Death in the family is motivating me

ZebraGlee78
ZebraGlee78 Posts: 83 Member
edited September 22 in Motivation and Support
A distantly related family member recently passed away from a heart-attack. At age 55. He was obese...watching football in his recliner and had a massive heart-attack and died almost immediately. If that's not motivation, I don't know what is. I'm sorry for his immediate family in their loss, but I am determined that is not how I'm going out!

Replies

  • ashlee954
    ashlee954 Posts: 1,112 Member
    I am so sorry for your loss. Kindest regards to his family. And good for you taking control over your life!
  • SparkleShine
    SparkleShine Posts: 2,001 Member
    I hear ya! I want to be healthy and live a long life!
    Sorry about your/their loss. So sad.:cry:
  • Clajoye
    Clajoye Posts: 5
    I'm just starting today... trying to lose weight alone is hard so I'm hoping this will help. It's good that you're turning a sudden death into a positive motivator for yourself. Good luck! It seems you're off to a great start.
    ~ Clajoye
  • vickiele1
    vickiele1 Posts: 394 Member
    Good for you - learning a lesson from an event like that is wonderful. I wish more of my family and friends were as wise as you are. I have had at least one family member who had a quad-druple bypass, was told to stop smoking, reduce his weight, and get more exercise or he would die - he started smoking again just a couple of months following the bypass, didn't lose any weight until in the hospital and dying of cancer which started in his lungs and spread to his brain, and did not get more exercise. A very painful way to die and definitely unnecessary. Others, including my mother who just recently passed away, have been told similar stories about smoking, etc. and pay no heed - on oxygen - carrying around a portable tank and still smoking like a fiend - makes absolutely no sense to me. Be healthy and set an example for others in your family.

    Vickie
  • lloydrt
    lloydrt Posts: 1,121 Member
    jl, so so sorry for your loss. Its so tragic, he was just my age. I agree, its motivation.

    Again, for me , and this applies to me, when I see or hear people talking about wanting to cheat , or take a few days off from their diets, and ask if we think it would be OK, whoa, I think

    maybe ask your heart instead, Or ask your kidneys that are close to renal failure. Ask your Dr what he thinks, as he has you down as morbidly obese, with pre diabetes. Ask your internal organs what they think about cheating or going off the diet?

    or ask your joints, ones that are going to be needed to be replaced in a few years because of all the weight that you have chosen to add, which is more stress on them

    or ask your kids, ones that will want you at their wedding, their childrens births, parties, Christmas's, etc.............

    Im glad to see this type of posting. Again, Im not being mean, really, I hope I dont sound it, but it is what it is.......

    OBESITY KILLS...............

    You cant be healthy and overweight.

    I kinda went off a little, but I hope your posting is a wake up call. I got my wake up call when the man who lived behind me, died last summer because of a heart attack. He was the nicest, kindest father of 3, he was my age, and he looked just like Ted Kennedy.......

    He was always prespiring, always...........everytime you saw him , he always had sweat on his forehead. He and I would talk in the alley, he was a publisher, and had so much insight and kindness for everyone..... He died in July of 2010, at the age of 54........

    Well, I was alredy making changes, but his only enforced what I believed

    OBEISTY KLLS............Obesity causes so much pain, not only for us, but for our loved ones. They need us, they want us to be a part of their lives as they age...........

    My continued New Years resolution is to continue my journey of weight loss, FOR ME, and FOR MY LOVED ONES......


    115 lbs lost in 2010 and 20 left to go...........


    Happy New Year., Lloyd

    p.s, great, awesome , yet rare posting........thanks
  • emmyvera
    emmyvera Posts: 599 Member
    I too am sorry to hear about your loss. This is so important to post for yourself and others because we all need some motivational spark. I can totally relate to you, but in my case it is my mother's health.

    My mother had a heart attack and stroke this year and since then we've seen her go from working full time and being the dominant family member to sitting in a chair everyday and taking 11 pills daily. My mother is 64.

    This is my motivation. Being healthy for myself, my husband, family and my future children.

    These are the moments that life really gets in your grill and smacks you around. These are the moments when you have to take control of your destiny and make it happen. I've not only stuck to being healthier the last six months, but I've worked harder at it. I want to be sexy at 40, I want to be active at 50, I want to be healthy at 60 and I want to enjoy my grandchildren at 70 and 80!!! That's all there is to it.

    Think about what you want and your future. We hold our future in our hands with our choices every day. Our health is the one of the few things we can really try to improve, understand and make work in our favor - even when something is out of our control.

    Sorry, guess I really needed to get that out! :happy:

    Hope everyone has a wonderful new year!
  • Amy_B
    Amy_B Posts: 2,317 Member
    Sorry for your loss. My mom's heart attack death at the age of 47 is what started my weight loss process. It is definitely the motivation I needed.
  • lloydrt
    lloydrt Posts: 1,121 Member
    emmy, thanks for supporting the original post. Obesity is linked now, with cancer. Wow, it just goes from bad to worse

    I want to live a long and healthy life and this post is what keeps me motivated as well. I call these, the wake up calls......Lloyd
  • rockabyesarojane
    rockabyesarojane Posts: 471
    Good for you with taking control. And you're right, that is NOT how you are going to end up because you already decided to value your time here by being all that you can be. It's a tragedy what happened, but its a blessing that you can find a positive motivator in something so negative.

    Best to you and the family.
    ~Sara-Jane
  • cathyprice
    cathyprice Posts: 8
    so very sorry for your loss...will keep your family in my prayers
  • Sweet13_Princess
    Sweet13_Princess Posts: 1,207 Member
    I'm so sorry to hear about your loss:-(. It has also been a rough year for both my fiance and myself in terms of loss within the family. At least one of those deaths was early and from a brain tumor, which took less than ten months to take her away from us. There's nothing like a loss of someone young to really make you think what you're doing to your body and what kinds of foods (and preservatives and pesticides in them) that are leading to these dire consequences.

    My thoughts are with you and your family throughout this holiday season and beyond.:-)

    Shannon
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