If you love cheese, have you tried getting into obscure and strong cheeses. A good cheddar or stilton has a great comforting factor, but is so strong that you are unlikely to eat a great deal of it when getting the comfort you desire. Also get some really healthy crackers to have with the cheese, or else apple and cheese is another fantastic mix. Big changes are very difficult, small changes are the way to go.
Where (roughly) do you live gigi?
I think one of the things that makes weight loss so hard is it’s a very large psychological overhaul for gratification that comes extremely, maddeningly slowly. Personally, I have a lot of trouble with long-term plans in general-- I’m a flighty kind of person who starts a lot of things without finishing them-- and that definitely carries over into weight loss. Yeah, I can sometimes get all excited and almost manic, and go a day or two eating nothing but the healthiest, minimal food or suddenly decide to go on a long jog, but it can’t last just like so many other ‘projects’ I’ve left by the wayside. I have a hunch that a lot of people who don’t understand the struggle of weight loss are the kind of people who easily complete other long, drawn-out, slow-rewarding projects and have no impatience about waiting for results to come when they will. It’s an extremely desirable character trait, but not one that everyone has.
I didn’t want to flame and run, so I’m back to reply to some statements. I was a premature baby, with seizures and migraines. I was born in 1968 which pretty comfortably predates the internet. My mother made the decision to eliminate processed meats, excess sugar and canned foods (due to preservatives) based on keeping a food diary of my migraines. She saw first hand that there was a correllation to my diet and my health. She acted accordingly. I don’t know how much misinformation she was given regarding my health, probably a lot, but she acted pretty scientifically about finding the answer. FWIW, she was a single mother raising two children with no child support. This was NOT the norm at the time and was once thrown into therapy because my parents were DIVORCED! I’m one of the first latch-key kids. I remember being the only child in my class whose parents were divorced. Yet, she found the time, even though she often held multiple jobs. She also was able to make it so we never spent a day in daycare. I bet it would have been much easier for her to do otherwise.
The point I am making is that poverty doesn’t equate with ignorance. You don’t know that fat is essential? My obstetrician was more concerned about my babies FAT than anything else, and stressed to me my whole pregnancy that fat should in no way be eliminated from my diet. We are omnivores, we are designed to eat damn near everything. Eliminating anything completely from your diet is usually bad. Be it salt, fat, carbs, protein. Did you not read what I stated about moderation?
Moderation. Moderation.
Did you see “you are killing your kids” or whatever that show is, where the woman was throwing out garbage bags of candy. She had it stashed all over the house, I would bet she had candy within arms reach of anyone anywhere in the house. That my friend, is not right. Her kids reflected that.
Every person/friend I’ve ever known well enough to know their eating habits without exception fall into two categories. Overeats/Eats Crap=overweight, Eats in moderation=normal weight. Yeah, the chick that thought it was smart to DRINK the gravy at KFC was fat.
It doesn’t take an internet connection, a TV, or a local library. Or even a close grocery. It’s priorities. If a well-balanced healthy diet is your priority, you will have one.
You can routinely get chicken breasts for $1.99lb here.
But we were originally talking about children being overweight. Children who typically have very little control over what the family eats–they can ask, whine, beg, fuss, etc., but the ultimate decision over what they eat and how much is up to the parents. How many posters here have talked about how they struggle with their weight, how much being overweight adversely affects their lives–and we are raising a generation of kids who will face that as adults.
When I was a kid, there were a few overweight kids in my school. Now, there are several in every class. It’s an incredible difference and it’s in every school I’ve been to. It’s a significant percent of the kids on the opposing teams from other towns that my kids play. It’s a disturbing trend because it bodes so ominously for these children’s adult lives. How much harder will it be for them to live a healthy life as an adult if they start it off being fat? And quite a few of these little guys have moved way past chubby into obesity.
I guess my concern is that it wasn’t like that before–what is it that we’re doing now that makes the difference? Is it permissive parents? I think a good portion of the responsiblity has to lie with them. They DO control what their kids eat, or they should.
Wha? You knew someone who thought it was a good idea to DRINK GRAVY? For the love of god, WHY? That sounds so gross!
Having, you know, actually been poor and lived in an environment of generalized poverty and ignorance, I might be able to speak to some of this.
One of the problems of the poor is not so much that they’re lazy – though certainly some are. It’s that most of them don’t have jobs where they’re just sitting behind desks or answering phones. There’s a distinct difference between riding a desk chair and waiting tables, scrubbing floors, stocking shelves, or working a fast-food fryer. Their jobs are usually more physically demanding, so when they get home, they really are exhausted.
And then of course there’s the problem of the job’s benefits itself. Most restaurants offer food as an employee perk – a free meal every day or a discount on their meals. Great if you’re working at a Souper Salads, maybe, but not so great at a McDonald’s. And these aren’t people who can afford to say ‘no’ to a free meal. Believe me, this I know from experience.
There’s a factor here that a lot of people seem to have skimmed right over. Yes, most people know that a salad is more healthy than a McMeal, but the fact is that few of these people grew up with healthy meals, eating fast food when they were kids or – especially where I grew up – eating Southern fried meals, which give a body enough fuel to plow a field from dawn till dusk. Have you ever eaten homemade biscuits and gravy? I could go on that meal all day long – it stays in your stomach like a block of cement.
Add to that the fact that most people never actually learned to cook. Boys tend to think it’s sissy and girl’s work, and a girl will often only learn to cook if her mother is capable and feels like teaching her. You can live very well on beans and rice and corn and green peppers and tomatoes, major staples for poor people down here, but only if you know what to do with them. And unless you’re a good cook – and you can’t be a good cook without practice – the stuff you get from McDonalds and everywhere else just tastes so much better.
There’s a lot to this stuff. I’m not saying that just taking in fewer calories than you use every day and staying physically active is ineffective. But it is easier said than done.
Based on my observations, chronically poor people tend to be lazy.
That’s been my observation, too.
I have many friends and family members who are fat. Come to think of it, I believe *most * are fat. And some are morbidly obese. They all have a few things in common:
- They complain about being fat.
- They claim “diets don’t work for them.” :rolleyes:
- They have horrible horrible diets.
- They stuff their faces with obscene amounts of food at every gathering.
I think we all knew that was coming.
Hell the only thing I took away from PE was a total and utter hatred of sports, but the reasons behind that are a thread in themselves.
And what exactly are your observations? That rude clerk at Wal-Mart who spends most of her time snapping her gum?
Sure, there’s people who are poor because they’re lazy. There’s a lot more hard-working poor, though. It is a very pretty fallacy that anyone in America can do well if they only “put their minds to it” or “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” or “just work really really hard”.
Is this sarcasm? Yeah, there are a lot of factors that can make staying in shape complicated.
Goddammit, what the hell is wrong with Crafter_Man saying a lot of poor people are lazy? You fucking PC people are full of shit! I am a remodeler, and have done a SHITLOAD of work on section 8 housing, and various other low income subsidy type jobs through many contractors who have bid these jobs from the city/county.
I will tell you, yes a lot of poor people are fucking lazy and milking the system. I have worked at low income apts and single family dwellings, and have been around these people for weeks at a time. I have established a rapport with a lot of them during jobs, and I can attest a LOT of them are fucking lazy. They are able-bodied and can work, but a bunch just like to party all fucking day and get the monthly check.
I have turned down crack hits, weed, beer wine and shots during many a work day. I have had MANY flat out tell me “fuck work”!!
I would say, over the years, at least 60% of the “poor” I have done work for were lazy, and that counts a “A LOT”
Yes, not all of them, but more than you holier than thou jerkoffs think, so get off this high horse about these poor, disadvantaged souls, that’s bullshit.
Apologies for the hijack, but that shit is getting old.
And with enough “determination” people should just be able to “snap out of” depression too right?
Diosmo started getting a light bulb moment when she nicely asked another poster about her relationship with food. I wish I could find the post that Manda Jo wrote about pain and the lengths people will go to to avoid it.
NO one is saying “oh, these other factors exist, and therefore it is impossible to lose weight”. We’re saying "if it is as simple as eat less/exercise more (the most useless mantra on earth) then 60% of our country would NOT be overweight. Therefore, there are factors in this obesity epidemic that are NOT being addressed.
If they were, we would not be having this problem. And telling America’s obese “get off your ass and stop eating” obviously is not WORKING. You all know what the definition of insanity is right? If you keep doing the same thing, expecting a different result. Well, the shaming, the blaming and the judging are NOT working to cure this problem.
Talk about simple! This is far more easily (or SHOULD be) understood than the stupid “eat less” mantra.
People! We’ve been villifying fat people and telling them what to do to “get over it and lose weight” for several decades now. And is it working? NO!
Is it not yet piercing the void that perhaps there needs to be SOME other method of curing this problem? We obviously are NOT doing what works (and no, constantly spouting “Damn fat people, it really IS as simple as eat less/exercise more” is not WORKING).
So, do we want to fix it? Or do you just want to be right? If you really and truly want it fixed, open your minds a bit and start understanding that it is much more complicated than simple calories in=calories out.
If you were talking about a machine yeah. We’re not, we’re talking about humans with human emotions and human failings. You can scream “yeah butt!!! they are fat and disgusting and need to stop EATING” until you are blue in the face, and you’ll be technically correct (oh yay :rolleyes: ).
But.
This does not, and WILL not solve the problem.
PERIOD.
That should say “counts AS a lot” in the 4th paragraph.
PS…apologies to DiosoBellisima. That’s what I get for trying to shorten your screenname. 
[ul]I know where you’re coming from, but it’s still up to you to fix the habit []I know some people who don’t like mushrooms. They are very strange.[]Quod scripsi, scripsi[*]Oh well, it’ll disappoint the audience, but I suppose so 
[/ul]
“We” don’t have to do anything to “fix” it. As long as I don’t have to pay for their lack of motivation and laziness, I couldn’t care less if a fat person is fat.
Klaatu:
The liberal elite believe poor people are “disadvantaged,” and are poor through no fault of their own. They’re “victims” of discrimination, Big Business, Evil Republicans, or whatever. But based on my observations of family and acquaintances who have been chronically poor, all of them were lazy, irresponsible, and immature. IMO it is 100% their own fault that they are chronically poor.
Well, in the case of your family, i’m sure you’re right. They do share your genes, after all.