Things are gradually getting easier…I think. I’ll be honest though- at about 9:30 am I was feeling it pretty badly. I couldn’t wait until lunch time. Anyway- here’s the breakdown:
Breakfast: 2 pieces of wheat bread
Lunch: Turkey Sandwich, piece of wheat bread
Dinner: 2 pancakes
Tonight was kind of brutal. We had this volunteer appreciation dinner at church, and it was catered by Sunset Grill, which is pretty much awesome. So for the whole night I was in there, smelling the awesome-ness, and desperately wanting some of it. I hear the salad was especially good… To be honest, I was really wanting to break this thing off just for a plate of salad. How pathetic is that!
Tuesday promises to be a similar situation. At church we are having an Arena swtich-over party, and Sheridan’s Frozen Custard is being served there- for free! Talk about amazing-ness in your face! I’m planning on steering clear of everybody that day. lol.
Imminently approaching as well is the All-Staff Luncheon at church which always has amazing food. Let me shed a tear now.
Today I was reading some interesting statistics on the cost of obesity in America.
Apparently if there were no obesity in America we would collectively save $487 billion dollars a year, which is 3.7% of the GDP. That’s pretty incredible to think about. It seems we collectively blow $81 billion on over-eating. Also, we spend over $140 billion on medical costs associated with obesity. Pretty crazy, huh?
Lastly, it seems that we would all generate over $250 billion more dollars in productivity a year. That’s enough output for businesses to be able to hire tens of thousands of more workers.
That’s all I’ve got for today.
May 5, 2008 at 9:04 pm
This MSN article is interesting, but I believe it’s faulty in its assumptions and conclusions. It’s funny you should post on this, because just this past week I’ve dusted off my thesis (which was about mass media coverage of obesity and body image) and started re-exploring the connections between the moral ideologies of weight and health in our culture and how this may relate to current political and religious ideological messages (particularly those messages with gnostic parallels). I would like to expand this into an exploration of how the Church may appropriately and lovingly respond to some of these cultural messages.
Anyhow, I won’t bore you further with the details of that, but I do ask that you prayerfully reconsider if you’re thinking about taking the angle of “being overweight is immoral and the cause of our societal ills,” whether stated implicitly or explicitly. Not only is this view destructive and hurtful to your less-than-svelte brothers and sisters, but it also isn’t helpful, fair, or accurate. You can take whatever stance you want, of course, and perhaps that’s not the direction you’re going, but I’d like you to at least consider some other points of view before reaching that conclusion. Here are some differing perspectives:
from Scientific American
an ironic, stereotype-as-satire piece from Slate
from an obesity-myths site
You’re also welcome to read my thesis–I can e-mail you the pdf. It’s a little over 80 pages, I think…so, that’s an option if you’re really bored and/or need a cure for insomnia…ha.
Also, I think you may miss out on some opportunities to expand compassion and awareness through the course of your experiment if you narrow your focus to this. For example, I find it interesting that you chose to spend your $30 on a nutritionally balanced and healthy menu for the month, although you could have gotten much more food had you gone for the cheaper, yet less nutritional, standard broke-college-student fare of ramen noodles, hot dogs, peanut butter and white bread, cheap chips/snack items, egg salad (just get a big thing of mayo and eggs, and you’re good to go), sugary-cheap cereal…you get the idea. I agree with the stance that it’s important to take good care of one’s body by eating a healthy, moderate diet and getting daily exercise, so let’s not ignore that it’s much more expensive to eat healthfully and the implications this may have on the poorer segments of our society. Fresh produce is not cheap!
You may also want to consider, instead of demonizing fat people, using this semi-starvation mode you’re in this month to empathize with people who: (a) cannot afford an adequate amount of food, for whatever reasons (homelessness; famine); (b) are perpetually on restrictive, low-calorie (and counterproductive) weight loss diets in hopes of being “healthy” or to escape/avoid the stigma of being fat in our weight-obsessed culture, often only to lose and regain the same few pounds and end up feeling like failures; or, (c) those who suffer from the self-imposed hell of an eating disorder.
Some interesting statistics on that: an estimated 10-11 million Americans suffer from an eating disorder; Treatment of an eating disorder in the US ranges from $500 per day to $2,000 per day. The average cost for a month of inpatient treatment is $30,000. It is estimated that individuals with eating disorders need anywhere from 3 – 6 months of inpatient care. Health insurance companies for several reasons do not typically cover the cost of treating eating disorders. The cost of outpatient treatment, including therapy and medical monitoring, can extend to $100,000 or more.
Links for more info:
Eating Disorder Statistics
The Hazards of Chronic Undernutrition
Why Dieting Sucks
Well, this comment probably won’t make it through your spam-guard, considering I have so many links here. lol. Thanks for taking the time to read this!
May 5, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Elizabeth-
thanks for the comments!
No, I had absolutely no intention of doing any kind of demonizing or laying the blame for society’s ills on obesity- I just happened to see the article and thought that it was interesting.
I agree that there are some potentially faulty assumptions and conclusions in that article- I just thought it was interesting that someone tried to put some financial figures to it. I don’t think one necessarily has to attach a moral judgment to something to examine its potential economic impact, which was the point of my linking to it and talking about it in financial terms. I apologize if it came across differently.
As for getting more less nutritional food for cheaper- maybe. I’d have to do some price comparisons
May 5, 2008 at 10:52 pm
You know I don’t mind sharing my point of view when you touch on subjects for which I have strong opinions (there are so few…ha).
No, I didn’t get that impression from your posts alone, but my fear was that it might go that way at some point, which I’ve seen happen on numerous occasions when it comes to this particular topic, even with usually compassionate Christians. So, thanks for clarifying!
p.s.–When grocery shopping a couple of days ago, I noticed that a 12-pack of ramen noodles are going for a little over a dollar at ALDI. So, yes, price comparisons would be interesting, although it might be too torturous for you to do so until after this month.