Re: This country is dying a slow and painful death health wise.
I would like to offer another perspective alongside 55’s. Mine is going to be more of a personal story about me rather than a generalization about “stupid Americans”, but I hope it brings another perspective to the forum.
I grew up overweight for as long as I can remember. As a child I was extremely self-conscious and hated the way I looked. My mother and sister were also overweight (starts at home). I tried all different types of diets with no success. Despite what 55 or others may have you believe, there are people who care and care deeply about how they look. Just as I imagine there are people who wish they could stop smoking because it’s killing them, or people who wish they could stop gambling, because it is tearing their family apart, but for some reason cannot seem to bring themselves to do it. Addictions are very real, and I don’t believe calling people “weak”, “lazy”, “stupid” or bragging about how you did it are necessarily helpful (but that's just my perspective).
Unfortunately, I never saw substantial results from my fad diets and always ended up gaining more weight. Though it seems silly now, I truly believed I couldn’t lose weight (on a deeper level I feel I was just afraid of truly trying and failing).
Finally, one day, I was talking to my friend in medical school and he put it simply… burn more calories than you take in and you’ll lose weight. So I figured if I just go to the gym, I’d be golden. He then corrected me by saying that diet affects weight loss MUCH more than exercise and I’d have to be in the gym for a week to burn off a meal at Burger King, when it’s easier to just eat something else.
Thus began my journey. I figured if I’m miserable dieting, I’m going to be VERY miserable and make sure I get results. I went to the gym all the time, and I cut calories drastically. No more alcohol, no more pop/soda, I ate Subway pretty much everyday, and I lost over 80 lbs relatively quickly. I slowly increased my calories and leveled out. I’m now around 6’ 175 lbs and have maintained this weight ever since by being calorie conscious.
I feel like a different person now. I’m comfortable in my own skin, and look and feel SO much better. It affects every aspect of my life from clothes shopping, to my energy, to my confidence, to how girls or interviewers respond to me (though that may be due to confidence as well). My life is just completely different. I guess the point of my rant is to say that I can’t pretend to know why it is that people make the choices they do. Some may not be as well informed as you think, some may have bad habits/ addictions (and you can’t quit food cold turkey), some don’t believe they can lose weight, some just don't know where to begin, and hell some might truly not care about how they look. All I know is I've wanted this for as long as I can remember and it wasn't until fairly recently that I was able to do it. It was probably a myriad of factors that got me to this point of being ready to make a drastic change, but it's something I've always wanted and cared deeply about.
On a related note, I usually find that people who are overly condescending/judgmental tend to be masking a lot of their own insecurities. I can understand being pissed at a parent for essentially poisoning their children, or being sad for the state our country is in (it saddens me too, because I've been there), or being upset at schools for their part in all of this. However, the overly condescending, judgmental, attacking, remarks sadden me just as much because we all have things we could improve on. Something to sit with and think about I guess.
Sorry about the length.
I would like to offer another perspective alongside 55’s. Mine is going to be more of a personal story about me rather than a generalization about “stupid Americans”, but I hope it brings another perspective to the forum.
I grew up overweight for as long as I can remember. As a child I was extremely self-conscious and hated the way I looked. My mother and sister were also overweight (starts at home). I tried all different types of diets with no success. Despite what 55 or others may have you believe, there are people who care and care deeply about how they look. Just as I imagine there are people who wish they could stop smoking because it’s killing them, or people who wish they could stop gambling, because it is tearing their family apart, but for some reason cannot seem to bring themselves to do it. Addictions are very real, and I don’t believe calling people “weak”, “lazy”, “stupid” or bragging about how you did it are necessarily helpful (but that's just my perspective).
Unfortunately, I never saw substantial results from my fad diets and always ended up gaining more weight. Though it seems silly now, I truly believed I couldn’t lose weight (on a deeper level I feel I was just afraid of truly trying and failing).
Finally, one day, I was talking to my friend in medical school and he put it simply… burn more calories than you take in and you’ll lose weight. So I figured if I just go to the gym, I’d be golden. He then corrected me by saying that diet affects weight loss MUCH more than exercise and I’d have to be in the gym for a week to burn off a meal at Burger King, when it’s easier to just eat something else.
Thus began my journey. I figured if I’m miserable dieting, I’m going to be VERY miserable and make sure I get results. I went to the gym all the time, and I cut calories drastically. No more alcohol, no more pop/soda, I ate Subway pretty much everyday, and I lost over 80 lbs relatively quickly. I slowly increased my calories and leveled out. I’m now around 6’ 175 lbs and have maintained this weight ever since by being calorie conscious.
I feel like a different person now. I’m comfortable in my own skin, and look and feel SO much better. It affects every aspect of my life from clothes shopping, to my energy, to my confidence, to how girls or interviewers respond to me (though that may be due to confidence as well). My life is just completely different. I guess the point of my rant is to say that I can’t pretend to know why it is that people make the choices they do. Some may not be as well informed as you think, some may have bad habits/ addictions (and you can’t quit food cold turkey), some don’t believe they can lose weight, some just don't know where to begin, and hell some might truly not care about how they look. All I know is I've wanted this for as long as I can remember and it wasn't until fairly recently that I was able to do it. It was probably a myriad of factors that got me to this point of being ready to make a drastic change, but it's something I've always wanted and cared deeply about.
On a related note, I usually find that people who are overly condescending/judgmental tend to be masking a lot of their own insecurities. I can understand being pissed at a parent for essentially poisoning their children, or being sad for the state our country is in (it saddens me too, because I've been there), or being upset at schools for their part in all of this. However, the overly condescending, judgmental, attacking, remarks sadden me just as much because we all have things we could improve on. Something to sit with and think about I guess.
Sorry about the length.
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