Yes, I'm Fat

Warning: The following includes language not typically found on Quo Vado?

This morning on my way into work I heard The Bert Show anonymous screed against fat people. I listened to the whole thing, said a mental "fuck y'all" and then changed the channel. Only the piece stuck between my teeth like brussel sprouts all day. So, what follows is a pseudonymous response to the author.

I am a fat person.

According to my medical records I've been on the high side of the BMI scale since I was five. As a kid I walked about 20 minutes each way to and from school, my family ate a low fat, low sodium, low cholesterol diet well before it was cool and I attended my first aerobics class when I was in the seventh grade. I was still fat. I did the things you are supposed to do, and it didn't change my build or how I metabolized food.

These days I could stand to loose between thirty and thirty-five percent of my body weight. I'm making no concerted effort to do so. In the grand scheme of things wearing the perfect size 8 ( or 6 or 2 or 0) ranks low on the list of things that are important to me. I've tried exercising and changing my diet. The former bores me to tears in most cases and the one activity I like doing isn't in my budget - never mind that there's no place w/in a 20 min drive with classes at times I could take them. The latter I've tried, several times in several variations. The longest I've made it is eleven weeks. I don't like who I become when I'm dieting; way too much of my energy goes to thinking about food. My life revolves around what I have to eat, what I cannot eat and my regular cranky demeanor becomes a continuous full on bitchy. I chose not to dedicate time or energy to things that bore me or make me meaner than I already am.

You think that I'm a lazy failure of a human being. I'm not. I'm just a human being. You know? There are things I do well, things I do decently and things I choose not to do at all.

Your problem with me seems to be that I don't value the number on the scale as much as you do.

Tough shit.

You can't make me care enough to change my behavior. So, go ahead, rail away. I'll keep changing the channel.