Like most severely overweight people, I had to hit a rock-hard bottom before I'd take responsibility for the consequences of neglecting my own health.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
It became obvious in 1957 that I was endangering my health by carrying so much weight.
I'd just turned 50, weighed 285, and my doctor had read me the riot act about my health.
I considered obesity a disease. It can destroy you from within. It almost destroyed me, and I do not want that to happen to anybody.
You've got to take responsibility for your own actions. We all know people who reach rock bottom. However much that they're told that what they're doing is harming their own life or whatever, you cannot make someone do it unless that person reaches the point where they know that they have to deal with it themselves.
I learned a great lesson from my mother on her deathbed. She counseled me on the importance of taking care of myself so I wouldn't end up in an unhealthy body like she did.
I finally admitted that obesity and diabetes were part of a life-threatening legacy - and I had to deal with that reality or die.
I'm the reason why I'm overweight. No one made me do it. I did it.
No matter how old you are, no matter how much you weigh, you can still control the health of your body.
But I was losing so much bone density that I would have been in grave danger. And I mean grave danger. If I had let it go just a few more years I could have broken my hip or spine just picking up my granddaughter.
I'm a professional athlete - one who's supposed to set examples - so whatever it is I put in my body, it's up to me to take responsibility for it, and I have done that.
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