Writing Resources from Fifteen Minutes of Fiction

Too busy to exercise

Too busy to exercise by mark hudson

i have a neighor in my apartment building who brings me food. He sets bags of food by my door, just to be a nice neighbor. i am slightly overweight, and my doctor put me on a diet this summer, and since then, i have lost 20 pounds. (I haven't changed my eating habbits, i just exercise as often as i can. As I told a friend, a half n hour a day makes a remarkable difference.) But one day, i saw the exact same neighbor, and he said, " Man, you need to lose weight!" I said, in my defence, " I have a membership at the y." and he replied, " Well you need to go twice a day." Suddenly, I felt resentful. This friend, who had been so generously bringing me food, was suddenly now berating me for my weight. the truth is i'd been very busy and hadn't had as much time for exercise, and thought maybe i'd gained some weight back. My friend sometimes delivers healthy food like salad and veggies, soup, but sometimes, it's unhealthy. So a week later, yesterday, or no, it was friday, I found a bag on my door with pumpernickel bread and get this...doughnuts! he was telling me to lose weight and giving me doughnuts! And then he knocked on my door and said, "Did you get my latest bag of food?" And i was putting my laundry away, so I kind of snapped, " Look, could you stop sending unhealthy food, like doughnuts? soup and salad are fine, but not doughnuts!" Then i closed the door and finished putting the laundry away. Suddenly, I felt bad. he didn't owe it to me to give food! he did it out of the kindness of his heart. so i went and knocked on his door to make an amends. he answered. " I'm sorry i snapped on you. " I said. " I appreciate the fact that you bring food to me, and one of these days, maybe i can do something in return." " You're welcome." he said. so maybe it wasn't as bad as i thought.
I'm 40 and i'm sensitive about my weight and the fact that i'm slowly going bald. But isn't that rather childish to be so sensitive? if i count my blessings, i know that I've got more blessings than billions of people worldwide. I'm not obese, I'm well-fed!

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