An observation
Okay, sure there's plenty of stuff I could be posting about, but for now, I just want to drop off an observation that's been kicking around my head lately. So, for the past...well, more than a year now I've been on a restricted diet to try to help my arthritis/weirdo immune issues. Nothing in the belladonna family, no tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, chayote, and various other new world fruits like ground cherry that don't bear listing as they aren't common in my area.
Anyway! For the vast most part, people's reaction to my diet is something along the lines of 'man, that sucks to be you, I could never do that, if it were me I'd just live with it and let my joints go. It's not worth it.' And jokingly (about the really strict ones with no gluten) 'If I had to have one of those diets? I'd just go ahead and die.' AND YET, this being said, again, for the vast most part, people have a really negative perception of morbidly obese people. Those same people will say 'I could never let myself get that big. If it were me, I'd stop at X weight and then I'd get serious about losing. How can they stand looking like that?' But even more than that, people are very frequently supportive of not just medical weight loss, but weight loss for cosmetic reasons. If the person is totally healthy, BMI is okay, but they want to look thinner so they look more attractive, as long as they're not getting down into stick and bones territory, most people are okay with that. If the person just looks a little thick. So basically, cosmetic fat is actually considered worse than a medical problem that causes physical discomfort. People are more okay with someone losing weight to alter their appearance than they are for a medical issue. And frankly, I think a calorie restricted diet is much worse than an item restricted one. I can still eat deserts. I don't have to go to sleep hungry. But people look at it and they think they couldn't do it. They're also generally less supportive, like at restaurants they'll be like, 'oh right, you can't have that, sucks to be you!'. I've never heard anyone say that to a fat person on a diet. Everyone falls all over themselves to congratulate them. Nobody is at a restaurant and says to a 350 lb woman ordering soup, 'man, I couldn't live without pizza, if it were me, I'd just eat 4 slices at a time and be fat'.
Finally, the other thing I've decided, is that when most people look at some really fat 400 lb person on a scooter cart, and tell themselves they could never be fat, they are lying liar pantses. Most people actually have piss poor self control. I think they want to think they would never do that, but when they're confronted with someone like me or some other non-hugely obese person with a medical issue, they can actually identify with us. They could see themselves having a medical issue. And when they picture that being them, they think, oh, I couldn't actually do that. And, most people don't. For their heart, their cholesterol, for the 25 extra lbs, most people just don't. Yeah, there's definitely some people who are fat cause they're compulsive over-eaters, you see them loading up the cart with piles of chips and candy and soda, they can eat a whole pizza at one go. But there's a lot more for whom heaviness is just genetic, and looking at the crap a lot of thin people eat, I'm pretty sure if they lost that genetic lottery they'd be the ones getting fat instead. However, it still seems like society still attaches these positive characteristic labels to thin people. Like they're more self-disciplined than fat people. And after more than a year on a diet I think I say, no, no they're not. Like how people will say 'I'm a man trapped in a woman's body!' I think a lot of thin people are fat people on the inside, their body just isn't displaying it yet. And they're not understanding of my diet, dammit.
/tired, disjointed nonsensical rant over
Anyway! For the vast most part, people's reaction to my diet is something along the lines of 'man, that sucks to be you, I could never do that, if it were me I'd just live with it and let my joints go. It's not worth it.' And jokingly (about the really strict ones with no gluten) 'If I had to have one of those diets? I'd just go ahead and die.' AND YET, this being said, again, for the vast most part, people have a really negative perception of morbidly obese people. Those same people will say 'I could never let myself get that big. If it were me, I'd stop at X weight and then I'd get serious about losing. How can they stand looking like that?' But even more than that, people are very frequently supportive of not just medical weight loss, but weight loss for cosmetic reasons. If the person is totally healthy, BMI is okay, but they want to look thinner so they look more attractive, as long as they're not getting down into stick and bones territory, most people are okay with that. If the person just looks a little thick. So basically, cosmetic fat is actually considered worse than a medical problem that causes physical discomfort. People are more okay with someone losing weight to alter their appearance than they are for a medical issue. And frankly, I think a calorie restricted diet is much worse than an item restricted one. I can still eat deserts. I don't have to go to sleep hungry. But people look at it and they think they couldn't do it. They're also generally less supportive, like at restaurants they'll be like, 'oh right, you can't have that, sucks to be you!'. I've never heard anyone say that to a fat person on a diet. Everyone falls all over themselves to congratulate them. Nobody is at a restaurant and says to a 350 lb woman ordering soup, 'man, I couldn't live without pizza, if it were me, I'd just eat 4 slices at a time and be fat'.
Finally, the other thing I've decided, is that when most people look at some really fat 400 lb person on a scooter cart, and tell themselves they could never be fat, they are lying liar pantses. Most people actually have piss poor self control. I think they want to think they would never do that, but when they're confronted with someone like me or some other non-hugely obese person with a medical issue, they can actually identify with us. They could see themselves having a medical issue. And when they picture that being them, they think, oh, I couldn't actually do that. And, most people don't. For their heart, their cholesterol, for the 25 extra lbs, most people just don't. Yeah, there's definitely some people who are fat cause they're compulsive over-eaters, you see them loading up the cart with piles of chips and candy and soda, they can eat a whole pizza at one go. But there's a lot more for whom heaviness is just genetic, and looking at the crap a lot of thin people eat, I'm pretty sure if they lost that genetic lottery they'd be the ones getting fat instead. However, it still seems like society still attaches these positive characteristic labels to thin people. Like they're more self-disciplined than fat people. And after more than a year on a diet I think I say, no, no they're not. Like how people will say 'I'm a man trapped in a woman's body!' I think a lot of thin people are fat people on the inside, their body just isn't displaying it yet. And they're not understanding of my diet, dammit.
/tired, disjointed nonsensical rant over