Count Your Blessings

21^st July 2016

Hay David,

It looks like you’ve been going through some bad things lately, and it’s not all that much my business, but you put it out there for me to see. I’m a fellow struggling with health issues and I think I get something out of your videos. That makes it only right that I try to give you something out of my experience.

The internet is a cesspool of hatred and would be experts who think they know more than you because they read a book. It’s like when I drag my three bills to the gym and get some six bill chick who smells like pudding and B.O. tell me that I’m doing it wrong. The only thing is that there are a few dozen people at the gym and thousands on the net.

You gave me the advice “Stay strong, stay safe, stay focused”. Well, that’s not easy when I have a nose full of B.O. and Pudding is it? It’s just as hard when some troll gets up on me and says I shouldn’t show my fat pig face on YouTube. When people get on me like that I remember what you said, and I don’t let it get to me.

David, you got a shout out from Phil. That’s like getting knighted by the King of the internet. If he gave me a shout my problems would be over. You don’t need YouTube, you still have a job. Me, the last place I worked refuses to tell me why I got canned or even when.

Count your blessings, bro, you could be in my shoes,

Richard Leland Neal

Ask a Fat Man

9^th April 2013

Dear Cassi,

         

What is it with folks who like to make friends at the gym? On the last two occasions I have taken my exercise there a man came and talked to me for at least a half hour and asked me about health of all things. What motivates these questions is beyond me as I am no man to tell folks how to live.

         

When looking to better one’s health it would be wise to ask someone healthier than one’s self. Asking a bloated monster like me for health advice is like asking a drug addict how to quit. Then perhaps these folks just need someone to help them pass the time.

         

The fellow in question on this occasion never gave me his name but first asked me if running in the water was better than running on a treadmill. As we were both running in the pool I would think he knew my view, but I gave him my thoughts to be polite.

         

I run in the pool because it takes stress off my joints and so permits me to run longer. If I took the same time on a treadmill my back would hurt and my knees would sting. The cool of the water keeps my body from perspiring and so dehydrating. In the pool I can burn more calories than on a treadmill because I can work out so much longer without exhaustion.

         

Once I had told the man of this he then asked me what I did for a living. We spend some twenty minutes talking about the nature of the homeless and what I do at work. He told me that he came from China and that he was the only member of his family here in America. We spent some time on his religion, and I think he was hoping for a convert. To my surprise he was a Christian. This fellow did not at any length detail his religion. He only said that he prayed and that it helped.  

         

Our talk made the minutes tick by without notice and so made my workout more pleasant. It comes to me that whatever this man’s motives for reaching into my life he was not an intrusion.

Enjoy the little things,

Richard Leland Neal

Resistance Training

 

Fat Man in Water

7th of October 2012

Dear Cassi,


Once again I’ve dragged my ample posterior to the gym and taken two hours of cardio in the pool to jog my body back to life. I would call this success if it were not for the fact that I should have spent more time at this work.

It was not my lungs or heart that failed me but rather the connections to the meat of my legs at the ankles. The pain here claimed and slowed me and so I began to turn my body to lengthen my exercise.

I turned front from to side at first walking with one hip pointing forward. This action I kept at the end of each lap by turning in a new way, putting my back forward or offering the other hip. The practice worked and I kept it up till the pain became so unbearable that I could not cross the pool pointed in one direction.

At this point I stood from the water and found it hard to hold my

body standing. If it was that I had come accustomed to my lesser weight when buoyant or if I simply had nothing left to give I do not know, but I took some time in the hot tub to gain strength.

I’ve become so large a man over the passing years that had work and dedication fall short of my needs at this health business. Well, if the path I walk is hard the end of my travels we be all the more sweet.


Find the right trail, little sister,



Richard Leland Neal

Health Advice: Ask a Fat Man

31^st July of 2011

Dear Cassi,

The strangest of all things happened last week when I went to the gym. I submersed my three hundred pound bulk in the pool and began to run. An hour after I began my labors, a man struck up a conversation with me from the side of the pool.

He confessed to me that he had gained a great state of health then stopped coming to the gym and gained the weight back. He said, from his spot standing on the side of the pool, that he was committed to dropping another five pounds before working out with weights.

Far be it from a good idea for a fat man like me to give health advice, but I told him that he should pay little mind to five pounds. The man proceeded to ask me questions about health and diet until another hour of my cardio had passed. I found it hard to hear him when I walked to the other side of the pool, but he showed no inclination to walk along as I jogged or find a better spot for our conversation.

   

I found him to be devoid of understanding in the nature of health. I gave what knowledge I had on the subjects he asked about, but I see little hope for a man who is inclined to watch as others exert themselves. He took his leave of me and said he was on his way to the upper gym to get some work done.

   

This event should hold little surprise for me. I once saw a five hundred pound man selling diet products and people still took an interest.

Sometimes we see what we want to,

Richard Leland Neal