sprayhawk

Thor and I head over to Five Guys, the ever more popular burger chain.  The food is simply amazing.  The burgers are juicy, the fries are unreal, and it will certainly soak up some of last night’s stagnant swill.

The place is absolutely packed, which is annoying.  Large groups of people tend to make me insane.  Also, the room is lit with bright fluorescence, which also tends to make me insane.  I picture myself panicking and shouting that we are all cattle under a corporate electric god.  But wait.  There is seating outside.  I go outside.  Fresh air.  Crisis averted.

A fat foursome sits around one of the three tables, all of which are occupied.  I stand patiently and wait for them to finish their meal.  They eventually do.  Then they just sit there talking.  Frustrated, but still waiting on Thor to get his food, I start watching people.  Lurking, if you will.

Here’s what I notice:

Fat people eat lots of greasy food and that is why they are fat.

In an effort to shift blame from the self, many fat people use their jowls to spit out words like “genetics”, “addiction”, and “big boned”.  But the truth of the matter is that today at Five Guys, about 75% of the clientele were overweight, if not obese.

If you eat food that actually discolors the brown bag with grease, then you probably shouldn’t be eating it.  I figure this would be obvious, but one after the other, chunky monkeys order sacks of fried potatoes and greasy meat.

Maybe you don’t want to lose weight.  Of course this is a possibility.  If this is the case, then I say, more power to you.  I just don’t want to hear the word “genetics” while you eat your 10,000 Calorie double cheeseburger.

The other favorite word is “addiction”.  Eating is an addiction?  How?  Is everything that you like to do an addiction if you are less happy if you aren’t doing it?  Food is not heroin.  I’m quite sure there is not withdrawal if you don’t eat chili cheese fries today.

The usage of the word “addiction” stands as an added obstacle between an overweight person and his or her healthy goals.  When kicking heroin and cutting down on greasy food are allowed under the same heading, then suddenly a diet seems less like a change of daily routine and more like Requiem For A Dream or Trainspotting.

Another word favorite for the horizontally plentiful is “society”.  People argue that our society encourages the obesity epidemic.  This is nice way for overweight people to displace blame.  They argue that unhealthy food is cheaper and easier to acquire.  This is simply untrue.  Fruit and vegetables are readily available at a lower cost than fast food.  Lowering quantity of any food ingested will be cheaper than eating a huge amount of food at any fast food chain.  However, it is easier for a person to blame someone else, or society itself, rather than to spend the time figuring out how to make a salad without pouring a gallon of Ranch on it as a flavor enhancer.

Why can’t we just admit that these people feed themselves, make themselves fat, and do not have the will power to change?  Admitting that the person is the root of the problem will allow him or her to see that he or she is also the root of all change.  By displacing blame, it actually disempowers the person, leading him or her to believe that the solution, like the problem, is out of his or her hands.

With heart disease at the forefront of causes of death in the United States, it’s a shame that people who consider themselves “sensitive” allow fat asses to waddle around with a mouth full of fries and a pocket book full of politically correct terminology that shifts blame from themselves and onto society.

Can’t stand it.  Eat less food.  Lose weight.  Ever see a fat Ethiopian?  Nope.