Telling the media that he could “not conceive of not being hungry,” Gov. Chris Christie (R-N.J.) said he finally decided to get weight-loss surgery after reaching the momentous 50-year-old mark — and after seeing how the surgery dramatically changed the physique and psychology of a close friend.
“I called Rex Ryan (the head coach of the NFL’s New York Jets) and said, ‘can I bring the kids up to training camp?’ and he said ‘sure.’ That’s the first time I saw him in person since he lost all the weight. I said, ‘Man, you look great, what did you do?’ He said, ‘Gov, it works great. Look at me! You believe this? It’s amazing — I’m not hungry.'” Christie recalled to the New York Post. “I was thinking to myself, I could not conceive of not being hungry.”
The affable and widely beloved governor said that fateful meeting with Ryan, coupled with concern about seeing his children grow long into adulthood, finally spurred the (allegedly) prospective 2016 presidential candidate to have lap band surgery.
“The real turning point for me was turning 50. I turned 50 in September and I just kinda felt like I had been really fortunate from a health perspective and that I hadn’t paid any price at all for being really overweight,” said Christie, who agreed to a sit-down interview only after The Post learned of his surgery. “And I thought, ‘God I’m 50 now and I’m just not going to be this lucky any more.’ And you get to see your kids get older and for me I was like, I think I really need to do something about this.”
Christie denied that he was working to get into sufficient shape for the rigorous, arduous journey that a presidential candidacy requires. Whether he has White House aspirations or not, he admits that he’s always possessed a negative image of his own looks and body, probably a great contributing factor in gaining weight.
“It isn’t about appearance, because I’m never going to be comfortable with what I look like,” he said.
“My staff tweeted out this picture of me and Mary Pat back in the late 80s. We looked pretty good back then … But the interesting thing to me, that was 1989 and I was 27 years old and I thought I was fat then. So, this isn’t about appearance — because I doubt I’ll ever be completely comfortable with the way I look. I wasn’t back then. I look at it now and I go, ‘wow, I’d trade for that in 5 seconds. Where do I sign up? Right? I was in great shape and looked really good but I didn’t feel it then.”
