PS...I do love full-sugar soda and doritos though! I allow myself one can of full-sugar soda once a week for dinner on Friday or Saturday night. Doritos I eat far less often...but I still love them! I don't like diet soda, and I only drink water and tea the rest of the week aside from my one can of soda.

Do you write a whine on the internet every time you see someone light a cigarette too?

The outrage of someone drinking a soda! I can't believe that she would do that. If more people catch on, Pepsi and Coke might become a multi-billion dollar companies or something!

I commend you for how you choose to live your life, however please don't fall into the trap of thinking that those who are not like you are any less of a person.

quote:<HR>obese people (almost all of whom claim they've "tried everything" to lose weight)<HR>

This is not the case. And I assure you that there are plenty of fat people who are happy with themselves. I would venture to guess that the reason that you haven't met a fat person who is happy with themselves is because your attitude made up your mind for you before they had a chance to open their mouth.

http://This message has been edited by kponds (edited Jan-08-2007).

Ouch Kponds.

I have seen the movement for acceptance of, uh, what's the right word ? Heavier people (yep, fat). It did succeed in getting clothing sizes made larger and standards for things like airlines changed.

I think the whole point is health, as well as the repurcussions of obesity. You can't eat like that regularly (note: regularly) and maintain good health. Someone who is obese and doesn't bat an eye at loading up on 3 bags of Doritos and a large pop is quite likely doing so regularly. I think I'd be ill into the second bag.

Anyway, I wish the issue pushed forward was health over weight BUT excessive weight is a symptom of neglected health.

Oh - and on the 'net this morning - Americans take in 22% of their calories via liquids. Ouch. I guess all that costly advertising has been successful.

What bothers me about this post is that you watched what she was doing just because she was overweight. I know plenty of skinny people that eat that way themselves...yet you probably wouldnt have noticed because they are skinny. While I would not have made the same choice as that lady, I dont think that it is up to you to judge her actions. If there is one thing I have learned from going to Weight Watchers for 6 months it is that there are actually a lot of people out there who truly have no idea about calorie contents of foods and what healthy food choices to make. I also now look at what others eat when I am eating with them and have discovered that the skinnier my friends are, the more unhealthy their food choices tend to be...I actually visited one friend recently who had not a single fruit or vegetable in the entire house, but it wasnt too hard to find 7 or 8 boxes of candy.

quote:<HR>Originally posted by standophish:
I guess I find it hard to believe that obese people (almost all of whom claim they've "tried everything" to lose weight) can't/won't bother to read the calorie count on foods.

The full-sugar soda is what gets me. It's not unreasonable to assume that perhaps this lady drinks two of them per day. That's 500 calories per day that she could cut out simply by switching to the diet version. 500 cals/day = 3,500 cals/week, = 1 pound's worth of calories not eaten. EVERY SINGLE WEEK!
<HR>

Point taken, but again, I think it's a matter of habit and perception, also a certain amount of denial... and while weight isn't an issue for me, I'll notice that kind of denial elsewhere and need to watch it.

Honestly, I figure everyone's in charge of her/his own eating habits, for better or worse. If someone asks me what I think is a better choice, I'll tell them, but if they don't ask, it's up to them what they do.

Interesting though that the "battle of the bulge" can sometimes turn into a "battle against people with bulges." I think that both sides maybe feel threatened by each other in some way. Someone I knew a long time ago would tell me that of course I was thin, that genetically I had thinner parents, and I was just luckier. I remember feeling annoyed by this b/c she seemed to give me no credit for all the workouts and running I did. I admired at the same time her academic and professional achievements, but sometimes I was tempted to say, "of course you're a high achiever intellectually... you have smart parents." But I didn't. I had a feeling she'd take issue if I did, and it didn't seem worth fighting over it.

Also because I have friends with weight issues, I see things from their perspective too--the hurt that comes when they hear nasty comments about their weight and the putdowns. People defend against these, granted, in ways that hurt them more--with food.

It's hard sometimes for me to understand but I feel too that it's better to come to this with compassion more than judgment. At the same time, i think sometimes ppl seem to judge runners and others involved in fitness/sports as just lucky, and dismiss the work that's gone into what we've done, treat the difference as a violation in some way. And so we too feel as much a need to defend ourselves.

Of course, there are people richer and better at things than I am and faster and good for them!

Maybe just listening is the way to go--on both sides.

The problem is that there are "awake" people and "asleep" people--on varying levels of each. The more asleep you are, the more you accept the reality presented to you. Restaurants, food companies have gotten into a cycle of giving larger and larger portions as servings, putting more sugar and salt and **** in their foods to make them tastier, all due to competition. The asleep public just eats what is presented to them by the culture or brainwashing machine if you will. I just returned from Italy. They haven't yet got wrapped up into this bigger portions are better mentality. Every meal had smaller portions, I never saw people walking around drinking soda or coffee.
I saw very few fat people and no one that I would call obese. The problem is waking people up, truly. I feel for the asleep who can't seem to change, they are hypnotized in a way. The more awake you are, the more choice you have. Food providers need to wake up as well to the harm they are doing.

--JJ