say it happens all the time?  Well, it was! These days, you hear more about it.

         I’m hugely grateful for the efforts that people like Wesley Virgin and other fitness experts are putting forth to help people either diet down or get fit or both.  He is making the world a better place to live in because people like my mom would still be here with his help and service.

         So, please for the memory of my mom, help these sweet and dear people in your life get on some sort of a meal plan. Encourage them that they can do better for themselves and their families.  Ask them to please do it so they can stick around.

                                                                        LALA

Growing up with my mom was really cool.  Heck! She was really cool.  Even at her funeral, people were coming up to me one after another outside and just stressing over the fact of how cool and accepting and nonjudgmental she was.  My whole growing up, I would bring some weird friends over just thinking, “Ooh, this one will get her.”  Nope! She would smile and introduce herself and ask us what our plans were.  No big deal!  Shoot, sometimes she would take us all out to the movies and out to eat.  She was completely generous.  I never had to look at the prices on the menus.  She just wasn’t like that.  (I always thought she had secretly won the lottery and wasn’t telling anyone.)  Her jokes were original and they would make you bust out laughing.  She would nail all the accents!  Once, when I was a 30 and my mom was 48, we were driving side-by-side on the freeway and I looked over at her and she was using her hairbrush for a telephone.. Not to be outdone, I grabbed a shoe and drove up next to her talking on my shoe phone.  So, in turn she grabbed some sunglasses and was talking to them.  When I looked over and saw her doing that and the silly expression on her face, I knew I couldn’t outdo her!  SO FUNNY!  My mom was my best girlfriend and I loved it.  My mom, at this point in life weighed over 430 pounds.

         Every once in awhile, she would go to the hospital due to not being able to get enough air in her lungs.  She just felt like she was suffocating.  They would immediately check her in and get fluids off of her.  She would joke of it as if she went there for the room service.  The plates of hospital food with their individual servings and packets and sides just tickled her for some reason.  She liked organized food, but was a very distracted cook at best, hence all the eating out that greatly encouraged the weight gain.  We never took the hospital stays as seriously as we should have.

         For 2 Christmases in a row, she was in the hospital.  So, on the third Christmas, when I heard her labored breathing, I made some comment about being in the hospital, again on the holiday.  That time, she went in after the New Year.  Same thing… almost like a maintenance thing.  The family just didn’t make a big deal out of it.  Once, she went into a rehab facility to get better and had to stay a month.  She was making crafts for the other patients and even began helping the nurses with other patients like one man with no arms or legs.  She would just go in and talk to him, helping out.  The people loved her so much. 

         So, one very hot, Texas day in August my mom went into the hospital for the final time.

Well what happened?!

                                                               LALA

 

Ahhh. The 80's... I'm a teenager in my room watching the new Madonna video on MTV. Mom's in the living room, on the ATARI trying to beat these stupid popcorn-looking balls falling from the sky. I hear a cuss word emulating every now and then as they continuously defeat her causing her to have to start all over after reaching such a high level. I laugh at her determination at such a silly game. I have more important things to do like, "Clean your room for once and for all." Geesh.. I wish that were true.

I change the channel on the TV. Some fitness guru dancing and singing with very overweight women are all having a grand time. Some oldies are playing in the background. I start gyrating in front of the TV because the song they're playing is actually very catchy. Wow! I never realized this song was that good of a dance song. Mental note: Record this song off the radio, later.

Then, at the end of the song, the instructor hugs everyone and turns directly to the camera and speaks with almost tears in his eyes of the concern he has for these ‘wonderful people‘. He swears that you must diet down first to a safe weight to exercise. He mentions heart attack and stroke and this and that. This falls on deaf ears for me as I'm a perfect bikini-size at age 16. My mom in the other room, however, is the cause of many stares of strangers. You see, in the 80's, people would just marvel at her weight and she was only at around 250 pounds. Oh, when I saw the whispers and laughs… They just did not know what a sweet and generous lady they were ridiculing! So, yeah, I think I'll mention this guy to her. He seemed like such an encouraging little fellow. So, I turned my TV off and the rest is history. I never would have guessed how it all was going to end or I would have wrapped my arms around her neck and  cried to death, right there.

So how did I get so cool?

 

LALA

Don’t Get Too Hung Up On NUMBERS!!

Annually at my company, we have the option of participating in something called a Biometric Health Screen, which is fancy lingo for a mini-physical, where nurses come in (for free…) and take your height, weight, measure your BMI (body mass index), blood pressure, and draw one vial of blood so that they can measure glucose, cholesterol, etc.  So I always watch in awe as people walk through the line to the room where they do the screening, and people are in shock at what their numbers are, and I secretly chuckle to myself.  But this time, who was NOT laughing?  Me, myself, and I, the 5’7”, 166 lb football player with the red glasses.  Let me explain…

 

So as I sat there in silence as my blood pressure was taken, I was thinking to myself, this is stupid. I already know my numbers.  I’m a wellness coach, I play football every Sunday. I am in the gym 3-5 days a week.  To prove this, my body has a perpetual soreness from weight lifting and endurance training.  If you touch my calves, I might punch you in the face!  Needless to say, my blood pressure was normal, 100/60.  I strolled on over to the next station to get my blood drawn, oh my favorite part.  Then I just happened to glance down at the page, and it said “BMI 26.0”.  Then I looked over to the right for confirmation: 25-29.9 = OVERWEIGHT.  I felt my eyebrows furrowing instantly. I said out loud in the middle of the nurse’s needle stick to my arm, “My BMI is NOT 26”.  The lady paused, withdrew the needle, and unwrapped the elastic band from my arm.  She said, “That’s what we calculated it as”.  I said, “Where are the calipers?!  I have a 6-pack set of abs here, lady!  Me and overweight aren’t even allowed in the same sentence!”  I started to pull up my dress so I could show her the abs I work so hard on, but regained my composure. She said to me, “These are standards set many decades ago.  I know that you are not overweight, but that’s just how that chart is set”. 

 

With this being said, I realized something pretty quickly.  Society has us so  hell bent on pleasing others, that we fail to realize that numbers really mean nothing.  I weigh 166, but if you looked at me, you would think I weighed 130-140 lbs.  My BMI is 26, but it really isn’t indicative of my actual body style. I am definitely not overweight, not even by Asian standards. These standards were set ages ago, when people were built like sticks.  Things and times have changed, and everyone is not built the same. The standards set before us fail to account for bone structure, ethnicity, etc.  As far as I’m concerned, as long as I am healthy, not outwardly overweight, and have an established workout schedule, that’s all that matters to me.  The only numbers that matter are your glucose (diabetes risk), cholesterol (heart disease/attack), and blood pressure (hypertension/stroke).  That’s IT!  Get down to the weight or body style that pleases you and no one else, and focus on getting healthy, not being what society wants you to be! 


LOOSE WEIGHT NOW

This young man talks about how guys in the gym grunt and make excessive noises when they attempt to workout.  Have you ever seen the guy who throws the weight and screams at the top of his lungs like he is trying to make a statement lol.

If you cannot lift the weight without all the whooping and hollering lower your weight or just check out my home workouts.
This video is so hilarious but very true.  Enjoy

GET FIT WITH PASSION