Today I have a guest blog post from my nephew, Michael Tortorich, from Louisiana. Unlike me, he gets paid to write. He also helps out with the site. We were talking one day and I thought this topic would work well as a blog post.
-Vinnie
Have you ever thought about who should be considered fat? In today’s politically correct world nobody is ever politely called “fat” in a flat-out manner – not as long as big-boned, heavy-set, husky and other such euphemisms suffice. Apparently nobody in grade school ever gets tagged as “slow” either. Way back in the 1980s, the word on the school yard was “dumb” for students who couldn’t make the grade. But nobody’s kid is dumb anymore. It turns out these cruel schools’ faculties have been overlooking an array of medical conditions preventing those students on the bottom rung of the academic ladder from finding their places among the top scholars. Nobody can be different anymore. Nobody can simply be unintelligent. We’re all unique. We’re all good at different things. I was never good enough to make it to NFL. It’s not because I had a learning disability keeping me from learning the playbook. It’s because I wasn’t all that great at football. There I go down a rabbit trail. Here’s what I want to say: There are people who have issues in life and we’re not doing them any favors by pretending they don’t. Some people are not going to be the next Albert Einstein. That’s OK. But we don’t have to pretend like things are different. I find it a healthy exercise to accept reality for what it is. I realize that I can stand to lose a few pounds. I know that my current size of 6-foot-1 and 200 pounds is on the hefty size. That’s reality. Like a lot of people, I’d like to lose some of that weight and get more physically fit. I don’t get a ton of exercise and I have been known to indulge in the plethora of food available to me. I try my best to keep on track but life often gets in the way. I’m lucky enough to have a fitness trainer in my family who doesn’t mind dispensing free advice. And as you may have noticed from reading this blog, he’s not giving me a family deal. Vinnie gives away health and fitness advice right here on a daily basis. We’re a close family and we talk to each other a lot. I can tell you, he practices what he preaches. I’ve personally taken his advice. It works. I can’t think of one time that he’s been wrong. When he first started this site, I wasn’t sure if he’d ever get it going. Man, was I wrong. This blog gets a ton of hits and the numbers are only growing. There I go down the rabbit trail again. I’d better wrap this thing up or Vinnie will cut me off from writing. It’s not like he has a shortage of people wanting to get involved with this thing. He’s like Arianna Huffington, only not as good looking. What we wanted to throw out there today is the difference between L.A. (Los Angeles) and La. (Louisiana). These are two vastly different cultures. That’s not to say that different is bad. Living in the heart of Cajun country has its advantages. Food is a way of life around here. We are a fat and happy people. At my current weight, I don’t have a huge belly hanging over my belt. But lots of guys around here are sporting the beer belly look. After a while, you get used to seeing it. Simply put, people here often get used to seeing overweight people. So when I complain about my weight and how I’d like to lose a few pounds, people often tell me I’m fine the way I am and that I’d be too skinny. That’s not how they roll in L.A. though.
