Weighty Deliberations

B ack in my days as a bochur I was a dream guest the guy who would take second and third helpings of cholent and help the hostess by polishing off the last piece of kugel on the platter so she shouldn’t be stuck with leftovers.

I was also very athletic one of the first guys to be picked on a baseball or basketball team. I enjoyed playing sports and I played a lot — during bein hasedorim in the evenings and on Friday and Motzaei Shabbos. My husky frame did not hinder me on the field; on the contrary it gave me power. In baseball I hit long home runs in basketball I couldn’t be boxed out and in hockey no one could body-check me.

As a kid and a bochur I was never self-conscious about my weight nor did I try to limit my eating. Here and there my friends would tease me — “Hey Bergstein are you going for the Guinness record on doughnuts this Chanukah?” — but every bochur gets teased about something so I didn’t take the ribbing personally. I wasn’t fat I just had a good appetite and I needed fuel to keep me going both in the beis medrash and on the basketball court.

It was after I got married that my weight started to become a bit of a concern thanks to my wife’s excellent cooking. As a kollel yungerman I still had a hearty appetite but I was no longer balancing out my eating with strenuous physical activity. My kollel friends weren’t heading out to the park during bein hasedorim and even if I’d wanted to find other people to play with I simply didn’t have the time. Between my learning and my responsibilities to my wife and kids there wasn’t any time for a game of baseball. The only time I went out to play was during summer bein hazmanim. After a year of not being out on the field running after the ball caused painful cramping in my legs but I figured that was an unavoidable part of getting older.