Diabetics Doubling

Jacquelyn Johnston, M.Ed. Diabesity Coach

Ticket number…338147…Robert Coulter! A jubilant Mr. Coulter works his way up to the stage, holds up his prize, a carriage clock, and shows it to the attendees. And as he does that, his tummy pops out between the bottom of his T-shirt and his belt-line.

The audience was really polite.

I was at a huge family-oriented event this evening when this father of two got up to receive a prize. He had to weave through a maze of round tables, and weave his way back. He had quite a lot of difficulty with many of the chairs, as there was very little space between them.

At one point, Robert Coulter got stuck. There was simply no room for him between two chairs. Robert must have been carrying a 70-pound paunch around. He got quite short of breath just walking up to the stage, and even more so as he tried to get back to his own table. By that time, his face was red as a beetroot.

There, thought I , was a classic profile of the diabetic. Not all diabetics have the complication of obesity, but obesity is all too often a significant precursor of diabetes.

In Robert’s case, he most likely either had it or was struggling with pre-diabetes, something two-thirds of obese people don’t even know.

But let’s not even look at the disease of diabesity itself. As Robert got back to his table his twin toddlers were straining to see what the prize was. It was somewhere between funny and sad to see the two vying for a place on Daddy’s lap when they both slid off after several tries.

There simply wasn’t enough room on Daddy’s lap to house a kid. He ended up having one kid stand on each side of him as he showed them the clock. It’s things like this that make you wonder what’s keeping him and the millions of other diabesity sufferers from making a decision to lose some of that weight. Especially the weight around the middle, the most dangerous fat there is.

My thought was, here was a Dad who obviously loved his children. Did he know he was well on his way to a heart attack if he didn’t do something about his girth? Would he still be around when the twins were 10? If so, would he have the energy to play catch with them as they grew up? Would they, as teens, have to worry about Dad because he was going for dialysis twice or three times a week? And how would this affect his wife?

What about the nurse who would have to turn him on hospital bed?

The prospect of blindness or amputation?

Did he know that the incidence of diabetes had doubled in the last two decades?

What do you think?

Let me know on the blog, OK?

Jacquelyn

Jacquelyn Johnston M.Ed.
Professional Health Coach and Educator,
Solutions and Support for Optimal Health

Whether you need to lose those pesky 20 pounds,
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