We're too fat! Give us more money!

[RecoveringKinkoid]

See, Admin, with respect, you're kind of who I mean with my Reason #1 (I am not busting on you, but you kind of make my point for me. )

You are trying to eat healthy, and I applaud you for it. You say you eat a lot of pasta and load it up with veggies and feel like it's healthy. Because that's what has been drilled into your head.

It's not, though. If you imagine that pile of veggie-strewn pasta as a pile of veggie-strewn refined white sugar, it suddenly doesn't look so healthy. And to your body, that's pretty much what it is and that's how it's going to get processed.

And, as Greenday correctly points out, you eat it for supper and then sleep away all that energy. It turns to fat. The lack of fat and protien in that meal means you dont' have anything to stabelize your blood sugar and your insulin levels. You wake up hungry and craving more carbs. It's a vicious cycle.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I would be the last person to state that all overweight people are greedy and lazy; I used to suffer from compulsive eating disorder and it took me ages to get over that.

However, just cuz you are not lazy and greedy does not mean that every single obese person is the same way. Why not call a spade a spade? This family IS lazy and greedy; they want to grab more benefit cuz they can't get off their arses and go and find work. They don't deserve help until they're willing to help themselves.

I believe that finding excuses for everything is just as damaging as lumping everyone together and sticking a label on them.

[Boozy]

I believe that finding excuses for everything is just as damaging as lumping everyone together and sticking a label on them.

I completely agree. Finding excuses just infantilizes grown adults.

It *is* hard to lose weight. It *is* hard to learn to eat well if you've been raised to eat differently. But overweight people who are serious about losing weight will find a way to do so. Obese people are not children, and I think it can be insulting and disrespectful to treat them as such.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Look at this man: http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/diet....vak/index.html Instead of sitting around, complaining about being fat and demanding money, he chose instead to make an effort to lose the poundage. I don't believe that the Chawner family couldn't do likewise, if they put in a similar effort. They just don't want to. They'd rather play the victim and live off benefits.

[AdminAssistant]

It's not, though. If you imagine that pile of veggie-strewn pasta as a pile of veggie-strewn refined white sugar, it suddenly doesn't look so healthy. And to your body, that's pretty much what it is and that's how it's going to get processed.

Erm..well...I do use whole wheat pasta, if that counts for anything. *sigh*

[Seshat]

It could also be that they eat too much fattening food because fattening foods taste good, and they find watching TV is more enjoyable than jogging.

It IS more fun to lay around on the sofa and watch TV than is to run a treadmill or do sit ups. I freely admit that is probably true for most people, including myself.

Yes, high-energy food is more appealing, and yes, that's because a densely calorific meal is pro-survival.

But frankly, throwing frisbees and flying kites can be a lot more fun than watching TV. Exercise doesn't have to be treadmills and situps, and if it is, that's a huge part of the problem.

Exercise should be walking the dog, throwing frisbees, walking along a pretty path, flying kites, playing on swings, playing volleyball, grabbing a couple of badminton raquets and laughing at how bad you are at it.

And our cities should be designed to encourage that. Small, safe parks an easy, safe walking distance from every home. Small shopping areas - just large enough for a convenience store, newsagent, and maybe a dentist or doctor - an easy, safe walking distance from every home.

I can't stand swimming laps in a pool: but I'll happily burn just as much energy throwing sinking pool toys into the pool over my head then swimming around trying to find them. And I'll enjoy it, love it. It's FUN!

I hate the idea that exercise is 'supposed' to be about treadmills and situps and swimming laps. It sounds DULL. It sounds boring as hell. Make exercise into play!

I believe that finding excuses for everything is just as damaging as lumping everyone together and sticking a label on them.

I don't want to find excuses, I want to find reasons. Once we have reasons, we can fix them.

We've found the reasons for my own weight issues. Pain and disease. And I'm working on the pain and disease, and crossing our fingers that solving those will make exercise easier. And sorting out the pain should reduce the comfort-eating.

But that's just one person. For a whole society, there's more to sort out.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Seshat, I could not have said it better. You are so right.

As for my own part, my "reasons" for lack of excersise WERE that I had taken a desk job, and once I got home with the baby from daycare, got supper going, picked up, and got her down for bed, I lacked the time and energy to do much else. That's probably the case for most people. I used to get plenty of exercise during the day at my various jobs of waiting tables, working at Kinko's, or public TV building sets and unloading trucks.

Also, I fenced once a week (at least), gardened, hiked on the weekends, etc.

When you get exercise, you have more energy. So I'd work in some free weights in the evening. It's very hard to jump start yourself. Once you do, it's not that hard, but getting started is really tough.

Now? No time. No energy. I lay on the sofa for an hour a couple times a week with the husband and watch an hours worth of TV if I'm lucky, the whole time thinking as I lay there "I could be doing some weights while I'm watching."

However, if I have the energy to do weights, I'm usually doing iroing instead.

Our lives as a society are way, way too slavish. And it's killing us.

Since I got laid off, I"m trying to find ways to get myself back in shape. I'm not fat, but I am more out of shape than I've ever been.

[Fire_on_High]

Not that I live off Thai green curry, or anything...

Rapscallion

So how many times has the chemical warfare unit been called out to your place? :-)

[Rapscallion]

Only twice today. Slow night.

Rapscallion