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| Actor Stephen Furst (1954-2017) from Animal House (1978). |
I was not surprised by what people wrote on social media referencing actor Stephen Furst’s character, Flounder, the nerdy overweight fraternity pledge in National Lampoon’s "Animal House" (1978) after learning Furst died June 16 at age 63, the result of complications from diabetes.
Social media users repeated such lines from the raunchy comedy classic the character said from “Oh boy is this great,” “May I have 10,000 marbles please?”, and “I can’t believe I threw up in front of Dean Wormer” to the words of Dean Wormer (John Vernon) telling Flounder, “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life son.”
If being fat was so beautiful (model Ashley Graham and a few others are the only exceptions to the rule) then explain the significant weight loss transformations of such Hollywood actors and music icons have undergone like Roseanne Barr, John Goodman, Jonah Hill, Melissa McCarthy and singer Marie Osmond? Can you say, “Bye bye stubborn belly fat?”
The bottom line is (and I know a couple others who weighed close to 300 if more who, like me, shed the pounds below the 200 range) if I can manage to keep my diabetes under some control and not be a glutton eating four or five giant meals instead eating five to six small meals a day, if that many (the Metformin drug I am on curbs my appetite), then why the hell can’t anyone else do it?
Is it going to completely kill them to go walk for ten or twenty minutes, do the lawn (which takes me over 30 minutes to do once a week), do a mile at the track, or walk around the block? Or do they just make up the excuse that because they live in Texas they can’t walk because the 113-degree heat will kill them? Really??? Then explain all those people I see who mow their yards in this heat?!?!?! Or do they pull out your little cheapskate card and say, “I can’t pay $10 bucks for a fitness membership?!?!?” Ten bucks is sure as hell cheaper than weight loss surgery, or do they enjoy getting hit with that $5000 medical bill they can’t pay and file bankruptcy after getting out of the hospital following their massive heart attack? But they can pay $10 bucks for a supersize Big Mac meal at McDonald's, right?
If there’s one thing I can say about Stephen Furst, who weighed more than 300 pounds at one point, is when he got diagnosed with diabetes in 1996, he dropped more than 85 pounds and appeared in an educational video produced by the American Diabetes Association.
Furst’s son, Nathan, told CNN over the last several years his father’s diabetes was getting worse a little bit.
“Sort of the typical things that tend to happen when you have diabetes a long time,” he said.
Furst’s death is a warning to the rest of us diabetics and those who may already have it but don’t know it yet how important it is for us to stay on top of this pain-in-the-ass disease.
Age 63 is still too young to die. If that doesn’t put a scare into a person to do something about their health, nothing will!
©6/21/17
Social media users repeated such lines from the raunchy comedy classic the character said from “Oh boy is this great,” “May I have 10,000 marbles please?”, and “I can’t believe I threw up in front of Dean Wormer” to the words of Dean Wormer (John Vernon) telling Flounder, “Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life son.”
Furst’s death, for me, is where the comedy stopped and it should serve as a warning not just to myself who has been battling diabetes since my first diagnosis in 2006 to everyone else battling what I call a “pain-in-the-ass” disease.This may come as a shock but being obese and diabetic is not funny no matter how much “Hollyweird” makes it to be. Viewers who watch such shows as "The King of Queens" (1998-2007) and actor Kevin James, "Kevin Can Wait" (2016), are not laughing with them when it comes to the fat jokes. They are laughing at them! How many times can a viewer count when Al Bundy walked through the front door in "Married... with Children" (1987-1997) saying, “A fat woman walked into the shoe store today?” The shows, if nothing else, probably give viewers a lesson of what not to do to their bodies when it comes to food. Your body is your temple, right?
If being fat was so beautiful (model Ashley Graham and a few others are the only exceptions to the rule) then explain the significant weight loss transformations of such Hollywood actors and music icons have undergone like Roseanne Barr, John Goodman, Jonah Hill, Melissa McCarthy and singer Marie Osmond? Can you say, “Bye bye stubborn belly fat?”
I have EVERY right to criticize those battling weight problems now because I have undergone my own weight loss transformation since 2015 going from 300 to 190-then back up to 240 and now down to 155, which fluctuates between 155 and 170 depending on my insulin intake and diet.Today, I love the fact all my clothes are baggy and will one day when finances turn around later this year have to start investing in a new wardrobe. I like it when former classmates say at a funeral, “That jacket is too big on you” and “You’re getting skinny” and yes, I am well aware 155 may not be considered "healthy" weight loss but it sure as hell beats being 240 or 300! The only comments I am getting now from people is that of concern where I am asked, “You’re not sick are you?”
The bottom line is (and I know a couple others who weighed close to 300 if more who, like me, shed the pounds below the 200 range) if I can manage to keep my diabetes under some control and not be a glutton eating four or five giant meals instead eating five to six small meals a day, if that many (the Metformin drug I am on curbs my appetite), then why the hell can’t anyone else do it?
Today, I get sickened to the point I want to barf up my lunch when I haven’t even eaten yet seeing some 5000-pound parent wobble into Furrs with their 3000-pound kid and yell out loud so everyone in the restaurant can hear, “ROUND ONE”, when it comes to that fact that Furrs has an all you can eat buffet. It’s not just Furrs but also CiCi's Pizza, Pizza Hut and Golden Corral that join the list of small towns (population: 100 full during lunch hours) I call “Gluttonville” and “Lardville!”Seeing some overweight person at Furrs or wherever chomping down on God knows what makes me ask myself if that person does not realize what they got inside their body is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off when it comes to their heart, cancer diagnosis and that dreaded pain-in-the-ass disease called diabetes.
Is it going to completely kill them to go walk for ten or twenty minutes, do the lawn (which takes me over 30 minutes to do once a week), do a mile at the track, or walk around the block? Or do they just make up the excuse that because they live in Texas they can’t walk because the 113-degree heat will kill them? Really??? Then explain all those people I see who mow their yards in this heat?!?!?! Or do they pull out your little cheapskate card and say, “I can’t pay $10 bucks for a fitness membership?!?!?” Ten bucks is sure as hell cheaper than weight loss surgery, or do they enjoy getting hit with that $5000 medical bill they can’t pay and file bankruptcy after getting out of the hospital following their massive heart attack? But they can pay $10 bucks for a supersize Big Mac meal at McDonald's, right?
If there’s one thing I can say about Stephen Furst, who weighed more than 300 pounds at one point, is when he got diagnosed with diabetes in 1996, he dropped more than 85 pounds and appeared in an educational video produced by the American Diabetes Association.
Furst’s son, Nathan, told CNN over the last several years his father’s diabetes was getting worse a little bit.
“Sort of the typical things that tend to happen when you have diabetes a long time,” he said.
Furst’s death is a warning to the rest of us diabetics and those who may already have it but don’t know it yet how important it is for us to stay on top of this pain-in-the-ass disease.
Age 63 is still too young to die. If that doesn’t put a scare into a person to do something about their health, nothing will!
©6/21/17
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