Its easy to be fat- anyone can do it!!

 Watching the news with my kids yesterday, a feature ran on depression in women. My 14 year old son was quick to point out that all the women shown in the study were really fat, although no mention was made of that in reference to their depression. I congratulated him on his observation, because depression and obesity are ususally part and parcel. He went on to say that if they exercised and lost some weight, they would probably feel better – and this does not come from a child who  has no experience with obesity. He has seen the transformation in myself in the past few years, in my journey from a woman over 340lbs, to the new me, and he knows what I have had to do to get here.

People who have known me for a long time, know that my opinions on obesity do not come from lack of understanding or knowledge, and yes, my opinions are harsh sometimes. I think we are headed for a real disaster if something harsh isnt done. It’s ok to tell someone to stop smoking, its alright to tell them not to do drugs , or drink to excess, but god forbid  should we tell them to lose weight. To be honest, sometimes fat people don’t even realise how fat they are, an actual documented fact. I didn’t realise how big I had gotten – and to be really frank, it wasnt until after I started losing weight  and saw my old pictures that I saw how disgusting I looked. I keep those old pictures with me  always, as a constant reminder of where I never want to return to again.

Fat has become big business. Plus size stores are everywhere, and the sizes within those stores have increased to enormous proportions to meet the growing need- no pun intended.  What is the incentive to change how huge you are when you can buy sexy lingerie big enough to cover a volkswagon beetle? Just because you can, doesnt mean you should. It used to be that when you got too big to fit the sizes in mainstream stores, you had to lose a little weight or find nothing to wear.

The designation BBW is used everywhere, to glorify and justify a womans size – Be big and be proud of it! There are plus-sized dating sites, and chubby-chaser is a term now used for men that have a fat fetish. And yes, its not a preferance – when it becomes a “must” in in order to be sexually aroused, its a fetish. It is not the woman, but the size he’s attracted to.  Airlines have been forced to increase the size of their seats to satisfy fat passengers, and restaurants use larger chairs. Automobile designers have even accomodated the increasing demand for larger seats and interiors, with larger belts to accomodate  larger waists and bigger butts. 

Big business and obesity are  in the same position now , that tobacco companies and smokers were many years ago. It is not in the”fat” industries best interest for people to lose weight, because it spells out big losses for them, nationwide. Although the health industry is booming to a point it hasnt seen in years, its healthy well-balanced people keeping that way, and fat people everywhere are  just not getting the social motivation to change their ways. It’s time we changed that.

I’m Laila Yuile, and this is how I see it.