“Would you like fries with that?” the clerk asked Tom after he ordered a Big Mac, apple pie, and chocolate shake at the drive-thru. He was already salivating. “Sure, why not?” Tom didn’t realize, or care, that he had just ordered 1,770 calories, which is about what many people eat in an entire day. Tom eats three meals a day. It sure tasted good.
Tom grew up in a small Texas town. At age 17 he was 6-feet, 2-inches tall and large enough to help take his high school football team to the state championship playoff his junior and senior years. Football reigned supreme on Friday nights back in those days, not only for Tom, but the entire town. With weightlifting and football practice, Tom was exercising about three hours on most days and eating 5,000 to 6,000 calories. He didn’t call it exercise, it was just who he was. He remembers often washing down an apple pie with a quart of milk in one sitting. Yes, the whole pie.
Like his father, Tom was a meat-and-potatoes kind of guy who ignored most fruits and vegetables. That was rabbit food. His favorite meal was slow-cooked barbecue brisket, potato salad made with plenty of mayonnaise, and baked beans flavored with brown sugar and bacon. Tom’s wife, Barbara, knew that the men in his family were prone to heart attacks, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. Tom stubbornly resisted her gentle pressure to eat healthier. Eating was about enjoyment, in his mind, not about what his body needed.
Tom was a passable student and earned a football scholarship at a Texas college. A severe knee injury at the end of his sophomore season put the kibosh on his dreams of a pro football career and sidelined him for a good year while healing. He had always loved working with his hands, so he dropped out of college to become a full-time carpenter. His
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bosses at the construction company eventually rewarded his management skills by making him a supervisor. After that, he did less physical labor, but worked more hours. In his 30s, Tom still enjoyed the Friday night football games. But now he was sitting in the stands sipping sodas and chowing down on corndogs. He wasn’t exercising three hours a day anymore, but he could still finish off a whole pie in a day. His only exercise was an occasional trip to the park to play catch with his young son.
Tom’s father had his first heart attack at age 59, when Tom was 37. Dad had seemed the picture of health, except for the spare tire around his middle. Reality assaulted Tom with the fact that Dad might not always be around. Tom even thought about changing some of his own health habits. He heard all about the diet and lifestyle changes recommended by his father’s doctors. Barbara made sure of that! But Dad recovered and Tom put health concerns on the back burner.
Six months later, Tom started having chest pains right behind the breastbone. His first thought was, “Oh, no! Is this what a heart attack feels like?” He couldn’t have a heart attack at age 37, could he? Typical for a man, Tom ignored it as best he could. The first pains resolved spontaneously. The later pains seemed to improve with Maalox or Tylenol. But the pains got worse and more frequent. It was getting harder to hide it from Barbara.
During a particularly bad spell, he broke into a cold sweat as his heart palpitated. Realizing how bad off he was, he wondered if he would be around to see his son grow up. That’s when he admitted he better get some professional help and a life insurance policy.
[Continued....]
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