If Your Life Makes You Fat, Then Maybe You Should Just Be Fat
another day, another stupid article about how something that happens to most people in everyday life is ZOMG MAKING YOU TEH FATZ. today, it was an article on one of the blogs i read (i forget which one) about how having a screwed-up sleep schedule can mess up your metabolism. ok. i think most people know that it’s not super healthy not to have a regular sleep schedule.
there’s an article like this pretty much every week, if not every day. eating dinner somewhere other than a dinner table is making you fat. having red walls in your dining room is making you fat. not sleeping at the right time is making you fat. sitting at your desk while you work is making you fat. BREATHING AND BEING A HUMAN IS MAKING YOU A BIG FAT DISGUSTING SLOB. ugh. i’m just fucking done with it.
i know how to be healthy. i know that ideally, i need to devote an hour or so a day to movement. i need to eat mostly fruits and veggies, supplemented with whole grains. i need to drink water more than any other beverage. i need to get enough sleep. i need to take my vitamins. i need to walk instead of drive. i need to not ingest a lot of sugar.
but you know what? life does not always provide us with ideal situations. sometimes i’m going to go through a period of time when i don’t get enough sleep, like when i’m finishing up an article, or writing my dissertation, or, god forbid, if i ever have a child. there are times when i’m traveling that the healthiest food option available to me is pretzels and powerade. there are times when i have to drink a coke or two because i need caffeine and coffee makes me throw up. there are times that i can’t afford to buy fresh fruits or veggies, or when i am so strapped for time that i have to rely on frozen dinners. there are times when i’m out with my friends and i’d rather order french fries instead of a salad because THAT’S WHAT I FUCKING WANT TO EAT. there are times when we all eat dessert.
in other words, if being thin means that i have to behave perfectly, and police my life down to the nth degree, then FUCK BEING THIN. if i have to live so rigidly that i can’t enjoy my life in order for society to not discriminate against me and treat me like shit, then FUCK SOCIETY. it’s not me who needs to change, it’s you and your bullshit.
kate moss famously said that nothing tastes as good as skinny feels. i profoundly and completely disagree. further, sometimes pulling a week of all-nighters to produce a really amazing piece of writing is better than skinny feels. sometimes blowing off the gym to go to the beach is better than skinny feels. sometimes staying all week at the hospital with a sick relative is better than skinny feels. sometimes working a desk job 40 hours a week in order to not get evicted from my apartment is better than skinny feels.
life is more important than being thin. people are more important than being thin. if you can’t understand that, then you need to take a moment and rethink your own humanity.
