Are You Just Fat?

So...that's the question.  Are you just fat?  That pretty much sums it up for me.

As far as I know, I don't have a thyroid problem.  I don't have any chronic illnesses of which I'm aware.  In fact, for someone as out of shape as I am, I'm actually pretty healthy.  I'm just fat.  I eat too much.  I don't exercise enough.  I have some aches and pains, my blood sugar is trending a little high, I'm not as limber as I shoot be...but basically I'm fat.

I'm working to change that.

This next part was pretty hard to write.  It took me a while to pound it out, and it still doesn't say everything like I would like.  It's something I've been thinking about since December.

Back in August of '08, my older sister was diagnosed with lung cancer.  It was advanced, and the prognosis wasn't good.  She kept her spirits up and fought it hard through two rounds of chemo.  But she lost the fight on December 20, 2009.

The entire time she was battling the cancer, she ate right, exercised, and did everything she could to be healthy.  Everything.  And still it wasn't enough.  Her health failed her.  Her spirit was stronger than her body.

"Aaron, are you just trying to depress us with this sad story?"

Absolutely not.  I just want you to know something I've been thinking about:

I have no excuse.  I have absolutely no excuse.  Here I am blessed with a perfectly healthy body (other than just being fat), and I haven't been taking care of it.  I need to quit taking my health for granted.  There are people everywhere - fighting disease, missing limbs, unable to get out of bed - that would love to be as healthy as me.

Anyway...that's what I've been thinking.  That's one of the things that has been motivating me.  I'm not doing it out of a sense of guilt.  I'm doing it for myself, and for my family.  I plan on living a long time in this healthy body.  Shedding the fat is part of that plan.