Posted On: April 3, 2008, 3:00 pm CDT

Posted By: lastbat

(I really should have brought a book for lunch today)

We are showing compassion. Nobody has called overweight people names; nobody has said that losing any amount of weight is easy (it's simple, but not easy); nobody has said there aren't barriers. What people have said it that it takes a lot of willpower and effort. There are barriers to the obese and the discrimination is all legal. That part sucks. But the solution is as simple as calories in must be less than calories out. How to do that is the hard part.

Most of us grew up being told to clean our plates, that starving children in China would love our largesse, that eating more was what we needed to do. We also grew up with a food industry that has become very adept at making foods that should be healthy very calorie dense and unhealthy. It takes knowledge and vigilence to stay on top of your health these days. Especially for men since we, as a culture, think that a 16oz steak (a full pound of meat!) is a single serving and should be consumed with all the trimmings; eating anything less makes you less of a man. That's a little over-the-top, but not by much. Anybody who recognizes they were on an unhealthy track and fixes it deserves some kudos.