His health outlook changes in retirement

“I was in the industrial painting business for about 35 years. I remember working on the bigger tanks at places like Exxon. We would sandblast and then paint them. The toughest part was sandblasting. We used these big hoses, and it was like 110 pounds of pressure. That’s hard work. It really kept me in shape.

“Working every day like that, everything was OK with my body. After a few years of retirement, I started having problems with cholesterol and things like that. That’s the reason I’m over here, trying to fight gaining weight and keeping in shape.

“Everything changes when you stop working. Some people, they don’t believe it. But it’s true. I was one who did not believe it before. When my friends told me about it — ‘Oh, in retirement I’m getting fat, I’ve got this, I’ve got that’ — I was thinking to myself, that’s not going to happen to me. But it happened.

“Now I do what the doctor says. I try to take care of myself and keep an eye on everything. I don’t want to get diabetes or anything like that. So I decided to change my life a little bit.”

— Ruben Valerio