According to the Business Times, 68 percent of Americans are now overweight or obese: nearly 7 out of 10 Americans. As many as 50 million of us on some sort of diet, usually unsuccessfully mind you, at any one time, perhaps we ought to be asking ourselves whether we're going about things all wrong. It's not the number on the scale or the size of your jeans that will kill you, it's the elevated blood pressure and cholesterol and other nasty problems that come with moving to the relaxed-fit “Mom Jeans” rack. If you eat well, work out regularly and walk away from your doctor's office with straight A's on your physical, what does it matter if you can't squeeze into skinny jeans? In a culture that fetishizes slimness, the idea of being fat and happy raises eyebrows. The idea of being fat and fit is crazy, isn’t it? Yet to have both would be bliss.
That's a question more and more people have begun to ask, and lately they have been getting some answers they like. The explosive reaction in the press last April to a research report suggesting that Americans who are a bit overweight had a "slight" reduction in the risk of dying over the course of the study compared with those of normal weight brightened the mood in buffet lines everywhere. Not surprisingly, the public largely overlooked the study's more important point, that obesity still cuts lives short. But even as the public rejoiced on the slim hope that there really might be a free lunch, the experts have also begun questioning the received wisdom that fat is really a gateway to good health.
The idea that being a string bean is the best thing to be is too simplistic. Well, that person is thin so they must be healthy. That’s not always the case is it? Just because a person was blessed with a small frame and never ever has to work out doesn’t mean they don’t have any underlining health problems. Slim and trim, Lean and mean. Fat and lazy, fat and unhealthy? Are these stereotypes correct or incorrect?
Why can’t we focus on strong? I’m going to lose 10 pounds because I want to be strong and healthy and not because I want to impress my friends in my new outfit. I want to become a healthy person and feel strong and confident about my new body. People ask me to help them lose weight for many different reasons and I don’t judge them. I’m just happy to help them along their journey. Whatever gets you here I always say.
If we as Americans could sprinkle magic fairy dust on our food that would make our fat not dangerous, would you do it? If it would no longer cause heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, Diabetes, would you really enjoy being fat? Would you wake up in the morning and be proud of how you look and who you are as a role model to your children and your family? Would and could you be fat and happy? Is this a reasonable possibility?