It’s just bizarre to me when people claim they can’t do anything to change their fitness and health situation. Especially in the US, many if not most health problems are self-inflicted: a combination of no exercise and a poor diet.
I don’t even look like the same person I did five years ago. I’m nearly three times as strong as I was since then, too. I’m not some superhero. I have bad genes and I am lazy (though stubborn). If I can do what I did, so many more people could. Or if not exactly what I did, at least not be a diabetes-ridden lard pile claiming that they have no choice but to be that way.
Not everything is a matter of personal responsibility. But a lot is. Even if you are currently some pebble just bouncing down the river of your life, you don’t have to stay that way. Be less pebble and more dam.