Sign here if you're fat and deserve it

[Krokus]

I don't think Americans are lazy. In fact I know we're not.

Quite frankly, the overweight and obese people in my life are also some of the hardest working folks you'll ever meet in this world. They get up in the morning and get their children ready for school, care for their pets and their household, work insane hours on anywhere from one to three jobs, come home and care for the kids and household again, and still find the energy to be a great spouse. The problem isn't laziness. Usually it's just a lack of proper nutrition and nutritional education (hell there's so much high fructose corn syrup in damn near everything it's ridiculous), and enough of the kind of proper exercise that creates weightloss and fitness. (By "proper" I mean whatever their individual bodies need, which is different for different people). My husband, for instance, is getting started on losing the extra 30 lbs he's gained since switching from a 60 hour per week *very* physical job (QC supervisor at a huge beverage plant) to a desk job (something important with a computer for CheckFree, do not ask me what exactly the man does ). Without changing his rather healthy diet or the rest of his life, he quietly gained a few lbs here and there over the last year and a half because his main physical activity changed. And that's what happened to most people dealing with weight that I know, myself included on occasion. And fixing it once you discover it can be a nightmare in an already overflowing schedule. You're exhausted from your regular routine, and making time to prepare healthier foods and get your growing rear to the gym or out for a fat-burning walk when all you want to do is collapse and you *still* have to do housework and 5th grade math and get little people to soccer and ballet and glee club seems impossible . I'm a wife and a mama and I run two businesses, trust me on this; it can be very, very discouraging finding the time and hutzpah to work on YOU, until you finally decide to bite the bullet and somehow eek out the time go that extra mile, literally. For my husband it means getting up an hour and a half earlier so he can get to the gym and still be back home to take our 3rd grader to school. For me it's doing the same as him on alternate mornings, plus bellydance classes and getting 'serious' about my weight training like I was in college-and doing it at times when I'd rather be with him on the sofa watching the Venture Brothers. But we do what we can. Like the other nonlazy Americans.

I do think that people are focusing on the wrong things, and doing a little less/changing our priorities so that we have time to care for ourselves has to happen to fix this 'epidemic'. But it's about how we're thinking, not laziness.

Bella

Point taken, and well said! I see what you mean. I suppose I just tend to make it a much bigger priority than most, but since I'm a student who works part time, and lives with a roommate, I suppose I have more time than most.

 

[kis123]

Thank you bella; I'm simply amazed how the world views us sometimes. I personally feel Americans in general are some of the hardest working people in the world. In specific, I know for a fact that I am NOT lazy!! I've worked hard to come from less than nothing to what I have today and I did it by myself with no man to help me. I raised two kids practically by myself and got my 16 year old into college; lazy people don't do those things.

Like I said before, people look on the outside and make all sorts of judgements. People who are big are just that....big! It doesn't make them lazy lardasses who don't care about themselves. It makes them human with flaws and issues. We wear our problems on the outside; we don't have the luxury of being able to hide them like others. If I have to look a certain way to gain someone's respect, I don't want it!

Since this thread started, I've made some changes and have lost a few pounds. I'm not going to starve myself and I'm not living off chicken and carrot sticks for the rest of my life. People who think I should are living in a fantasy land and I choose not to live in it with them! If I want a piece of cake, I will eat it. If I want something, I'll have it without guilt or shame. I just don't have to have all of it at once. Sometimes I'll make little deals with myself; If I still want that thing in the next hour, several hours, or next day, then I'll have it. If not then it meant that I really didn't desire it, it was just an impulse and I do tend to be an impulse eater.

I'm projected to finish with school next July. I'll see what progress (if any) I"ve made by then; if no significant progress has been made I'll be headed for the surgery, plain and simple. I want to lose weight for myself, my son who will need for the rest of my life, and my future grandchildren. I could care less about societal norms and being accepted in public; I'm way beyond caring about what other people think.