…you’ve made certain choices in your life.
Now, before I go on here, I’m going to exclude all those of you out there who have legitimate medical reasons for being overweight from the following discussion – there’s no reason to feel bad about your body if there’s nothing you could/can do to stop your [insert malfunctioning body part here] from making you extra-large.
Everyone else… well, you’re exactly who I’m talking to.
When you wake up every morning and look yourself in the mirror, do you loathe what you see because your body is statistically extra-large?
Guess what got you there?
You don’t know? Or, do you think you do know?
As a blogger that is always trying to be helpful, I will explain to you why you’re fat in terms that I hope you understand – but it’s going to take a very healthy dose of reality checking and honesty with yourself.
Also, this blog is somewhat aimed also at the Sally DoGooders who live in the proverbial land of milk and honey – the United States Of America – who are taking it upon themselves to sue every purveyor of delicious food in the public retail spaces of malls, plazas, and corner shops all across the land.
First, let me get straight to the facts of the matter… the complete and total truth, no matter who might want to argue:
1. McDonald’s hasn’t made one single human on this planet fat.
2. Burger King isn’t responsible for making your neighbor chubby.
3. Wendy’s had no part making that guy at work rotund around his middle section.
4. Hostess – the maker of the venerable Twinkie – can not be held accountable for shut-in video gamers being so big that they have to wear a muumuu around the house.
5. Little Debbie is not at fault for your Type II diabetes.
6. Neither Coca-Cola or Pepsi (and their Frito Lay snacks division) is on the hook for your massive stored energy deposits.
7. Hershey’s is not answerable for your pudgy fingers.
8. And finally, the local movie theater is not to blame for your adding a melted stick of butter to your popcorn.
Wait… how can that be?
You hear every day on the news that So And So is suing these companies for making people fat… so surely there is some merit to what they’re paying public interest law firms to make a case for… right?
No.
Not a single claim by these people can be born out in a court of law without the court itself being corrupted by social shortsightedness.
See this guy here?
Not a single corporate employee or company policy is responsible for him being a fat tub of lard – and let’s be honest: he most likely doesn’t have a thyroid issue.
Nope… he’s fat because of what he’s doing in the photo i.e. stuffing his face with food that has very little (or completely zero) nutritional benefit.
As much as society would seek an easy scapegoat for it’s rising number of obesity cases, there is not a single person to blame but himself.
Look at that photo very carefully.
Do you see anybody forcing him to chow down on that massive burger? Is there a representative from The Burger Shack holding his family at gunpoint, promising him that they’ll be released without harm as soon as he consumes all those fats and carbs?
No.
Chubby McFatass there is using his own, God-given free will to consume that sandwich.
So tell me – please – why The Burger Shack, McDonald’s, or Little Debbie should be held accountable for the choices that YOU make?
Yes… the retailers make products that you feel compelled to eat – either for their taste or their affordability or both – whenever hunger strikes you, but in no way are you mandated by law to consume their wares.
You, the consumer, have every bit as much power to consume a bowl of fruit salad as you do eat a box of Chicken McNuggets and a side of delicious McDonald’s french fries.
The fact that you opt for the Mickey’s fare is completely on you.
Television advertising makes you eat it? Hmmm…. okay – let’s look at that.
Pundits would say that the commercials you see on TV up to 100x a day have brainwashed you into being constantly wanting fast food or the kind of junk offerings you find at the neighborhood convenience store.
I suppose this could be held out to be true… if there wasn’t a whole lot of other crap on TV that’s being marketed directly to you that you blissfully ignore: how many of you out there order everything you see in infomercials?
Raise your hand if you’ve compulsively ordered the Snuggie For Pets? C’mon… it’s only $9.99! Who can resist that kind of deal?
Or… how many of you ran out and bought that Head On headache reliever? You know… the stuff you apply directly to the forehead?
I’m going to wager not a lot of you did either of those things because you were smart enough to realize the products were pure crap – choosing not to waste money and hurt your pocketbook by being stupid.
Yet… you CHOOSE to eat vast amounts of fast food that you know are pure crap and are going to hurt your body in the long run.
Why is there such a disconnect between choice and result?
There is nothing simpler than what’s going on here: it’s cause and effect – one of the most basic scientific concepts.
You do one thing and you get the predicted effect – in this case, you stuff an entire 12-inch pizza in your face in a single sitting which causes the effect of you gaining a few pounds.
Of course, this is assuming you’re not a professional athlete like Michael Phelps that consumes massive amounts of calories to fuel their workout routine.
Which is the backside to this issue: your buttocks take up two seats on the airplane because you refuse to do to the physical exercise required to burn off all of those calories you consume.
You’re choosing in your life to eat a Double Big Mac, large fries, large Coke, and two apple pies – without also choosing to engage in the physical exertion necessary to scrub all of those calories and saturated fats out of your system… which leaves your body no choice at all but to store those things as fat around your middle/butt/legs/arms/neck/chin.
Sure, there are pharmaceutical alternatives to exercise… substances that will make your body burn calories at an accelerated rate, but they are no substitute for using your own muscles to naturally do what that pill does nowhere as efficiently.
And yes… there are radical surgical procedures to physically limit how much food you can eat.
But why?
Why take these pills? Why go under the surgeon’s knife?
When you can simply CHOOSE to not eat these things in such great amounts that you become the size of a small Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon?
Society needs to give it’s collective head a shake and stop trying to blame others for our choices in life.
You can not sue Burger King for your own laziness.
The fat guy you see mowing his lawn – wearing shorts and a wife beater tank top – can’t seek damages from Dairy Queen because he can’t be bothered to get on an exercise bike.
In closing, let me make this abundantly clear, in case you are still confused:
Nobody other than you can blamed.
So stop trying to take kid’s Happy Meal toys away because you think they’re what cause childhood obesity – it’s the parent’s choice to buy them the little box of fats and carbs and then let the child sit around the house all day playing video games instead of running around outside for 20 minutes.
Take some fucking responsibility for your actions in life, and leave people alone who are trying to make an honest buck.
