The Checkup: Don’t Say This to Your Overweight Wife: ‘That’s Not Made for Someone Your Size, Sweetheart’

And other advice for gently prodding your spouse to get healthy, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal.

• Warning, ladies: You will audibly gasp when you read this story over on the Wall Street Journal. It’s technically about how to help an overweight partner lose weight, and the advice on that front, I think, is sound. But it also tells the story of a real-life couple in which the husband is thin and the wife overweight, and recounts a LOT of boneheaded things the hubby said to his wife with regard to her figure. (To be fair, he cops to each and every one of his stupid comments, and, quite honestly, he was only trying to help.) The point of the article is to help couples navigate the murky waters of weight loss, when one partner is thin and the other is not. The advice on how to do it comes by way of some very wise marriage counselors, so I suggest you go and read it. My main takeaway? That when your overweight wife puts on an outfit, you should never say, “That’s not made for someone your size, Sweetheart.” Also, when she’s dancing in front of you naked in an attempt to spice up your nonexistent sex life, you probably shouldn’t say, “I guess you are one of those people who looks better with clothes on.” No. No, you shouldn’t.

• Leave it to BuzzFeed to make me laugh at the thought of going to the gynecologist. Yes, it sucks. But this makes it all better.

• In serious news, Kaiser Permanente reports that doctors are diagnosing more kids ADHD—25 percent more than they were a decade ago. NPR has the story.

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