Have you noticed the obsession with being overweight lately? How can you miss it, when it’s practically all over television news, newspapers, magazines & the Internet? Seems to me someone out there in boredom or diversion land is a little too much slow or perhaps has been taking a 30-year nap & are suddenly now noticing it.
It’s a lot like some of my fellow Jewish friends telling me that anti-Semitism is on the rise & I always react by saying; anti-Semitism? Do you really hate Arabs, because they are the true Semites, not the Jews and; on the rise? When did you wake up and take notice? It’s always been like that!
But back to being obsessive about overweight people; now this is nothing new & believe me, I’ve heard this most of my life; well really since age 16; for you see, I am one of those people the media are speaking of. Those that believe we are hurting ourselves in the long run by being overweight have absolutely no clue to what it’s really like to be heavy.
I didn’t ask to get like this & since age 16 I have been fighting the weight loss issue. When I was 16, I joined a weight-losing group entitled TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly). In this group, the idea besides losing weight & keeping it off was primarily learn how to eat better & to count calories. The group I joined was with a bunch of older men who used to cuss & swear & smoke cigars, until I would show up, to which someone would always shout, “Shhhh, quiet, the kid’s here.”
At age 16, I weighed 168 pounds & for a teenager to weigh that much wasn’t exactly cool. I was subjected to a lot of name-calling, not only from my brothers, but other kids in high school, plus the fact of getting gawked & stared at. It’s an extremely humbling experience to say the least when you are consciously trying to lose weight and all these people who believe they are helping you when in reality are hurting you, but I tried not to let it show, at least not openly.
While I was in that group, I did end up losing 40 pounds on what I called my “corned beef & yogurt diet,” and even took first place in the teen division at our state convention the following year. I was awarded the KOPS award (Keep Off Pounds Sensibly) by my group & presented with a plaque. Those men were proud of me & said that I set a good example for the rest of them.
As I’ve grown older, the society I grown up in, hasn’t changed all that much as there is more emphasis to look good than to feel good. Looks always come first before the emotions say the experts. I’m glad I don’t follow what experts say. If I did, then I would still keep asking myself; why do so many young girls starve themselves to in order to be thin? Why do so many men who want muscles never bother to work out/exercise & instead pop pills or ingest steroids to make themselves look so manly?
Over the years, I’ve had a number of girlfriends who made mention of my being overweight & they have even tried to help me, thinking it’s their one gift they can bestow onto me; I’ve appreciated it & I know they’ve meant well. But then also, there have been a couple of women that have said some very cruel things to me, knowing exactly what it takes to hurt me & that's not cool.
For those of you who know what I mean, some of us try our hardest to lose weight; it’s an uphill battle & it has a lot to do with metabolism more than anything else. I’ve tried several diets, but most of those diets are fads or will be.
Diets do not work. It’s more of a lifetime commitment, like say marriage or raising a family, than taking three to six months out of your life to slim down so you can fit into your clothes or a hot sexy swimsuit & then blow yourself back up again. If you’re a movie star or you have the bucks to spend, you can get your stomach stapled. Just ask Carney Wilson. Better yet, go ask Oprah Winfrey how good it must feel to be a millionaire & be able to look good for thousands of dollars spent per year on expensive nutritionists, fat farms, I mean health spas & personal chefs.
I work out three times a week & it does have its advantages, but to those folks who don’t know me as well, do make cruel remarks without knowing the full effects of their words & sometimes, words can hit as hard as a fist.
Even though I’m not as overweight as I once was there is something I still cannot do, such as wear a bathing suit in public because of the psychological scar I still feel each time I am at a beach and choose to wear a tee shirt over my body, as opposed to exposing my chest. I am also wary of swimming at a public pool because of people who point & stare and ask me if I can do a belly-flop.
Perhaps you’ll understand further with this poem I wrote nearly five years ago on being “fat.” I remember reading it at an open mic once and after I read it, two overweight women walked up to me & thanked me for reading it; that was music to my stomach.
Fatboy.
Fat
Boy
Boy! Is he fat! Fatter than a house!
Size circus tent. Fat ass. Fat as in pleasingly plump
Overweight.
Heavyweight.
Heavy freight.
Heavy load.
Hot and heavy
He’s so heavy....
He ain’t heavy; he’s my brother....
Fat!
Fat!
Fat!
Can you pinch an inch, Fatboy?
Awww, look he has leftover baby fat
Everywhere, there’s lot’s of piggies...
From size 32 to 42 to 38 in a matter of years
Held hostage by my own worst fears
Hey! Look at the fat kid run!
Haw-Haw! Look at the fat pig go!
Hey tubby! Hey chubby!
Overeating through diets
And even though the label says lite
Just like the beer you drink
The popcorn you chew
And the meat you eat
Chowing down on half the calories doesn’t count
Especially if you hoard more than the proportions
More lite is fat, now just imagine that
I’m a full-figured man
Looking for a mega-ton woman
Because that’s all I ever get
No slim girl have I ever met
Has ever been that nice and it all ends up
To calling me fatso
Time after time after time
Hey! Are you livin’ off the fat of the land?
Jumbo the elephant, Jumbo the elephant....
Elephant-tushie Charlie
All I ever heard was slim and trim at age 16.
Trimmed corned beef. Dietetic Jell-O.
Dietetic chocolate birthday puddings with a candle in the middle
At age 26, when my mom asked me
What is it most that I would like?
Mark my words, make no mistake
A chocolate-frosted candle glowing
Calorie-inflated birthday cake
Society thumbs their noses
At a pretty fat girl holding roses
Unlike the skinny fashion whore
Who can slip off her skirt faster
Like some slim ballet master
Been Fatboy-Slimmed,
Fatso-Ghosted, Fats-Wallered
And Fatty-Arbuckled
Had my share of Minnesota Fats
And all those stupid references to fat cats
Tired of those jokesters who ask me
How long have you been pregnant?
Just for once, I sure wish I could be someone’s teddy bear
Oh, to be loved by someone who doesn’t care what I look like
And doesn’t believe that it’s a sin
That I have so much stretched skin
Fat? So!
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