Say what?!?

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a documentary junkie, especially when said documentaries are about people. Nothing fascinates me more than the human condition; I love to learn about how different people think and function. I may end up saying that what someone else thinks or does is FUBAR, stupid, unintelligent or just downright dumb, but I still like to learn about it anyway.

Sunday night was 'fat' night on TLC. There were 3 shows on: 'I'm addicted to food', 'I eat 33,000 calories a day' (you read that right btw. 33 THOUSAND. I didn't add an extra zero in there by mistake) and 'The 750lb man'. I went upstairs (nobody likes to watch the stuff I like to watch, so I sequester myself in the bedroom and watch solo), sunggled down under the quilts and got ready for an entertaining night.

And entertaining it was. The first show, 'I'm addicted to food', was kind of an eye opener. Some of the shots grossed me out, and I think that they were designed to do just that....super morbidly obese people STUFFING food in their mouths, chewing noisily. Ick. I don't like to see/hear people eat at the best of times, but the angles they used here...it was gross. I don't think I'm gonna be able to look at a sausage the same way for quite some time.

There were some interesting people featured on the show, most of whom accepted responsibility for their actions and who proclaimed they had done this to themselves. Regular visitors to my blog and my friends know that I'm a big fan of personal accountability and taking responsibility for the consequences of your own actions....and because I feel that way, a comment that one of the people featured made really pissed me off.

He's a young black man and he weighs close to 800lbs. He said "Sometimes I wonder where it actually went wrong and why god gotta do me like dis".

*blink*

Excuse me? Did I hear that right?

"sometimes I wonder where it actually went wrong and why god gotta do me like dis"

At the risk of stating the obvious here, I don't believe that god or any other imaginary fairytale character has 'done' him like anything. Unless god/a fairy was holding him down and forcing food down his throat, he did it to himself. As for where 'it actually went wrong', well I'd say the day he climbed on the scale and saw that his weight/height ratio put him in the 'obese' range but CHOSE not to do anything about it - I'd say that was exactly where it went wrong. When he chose to eat rather than exercise, when he made food his best friend...those would both be places where it all went wrong.

I understand that once you get to a certain weight it becomes self-perpetuating and you don't really have to eat a whole lot to maintain it, but you have to get to that point first....and you get there by eating and eating and eating and not doing a whole lot else.

Nobody except this young man 'did' him like anything, and him viewing himself as a victim is what really pissed me off. If he'd said 'I got nobody else to blame for this except myself' I'd have had a whole lot of respect for him. As it is, he seemed to want to place the blame for his lardassness on ANYone but himself. I think that as long as he has that attitude towards his size, he's not going to be successful at losing any weight or becoming a healtheir, functioning member of society and his community.

Like a typical addict, he finds that it's easier to sit around and feel sorry for yourself and eat/use, then blame everyone else for your eating/using. How many of us in the medical field have heard 'it's his/her/their fault. If they weren't such a bitch/dick/asshole I wouldn't drink/get stoned/eat'? I've heard it more than a few times, and I know I'll hear it a few more times during my career. It's the easy way out. Getting clean/sober/thin requires you to work; it's easier to stay drunk/high/fat and blame everyone else for your behaviour.

Even your deity.