I used to spend hours with my uncle on days when my grandparents were too ill to watch myself and my brothers.
Our parents worked away from the home and our uncle lived in the exact same apartment building.
Since our uncle has always run a small business out of his home from the early days of the internet, he had no qualms watching us for a few hours when we’d get home from school in the afternoons. I loved going to our uncle’s apartment because he always had mint chocolate chip ice cream and vanilla wafer cookies, which he let us devour to our heart’s content. You can imagine what kind of impact this had on my long term health eating all of this junk food from such an early age. My weight was always in an unhealthy BMI range and it got worse with time. During the last few years, I witnessed my uncle’s weight balloon until he reached 350 pounds. Suddenly one day he fell while trying to rake his lawn and died from a heart attack in the ensuing moments. My aunt was away at the grocery store and came home to find him collapsed in the yard behind the house. Hearing about my uncle’s heart attack finally made me serious about getting healthy and taking my physical wellness more seriously. That’s why I inquired with a bunch of fitness centers to find a gym with the lowest gym membership fees. Once I found a good gym in my city, I started going several times a week and I’ve already lost 40 pounds in the process.