I wish I had some haberdashery. I always thought it would be so classy.

I don't see how poor people have to eat poorly. Being poor means not having the money for $5+ fast food meals and $20+ pizza deliveries or oceans of soft drinks. Being poor means a lot of canned veggies for less than a dollar each and hamburger meat. Lean is affordable even if your budget is too. It doesn't cost more to strain out the fat either. Chicken is the cheap meat and a good choice low in bad fat. Tap water, less than a 2 liter of Jolt.

Listening to a rather large woman talk to her shopping partner about which ice cream she was going to get at the grocery store tonight got me thinking about this a bit more.


If this was completely true, then a very large portion of this country are suffering from this "affliction". This country is a fat country, there's no doubt about it. It's pounded into us in the media and we're reminded of it every time we step out the front door but I don't think it really has that much to do with the fact that we're addicted to food. I think it more revolves around us being a rather lazy and inactive nation that eats what's convenient instead of what's healthy.

I moved up to NH about three years ago going from painting houses to sitting in front of a computer all day. I put on about 15 pounds in the last three years and I blame it on not being nearly active enough along with a higher than average beer intake. I'd definitely like to be more active but my motivation has been rather lacking. I also try and shop relatively healthy but there's always those impulse buy's that don't play nice with the waste line. All in all, I'm pretty sure if I stopped drinking beer for a month I'd lose 20 pounds.

I also blame much of our laziness on the Internet. We didn't have the epidemic proportion of large people in this country until the Internet went mainstream. Think about it.

OK. I'll bow to the majority opinion and keep my beak shut.

By the way, not that it matters, I was talking about the morbidly obese. Not the 50 lbs overweight, but the 350 pound 5'5 ers.

I've admitted my prejudice and I have thought about it since I wrote the OP. I think I know why I have that prejudice, but I'm not sure.

I've been small most of my life. I'm not quite 5'4" and now weight 122 lbs. When I was in high school, I weighed 98 lbs. When I was married, I weighed 102 lbs. I have small bones and for years wore a 5-5 1/2 shoe. I now wear a size 6.

I got a lot of perks being small. I was able to join the Senior Marching Band in high school when I was a freshman because it only had one other drummer--and I could fit into the only available uniform. I took over the lead in Once Upon a Mattress because I could fit into the existing costumes. I could be a teen-ager in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and Laura in The Glass Menagerie. I was chosen to study ballet for an audition with the ABT because of my size.

So I was centered on size from an early age.

My Mother was short--4'11"--with small bones. But, within my memory, she was always heavy. Not only was she embarrassed by it; but my Father was, also. And I could feel the embarrassment in both of them.

When I first went on my tremor medication, I also started to eat correctly--I mean really correctly--not a diet--and to exercize regularly. I started to lose weight and went back down to 102 lbs. within a year.

Believe me, 102 lbs. on an older woman is ugly--to me. You look like a stick person.

Appearance was stressed in our family--the Colonel's family. My Mother was always after me to get my hair done and wear make-up while I only did that (and still do) for 'special occasions.'

Perhaps these are all reasons for my prejudice. I'm not sure, but I think they make up the bulk of my reasons.

I'm not 'revolted' or 'disgusted' by seeing over-weight young people in too-tight clothing, but I am concerned. We do live in a heavy society when we don't have to. I'm concerned when I see over-weight children, but then, my daughter was always at the upper range for height and the lower range for weight. Now she's at the median for both.

It must be my age and background.

And the ABC Nightly News just confirmed my theory on how lazy we are. A study of one thousand random kidse showed that kids 5 years ago were averaging 3 hours of activity a day. Today, they average 49 minutes.

A lazy bunch we are.

So, what are you doing right now?

Me? Well, I, uh, I'm internetting and it's like really important cause teh internets needs me.

Yep, we are lazy. But there's lazy and then there's lazy. All of us here exercize our minds through the internet. Exercizing your mind is a good thing. Exercizing your body is also a good thing. Eating 'right' and cutting down on portion size while exercizing either your body or your brain, is really, really good.

Is there any study on the number of calories consumed when you exercize your brain?

I've tried to examine a prejudice.

What are yours and why"

I lifted this from a post by CG in the thread "Pre-teen girls - should they be allowed to dress in a sexy way." Thank you, CG. I think Mencken pretty much sums up what I've been trying to say in this thread--America's got no taste. (If it did, what would it taste like?)

I admire people like LilMeep, Windy, Aint and everyone else who are doing what they must in order to be healthy. I don't admire people who, from the contents of their shopping carts, don't seem to care. I'm especially turned off by young people who don't seem to care and who still wear the clothing they wore in high school. You can wear the same style if you so choose, but not the same size.

Let Freedom Ring!