No Calories for You!

I'm interested in just how they plan to enforce this new diet... oops!... I mean "lifestyle". Re-train grocery cashiers to be Food Police so they can arrest a fat person trying to buy some ice cream? Perhaps they could wear giant flashing bananas as hats! They could ask us, voices full of concern for our *health* dontchaknow, "Do you really need that?" And I love this part... "To prevent weight gain, many people should do up to 60 minutes a day of moderate to vigorous activity, and those who have lost weight and want to keep it off may have to do up to 90 minutes..." I can cope (and do)with an hour, but only because I currently stay at home and my children are somewhat self-sufficient. But 90 minutes?? Where exactly are people getting all this time? Is this the same country whose corporate world demands more and more time at the office? Are they planning to add more hours to the day? And what about sleep? Wasn't there a report recently about how not getting enough sleep keeps us fat? I know when I was working, the *last* thing I wanted to do was workout for 60-90 minutes. I have bigger and better priorities... my kids, my marriage, getting everyone's underwear washed, etc. I'm not saying that exercising isn't of any value. It's this idea that if it ain't over a certain amount of time, it's no good that sucks. And, of course, the assumption that if we, as the Great Unwashed Overweight, would just get up off our sofas and exercise, then we would be able to blend in without being such a "blot on the landscape". And wouldn't that make us sooo much happier?? Hmmm... methinks not.

When our government stops lying to us about global warming, stops increasing the acceptable amount of pollution business can omit, stops cutting worker safety and food safety, stops exporting our good jobs overseas, stops experimenting on its own citizens, and discloses EVERY secret that the public has a right to know about, then and only then can it humbly suggest what I am supposed to eat. In the meantime this bozo can sit on his food pyramid!

Meant emit!

At least here they admit that for most people there's a huge time commitment involved in getting and staying thin, instead of the usual "just get off the couch and take a walk, and don't eat an ice cream sundae every day, and you'll be slender in no time" garbage we usually hear. But the noxious idea that we somehow "owe" it to society to NEVER have treats and work out like maniacs ALL THE FREAKING TIME, still persists. WHY do I owe it to them? Couldn't my time be just as well spent, oh, reading? Staying informed? Creating things of value? Even volunteering to scoop the litterboxes at the animal shelter? If everyone's so workout-crazed that nobody ever does any of that stuff, where are we headed as a species?

Apparently, the only place we are supposed to be headed as a species is the gym. We can forget work, friends, family, and life in general as we know it. And while we're forgetting about work, we can also move back in with our parents and forget about paying the rent. Oh, wait, our parents are supposed to be exercising too, because Baby Boomers are gaining weight as they grow older. As Tobey Maguire said in the first Spider-Man movie (I'm paraphrasing just a bit), this guy apparently doesn't live on a planet I like to call Earth.

Emily, it's the Culture of Narcisissm at work. The idea is to keep us all so obsessed with fitness and our bodies that we don't notice global warming or corporate corruption or the burgeoning deficit or "anti-terrorism" legislation that makes a mockery of the Bill of Rights.

Oh, and to keep us spending money. That's the really important bit.

As if the Food Pyramid wasn't screwed up enough already.

Emily and Pseu: More and more people are tuning out the media and its obsession with brainless, anorexic celebrities. Most of us have more important things to think about than Brittany Spears' dysfunctional relationship, such as keeping a job, paying bills, raising kids, and trying to find some meaning and enjoyment in life. My money will not go toward gym memberships, diets, nor to support fat hatred. I only patronize businesses that treat me with respect.

Pseu, you're probably right. This is an election year. Micki, that's good to know. I think it's the nagging principle. If someone nags you enough, you eventually learn to block them out. I am considering taking a yoga class on the weekends, but that's the only free time which I have to do it. If I did it every night, I would have no time for family, friends, volunteering, or writing (my main hobby). I wish the so-called experts would get away from this "you have to exercise for so many minutes or it's not worth it" concept, because if they don't, a lot of people are just going to give up and not exercise at all. Any amount of exercise is good for you.

Notice that while the experts are claiming 60 minutes if you aren't fat, 90 minutes if you were fat and don't want to be fat again (come again?) the companies that make the exercise videos and gadgets are selling them based on the fact that you can workout for less than 20 minutes a day and see meaningful results. So who's lying to us? The people who want to see us the Gazelle, the latest Ab doohickey, the Walk Away the Pounds, the Body Slimmer 2000 or the gubmint? Who do you trust? Sad as it is to say it, I'm more inclined to trust Tony Little and Leslie Sansone than the beholden-to-grain-lobbyists/can't make up their mind about anything FDA. Or USDA. Or whatever stupid acronym makes the pyramid these days.

Pseu, you are right. The whole sodding 'beauty' thing is about that. Think you've done it all, and are FINALLY 'beautiful'? Nopies!!! There's a NEW BREAKTHROUGH surgery/drug/creme/make-up/clothing/gym you HAVE to get to FINALLY be 'beautiful'. This is neverending. I hate this culture. I'd rather be reading/singing/playing video games/enjoying the rain on my face/at the flea market/watching a movie with my dad, too. The beauty thing is like a hamster wheel. You have to conciously stop and get off, or you will drive yourself insane as you get older. I believe it is to distract us, too, and I don't like it one bit. I also believe it is to keep women down. Because they are constantly trying to be 'beautiful' they can't do other things that are important. I just wanna be me, and be accepted/left alone. Some guys made fun of me the other day, and it seriously hurt. I gurantee if I was thin and blonde, and running the beauty treadmill that wouldn't have happened, but dammit that treadmill is still not worth it!!! What happened to, 'If you can't say something nice, then KEEP YOUR GOB SHUT!!!'? Rrrrrrrrrrr, it just makes me mad. Casey

BTW, to those food pyramid ppl, I'll have my damned cookie, and eat it, too!!! :-P Casey

I like to look good, but the problem is that only one type of woman is presented in the media as the ideal: extremely thin, usually with straight hair, and under 30 or with extensive cosmetic surgery. Those of us who have curly hair, are larger than size 2, or over 30 are ignored. Too bad for businesses that aren't acknowledging us, because we're the majority. The average woman is 14 or larger and more adults are over 40 than under. If corporations would acknowledge this reality, the economy would be roaring instead of sputtering.

Whaaa? Just a couple years ago, they were saying "good on ya if you do 30 minutes of exercise three times a week." Then it turned to "most days" Then they said "well, you really should be getting 60 minutes a day, if you want to be healthy." Now, it's 60 minutes as a minimum (that's how I read it, anyway) and 90 minutes if you are fat and want to lose weight? Good God, this is just like them lowering the cut-off points for healthy blood cholesterol and blood pressure - suddenly, overnight, many many people are told "Oooops! Now you're unhealthy! Here, take this medication - oh, don't worry about the side effects, risking losing your memory or destroying your liver is so much less dangerous than having your cholesterol five points over what we declare it should be." Feh. I exercise for 50 minutes most days and I think that's DAMNED good, considering my work-schedule and all. (I think one of the things that irritates me about this is I NEVER have heard a "good on ya" for doing THAT amount of exercise. Not from a doctor, not from any other health professional, not from exercise-class leaders.) And as for the Food Police: please. The Powers that Be can't even decide what's the healthiest combination of foods to eat (and in truth, it's probably different for each person). And I think it's just mean to single out a group and say "No treats for you!" just because their body type doesn't match what's currently fashionable. I fear we will see a day when we all get cards, and those cards contain information on our health histories, how much we exercise, our weights, etc., etc. And the information on those cards will be used to decide what food we are "allowed" to buy...In my more dystopian moods I envision a world where electricity is generated by people riding exercise bicycles and you don't get to eat until you've generated your necessary three hours of electricity for The Nation. I've said it before and I've said it again: they can take my chocolate-chip cookies when they pry them out of my cold, dead hands.

The idea of electricity generated by exercise bikes was humorously depicted in Wired magazine on the Found: Artifacts from the Future page which they put near the back of every issue.

Micki, you are totally right. I like to look good, too,but I feel more and more that it is impossible due to just that. Casey

Man, that is messed up! Fat people used up all their bonus calories a long time ago? Screw that! My best friend (gotta love her) is skinny (don't hate her) and all that girl ever eats EVER is sugar.. we're talking ice cream, candy, cookies, junk food, anything bad for you, you name it, she loves it. I, on the otherhand, eat a relatively healthy diet with hardly a second glance at sweets and the like because I trained myself in high school to never even look at candy as an option (I'm getting over it, I swear). I eat well-balanced, low-fat meals, with the bulk of my food coming from complex whole-grains and fruits and vegetables. She might be skinny and I might be fat, but you tell me who is healthier??? I am, hands down! I'm stronger, for one thing, and I have a healthier glowing complexion. I get more physical activity (though she does have a two year old so you gotta give her props) including some actual workouts. I hike in the woods; she watches movies. And, yet, somehow the world thinks she's healthier than me because she's skinny? You've got to be kidding me!

Who says you don't look good, Casey? Today I saw an ad for a weight loss center that featured an "after" picture that I thought looked like a famine victim. She looked fine in the "before" picture. She was only a size 14, hardly what I would consider fat.