Heart-to-Heart #18: Lily Loss Lbs
This week’s Heart-to-Heart features Lily T at Lily Loss Lbs. She attended a family reunion this weekend which brought to light her family history of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease.
The annual family reunion was yesterday. It was an all day affair, starting off as a picnic and ending at my parents’ house. I was surrounded by family, whom, as I have been noticing lately; appeared to deteriorating in front of my eyes. Middle-aged uncles and aunties in wheel chairs, holding canes. Overweight and obesity. Diabetes and heart disease. This was what I will inherent. Makes me want to accept destiny and fold into crop. I sat across from my grandma as a distant aunt, approached her and complimented her on the weight she lost. She looked at me and said, “She looks like a teenager.” I thought she was crazy. When my grandma was a teenager she was robust and full of energy. She’s always been “robust”. Born in the year of the ox, she’s stubborn and pushes her weight around with confidence. A force to be reckon with. Now she’s one-third of herself. Years of being “robust” has gifted her an old age of heart disease and diabetes. I looked at her plate, and it was completely covered with the dull colours of meat. No green or red or orange of vegetables. By her side was the ever present can of diet Coke. (Since she was diabetic, she had to go diet). Afterwards she stood up and piled a plate of pastries. This puzzled me, because I knew she couldn’t taste worth crap, yet her sweet tooth remains. The sweet tooth that I had inherited…
As I grow older, I also see much of my parents in myself. Fortunately, my parents have always lived a relatively healthy life and are even better about their diet than I am. We have much to learn from our family, not the least of which is our family history of health and disease which can tell us a lot about our own. Lily’s awareness of this will help her lose weight and live heartily.
Technorati Tags: family history, heart disease, heart, disease, illness, health
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2 opinions for Heart-to-Heart #18: Lily Loss Lbs
Lily T.
Aug 21, 2006 at 11:51 am
Wow! I’m so honoured. Thank you for featuring me.
Hsien-Hsien Lei, PhD
Aug 21, 2006 at 6:36 pm
Lily T: Thank YOU for letting me borrow your words. :)
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