Flabu-lessly Yours

No offense to anyone named George, I simply enjoy alliteration!

It seems like buffet-style restaurants are springing up everywhere lately. And it's no surprise, really, because they provide relatively cheap eats, along with the illusion that you're getting a lot for your money. But check out the entrees and you'll quickly realize that almost everything is fried (carbs), battered (more carbs), or floating in a pool of gravy (still more carbs). Although most of these establishments typically offer a small tray of steamed, unappealingly limp broccoli (just in case the occasional diehard fat-o-phobe makes an unexpected appearance), most of the vegetable side dishes are high in -- you guess it -- carbs.

Is it any wonder that people are getting fatter? A while ago, I went to a buffet-style Chinese restaurant with a friend. What impressed me most was not the quality of the food, although their peel-and-eat boiled shrimp was very carb friendly. I must admit that I was totally taken aback by the sight of so many morbidly obese people all in one place. We looked around to see if we might have walked in on a NAAFA convention, but most of these folks appeared to be dining alone or with friends. Before anybody starts to criticize them too harshly, I should mention that they weren't the only ones stuffing themselves. Most of the other patrons were pigging out too. Judging from their frequent trips through the buffet line, they appeared to be on the fast track to becoming as super-sized as the mountains of food they had loaded onto their plates. How sad, America.

Lest you think I'm sitting on my high horse sounding all self-righteous since I adopted a low carb lifestyle, let me make something crystal clear. This is a very emotionally charged issue for me. My heart breaks when I see people using food to abuse themselves. They are the mirrors of my tortured soul, as I have first-hand knowledge of the private hell they are living. I know what is going on in their minds when they abuse food because, at various times in my life, I engaged in that very same behavior. People abuse food all the time, and those who do it aren't necessarily compulsive overeaters, either. Some of them may manage to stay within an acceptable weight range because they are bulimic, like I was in my late teens and early twenties. Others abuse their bodies by denying themselves nourishment and becoming anorexic. (I've done that, too.)

It's a common misconception to assume that all fat people overeat. In a lot of cases, that's not necessarily true. After I recovered from my eating disorders, I realized that I tend to gain weight very easily, even though I usually eat considerably smaller meals than most people of normal-weight. People frequently jump to the mistaken conclusion that obesity an overeating problem that stems from a lack of self-control. Fat people have plenty of self-control, I assure you. Otherwise, a lot more skinny people would be turning up dead! But, seriously, folks... Although it's true that people can get fat by eating enormous quantities of junk food, there are also plenty of people who can get equally fat by eating normal-sized portions of high-carbohydrate health foods. I'm sure all the Ornish and Pritikin devotees would be shocked to hear this.

Some say that poking fun at fat people is the only form of socially acceptable discrimination left in today's politically correct society. They call us lazy and stupid, and hurl all kinds of insults at us in public that they would never even dare to direct at, for example, a person of another race or nationality. Sure, it's possible that some overweight people are lazy, but I'm betting that most of them have broken metabolisms. After trying one diet after another and failing to lose weight, it's no wonder they have given up. Undeniably, repeated failure can take its toll on a person; and, it can have devastating consequences, too, sometimes shattering the core of someone's very being. People who don't realize that they are carbohydrate intolerant allow themselves to be coaxed, cajoled and shamed into joining programs like Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, but none of those diets will work in the long run because they fail to address the unique needs of people who suffer from metabolic syndrome. Has that ever happened to you? If you're carbohydrate intolerant like I am, you didn't fail the diet. The diet failed you.

Several years ago, I lost 40 pounds in 4 months by following a low carbohydrate diet. A single sugar binge completely derailed me and set me on the path to gaining back all the weight I had lost, plus another 50 pounds or so. I still haven't forgiven the person who helped orchestrate that fiasco. But it's my own fault. Had I stuck to my guns, I would have saved myself a lot of hardship. Well, thank goodness it's not too late for another chance at becoming thin and "flabu-less." Now that I have re-discovered the joys of low carbing, my heartfelt wish is to share this secret with fat people everywhere. You never know, it might just might turn out to be their key to living "flabu-lessly."