What do you put in your mouth every day? Toothpaste, mouthwash, and some other things that may seem beneficial to you. It may be something hard, tasty, juicy , lip licking about to make you melt and have to change your panties kind of thing. Or it may be some velvety smooth, salivacious , dripping, mouthwatering make you want to have to change your fruit of the loom kind of thing. Does it remind you of sex? It should. It has all of the good feeling, excitement driven attributes of sex. We even have love relationships with it. That thing that has us all hot and bothered; that thing that we must have... is FOOD. What we eat and drink; how we exercise determines how we live. Somehow, we have confused weight with beauty. And yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The question is, are we healthy?
Okay, let me take a minute to gather myself before I talk about weight. It's kind of scary to get older and your body starts to change. Or, to have eaten hormone injected chicken wings about the size of a turkey. Which by the way, makes our children gain more weight than ever before. America has become the "fattest" country on earth. The sad part about it ts that our culture " body shames" people, and corporations makes millions on fad diet programs and extreme exercise videos. Surely, I am not the only one who has purchased something designed to make you "fit".
So, every day when I look in the mirror I desire to see something that was never there, never meant to be. Me, in a size 6. I haven't been a size 6 since I was six. Damn, I wanted to be that size 6!
Then slowly, while I look in the mirror, I find each flaw. Sometimes I just tell the mirror "fuck you, I don't want to see you today." Then comes the " I don't look so bad" and the "well he likes it" moments. The truth of the matter is, I had body shamed myself before anyone else had. Partly because the image of who I should be has been battered into my head by the white controlled media. And I, like many of us, believed that bullshit.
"Body shaming" is the act of talking about how someone looks or weighs depending on the perception of the person making the statement. Unfortunately, the media praises those who have the desired stereotypical television body type. While making others feel horrible about not looking like the anorexic models who walk down the aisle of every top designer's runway. I don't know about you, but worrying about my weight causes me to eat more! The truth is...everyone's body is different. I remember telling my Fitness Trainer Extraordinaire, LaVerne Young that I was upset about the way that I ate. Nor was I satisfied with the weight that I was not losing. She replied " well imagine how you would look if you did not exercise". I have thought about that almost every day. (LaVerne Young has a bootcamp at Mandrake Park, located at 39th and Cottage Grove in Chicago. We will be going there "live" on Friday August 5th!)
Recently, I have had a slump in my exercise routine. I am on my way back but it is hard. When you exercise then stop, starting to exercise again is like you have never exercised before. The leg lifts, the abdominal crunches, riding a bike, zumba, makes you want to stay at home under the covers. For me, there is no choice. Sitting on the couch means "death" to women and men. There are those who have health problem who cannot exercise. Dammit, I have one. I realize that the combination of watching what I put in my mouth and exercising will make a difference. And of course, a personal trainer would be best. Meanwhile, the media loves to "body shame" black women.
And, unfortunately we begin to feel bad about ourselves
Here are a few stats from http://stateofobesity.org/disparities/blacks/. It will make you want to scream hell no!
African American adults are nearly 1.5 times as likely to be obese compared with White adults. Approximately 47.8 percent of African Americans are obese (including 37.1 percent of men and 56.6 percent of women) compared with 32.6 percent of Whites (including 32.4 percent of men and 32.8 percent of women).2 More than 75 percent of African Americans are overweight or obese (including 69 percent of men and 82.0 percent of women) compared with 67.2 percent of Whites (including 71.4 percent of men and 63.2 percent of women).
And for our children:
Overweight and obesity rates also tend to be higher among African American children compared with White children, with obesity rates increasing faster at earlier ages and with higher rates of severe obesity. From 1999 to 2012, 35.1 percent of African American children ages 2 to 19 were overweight, compared with 28.5 percent of White children; and 20.2 percent were obese compared with 14.3 percent of White children.
Nationally, in 2011 to 2012, 20.5 percent of African American girls were obese compared with 15.6 percent of White girls, and 19.9 percent of African American boys were obese compared with 12.6 percent of White boys.5
More than 8 percent of African American children ages 2 to 19 were severely obese, compared with 3.9 percent of White children (BMI greater than 120 percent of the weight and height percentiles for an age rage) as of 2012.6
More than 11 percent of African American children ages 2 to 5 were obese, compared with 3.5 percent of White children. By ages 6 to 11, 23.8 percent of African American children were obese compared with 13.1 percent of Whites.7 Three-quarters of the difference in rates that arise between African American and White children happens between the third and eighth grades.
Don't you think it's time for us to get our shit together? Let's push the button and get moving!
