Fat America

I am fired up today and I am blogging it out. I am so tired of fat people who do nothing but whine and cry about how fat they are. I might piss some people off with this post and I rather hope I do. At least that would mean that the subject is important to others. I understand that both health and genetics take part in many weight issues. I am skinny partly because of my Crohn’s Disease. I don’t think that health issues can always be an excuse though, and certainly not the whole excuse. Just like I have to adhere to a certain diet to maintain my disease, others are responsible to do the same.

Why is it that you mostly see the fat people taking the elevator but the skinny people take the stairs? I find this a lot at my new job. Why do fat people ride in carts at stores when they need the exercise more than any of us? I don’t want to hear the old “bad knee” excuse either because their knees would be fine if it weren’t for the extra hundreds of pounds that some are carrying. Then they want a handicapped sticker for their bad knees and big lazy asses. These are the same folks who starve themselves on a diet only to cave to a soda and candy bar half way through the day. As you can see, I am pretty disgusted. These people are raising Fat America. Eating habits as a child most definitely carry into adult life. I was only recently able to break my family tradition of Velveeta cheese dip as a meal. I understand these things can be hard but I am tired of the whining.

These are the same people who exclaim “oh, you are so skinny”, “how do you stay so skinny?”, “why would you walk in this heat?”, “you eat tofu?”, “are you going to waste all of that food?” I could go on and on. I used to be offended at being called skinny. After all, skinny is connected to sickness. But guess what? I am skinny. I accept it. I work every day to maintain my weight but I will most likely always be how I am. I can accept someone being overweight if they make an effort to be healthy. If they are not eating ice cream and drinking soda all day long, complaining about how fat they are. Just for fun, I am going to answer some of those ridiculous questions though. Sometimes I want to answer people when they ask but my response might sound as shallow as their question.

1. “Oh, you are so skinny” (not a question but I’m gonna address it)---I am thin. I do have Crohn’s disease but I also have a very healthy lifestyle and diet. I take care of myself as best as I can and I think I look fantastic compared to where I have been in the past.

2. “How do you stay so skinny”---I eat pretty healthy. I do eat all of the time but small snacks, not huge meals. I like rice cakes, soy beans, nuts, fruit and cheese to snack on (not gonna lie, I eat crap but I am good most of the time)

3. “Why would you walk in this heat?---Well, I enjoy walking and hiking immensely. I feel at one with nature, spirits and myself so it is more like therapy to me than exercise because I CHOOSE FOR IT TO BE.

4. “You eat tofu?”---I not only eat it, I like it. However, I have no idea how to cook it. Changing my eating habits came as a result of my Crohn’s but I could not be happier. I feel healthier and I am getting way more protein without all of the hormones and bacteria. (Eat that fatty!) I would choose a veggie dog or black bean burger over the real thing any day.

5. “Are you going to waste all of that food”- Noooooooo…because small meals are how I roll, I will wrap it up and take it home for later. If something is good enough I have been known to eat it 5-6 consecutive meals in a row. I eat to live, I don’t live to eat. (Shout out to Koli from The Biggest Loser, although I mixed his words, he said “these people are eating to live and we are living to eat.” Profound to me, I tell you.)

There is a reason I feel so passionate about this; my old roommate, Sarah, has been a big girl her whole life. Living together was an eye opening experience for us both in regard to food. We both noticed little things that were different about our eating habits and we were not afraid to discuss it. I will put something down after having taken just a few bites if I am done with it. In Sarah’s house growing up that was wasteful and you could not be wasteful. She had a twin brother who was rather sickly so it was her job to finish what he did not eat. At first she was very bothered by what she considered to be my waste but then she realized that I really do eat most things later. And if I didn’t, my attitude was, “oh, well, it’s just food.” One night I bought a box of Entenmann’s crumble top donuts, triple chocolate; the big box. I ate one and went to bed. When I woke up the next morning the box was in the trash. Sarah had gotten up in the middle of the night and eaten all of the donuts. That thought never even crossed my mind. I can barely eat one. I had to ask her what made her do it and for a long time, she didn’t have an answer. When we talked later she said that as a kid growing up with 5 kids in the house you had to fight for your food. In her house, if you liked something, you had better eat it all because it would not be there when you came back. I just could not fathom what she was telling me. I had 1 sister and we had different tastes so this was all new for me.

Sarah and I got hooked on The Biggest Loser shortly after that. We would sing the theme song (“What have you done today to make you feel proud?”) and I could see in her eyes that she wanted to try to start losing weight. She used to get the classic, “oh, but you are so pretty in the face” all of the time. Pretty-in-the-face- Sarah started Weight Watchers (we affectionately refer to it as “dub dub”) about a year and a half ago. She is down 85 pounds and holding. She has drastically changed her eating habits and gets way more exercise now. I am so proud of her. She recognized that she can control it and it feels good to do so. She has always been a very happy person and many people like her. The best thing for me is to see how much she likes herself now. I would love to see more of the world take on a Sarah attitude.

This all started because I was behind a very large woman at work today as she shuffled to the elevator and I was trying to go around her to the stairs. She made it down before I did and I could hear her breathing and feel the friction from her thighs rubbing together as we walked. It happens all of the time, unfortunately. I think most frequently I see the fat person in the cart bit. That one really gets me. Today was just the day I had to blow.