Another reminder to keep fit: Miller's far-too-early death

I was going to write a triumphant column this week about getting my body weight under the 200-pound mark for the first time since my senior year in high school.

Hopefully, I can celebrate that occasion next time.

Despite eating well (mostly) and exercising like a sweat-drenched fool — running 25 miles, biking 109.65 miles and swimming 6,250 yards over the past 14 days — I actually gained a pound according to my home scale.

I won't lie. It still might be rolling down the street after I threw it out the window. OK, that didn't happen, but it was a frustrating experience. It's almost like getting a bill from your employer instead of a paycheck on payday. (Guess I should be careful not to give my bosses any ideas.)

The point is, you just come to expect positive results when you're doing all the right things (or mostly all — there might've been a couple extra scoops of low-fat ice cream here or there).

But I'll keep on keeping on.

My resolve to continue improving my health and to reach my weight and fitness goals has been strengthened again.

The sad news of Larry H. Miller's death last Friday gave me another wake-up call. Like having a bucket of ice water thrown on my soul, it was a similar feeling to the eye-opening epiphany I experienced when my 57-year-old dad passed away from type-2-diabetes-related complications five years ago.

It's heartbreaking to lose loved ones.

It's even more of a tragedy knowing their deaths could have been prevented.

That hard-to-take message was shared by Miller after his two-month stay in the hospital last summer and again by his primary physician at the press conference a few hours after he passed away last Friday.

"I think Larry has come out himself and pointed out some of the mistakes he made over the last 30 years where he focused so much on other parts of his life to the detriment of his health," said Dr. Bill Dunson, a medical director at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

"That really is a critical lesson that we can all take from what's happened," Dunson continued. "I think it's really tragic as I've reflected upon his untimely death and the fact that we could have had Larry with us for another 20, 25, 30 years, but we're not going to."

The doctor said Larry. He could have said Tom, too.

I'm trying hard to make sure a doctor won't be able to say the same thing about me someday.

My dad, who always struggled with his weight, wanted the same thing. Toward the end of his life when he was going through some painful times due to his diabetes, he admonished me, "Don't let this happen to you."

I know somewhere he's proud to know that I've lost 165 pounds and that I'm taking his message to heart.