[WhateverLolaWants]

Yeah, I recently saw a family like that at a buffet. Nightmares...

I guess I have little sympathy because I am close to several people who are predisposed to be 'larger' by nature, but they eat normal portions and healthy (within reason..I wouldn't call them brown rice and veg addicts) and they look very nice...healthy.

Then there are those in my aquaintance that not only eat waaaay too much (Going out to dinner, they ALL get an appetizer...then a full sized american helping of whatever, eat all of it, don't bring it home, and then a dessert. UNREAL) And they wonder why they're huge...or praise certain recent ad campaignes which speak to people like those I have mentioned formerly as 'presenting a more attainable body image'.

I want to scream in that, acknowledging that some people are larger by nature, people are taking it as a pat on the back and a blessing to be over 400 lbs.

I recently had to start getting back into shape after gaining a few more lbs than I wanted (20) and some of the aforementioned aquaintances were just scathing about it...joking that I was anorexic because I wanted to go from 135 back down to 120.

Being in Georgia I see them loading up at the store...boxes and boxes of mac and cheese, frozen breaded chicken patties, canned spaghetti...then washing it all down with a HUGE flat of sodas.

And yes, its all cheap. You can eat really cheap that way. But you know what else is cheap? Veggies. Fruit. Rice. Water. Most of all, meals prepared by YOU without preservatives and that generate leftovers for another meal's worth of consumption.

Thats part of it to...the desire to skip cooking altogether, just microwave it all...instant gratification. All those preserved food are laden with sodium...fats...Grabbing happymeals is 'cheap.'

I'm not saying my kids never have chef boyardee ravioli at my house. We do about once a week during the summer, even. All things in moderation, but cooking your own meals, you control what goes in, you know what everything is, and anyone who made it through at least most of their public schooling at least knows too many preservatives and too much fat is bad for you.

But the quickness of speedy meals, the convenience, the tiny lettering of the ingredients...allows us to skip even thinking about it.

I feed three children and two adults Breakfast and dinner for 100$ a week. When we had two and we had less money, I did t for 60$ a week. I also feed myself lunch on that; hubby has a different budget for work food, 40$ a week, which means he brings his lunch about twice and eats out three times with his work friends.

No one in my family is obese or even close to fat. No one starves, either. There are so many fat people because they are broke enough not to have chefs like Oprah does, who can make healthy food taste good enough for them to want to eat it, and they are too lazy to do it themselves.