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Eradicating obesity

Michelle A Eng Leang
Published: 
Monday, April 30, 2012

Why so many people in Trinidad so fat? It wasn’t always so. I always boasted to my international friends of the sexiness that exists here. Women and men to make you go...hmm. While I was in the UK and throughout the rest of my travels, many would comment on my slender frame and my apparent luck in possessing such a trait. Thing is, it isn’t luck. Living on a Caribbean island for 26 years and loving the beach as much as I do, I’ve always tried to take care of myself to be 100 per cent-bikini ready. I’ve always thought the rest of the nation felt the same, especially my generation. I would boast about our bodies and their mass exposure come Carnival time.  Now, it seems I have to eat my words—and trust me, they are way above my daily calorie count. No one wants to be fat. Fact. If you claim to love your sumo-wrestler physique, it’s simply you settling, just like the fat settling in your body. You coming to terms with the reality that it’s easier to be happier being overweight than actually to do something about it. But to let yourself get that way in the first place? It’s not like you woke up four sizes bigger than you were yesterday. It was a progressive journey, one that you could have prevented.  You don’t think that after not being in Trinidad for eight years, that I just don’t want to eat everything in sight? Our food here in T&T is one of our strengths—but it is clearly leading to a weakness.

So we overeating—and then there’s the alcohol. What next? Leave you all to fix it on your own? That could work. I see some of you trying. Running around the Savannah. Gyming out. Good on you. But what about the rest of you that seem to just accept it? I think there are quite a few things that can be done to stop you in your tracks. Firstly, I think there should be scales placed in fast-food outlets and your weight will dictate what you can order, if anything at all. For example, if you’re a woman standing at five foot five, weighing in at 180 pounds on the scale at the fried-chicken restaurant, you should be able to order a corn on the cob or a coleslaw. Or if you’re a man standing at six foot, weighing in at 250 pounds, lights should start flashing and security should be escorting you to the door, as you stand on the scale at the burger joint.
Okay, the food establishments want you to keep eating, so that probably won’t happen. Clothing is another pet peeve of mine. Why do I have to pay the same price for a size-small top as someone would pay for an extra-large top? Surely, the bigger the clothing, the more it should cost. It requires more fabric. So why not? 
 
If you knew  you could decrease your annual clothing spend by 20 per cent by being a medium instead of a large—would that not be an incentive? The reason I ask is that it seems not being fat is not incentive enough–which to me is mind-boggling. And I say that because I battle with weight as well. Fair enough, I’ve never been obese, and being tall (I stand at five foot 11) hides weight well. However, I am prone to growing by a dress size or three, if I let myself go. And by let myself go, I mean eat as if I were four people in one. I have an incredible appetite and as I get older, my metabolism is not as forgiving as it was when I was 18.  From what I remember, piling on the pounds is not a nice feeling. And it is this feeling of not being happy with a chubby body that always propels me to do the little things that keep me in check. What things, you ask? I don’t eat like a vacuum, like I’ve seen some of you do. I don’t pile my plate with macaroni pie, rice, cou-cou, potato salad and meat for lunch. Then a bit of cake. Maybe some ice cream. It’s just too much food. And people do this daily. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. 
If you can do it and get away with it, my congratulations. But if you’re piling on the pounds, just stop eating like a hog.  I don’t shovel food in my mouth like a neanderthal and I try to chew each mouthful thoroughly. Eating with chopsticks helps, as it regulates how much food you put in your mouth at each time. I drink a lot of peppermint tea, especially when I feel for a snack during working hours, as sit at my desk. Not the opportune time for a Kiss cake. The fact is, fatties are everywhere and we can do something to stop it, so as not to waste taxpayers’ dollars on procedures to eradicate obesity.
 
Top tips for fatties
Stop eating like a hog, exercise, 
stop making excuses
gie

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