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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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DOTC: Weight Loss Has Up Side

Dan of the Camp: I know my weight loss stuff is old news now but in addition to all the health related benefits of losing about 58% of my former self I found a real practical upside to it yesterday. I accidently locked my keys in my pickup at Lowe’s recently but luckily had put some long boards through the little slider window on my extended cab Mazda pickup so it was open. I tried reaching through it to get to the keys or door lock but no go. So then I took a hard but quick look at the window and thought “I think I can just make it through there.” It was a bit tough getting the first shoulder through but then it went easier right up to where the waist and belt on my jeans got pretty stuck. More below.

Question: How much more/less do you weigh now than when you graduated from high school?

At that point I couldn’t get back out so I just had to press on and hope I didn’t end up unintentionally mooning anyone in the process (although there are a few folks at a certain alternate-universe CDA blog site that would have loved to caught a picture of that to post now that the burning court house one is kind of out of date).

Luckily for me (and anyone watching) I was able to still wiggle around enough to pop through to the inside of my cab with my pants and most of my dignity intact.

When I got home I measured that window opening I squeezed through. It is 10 by 13 inches. If I had only lost 50 or even 55% of my former body weight I never would have made it.

Which just goes to prove the old saying, “Every vote or percentage of body weight lost counts!”



D.F. Oliveria
D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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