A Scary Moment

I was just watching an episode of "Extreme Weight Loss" (guilty pleasure, I don't agree with the massive 1 year weight losses, but I do like seeing the transformations, sort of like with the Biggest Loser show), but what really hit home was something Chris said to the man starting the process who weighed in at 398 pounds at 49 years old. He said, "i don't know many people who are 50 years old and over 400 pounds, because they're simply not alive anymore!" 

Sit back. 

Take that in. 

It kind of shook me. 

I WAS 54 years old and over 400 pounds (414 at the beginning of May in 2016)! 

I KNEW at the time I was cheating death. I felt it daily. It was waiting for me... and not really patiently either. To hear it though was a kick in the gut. Even though I've come so far, the knowledge that I was that close to dying still hits home. I don't know if the statement was pure sensationalism or a true statement, but I do know that it was pretty true for me. I was LUCKY to have pushed through to 54 at the weight I was, but I was feeling it badly. At the time, and having watched another one of those guilty pleasure shows (My 600-Pound Life) I felt at the time like I was heading there, but in reality, I don't think I would have gotten there (not that it's a goal to strive for, but you know what I mean, if I had kept on doing --or rather not doing-- what I was at the time, I was heading there, but the way things were physically I don't think it would have ever gone more than a year longer). 

I thought, however, I was a more unhealthy statistic since it seemed like there were so many 600+ people (never seemed to be a shortage of participants on the 600-Pound Life show). Maybe, however, I wasn't. Maybe I was one of the lucky few who managed to get that heavy and lived to turn it around. And now that I do think of it, not many of those people on that 600 Pound Life show were my age. They were typically much younger. 

Scary stuff. I'm so glad I'm not there anymore, and so glad I am feeling the GOOD effects of losing the weight. Now, these shows are guilty pleasures, and I don't agree with the speed of loss on any of them, BUT... 

I think they have a good place. It was 600-Pound Life that made me realize (or wake up to the fact) that I was headed to that place at a fast rate, and made me talk about it to my husband, and made me want to change and start living healthier. Actually more than any of the other weight loss shows (I hadn't seen Extreme Weight Loss yet at that point, it would have been up there with 600-Pound Life as an eye-opener), these extreme ones were what really made me look at myself. 

Scared straight? You bet your butt!