"Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of fucking fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life..." -- Trainspotting
I'm about to throw myself into controversial waters here, I'm sure. I'm happy for people to disagree with me, even to articulate why they disagree with me (as long as it's done intelligently and with no insults), I have one request, though. I beg that you read through the entire entry before you start firing off comments or emails.
Here goes.
As far as I'm concerned, obesity is not a medical condition.
It's a choice.
Still with me? Good. Here's why.
Now, I 100% acknowledge that some medical conditions result in obesity. It's a symptom of that condition. But obesity is NOT a medical condition on its own.
Obesity is a symptom of our choice to make poor nutritional and fitness decisions.
People make a choice to eat food with poor nutritional value or choose to eat too much or choose not to exercise. It is a choice. You chose that behaviour. You did it to yourself.
Before you get hot under the collar, I'm one of you. I chose to eat more food than I needed. I chose not to exercise. I turned into a 100kg heifer. I didn't like that, so I chose something different.
I'm not saying anyone goes around thinking, "I think I'm going to inhale an Olympic-sized swimming pool full of French Fries and become a heifer from hell." It's not a deliberate, conscious, rational act. It's not a good or smart choice. But we choose to go through the drive-through at McDonalds and we choose to super-size it and we choose to eat it. We choose to make poor decisions over and over again and suddenly we find ourselves fat and unhappy.
Nobody holds a gun to your head to force you to eat poorly or too much or sit on the couch all day. You choose that.
People can whine about advertising influencing them to eat the wrong foods, but at the end of the day, it's still your choice to eat it or not.
We make excuses because nobody wants to face the real truth. We do this to ourselves. Nobody forces those Krispy Kremes down our throats.
This abdication of responsibility appals me. Trying to make obesity a medical condition so that people can abdicate all responsibility for creating their own situation upsets me. There are genuinely ill people out there who need medical treatment. People who's health conditions are not necessarily the result of poor nutritional decision-making.
If anything about obesity needs treatment, it's the reasons people choose to do this to themselves. Why do we medicate ourselves with food? Why do we neglect our health? These are the causes of the problem. This is what needs treating, not the symptom.
We need to examine our choices. Why did we choose to do something that is clearly not healthy and doesn't necessarily make us happy? Why did I choose to use food as something other than fuel?
Once we understand what influenced us to make these choices and resolve those issues, then making poor nutritional or fitness choices will be less of a problem.
It's something I'm still struggling with. It might be something I always struggle with. But it's up to me to take responsibility for what I've done to my body—for whatever reason I did it—and do something about it.
That's why I'm here.
AMEN SISTA!!!
I'm glad you are a thoughtful and intelligent person, or that rant might have come out as cruel and ignorant :P
Thank you for telling it in a way that is empowering rather than deriding.
It needs to be said, more often and more loudly, so people can start to act instead of continuing with a habit that is so easy to change (theoretically at least)!
I absolutely agree. No one is responsible for my obesity but me. And this is a good thing! It means that I am perfectly able to change.
I don't normally comment, just to say, "I agree...", especially when three others have already done so.
But, I have felt strongly about this for a long time. When people get fat, then blame everyone and everything BUT themselves, it makes me want to shove that donut up their nose.
If you're HAPPY being fat, and you don't care that the next apple fritter means you'll be going up another pants size? Power to you. But that doesn't seem to be the case with most people, and I'm just so sick of hearing them whine.
I should add -- I let myself gain 40 lbs. over the course of a year. I've already lost 10 and am working very hard to get the rest off. I'm a small-framed person, so the weight I gained simply didn't fit on my body and it was awkward as hell.
Not simply throwing stones -- I've been there and still am. Working on it each day.
I couldn't agree more! And, I'm tellin' ya, it's been much easier for me to lose weight since I figured that out. A few years ago my doctor put me on pills for my thyroid. I was overjoyed because I made myself believe it was my thyroid, and not the super-sized Quarter Pounder with cheese combos I was eating 3 times a week, that was making me fat. But after I saw the light & started getting (and eating) healthy, everything changed. I don't even have to take the thyroid pills anymore because I jump-started my metabolism so much that my thyroid is functioning normally now.
Anyway, thanks for your post!
Hmmm. Well, I agree for myself (at this point in my life). The choices I made caused me to gain weight. I'm choosing differently now.
But I still have to disagree. I believe that there are other forces at work for some people. I believe that some people use food like alcoholics use alcohol. They're called "compulsive eaters". Yes, you can say they "choose" to use food in that way, but I don't think it's that simple. For whatever reasons, compulsive eaters use food for other than nourishment and pleasure - they use it to deal with emotions. And, yes, they can choose to change their relationship to food, but it's hard. An alcoholic can go cold turkey. A compulsive eater still has to eat.
I also think that obesity can be a Catch-22 for a lot of people (this is why I think people are starting to treat it as a disease). Once you become significantly obese, it can be very hard to reverse the trends (think inability to exercise due to massive size).
I totally agree with everything you said. Just to bring up one teensy differing point, however, I don't agree when it comes to kids. Childhood obesity rates are out of control, parents aren't paying any attention, and in the US, marketing directed at children is essentially unregulated. We adults are to blame for our own state, but for the sake of the children, the culture must be re-examined.
Amen. Amen. Amen.
And hey, I'm an emotional eater. Food is my alchohol or my cocaine. But it's still a choice. I can choose to confront my emotions or I can choose to let myself be ruled by them.
CONGRATULATIONS!
Many online journallers...including often myself....just natter on about their daily events, eating habits and such.
Despite and already overwhelming list of journals that I read daily I just had to add yours to the list when I found you.
It's entries like these that have me pondering the subject for days to come.
You are not only witty and articulate but also a great read!!!!
Keep up the thoughtful entries.....I need the mind food *wink*
Cheers
Paulene
Ahhh you have hit a topic I love fighting with people about!!!
I agree and will make an even more controversial statement.
It's always the people who haven't taken responsibility for themselves that disagree and claim otherwise. Only 2% of Obese people are obese because a medical problem has CONTRIBUTED to it.
I don't think that we choose to be obese - we just choose to eat that chocolate/chips/pizza at that moment right then, and then at subsequent moments and so on until voila, we are obese. Alcoholism is a choice, drug use is a choice, hell why not say being a single mother is a choice (You chose to have sex with a low life pice of scum without 100% contraception). Gout may be a choice (you choose to drink alcohol and have salt on your potatoes..). A stomach ulcer or heart attack is a choice (you didn't choose to relax enough and eat stomach friendly food). Anyway, my point is life IS choices - everyone is equally likely to make bad choices to result in some medical/disadvantaged condition. The govt/health system just has to deal with that - no point in being self-righteous about it.
I am SO GLAD you wrote that post. I totally agree with u and get frustrated when others make excuses or blame something for who they are at this moment. I am always telling people, we all have a choice!!!! and this relates to everything not just food. people need to start taking responsibility for their own actions!!! well done chicky! great to get that out for everyone to read!
*applauds*
Articulate.
Honest.
A woman who takes risks.
I like you.
Be strong, be beautiful and keep pushing that envelope. I love it.
I chose to be morbidly obese. I chose to create an out of control life. Not any more. Glad to be on this journey with you.
Having gained my 22kg in 2 years BECAUSE of a medical condition, I have to say I still agree with you. I am one of a minority who did not gain weight because of poor lifestyle choices. (for all you sceptics, I had my thyroid removed in 2 stages, and because of my stupid uncaring surgeon was on a REALLY low dosage of thyroxine and gaining weight at the sight of a bread roll). BUT, I HATE being fat with a passion, and cant'wait to get back into my healthy weight range so that I am not judged by people by what is a slovenly appearance.
You are so right! Of course you are so right! You are so perfectly correct. No matter what the reason is, and I have to say there is always a good reason, usually an emotional gap, that leads people to extremes, might it be eating, drinking, smoking, drugs, you name it, it is our choice to lower our head and enslave ourselves to it, or stick our tongues out, and fight.
I will be a daily reader from now, and I will read every single word you have written before!
I agree 100%! Thanks for such an awesome post on the topic...
Really must get my printer back up and running so to make copies of posts like this -- copies I can tape to the fridge, etc.
FWIW, I am currently right on the edge of becoming morbidly obese. All because i spent the last two years since my (s)mother's death treating myself every bit as badly as she did. And I did it to myself! All by myself!!!!
You bet I've stopped.
Many years ago I had cancer. The diagnosis came out of the blue, as it often does. I didn't do anything at all to give myself cancer. It was a matter of inheriting the wrong genes. That's all.
Cancer's a scary bastard. Makes obesity look weak and puny. And it never really goes away because, as all survivors now, not only is the risk of recurrence always there, but the risk of having another, even more "interesting" cancer increases. And there's nothing you can do but wait and watch. (Sorry to pop anyone's bubble, but eating your veggies and such will not prevent cancer. It will only lower your personal risk somewhat.)
My point, and I do have one, is that I know the diff between a serious health threat that one creates for oneself and a threat for which one has no personal responsiblity.
And it sounds like you do, too, kiddo. So keep preaching it, 'k?
Can I say "Thank You" for putting my own feelings and thoughts about this issue into words much better than I ever could have?
Thank You.
Served up by Lee at 09:09 on 01|09|04