Sunday 4 July 2010

Fatties Should Suffer!

I have a defective metabolism, a contented body. It's so sluggish that it can maintain my weight easily. No matter how active I am, in doesn't recognise it. It's kaput. It's broken in a way that a fuel gauge might be. You can fill the tank with petrol but the gauge still registers empty.

OK, sounds like an excuse? Yes, I told myself that. However, for a while now I have had a determination to change my life. Those of you who read here will know that I don't favour starvation or cranky diets. I don't embark on them preferring instead to choose what I eat and to allow my body foods which are nutritious and mainly unprocessed, packing vitamins, minerals, fibre etc.

Now, given for the last 23 years - ie: before it became the thing to do - I have been looking at food labels and reading about nutrition because I gave birth to two children with severe health problems, I know what the experts are saying, or at least I know how the experts change their minds every few months or so, as to what we should eat and what's BAD for us. When I was younger, fat was enemy number one. So all diets cut out fatty foods. Then nutritionists and dietitians or those wanting to get rich quick by creating faddy diets told us carbs were bad and  fruits were bad. Natural fruit sugars became a no-no. Others said whole grains and foods with low glycaemic values (the GI diet) were good, some recommended giving up all carbs but stuffing ourselves with full fat fresh cream...The diet bandwagon took off and celebrities made their own exercise DVDs. Weren't we lucky people CARED so much? We all had to go for the burn. Thanks Jane Fonda.

Then of course began the rise and rise of 'Fatties are the Scourge of the Earth" TV programmes. Yes, being fat isn't healthy...but those with an eye to making a fast buck decided programmes about them would draw the viewers, and they did. They started off in an interesting and gentle 'we can show you the way' form and gradually progressed to boot-camps where screaming harpies would insist fat people just weren't trying and that they could all run and run. Those with a military bent would devise keep-fit programmes designed to ensure that the enormous people locked away with only each other, TV cameras and fitness instructors with cattle prods to keep them company would exercise like they had never exercised before. They'd drink smoothies and have tiny portions of wierd foods. All good for viewing consumption, EXCEPT....the easily manipulated viewer is led to believe that THIS is the way forward. This is what all fatties should be doing. We all have to become runners.

They can fuck right off.

Bugger...I was just getting going. Have to stop. I'll write more tonight.. Gotta shower...going out in a short while, to walk and walk and walk...and see no weight change.

'Laters'....as the young folk say.

3 comments:

  1. Grump:
    I am so chuckling to myself...I owned a Jane Fonda exercise video "...now drive the big truck." And I thought I was fat in the eighties when I weighed 80 lbs less. I guess it's all perspective.

    ATIM.

    Jo

    ReplyDelete
  2. If I took off running right now I would not get very far! I'm too overweight too out of shape and I would probably have a heart attack.
    I know how you feel about NO metabolism or whatever it is that keeps us from losing weight. I lose and gain the same 2-3 lbs. I can't seem to get anywhere! Ugh!
    Good blog post!
    Kelly

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had the Jane Fonda vid too "Hot cross buns!" which I used after my first pregnancy. There was a really funny bloke with a beard and headband in the background who always cracked me up.

    Then I did Carol Vordemann's detox diet, which I raved about at the time because I lost some weight with it. Totally unsustainable though, I put the lot (plus more) back on. I quite liked Carol V till she started pedalling naff diets.

    I remember a previous post you did about when fatties suddenly go crazy about exercise themselves, and turn in to overnight fitness fanatics, which set me off thinking. I can see how some might replace one obsession with another, but exercising like crazy doesn't float my boat. It's also like a self-inflicted punishment. Either we're punishing ourselves, or other people do it for us. The fatty must pay penance! I'd settle for just being able to lose weight, in a sensible way - and allowing myself to enjoy life at last. Boot camp does not appeal.

    ReplyDelete