The Today Show did a survey, asking people (I think it might have been women only, but I'm not sure) if they would rather be 40 pounds overweight and smart, or thin and dumb. Will since I'm already the first (reasonably smart, anyway), I think I'd personally pick that one. I'm living fine like this, though I want and need to do something about the weight. In the end though, I think losing weight is more probable than losing stupid.
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"There is order in the way the Lord reveals His will to mankind. . .we cannot receive revelation for someone else's stewardship." L. Tom Perry
Oh, Jen! I didn't like being overweight. I get compliments these days, which makes me nervous. Weight is so easy to gain back. I really think I'm lucky as I do eat things that I probably shouldn't though I avoid sugar and do some portion control. It makes me paranoid about gaining weight though. But as much as I don't like being overweight, I have a much bigger problem with being stupid. So I guess I will take the extra forty pounds. There will be more of me to love! I actually think a lot of heavy people are attractive. And it will be mainly muscle right?
I think a very interesting question is, which of these would you prefer in a spouse? Smart and fat or thin and dumb?
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
In a spouse, I would prefer smart and fat over thin and dumb by far. I don't think I could be married to a dumb man. But I don't want my smart husband to think I am dumb!
I AM 40 pounds overweight and smart. (And so's my husband. Wouldn't trade him for the world.)
I've seen for myself how weird women can get about weight. My sister went through an awful divorce, and literally couldn't keep food down for months as the details of her husband's double life started coming out. She got so thin it was scary.
But she was getting compliments non-stop on how "good she looked." Puh-leeze. I went to Church with her once, and we were visiting with the woman who sat in front of us after Sacrament meeting. Once my sister left, the woman said to me, "Wow, she looks fantastic. I am soooo jealous."
I stood there with my mouth open before I finally said, "Really. I think I prefer being fat and happy with a good marriage."
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They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
A couple of decades ago a chubby - not obese! - friend came down with pancreatic cancer and eventually left four little children to the care of their grandmother.
But as she was dying, she lost a lot of weight, and she told me that she received Many compliments on her appearance: How well you look! Keep up the good work! You never looked better!
A sad commentary on the values of our society, IMO.
Jen, if I remember correctly, you're married to an IT type. They're statistically more likely to be overweight.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Mine is an unusual breed. Though he's got maybe 5 or 10 extra pounds now, he's typically very fit and muscular. And not socially awkward, either. How that happened, I don't know.
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"There is order in the way the Lord reveals His will to mankind. . .we cannot receive revelation for someone else's stewardship." L. Tom Perry
I don't care, have never cared about what other people thought of me, so long as I am happy with who I am, physically, mentally, spiritually. As a result, I tend to piss a lot of people off or annoy them a lot because I simply don't care about what they think I should be doing.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
Wednesday, April 2, 2008 STUDY FINDS DISCRIMINATION AGAINST BIG PEOPLE RAMPANT For the past six years, the Review has been reporting on this topic, virtually alone in the media. You can find our news archives here.... http://prorev.com/bigpage.htm
ABC NEWS It's illegal to discriminate against someone because of race or gender, but our culture condones a bias against people who are overweight. There are no federal laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of weight, and only Michigan has such a law, according to a new study from Yale University.
As a result, the researchers contend, weight discrimination is spiraling upward. . . Weight discrimination "occurs in employment settings and daily interpersonal relationships virtually as often as race discrimination, and in some cases even more frequently than age or gender discrimination," the researchers report in the current issue of the International Journal of Obesity. Overweight women are twice as vulnerable as men, and discrimination strikes much earlier in their lives, the report states.
"This is a form of bias that remains very socially acceptable in our culture," research scientist Rebecca Puhl, lead author of the study, said . . . Puhl, who has been studying weight discrimination for nine years, said our culture has made it clear that it's wrong to discriminate against someone because of race, color, creed, gender, age and so forth, but that it's OK to show someone the door because he or she is fat.
"We send a message to citizens in our culture that this is something that is tolerated," she said. "We live in a culture where we obviously place a premium on fitness, and fitness has come to symbolize very important values in our culture, like hard work and discipline and ambition. Unfortunately, if a person is not thin, or is overweight or obese, then they must lack self-discipline, have poor willpower, etc., and as a result they get blamed and stigmatized.". . .
"We know from hundreds of randomized clinically controlled trials that it's very difficult to sustain weight loss over time with our existing treatment methods. That has compelled a number of expert panels, like the National Institutes of Health, to conclude that we really can't expect you to lose more than 10 percent of your body weight and be able to keep that off.". . .
The heart of the problem, Puhl said, is that obesity brings social stigmatism and stereotyping, and that can lead to depression, discrimination and binge eating, so the problem just gets worse.
As an employer I can see why there may be some discrimination of obese people. It tends to cost you more in health insurance premiums. Smokers are just as hard on the pocket book. Unhealthy people costs you more in health insurance premiums. My health insurance permiums went up 15% last year and are going up another 20% this year. At this rate we are going to double our health insurance premiums every four years. Is it any wonder that employers might conciously or unconciously discriminate against people that might cost them more money?
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Jason (Formerly salesortonscom)
As I walk through this earth, nothing can stop, the Duke of Mirth!
What standards are used, though? The BM indexes I've seen tend to favor anorexic body types. I've known people who I wouldn't for a moment think of as fat who told me that, according to the BM indexes, they are fat.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
BMI has some serious problems. But I think most people can look at someone and tell if they are seriously obese. I think weight becomes a problem when it affects your way of life, changes how you do things, or your health starts to suffer.
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Jason (Formerly salesortonscom)
As I walk through this earth, nothing can stop, the Duke of Mirth!
"Fat" is such a subjective term, though. I think that some weight on a woman is attractive. I think that society's preference for rail thin women is destructive.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Like a lot of women I lost weight while I was engaged, down to a size 5 (which I hadn't been since about grade 7) and had lots of women telling me how good I looked.
But I got that skinny because of crazy dieting, and put back on the 20 pounds I had lost - and some extra - soon after I got married. I spent years wishing I could look "that good" again, until my husband finally admitted to me a while ago that he didn't like how I looked at that weight. He thought I was gaunt and without all the pleasing curves he fell in love with.
For me it was a real eye-opener after I got married to find out that what my husband likes is different from what our culture considers the ideal. And in talking with quite a few friends, they found the same thing as well.
I know some men are attracted to tiny (I have a theory about Mormon guys who serve their missions in the Orient), some like women who are tall and slender, but it seems like a lot of men also "vive le difference" (ie. soft and a little squishy is a good thing.)
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They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
I'd take fat over ugly. I've seen plenty of attractive fat people. Never seen any attractive ugly people, though. Sometimes being fatter actually *helps* some ugly people be less ugly. Weird, huh?
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
I'd take fat over ugly. I've seen plenty of attractive fat people. Never seen any attractive ugly people, though. Sometimes being fatter actually *helps* some ugly people be less ugly. Weird, huh?
Whatever you gotta tell yourself, hon... You just go right on believin' it.
WHAT!! Have you guys seen an attractive ugly person?
DIDN'T THINK SO!
And like when Perry Mason lost all that weight... he just wasn't as handsome anymore. And that dude on the Today show - the black dude - he just got plain ugly when he lost weight. Roker! That's it! And what about Tommy Boy, huh? Can you picture him skinny? Gimme a break!
Fat guy in a little coat...
-- Edited by Cocobeem at 00:09, 2008-04-05
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne