I agree with those who say we should love our bodies at any weight. We should love our bodies at any size. We should love our bodies whether we are thin or fat. We should love our bodies whether we have yellow fingers from smoking or not. We should love our bodies.
We should.
If you are the only one depending upon you and your body, that can be a good mantra.
But, in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, if you have anyone who counts on you to be around, you probably need to love your body enough to lose weight. What if you are a mother and there is a chance you might die before your kids get out of high school? Even if your kids are adults, your grandkids who idolize you certainly want you to be around for them. What about your pets? Won’t they need someone to care for them? If you have a spouse, maybe he/she doesn’t want to be left alone.
You can love your body, but if you are endangering your health, shouldn’t you think of those others in your life? I certainly don’t want to make this a political discourse as to whether you have the freedom to be overweight or the freedom to enter a store without a mask. No one is telling you that you cannot be fat. You have that freedom.
Recent studies of COVID-19 patients have shown for the first time that excess body fat (BMI over 28 kg/m2) has been identified as an independent risk factor. People with major risk factors are at higher risk of both contracting COVID-19 and of having a worse prognosis.
Patients with a BMI greater than 28 have nearly 6 times the odds of suffering a severe COVID-19 course, and those who are considered obese (5’6” - 215 lbs.) have 7x the odds of ending up on a ventilator. The average BMI in the United States is over 29. (Check your BMI with this BMI calculator.)
The major co-morbid conditions for COVID-19 severity and death are obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. The good news, is that they can all be controlled, or even reversed, by a healthy diet.
If you get serious and eat a diet centered around whole plant foods, you could reverse many of those conditions in weeks.
Unfortunately, there is one other risk factor that cannot be reversed by a healthy diet, and that is your age. Those over the age of 65 in the U.S., without underlying conditions or other risk factors, appear to be hospitalized and end up in the ICU at approximately 3 times the rate of those aged 19-64.
Whether you are old or not, just make sure you are choosing a healthy, plant-based, low fat, fiber rich diet to improve your odds. We all need to do that!
If you would like some help changing to a healthy, plant-based lifestyle, think about joining the Weight Loss Magic™ program. It is a digital program that you can do in the privacy of your own home. You can lose up to five pounds in seven days. Just make sure you allot seven days in a row for maximum success.
Take a chance… improve your odds… and enjoy your life.
