Dear ,
This is the story of my life. My husband calls me the Boundary-Crossing Queen, (As in oops! Was that too much?! There I go again! Leading to lively discussions on the ride home from wherever we've been). This is preferable to being called an addictive personality-I think. For example, I love, yet abhor getting edible gifts because I'll nibble the entire basket away. I always say that giving a middle-aged woman like me food gifts is like giving bottles of booze to an alcoholic. My husband on the other hand can leave a box of homemade chocolate-dipped pretzels on top of the fridge-in full view! for a month, having one per week. His self-control is extremely irksome. Not gaining weight for me means avoiding land minds every where I go. A party? Avoid the alcohol, skip the fried appetizers, dodge the bowl of beer nuts, refuse seconds. Otherwise I wake up 4 ell-bees heavier. Going out to dinner? I battle(sometimes) to banish the bread basket which is hard with three teens and a restrained husband and don't even think about butter as well as the dressing should be on the side and leave quickly so you aren't tempted by that Creme Brulee. Even Back-To-School and after-church Coffee events and are laden with muffins that might as well be hand grenades and donuts holes that double as bullets.
THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T LOOSE WEIGHT, PEOPLE!
It's too hard. Even when we journal and plan and clean out our own kitchen, we still have to go out in the real world and live with the bagels, which, in all stores are now officially the serving-size equal to 7 slices of bread. The real world is filled with the ammunition, delicious though it is, that it takes to become obese.
Last week, I spoke of embarking on a massive health-kick where EVERYONE commits to getting to a healthy weight. This challenge is NOT moderate. It would be similar to when we passed state-wide, then country-wide laws for wearing seat belts.
Sure, some people don't want to give up their T-Bone steaks and the 7th glass of Budweiser but just like my old roommate Amy, who used to rant about how it was an infringement on her freedom to be forced to wear a seat belt and isn't it one step away from Socialism to force her to wear one. Then just last year she was in a car accident in which her toddler and her sister could've been killed without their seat belt. She doesn't complain about seat belts anymore and she wouldn't think of not strapping in her child. Yet I look around and see more obese children everyday than the number I saw during the entire span of my childhood! And I know it's a sensitive topic but these people who seem content at a heavy weight may complain at first but anyone who's been fat and then been svelte knows that being svelte feels better. Otherwise The Biggest Loser wouldn't have people clammering to be a contestant nor would it be one of the most highly rated shows on American TV. Losing weight and maintaining close to your ideal weight not only feels better, it gives you more energy and makes room in your (now longer)life for better things. Losing weight could be an even more remarkable, successful method for saving lives than wearing seat belts, we just can't see the results as immediately.
We could do an Americanized version of what Japan did last year when their health care costs started skyrocketing due to the introduction of McDonald's and other American fast food. It is a crazy extreme, but Japan made anyone between the ages of 40 and 74 years old shrink their waist size to between 33.5 and 35.5 inches (women had similarly adjusted thresholds) Everyone's waist was measured. Then dieting guidance was given if needed and if after a certain length of time they didn't lose weight, they were steered toward further re-education. The Japanese government is imposing financial penalties on companies and local governments that fail to meet specific targets. It's crazy but it does have science behind it (and me).
The average waist size for American men is 39 inches, a full inch lower than the 40-inch threshold established by the International Diabetes Federation. American women are even worse, with an average waist size of 36.5 inches, about two inches above the Diabetes-alert threshold of 34.6 inches.
How would we do it? Watching the Dr. Oz Show could help. We'd have to have parties where we pass healthy appetizers and wine-spritzers as the only offerings. We'd HAVE to nix all sodas. We'd offer fresh fruit slices and crudites with low-fat dip at the PTA coffees. We'd demand that bagel shops shrink their bagels, that restaurants exchange the bread basket for celery and carrot slices and that their offerings eliminate saturated and trans fats as well as additional sugar. I bet they could figure out new ways (or remember old ways) to make food taste good! Who'd be upset? Our fat children?? Another question is would it still taste as yummy? Maybe not to such a decadent degree since fat is the ultimate flavor enhancer, but we'd all adjust, even the most spoiled of our kids. It could still be delicious and we could still feel satisfied and the small diminishment in flavor can be easily worth it by how much better we all feel. And look.
I know this sounds like a crazy idea but I think it's a crazy idea who's time has come. But then again I've never been one to make moderate suggestions.
Call me crazy.
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