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10 pounds down 32 pounds to go!

Sunday, June 22, 2008

"she must be tired of something"

I'm embarking on a very Amy day: watching a movie while listening to the radio, cleaning my closet, baking cookies and making spaghetti sauce. I have a huge desire to go out for no real reason so I've lined up a full day of household distractions to keep me from wasting gas and time and also I really need to wash my floor. I made my laborers go with me to Bangor on all my errands yesterday for the strict purpose that I wouldn't have to go out again this weekend. In exchange for their patience we stopped at a big ass yard sale. I found some really cute glass bowls in the shape of apples (which, wow is clear glass ever difficult to photograph) and the boys bought a ridiculously old and heavy boom box. Which I accidentally incited a bidding war over by helping them find a cord...the yardsale lady didn't realize we were together...whoops! I think they still got it for 2 dollars but geez, I didn't mean to drive up the prices on them. I learned who all the dads are because they were searching through the baby clothes and debating teddy bears, it was adorable beyond words.

*I just finished my cookies and they kind of suck. I'm not really a big sugar cookie fan anyway but I just had this urge and it's disappointing. Maybe they need frosting. Maybe Matt will eat them anyway. Maybe if I threaten to cry if he doesn't. Hmmm.*

So, I was poking around walmart yesterday with my guys, as I'm wont to do, and I found a very annoying bag of trail mix. It was called "dietary mix". Dietary mix. As opposed to what? If you eat it, it's dietary as in a part of one's diet. Oreos could say "dietary" and it would be true. What they wanted to write was "trail mix for fat people" and someone in PR slapped their wrists and they thought, dietary...sounds like diet...go for it. It sort of reminded me of something in a round about sort of way. I'm not sure how many of you guys are Dooce readers but I'm going to mention her cleanse anyway. I should say she's doing the Oprah cleanse and taking a lot of shit for it. She takes a lot of shit for getting up in the morning, the price you pay for making enough money with your blog to pay a mortgage I suppose. Anyway, the cleanse is a sugar, caffeine and alcohol free/vegan diet and she's doing it not to lose weight but to take better care of her body and no one seems to be pleased about it. It sort of reminds me of the look on people's faces when I tell them I exercise. "You're so fat, if you exercised wouldn't you be skinnier?". I think there's an assumption that skinny people must eat well, as an intrinsic value of thinness...just like skinny people must also be happier and smarter and better all around.

I'm taking the reaction in a very fat-centric way. People are used to Oprah being on a diet, what's it been like 20 years? Dooce is perfectly skinny and doesn't generally make weight an issue, at least on her blog. I think we're brainwashed that only fat people can be on a diet and only fat people should think a moment about the food they put in their mouths. There was this episode of Bones in the first season where skinny girl b tells group a through d that this other girl must be insecure because she's got a perfect figure but was eating a fat free muffin. Love that show, hate that line. Seriously, how many calories are there in muffins even if they're fat free, you could power a small town on those carbs. That always bothers me but then it bothers me too that we're supposed to believe that she looks like that without ever considering a morsel she eats and this one fat free muffin is a ringing bell of insecurity. Food is so annoying sometimes, I hate it. I love cooking and well, obviously eating, but god wouldn't it be easier if it was all like space food...pre-packaged for nutrition and you just ate it because you had to and then got back to work.

The forces of society need to sell coke and hamburgers and whatever 7 layer burritonator taco bell is flogging to keep our happy consumption economy rolling. How we can vilify the fat and celebrate that kind of eating at the same time and not see any kind of connection is incomprehensible. It's incomprehensible to me anyway that anyone really cares about what other people eat. I don't stalk and threaten the people who go through the Mcdonalds drive-thru, why should anyone care whether someone wants to change their diet for their health. People don't pelt diabetics with sweets in the street or force feed red meat to cardiac patients, who cares if someone cuts sugar and alcohol out of their diets. I just don't get it, I really don't.

6 comments:

pinky pinkerson said...

not to not comment on the rest of your thoughtful entry -

but I have developed a yard sale habit that NEEDS FEEDING. Sadly, not all yard sales contain the baby boy clothes and good condition toys that I am looking for. I did pass a table on the side of the road that looked like it was covered with brightly colored children's clothing but we didn't stop. And now that will haunt me.

Amy said...

They had really nice baby stuff actually, but it looked like it was all for girls.

I'm super glad you commented because yesterday I had a tragedy I know you will understand. My grandmother's lady with a hat vase BROKE. I've had in on a very wide, stable window sill for ages because it's the one place the cat can't get and, seriously you won't believe this because I don't, the WIND blew it over. Either that or my mom's ghost but seriously, she was never in to breaking things. Das fur was with me when it happened, no where near the scene of the crime. I can't believe I lost my favorite antique to the wind...how in the world?

Mal said...

Amen, Sister.

MayQueen said...

That sort of thing annoys me to know end. Whenever I decline something sweet or a second helping I hear "Like you can't afford it, miss skinny." Like I'm showing anorexic tendencies. They don't consider that too much cake makes me feel ill, or that I really dislike the feeling of being stuffed, or that skinny as I may be, I actually have high cholesterol.

MayQueen said...

And I know I typed "know end." This is what happens when you try to eat soup and type at the same time.

Amy said...

I think people like the idea of the skinny girl who can eat whatever she wants, it's like searching for the holy grail but then sort of wanting not to find it at the same time.