I read this article in The Times this morning and it stopped me in my tracks. I have been telling myself for years that I need to put on weight in order to be healthy. 2017 was an extremely challenging year for me health-wise and for my family anyway, there was this tacit assumption that my health issues were related to my low body weight and choices I have made over the years regarding my diet. So for me, that elusive , pie in the sky blanket statement that so many of us make in our lives….” When I lose weight/make some money/have more time……. then, X/Y/Z will happen “ became my mantra where my weight and my future are concerned: “ When I put on weight, I will be healthy. “
Reading in The Times that ‘ Gaining 6lb could raise your risk of heart failure ‘ – that putting on as little as 6 pounds could produce molecular changes that could be potentially harmful was not what I wanted to hear.
Or was it?
Whereas before I started writing this blog I would have read the article, made some sort of justification for remaining right where I am with no immediate changes required, now I am exposing issues and I have to work through them if writing about them is to have any positive effect on my actions. I do not know if my ill health had anything to do with my weight. However, I don’t conclusively know that it didn’t either. What I do know is that I don’t want to experience the same or similar problems again so what have I got to lose ( ironic choice of word ) by putting on some weight? You can’t knock something until you try it ,right? I do know that when you haven’t got sufficient food stores or energy to fight infections, when your immunity is compromised due to under nourishment, you enter into a health issue with a distinct disadvantage. I therefore have to weigh up the potential threat of ‘ harmful molecular changes ‘ that ‘ potentially ‘ may compromise my health, or I have to read this article at face value, and do what I feel is necessary for my body and my health. What is more, the research may have involved individuals who were already overweight when they put on the 6 pounds – there was no mention of the profiles of the individuals tested.
I have therefore made the decision to press on as planned and to try to put on some weight. The marker will be the way I am feeling, how strong and how healthy I feel. For so many years it has been about the way I look. When one’s health is at risk, aesthetics and vanity about one’s perceived physical appearance cease to become important as one’s belief system is challenged.
Of course, now the hard work really begins.
