RECENTLY, my son was happily reciting the names of U.S. presidents as he looked at their photographs. One thing that immediately stuck out to me, besides Barack Obama being the only black president, was that nearly all former presidents were rather on the svelte side.
That got me thinking: Can the president be fat? Although we may have overcome race in the White House, I'm not so sure we have overcome obesity.
There have been a handful of chubby presidents, but it appears that William Taft, the 27th president, was by far the most portly, weighing in at 300-plus pounds. According to legend, Taft once got stuck in the White House tub and had to have a custom one built.
With that being said, I couldn't help but think of Gov. Chris Christie, and although he has not made an official declaration that he's running for president, he's certainly traveling across the country like a candidate.
And even though he may have put "Bridgegate" behind him, a bigger problem than his brusque personality may be his weight. He's had a precipitous drop in popularity and, according to the latest polls, only 32 percent of Republican voters say they can support him.
Despite all our arguments to the contrary, I think Americans still judge obesity more harshly than perhaps anything else.
I don't personally know Christie's body-mass index, but I think it's pretty obvious that it's well over 30, the category for medical obesity.
Obviously, Christie, like two-thirds of Americans, was either concerned about his image, health or both back in 2013 when he had secret gastric-band surgery. According to published reports, he shed about 100 pounds and slimmed down to about 320.
If you ask me, Christie should embrace his weight and share his weight-loss journey with the public. After all, obesity is perhaps our nation's most serious health problem, which has horrific health consequences and punishing economic costs. Surely, this would make him more relatable, instead of the tough-guy persona he unflatteringly wears.
I know how challenging it is to lose weight, and, even worse, how difficult it is to maintain the loss. Although there is always talk about how to drop the pounds, what is more rarely discussed is maintenance. Has Christie mastered that? Does he have any secrets to share?
Clearly, appetite and emotional craving don't just disappear after weight-loss surgery. Just ask Mike Huckabee, the former Republican presidential hopeful and former governor of Arkansas, who also shed 100 pounds with the help of weight-loss surgery, and who appears to have rebounded quite dramatically. Despite running marathons and writing weight-loss books, Huckabee apparently lost his bootstraps and is now eating his words.
So, Gov. Christie, don't follow Huckabee's lead. Just remember, the real battle is not so much in the losing, but in successfully maintaining. Maintenance is truly the toughest part of the journey, but nobody likes to talk about it. I suppose it's just not sexy, because it requires unrelenting conscious awareness. I believe that maintenance is three times harder than losing. There's no doubt about it: Like being the president, weight maintenance requires round-the-clock planning and vigilance, if one is not to fall.
With that said, here are three tried and true weight-loss maintenance steps:
1. Daily exercise. Successful maintainers almost always incorporate exercise into their daily lifestyle. No need to run marathons or compete in the Olympics. Walking briskly for an hour plus some calisthenics really does wonders.
2. Eat less. Sorry, there's no way around it, you simply have to eat less forever! That's the truth, and, no, exercise is not a replacement for poor eating or overeating.
3. Make water your primary beverage. Ditch all commercial juices, drinks and sodas, and restrict or eliminate all alcohol.