Our Absurd Fear of Fat

[Kalidurga]

64. I don't fear fat...

Currently I am obese and losing weight. But, weight loss isn't my goal. It was actually an accident. It started when I gave up meat. Which was also not my idea, it was my youngest daughters and I was like what the heck, it's a new year (last new year's) and I quit my job and I am starting school again so yeah more stress yay. Anyway it turned out to not be stressful at all at least at first then I noticed that meat is everywhere and it's not always easy to find a vegetarian friendly restaurant. But, I digress. My diet probably wasn't a lot healthier, it's easy to eat unhealthy food no matter whether it includes meat or not. But, my thinking got a lot clearer and I felt marginally better. Then a couple months ago I ran out of food except for a container of oatmeal my daughter left behind when she went to college. So, I ate that and I would like to say that it was an instant cure it wasn't but pretty close. After a couple of days I noticed that my mood was a lot better, a few weeks later my joints felt better, a few weeks after that IBS symptoms vastly improved, a month later I can get into pants that I had gotten to big for.

So, in just a couple of months most of symptoms that I have had that have been bothering me have started to clear up. I am still fatigued, but I feel like I can focus a lot easier than I have been. I am more flexible. I do hope to continue to lose weight, but it's never going to be the main focus for me. I mostly want more energy and to be healthier. I don't care what people think of me and people mostly don't treat me badly for my weight. Even in high school when I was teased it wasn't because of my weight (mostly) and I was pretty big even then. I can remember two incidents that were directly because of my weight, I pouted about that for a month or two and stopped associated with those people and I felt better. I don't hang with shallow people. So anyway, not really worried about people abusing me when I go for walks my middle finger still works fine.

All that being said. I think people who are 19 to 20 pounds overweight can be healthy and people that are normal weight can be just as unhealthy as someone who is obese. It's a complicated issue, but I have seen what normal people eat and I have seen a lot of pretty lazy normal weight people. I can't believe that someone can eat junk food all day will be healthy they might be ok in the short term but long term probably not even if their weight doesn't go up. I would never recommend someone in my weight category do nothing about their health. I doubt it's healthy for anyone to be morbidly obese. But, I wouldn't tell them to focus on losing weight either. It's a symptom of other problems probably more pressing. Problems like insomnia and a poor diet. There are probably other issues as well. I would focus on those things urge them to get more sleep and eat more fresh food, less meat or eliminate it altogether, eat more fiber, drink more water, exercise if you can even if it's sitting down and bopping to some tunes. Just move more and eat better food don't focus on calories focus on eating quality foods and eat a lot less sugary processed foods.

Sorry for the ramble but, I am really tired of the focus of the problem being on pounds and calories and how people look. There are a lot of different body types and it's very difficult to pin down someone's ideal weight. It is not however, difficult to pin down what healthy vital signs are or what is healthy to eat and what is not.