HEY, NC! You’re fat!
North Carolina ranks in the top 10 in obese states, but America itself is in bad shape even down to celebrities who have the opportunity to have chefs and personal trainers still have a hard time keeping a healthy weight such as Oprah Winfrey, Christie Ally, and Monique to name a few.
Being overweight is a struggle that’s so hard and now I’m meeting a lot of people who struggle with the same problem. I tell my story like this. I have a problem. Yes, it is a addiction just like any other. I over eat, I did this to myself, and now I am trying to get myself out of this body. I am also trying to get out of bad health, and into something I can maintain like a healthy weight and a healthy life.
Weight sometimes creeps up on people. Often times it’s assumed, “oh no those clothes were cheap so after a lot of washes they shrunk”, or if you wear a lot of stretch clothes you may be able to still squeeze into them. When you see yourself in a picture or a video that’s when it hit’s and you realize “I have gained weight.”
Keira Peters is a mother, a teacher, and my friend; she recently started weight watchers and has lost 24lbs. I asked her to tell me anything about her struggle, her problem with weight, and how hard it was to finally walk through the door of a place and say help me like an addict?
Keira do you think you’re an addict is the first question that I ask her. She laughs and says yes. I’m trying to get my stomach to shrink so it won’t take so much to fill me up. I have to eat less and right now I’m addicted to over eating. A lot of doctors say it’s a mind thing. There are people who aren’t really over weight in weight watchers as well. People who still over eat or so scared about calories they starve themselves. It’s all about counting calories keira says with a smile. It sounds simple but it can be hard if it were simple people wouldn’t pay weight watchers. I am asking Keira questions that I already know the answer to from my own life, but not all overweight people see it this way. As leave Keira I think about how we sound like addicts hoping that this is the last time in rehab.
Angela hasn’t exercised in years but has lost sixty pounds in three years. She just started to eat like a freak. In fat people terms “healthy” she says to me as she smokes a cigarette” yea I’m still fat”. I just don’t need to lose too much because I’m getting older and my skin is starting to sag. I didn’t have a lot to ask her but I do have a lot to say about her. This is a lady who doesn’t give a damn about food but doesn’t care enough to exercise Angela legs still look so big and heavy. When the rest of her is thin and it’s because she needs to move her ass bottom line. This proves it takes more than healthy food it takes exercise. The most important thing is doing something about the weight.
My mother has been struggling with her weight for years and has tried numerous diets and types of exercise, but the weight keeps creeping back. I, on the opposite end, am trying to keep the weight I’ve got because of a medical condition that causes the nutrients in my food to get absorbed incorrectly. Every time I see my mom try a diet of some sort she’s absolutely miserable and I think to myself “Why does she do that? Why does she have to make herself miserable to fix this problem?” I wonder if maybe that’s the core of this issue of weight: it’s hard to keep everybody happy. The way we look at ourselves, and judge ourselves has become so overly critical that it’s a wonder there’s a such thing as narcissism anymore. How can we possible like ourselves when society tells us there’s this perfect image we have to fit to be liked that no one can possibly measure up to? As you mentioned, even celebrities struggle. I see all those weight loss commercials and I just want to start screaming at the television. If a person is perfectly healthy (and remains so) and is overweight, so what? Why can’t they be happy and hefty, why do we all have to be skinny and miserable?
ReplyDeleteJust once, I want somebody to tell my mom and all the men and women out there like her that it’s okay to be overweight as long as you’re healthy. What’s so wrong with that?
~Diana, from JOU110