Why You’re Fat And I’m Not

I have a plethora of physical challenges but being fat isn’t one of them. I typically ate more than my wife Susan, and many of our friends, yet I remained thin while they wrestled with weight issues. I now have a better understanding why.

I’ve been doing research in preparation for a book project with Susan’s former doctor, Steve Foley. Based on his research and extensive medical practice, Steve is resolved to get traction for an idea that’s been around for decades but is largely ignored by the medical community.

Dr. Edwin Atwood, past president of the Endocrinology Society, identified the crux of the matter more than 50 years ago:

A predisposition to fatten easily or remain thin is obviously determined in large part by our genes. If genes determine our height and our hair color and the size of our feet, why can’t heredity be credited with determining one’s shape?”

It can, in large part. “We don’t get fat because we overeat; we overeat because we are getting fat.” And how fat we are programmed to be depends on whether we have the genes of a greyhound or a basset hound, as Gary Taubes notes in his groundbreaking book, Why We Get Fat: And What To Do About It.

Weight is a huge problem for lots of folks, and most have the wrong paradigm to deal with it, which creates guilt and ineffective strategies. Taubes gets to the moral heart of the matter when he writes:

It may be easier to believe that we remain lean because we’re virtuous and we get fat because we’re not, but the evidence simply says otherwise. Virtue has little more to do with our weight than with our height. When we grow taller, it’s hormones and enzymes that are promoting our growth, and we consume more calories than we expend as a result. Growth is the cause—increased appetite and decreased energy expenditure are the effects. When we grow fatter, the same is true as well.

Still, there are things you can do about your weight, as Steve’s book will address. Until then, read Gary’s book.

“Do these genes make my butt look fat?”

In God We Trust?

“In God we trust,
but not as much as we used to.”
—Mike Hamel

The longer I live and the more I study, the harder it is to reconcile what the Bible seems to say with the way life actually works. I can identify with the psalmists and saints who wrestled with the discrepancies, from Job to John the Baptist.

John was the greatest of the prophets, but even he had to readjust his theology when his experience didn’t match his preaching. Jesus was drastically changing the rules (read the Sermon on the Mount) and John would not be rescued from prison by this kinder, gentler God who turned the other cheek.

(Ever notice how Jesus sent John a coded message to that effect? When he quoted Isaiah 61:1,2 to John’s disciples [Matt 11:4-6] he left out, “to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners”).

John was not saved from Herod just as the Jews weren’t delivered from the Romans (or other Gentile powers since then). And we are often not spared from egregious wrongs and extraneous pain. This incongruity between the divine promises and our daily circumstances can be daunting.

Trusting isn’t that easy from a sick-bed or prison cell and we don’t have to pretend it is. Scripture doesn’t censure Job’s anger or John’s vacillation and neither should we. The dissonance between the character of God and the condition of the world is legitimate cause for mistrust.

It is also a fertile breeding ground for faith and hope.

The Cat in the Hat

The inside of my skull can be a dark place at times so I like to adorn the outside in debonair fashion. I developed a penchant for hats when I was routinely depilated by weapons grade chemo. My hair always grew back—wish I could say the same for my axons and dendrites—but I’ve been wearing headgear ever since.

Guess which one of these jaunty numbers I bought for this summer. If you’re correct it will confirm your Holmes-like intellect.

Panama Jack

Homesteader

Bad Hair Day

Made Man

True Grit

“Experience is a good teacher,
but she beats her students.”
—Mike Hamel

In our prime we jumped into each new day like paratroopers. No chute? No problem. We leapt anyway; confident we’d find one on the way down. The terrain below didn’t matter; we dropped into new schools, relationships, careers, communities, businesses and churches with aplomb (1. imperturbable self-possession, poise. 2. the perpendicular, or vertical, position.).

Back in the day we could focus like Cyclopes and multitask like Hydras. We were resilient, healing quickly when we turned an ankle or broke a leg. We bonded easily but could release the familiar to embrace the unknown.

But gravity takes its toll over time. Youth dissipates, injuries accumulate and vitality shrinks along with our telomeres. We lose friends and loved ones along the way. We’re not as quick to answer the Jumpmaster’s bark as we inevitably transition from active duty, to reserves, to retired.

Painful experience and personal loss temper us as we age; the challenge is to not become brittle. To finish well requires a different caliber of courage that’s more obstinate than audacious, more cerebral than adrenal. It’s seen in the daily choice to show up instead of check out, to stay in the game and play through the pain for as long as possible.

Few acts are more heroic—or difficult.

Cautionary Tale

“What doesn’t kill you,
can still make you pretty miserable.”
—Mike Hamel

I’ve been smitten by physical and spiritual infirmities the past five years, smothered by fatigue and pain the past three months, and supported by family and friends throughout. The latter are the reason for fighting through the former.

But are there good reasons for sharing my troubles with others? Everybody has problems; why draw attention to mine? Why not suffer in silence or shrink away from people so as not to be a burden?

I have my reasons:

Misery Loves Company: So does happiness for that matter, and every state in between. It’s human nature to need community. Loneliness makes everything worse. Isolation kills.

I’m a Writer: “There’s nothing to writing,” said Walter Wellesley. “All you do is sit down at a typewriter [keyboard] and open a vein.” It’s in my nature to analyze, annotate and annunciate my experiences. (I have also been known to alliterate on occasion.)

I have a third reason but refuse to give it because lists with three points smack of sermons.

I would love for my story to have redemptive value, but I’ll settle for it being a cautionary tale.

Anorexic Zombie

I feel about as energetic as an anorexic zombie these days, so I pop pills and keep searching for a diagnosis. Meanwhile, life goes on . . .

Sold this:

Bought this:

Learning a new language:

Living with new roommates:

Trying to go with the flow:

“Blessed are the flexible,
for they shall not be bent out of shape.”
—Michael McGriff

The Next Best Thing

THE NEXT BEST THING is a global blog tour started in Australia to introduce and promote great YA fiction. Each week a different author answers specific questions about his or her books and mentions other authors to keep the wave going. It’s a great way to meet new writers.

My turn:

What is the working title of your book?

Matterhorn the Brave is the name of my 8-book time travel series.
The first book is called The Sword and the Flute.

Where did the idea come from for the books?

The Matterhorn tales started as bedtime stories for my four kids, who loved cliff-hanging adventures.

Which genre do your books fall under?

YA fiction. The main characters are 12-14 years old.

Which actors would you choose to play the characters in a movie rendition?

Matterhorn the Brave – Jesse Eisenberg
Aaron the Baron – Zac Efron
Nate the Great – Omar Gooding
Princess Jewel – Emma Watson

What is a one-sentence synopsis of your series?

The Praetorians of First Realm—a mirror world of Earth—recruit four youths to keep an eye on the development of civilization. To do this, they time-travel to various places and become adults in the process.

Who is publishing your books?

AMG

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

The entire series took about 10 years to write as I could only work on it part-time along with my other writing projects.

Which other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Artemis Fowl; Harry Potter; A Series of Unfortunate Events

Who or what inspired you to write these book?

My four children provided the inspiration for the main characters, who share some of their strengths and character traits. I’ve also done a series based on my grandchildren. It’s called TLC (The Lighthouse Company).

Now let me introduce you to my friends Mimi Pearson, an award-winning writer and illustrator, and Julie Bergeron, the artist who worked with me on Lizzy the Leatherback.

Why not introduce the young readers in your life to Matterhorn and his friends today?