[Canuk]

I agree - I lived in an urban area in Canada and moved to a Rural area in upstate NY and noticed one thing immediately - the serving sizes were much larger. Fast Food restaurants served the Canadian large as a medium and so on. Sit-down restaurants had meals where the entree came on one plate (covering it) with pasta and salad on separate plates - for example a chicken breast was the entire breast both sides of the chicken not one side (3000+ calories). I think this adds pressure to overeat when combined with the lack of options for exercise in day-to-day life such as walking (not possible in most locations) greatly increases the odds of being overweight which was evident in a large portion of the population.

[JJ]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joelcolorado', 'I') will be legally disabled in 4 months so I guess you can retract a little of that hate. Not EVERYONE who is using the electric chairs are disabled. Its like seeing the ppl park in the handicap spots and walk in better than I can. What with that?

I just know what the numbers say. Diabetes will break the american medical community and america too. MOST due to over eating.

Did you get the info on Byetta I suggested for weight loss?

I was sposed to be disabled in 94 but kept working a horribly physical job til now just due to tough nuts. hah..
Doctors told me I was done back then. I showed them. Went today and the doc said this is it. Wont be working after December any more and I am only 50. So I am on YOUR side but PLEASE, see the other side too.

The reason MOST ppl cant use small cars as they cant get IN small cars. LOOK at the BUFFET lines. OMG. Makes me ill now.

I used to eat a salad bar, dinner and then dessert. Now wife and I split a meal only and I cant eat my half. What a change. But it takes work and a decision to not be like that ever again.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('JJ', '
')SOOO many people are morbidy obese. I have people every day ask me to get them food two feet away because they can't reach it and have lost the willingness to try. This is not a medical condition.

[Heineken]

Americans really are astonishingly fat, as a rule. I can hardly believe my eyes when I'm out in public or flick past the "reality" shows on TV. All those giant asses and hanging-over-the belt guts! How do they stand it? I was somewhat overweight, briefly, as a young adult and remember how very uncomfortable it felt. Plus, it makes you old, ugly, and sick.

Ludi, I don't entirely buy the "it's not their fault" argument. One can't if one believes in individual responsibility.

Maybe people will all be put on an involuntary diet, soon.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')
Ludi, I don't entirely buy the "it's not their fault" argument. One can't if one believes in individual responsibility.
.

[Heineken]

I'm really glad to hear you and your husband (and dog!) have taken up a walking program, and that your "numbers" are so good.

I guess I agree that since being fat has now become the norm, it's very hard for even a reasonable person to escape the blubbery clutches. For example, if most students in a high school are overweight to some degree, those powerful social barriers against obesity have vanished.

One of my main reasons for not being fat is that it doesn't feel good, as I said earlier. For me, that was all the motivation I ever needed to get trim and stay that way.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', ' ')that was all the motivation I ever needed to get trim and stay that way.

[PrairieMule]

I think there is something to what both of Hein and Ludi are addressing. My 64y/o Dad has a deformed shoulder from Polio. He recieved a 4F for the Vietnam draft, yet the old fart works like a beast. Together we can put in a 9-12 hour day of fixing fence, repairing washouts or cutting trees. While he is slowing down in his 60's, the guy has a sense of stubborness to accomplish tasks.

I think as Ludi coined it "Unusual willpower" will be required as the sun sets on the age of cheap oil. Especially if we make the move back towards a agrarian society. In fact I put a slightly higher value on it than intellegence or natural strength. To be honest with ourselves, we have gotten soft.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', '"')Unusual willpower" will be required as the sun sets on the age of cheap oil. Especially if we make the move back towards a agrarian society. In fact I put a slightly higher value on it than intellegence or natural strength. To be honest with ourselves, we have gotten soft.

[PrairieMule]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Ludi', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', '"')Unusual willpower" will be required as the sun sets on the age of cheap oil. Especially if we make the move back towards a agrarian society. In fact I put a slightly higher value on it than intellegence or natural strength. To be honest with ourselves, we have gotten soft.

[Pretorian]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joelcolorado', 'T')he reason MOST ppl cant use small cars as they cant get IN small cars. LOOK at the BUFFET lines. OMG. Makes me ill now.

[Ludi]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Pretorian', '
')But,I've never been exposed to corn syrop before I came to US.

[Heineken]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('PrairieMule', 'I') think there is something to what both of Hein and Ludi are addressing. My 64y/o Dad has a deformed shoulder from Polio. He recieved a 4F for the Vietnam draft, yet the old fart works like a beast. Together we can put in a 9-12 hour day of fixing fence, repairing washouts or cutting trees. While he is slowing down in his 60's, the guy has a sense of stubborness to accomplish tasks.

I think as Ludi coined it "Unusual willpower" will be required as the sun sets on the age of cheap oil. Especially if we make the move back towards a agrarian society. In fact I put a slightly higher value on it than intellegence or natural strength. To be honest with ourselves, we have gotten soft.

[joelcolorado]

Here is the bottom line. If you are eating BELOW your needed calorie intake of like 1700 calories, you will NOT gain weight.

I had to write down EVERY calorie consumed to finally wake up. THAT makes you realize how much is in food. If you are eating that much at a buffet, you are eating prob 5,000 calories. Sorry, just the way it is.

One cup of most stuff like dry cereal is 150 cals, so imagine good tasting things? Its disgusting.

1200 cals and you will lose that 120 pounds. Trust me. Bout 3 pounds a week to start then slower as you go.

[Nickel]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('joelcolorado', '1')200 cals and you will lose that 120 pounds. Trust me. Bout 3 pounds a week to start then slower as you go.

[WildRose]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Heineken', '
')

I share your dad's pigheadedness. I'll go on challenging my battered body to limit and beyond. To hell with the consequences. Fighting the impossible odds is what makes us human. I'll keep hanging on that pull-up bar, wielding that chainsaw, and swinging that pickax, etc., until my arms fall off. I'll keep walking on my hands until I can't take a single step.

[Heineken]

Good for you, Rose. (Maybe not so good for your knee, though.)

Consider yoga if you aren't already doing it. It's the most powerful weapon available to the aging bod.

[PrairieMule]

Pig headed is a great word to describe it. Good ol' Yankee can do moxie. We have lost this, now we just bitch and grow fat. I don't know how many times we have finished a long day and we are headed home only to find a tree on the fence.

In this scenario there is no bitching, only cursing. We are allowed to curse as in yell "You G** D*mn tree!" directly at the inert dead tree. Now being Baptist I substitute blasphemy with variations of the "F" word. Cursing gets us mad. Mad makes us move when we are tired.

This is acceptable behavior on a ranch.

On the flip side, we are not allowed to whine or bitch. "Oh why did this happen Lord? We are so tired. I can't deal with this! This isn't my fault, it's someone else's negligence ". Whining makes you resolved that there is nothing you can do. This is the same attitude that keeps us from wearing out the tread on our expensive sneakers.

There will be no customer service to bitch at after the powerdown. There will be no one to sue when we slip on a slick sidewalk.

Time we accept this.

[Heineken]

Yes, there's nothing worse, in my book, than blaming others for the consequences of your own decisions and choices.

Cursing is fine as long as you accept responsibility for every wrinkle in your life. That's the first step to smoothing out the wrinkle. When you blame others, you also (consciously or unconsciously) place the power to FIX the problem in THEIR hands---hands that aren't ever going to lift a finger to solve your problem. Just like that fallen tree, which won't ever get cleaned up until YOU clean it up (unless you're rich enough to pay through the nose to have someone else do it, of course).

Wayne Dyer has written cogently about this phenomenon in his classic, "Your Erroneous Zones."

[PrairieMule]

I'm going to have reflect on that H, that's deep.

I know I am straying off the subject of americans to lazy to walk, but I think we are on to something here. The american work ethic still exists, but it has morphed into something different. Now we must be be able to juggle and manage all bits and pieces of information on our monitor screens and phonelines instead of how it use to be. In the process we have physically let ourselves go.