So....you're fat.

I don’t understand fat people. Hear me out a little bit before you judge me.

Yes, they’re quite funny in youtube videos and that sort of thing but how and why do they get to that point? I’d like to divide this a little further into fat adults and fat kids.

I was driving home from work the other day and saw a 150lb 10 year old girl in a bikini. That’s wrong on a few levels, but I have a hard time blaming her 100% for her rotund figure. At that age the parents still hold a majority of the responsibility for her health and well being. It’s pretty simple really. If she is gorging herself on pop tarts and ding dongs then stop buying them. It’s not like her fat ass is going to ride a bike to the store and buy more. A similar example: last week I took Sydney to the zoo. We came across another rolly polly girl of maybe 7yrs old. You know the kind, huffing and puffing with the effort of just walking. Her toes pointed out to the sides as she scuff/waddles. And guess what her daddy just bought her? A bag of cotton candy all for her. What a great guy. I think this should fall under some type of neglect or abuse category. You as a parent are subjecting your child to emotional and physical problems, potentially for the rest of their lives.

On the other hand…..if you are an adult, you are responsible for your health, appearance and hygiene. I’m sure there are many cases, lack of education, lazy, depression etc. but I cannot imagine having to live in the bodies of many people I see every day. They can barely get out a sentence without gasping for air or get out of their seat at McDonald’s. How do they get to that point? Is it just a slow and steady progression over time and they don’t notice? Have they been obese for so long that they don’t remember what it’s like no to sweat on relatively cool days?? Does it not bother them to have to ride the scooters at Wal-Mart? How could anyone be content to live in that misery?

I’ve thought about standing in front of Wal-Mart and the Mall doing exit surveys partially to ridicule them but partially to get some understanding too.

“You are obviously quite overweight, at what point do you think you should try to get healthy?”

I’ll admit that it disgusts me and I’ve had to get up and leave a bookstore/coffee shot etc more than once because of the extreme body odor. It’s intentionally committing a long slow suicide. It’s deforming the human body and taxing its systems beyond what they are designed to do. But the big picture is that it is costing all of us in healthcare costs, many of which could easily be prevented. It is creating a lousy image of our country to others – I’ve been in a few lobbies where foreigners have called us fat, lazy Americans –

Education is a large part. I believe that if parents are too lazy and uneducated themselves then we need to replace some of the sex ed and basket weaving in schools with nutrition and diet classes all the way through middle and high schools. We need to have PE classes that require at least an hour of monitored and professionally designed physical activity per day – real activity, not golf, or dodge ball where the fat kids sit out the whole time anyway.

It will take a generation to reverse or slow the trend but we need to do something. Quickly.

On that note. Have a great Friday.

Does anyone here have the new Disturbed CD, Indestructible? I have hinder, 3 days grace, the other 3 disturbed cds, rob zombie, saliva, papa roach, poets and pornstars, cinder road, evanescence, hoobastank and puddle of mud here on my work computer and I could trade a few of them for it. Thanks.