Poor example

Oh. My. Word.  I thought this was a joke at first, but I don't think it is. 

How does someone get to be 42 years old believing that being morbidly obese is not only a good thing, but something to be aimed at, an achievement?

The article, for those of you who can't be arsed to read it, says that she weighed 520lbs when she had her daughter (which in itself raises questions I don't want answers to), now weighs 600lbs, and is aiming to weigh 1,000lbs so she can break the world record for being fat. 

"She runs her own website where people pay to watch her eat, or see her wash her huge body. "  Nice.

I could run a website where people pay to watch me eat.  Or doing the ironing.  Or cleaning the windows.  Hot steamy domestic goddess action.  Not sure I'd make much money though. 

Apparently her website* makes enough to cover her weekly food bills. 

I'm trying to understand what she thinks she is doing.  She has a young daughter and a teenage son, she must know that by continuing with this she will probably reduce her life expectancy.  Is she so stupid that she thinks she will break the Fattest Woman Ever record, then magically get thinner so she can have a normal life again? 

Who's going to pay her inevitable medical bills?  Is this self-inflicted injury? Would medical insurance cover it?  I have no idea.  Diabetes, heart disease, arthritits.  All that fun stuff is pretty much guaranteed if she stays that size for very long.

I know I sound like a size fascist, but really.  Christ on a bike. 

I remember seeing  an archive photo from the 1920s or maybe 1930s.  Depression era, anyway.  It showed a "Fat Family" at a carnival.  A mother, father and teenage son, all plump, relaxed, smiling for the camera.  A crowd of onlooked stood looking at them. 

What was striking was that the fat people in the picture looked like "normal" people to me.  You see fatter people walking round town any day of the week nowadays.  The striking thing about the picture was how thin the people in the crowd were.  Sharp cheekbones and clothes hanging off them. 

Times have changed.





*There wasn't a link to it from the Telegraph article.  I looked.

Too much to swallow

I know articles like this are put in the press precisely to engender reaction, but really.

How can anyone claim that they don't know how to lose weight? Eat less, move around more.

It's hardly rocket science.

Actually achieving weight loss is hard, as I well know, but to bleat that you "don't know how to do it" is a sack of arse.

Of course, it is much easier to sit back and bemoan your lack of knowledge than to actually do something about it, like read a book, or talk to a dietician, or use the internet to look up "weight loss" or "healthy eating on a budget".

Presumably, as 24-stone papa is diabetic he will have access to a specialist dietician who could provide things like healthy eating guidelines, lists of foods to avoid, maybe even recipes for suitable meals?

"We have cereal for breakfast, bacon butties for lunch and microwave pies with mashed potato or chips for dinner," says 24-stone mama.

Hmm...I'm no dietician but I can see that stuffing your fat faces with bacon, chips and pies every day is not going to do you any favours. Apparently healthy food is too expensive. Depends how much you eat, I suppose.

I gave their situation a few moments thought, and have some suggestions for them:

Try making jacket potatoes instead of chips. Same quantity, less fat, more fibre. A small improvement which won't cost a fortune.

Try making tuna sandwiches instead of bacon, or even (if you're brave enough to experiment) beans on toast. Again, low fat, high fibre, low cost.

Try buying some apples, chopping them up, and adding them to your breakfast cereal to reduce the volume of processed food and increasing your vitamin intake.

None of them seem to have much to do all day, so they have time to get an allotment and grow some fruit and veg if they want to. Exercise, fresh air, low cost food and spending quality time together.

I should write a book.

I might try using the "too fat to work" excuse next time I can't be bothered doing something tiresome.

"Sorry, I am too fat to load/unload the dishwasher."

"I'd love to peg out the washing, but alas, I am too fat."

"Nope, can't go to the supermarket, I am too fat to push a trolley."

"I'd love to come along to your five-hour legal presentation but, sadly, I am far too fat."

"I am simply too fat to go and weed the garden. Sorry. You can see how it is."

I'm sure everyone will be most understanding.