Diabetes in teens, not type I, but Type II

So today I was outside my favorite coffee shop (ok one of the two indies I like) doing some writing. In the same mall the Y has a gym... so I see a young man dragged by mom and dad to the gym for a work out.

He is oh about 300 pounds and five one....

He is already huffing and puffing due to the weight, trust me I get it, at 200 I could barely walk... so they stopped, and mom tells kid

Doc told you to. or you'll get full blown diabetes.

Now I am one... so I decided to get involved. After all I know how hard it is to get support, especially early on

Kid started giving all kinds of excuses... so I looked him in the eye and told him... this is about living. You want to live you need to loose a lot of weight.

"You don't get it."

I knew I was on a bad track, so I took out an old driver's license with a photo and showed it to the kid and mom... (who wasn't thin either) I let the photo speak for me. So after five minutes of oh my he finally said, "you got this?"

"Yep, I do. Now here is what you do." Told him essentially how to start the exercise, recommended a pedometer, and for once I had mine on (I know feel free to finger waggle) and in the course of the conversation found things that shocked me. One fourth of his classmates are anywhere from overweight to severely morbidly obese. and about ten of his classmates have either been diagnosed with pre diabetes or full blown... and one is already on insulin

Now think back to your times in school and how rare were the fatties (as we were called)...

Of course had to explain to mom that yes, I get it that she's tired but microwave meals are not acceptable as a regular food offering.

Children's hospital gave them a similar shpiel, sans the pedometer and going from 3K steps... I'll be amazed if the kid walks that much, to slowly build up to 6K minimum, and watching what he eats.

Hell, he was shocked when I told him that the little milk I added to my coffee, was part of my food plan...

But it will take far more than one on one... hell even told mom, you'll need to take this kid outside, into the fresh air and away from the teevee... it is literally a matter of life and death, and hell a nice opportunity to bond... and for god sakes... make it fun.

But if anecdotally fifty kids out of two hundred are that way in one grade, in one school... we are in a hell of a crisis. Yes, I've read the stats... but boy this brings it home. The next generation is the first one expected to have a lower lifespan... and obesity is the cause.

It couldn't have been to easy to start that conversation.

Some years back -- 8 or 10, maybe a little more or less -- I suddenly realized that every single day I would see morbidly obese people The supermarket nearest me where I shopped had three morbidly obese employees. Go back to the 70's and before, and you almost never saw anyone that much overweight. Now, all the time. It's frightening.

Speaking as someone who is overweight, although not obese herself.

And I am not thin either... by a far shot. I need to loose another thirty pounds, easy... really not...loosing, stuck where I am... but far better than where I was.

But side by side with this kid... I am down right svelte.

I also shared with the kid that when I started doing exercise I managed to do this for six minutes, these days I can do two fast miles, in about 25, to 26 minutes on my gazelle

As I told them, pushing too hard too fast guaranteed defeat.

I also gave them an email, I'll answer questions. I am in the trenches

for carrying around the old photo, so that you could prove you weren't just some well-meaning busy-body who had no idea what it was like.