Excuses, Excuses

Realizing that I am quickly squandering all the wonderful weight loss and health improvements I've made over the last year (why oh why does it take a month to lose 10 pounds but only a couple of trips to McDonalds to gain it? It's just not fair God!), I finally returned to the gym the other day to continue my quest to get back down to my undergrad college weight.

The scale told me that instead of being 20 pounds from that goal I am now 29 pounds from that goal (just...not....fair), so I laced up the gym shoes and proceeded to the instruments of doom (treadmill, stairmaster, elliptical, bike, etc...).

Although I hadn't worked in about 3 weeks, I only kinda sucked and did not totally sucked. I'm pretty sure I can wipe off that pouns I've gained pretty quickly and be back on track before the middle of next week. So naturally, I felt pretty decent about myself.

Until, of course, THAT GUY, came along.

You know THAT GUY. The one who knows everything but actually knows nothing at all. The one who doesn't do _______(fill in activity) because of _________(fill in excuse). And best of all, he loves to freaking tell you about it.

Normally, THAT GUY doesn't bother me much. He's basically been telling me stupid shit since I was a kid. But every now and then he catches you off guard and you have to stop and put him in his place.

So what happened?

Well, I'm exiting the gym and THAT GUY sees my workout bag and asks me if I work out at the gym. I guess that fact that he just saw me walking out of the gym was not good enough confirmation so he needed to ask me to be sure. Then he says something that just set me off at that particular moment.

"Yeah, I used to workout but, you know, I don't have all those self esteem problems. I'm happy with how i look so I don't worry about it. Its just not worth it."

Normally I'm able to catch myself before I go into complete nigga mode on someone but today, maybe because I was tired, my first thought got through.

"Well, its great you have high self esteem, but you should be working out because you're getting pretty fat."

He looked back at me like what. I thought about cleaning that up, but decided to just go for broke. I told him, no offense, but working out isn't just about having low self esteem. Ask anyone and they'll tell you I am a pretty cocky son of a bitch when I wanna be. But that doesn't stop me from recognizing that I've gained a lot of weight over the last few years and I need to go ahead and lose it before it gets any worse. It also doesn't stop me from recognizing that obseity is growing problem in the black community that needs to be addressed now. That gut bulging over your pants is not a good thing at all man.

Naturally, he was on the defensive and began to rattle on about how he has been big all his life and he doesn't think that spending all the time in the gym is worth it.

I fired back that I know people who have been alcoholics for years who have decided to quit. Should they just keep going on too? Also, what is it and if taking care of yourself and preserving your own life isn't worth "it" then just what the hell is?

Then, in full retreat, he says I didn't expect you to go all "lawyer" on me. I just think all that working out is bullshit and you're not going to lose any more weight anyway.

I smiled and said well we'll see how much weight I lose, but luckily I've still got my handsome face to fall back on. Then I walked off.

I've seen him a couple more times, but he hasn't spoken to me. Think the "friendship" is over.

But seriously, two things here.

First off, enough with the nonsense that someone who works out or wants to be in shape has some kind of problem. Give me a break. Unless they are anorexic, taking steroids, etc, please don't come to me with that garbage. This is a ridiculous thought and is really just another way to escape the very real possibility that you might not need to skip McDonald's and hit the treadmill. The reality is that black people die at exhorbitant rates from diseases that are highly preventable and most of that is because we are obese. Happy or not, if you are overweight, you would be wise to try and do something about it. Even if you don't end up looking like a fitness model, even a relatively small weight loss like 10 to 15 pounds and daily exercise can have enormous health benefits.

Second, if you see someone trying to workout, how about you just shut up and leave them alone if you don't have anything positive to say? Seriously, save the excuses and dime store psychology.

End rant.