Another thing that bothers me is that someone flew a plane into a building in Texas. I'm waiting for the nay sayers to grab onto that and blame it on President Obama. I don't quite see the connection, except that the IRS was located in that building and this doofus had tax problems. I know from personal experience that when the IRS latches on to people who can't afford to hire an attorney to fight them, they are like a dog with a bone. They won't let go until they have every cent they say you owe with interest.
I remember a TV news show reporting on how some people have committed suicide in order to get out from under. I met a woman before Christmas this year. We helped her when the IRS slapped a lien on her paycheck after she and her husband had gotten divorce. She wasn't making much to begin with. She had six kids to raise on her own. The IRS allowed her $139 a week until she paid everything off.
When they came after us, I made payments and payments and more payments. Bill had been sick and had lost a lot of work, and you know I couldn't afford to pay anyone else let alone the IRS. They finally backed off when we were suppose to get a big refund. They took almost all of it. What really pissed me off was an item I heard on the radio about that time. A major comedic actress was suppose to owe them about $1,000,000. Her attorney settled with them for $7,000. They weren't ready to negotiate with us. We weren't rich, and we couldn't afford an attorney.
I suppose everyone has heard about Kevin Smith being forced off a flight because he was fat. Like he said, this wasn't a surprise. He said that normally he buys two seats because of his weight. According to airline policy, it was necessary if the person doesn't fit in one with the arm rest down. He said he never had a problem with that, but took the extra measure as a courtesy to other passengers. This particular trip, he had purchased two seats on one plane, but then heard about an opportunity to fly stand-by on another flight. He was anxious to get home so grabbed the open seat. He showed the flight attendant that he did fit, but she put him out anyway. As he was leaving, he said he noticed another man who was heavier than him, who was sinking in his seat, hoping that the flight attendant wouldn't notice. Smith said he didn't say anything.
He still had the other seats and decided to use them. After he boarded a young woman who happened to be over weight was pulled aside just as he had been. He talked to her later when she was placed in the third seat next to him. She was told that if he didn't want to share that second seat with her, she, too, would have to buy another seat, or she couldn't fly on that flight. Smith said he could see his daughter in her eyes when she spoke about it. He also said that he couldn't imagine anyone not willing to share.
There are so many ways to go on this. I've never pretended here to be anything but what I am. I am older and I am fat. I understand that sitting next to me would be uncomfortable if I took up too much room. I am also easily humiliated. It is humiliating to be this size to begin with. What is more humiliating is there are people who never gained more than a few ounces and don't understand why I can be so careless about myself.
CARELESS? I've been dieting all my life. I don't eat much. I can't. I eat two to three meals a day, usually on a salad plate, and never more than one helping of anything. I rarely have desert. Or eat between meals. I don't have emotional problems that causes me to eat for comfort. I don't eat when I'm bored. I don't follow fad diets. I eat a lot of salads and other veggies. As far as buying food is concerned, I live with a diabetic. If I buy it, he'll eat it. So I buy few snack foods.
What I have never done was sleep properly. As hard as I tried, I would stare at the ceiling until early morning hours before getting up at 6AM for work. I spent most of my young adult life in a sleepless daze. I spent a lot of that time craving carbs, which is common of someone who has sleeping problems. And then I spent a lot of time sick to my stomach because I am allergic to gluten.
My point is you don't have to eat like a pig to get fat. Once that happens, skinny people grow nasty. No matter what my qualities are, they don't count because I am fat. No matter how I've tried to lose, it doesn't go anywhere. And if I do lose a pound or two, I gain back two or three because of a reaction doctors call 'starvation reaction.' In other words my body responds to the loss by slowing me down and allowing me to regain what I lost and then some.
I spoke to doctors about this, and I've been told to cut back. Where? What do I cut out? I no longer eat bread. I can't. I eat very little sweets just because I can feel when my sugar goes up. I spend a time in the bathroom during those nights because I have to pee more often. I try to exercise only my asthma acts up.
Recently Becki had to do a paper for her Composition 101 class. She decided to do it on food additives. We went through the cabinets and pulled out samples of different types of food and looked up the ingredients listed on the side of each package. What amazed me was the number of foods that had some sort of sweetener in it. A lot used corn syrup, and a few more used pectin. Almost everything we looked at had something. We looked up some snack foods. There was something we found on a bag of potato chips that when we looked it up, it said 'not for human consumption.' Becki turned in her paper. I'm not sure what she got on it, she didn't bring it up.
I spent time thinking about it. And I've decided that there has to be a better way to eat. I worked a very long time, almost all through the time my kids went to school, and for many years before they were born. I have gotten in the habit of buying easy substitutes for noodle and potato dishes. This is where I found so many sweeteners. It seems to me that I can do something other than this. I can serve two veggies instead of one, or even a fruit dish. I figure it takes time to make some of the things we're used to finding substitutes for. I can either make the real stuff on weekends, or we can do without. Most canned veggies seem to have water and salt added. It seems to me that fresh or frozen has to have more food value than canned, and maybe I should cut canned veggies from our diet as well.
It also occurs to me that people have never been this fat before, and neither have they had so many easy meals to fix. It makes me wonder what affect these food are having on diseases like diabetes and cancer.
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