So I thought I'd take the girls out for a special Sunday morning treat over the weekend to the local IHOP for breakfast, cause I'm just a nice guy like that.
However, this time I was made especially aware of my many large and well fed dining companions, not by my young daughter who has a bad habit of innocently pointing out the oddities in a room, but by the fact that over 90% of the people there on that morning were enormous!
Now don't get me wrong; I love a good meal and I can certainly eat like a horse (just ask my Mother-in-law). However, when we become the freaks for being far too skinny, and have people staring and pointing at us, there is just something wrong!
I actually saw to giant brothers dinning with their giant mother, and both of the boys were actually using 2 seperate chairs each to sit on at the same time! And nobody seemed to think this was a problem as the gobbled down the bacon and a mountain of pancakes with syrup!
Georgia has long since been one of the fattest states in the country, and we are apparently supposed to be doing something to maintain that proud right, because everywhere I go I see people just gorging themselves to oblivion. It has gotten to the point that I feel guily by association now any time that I dine out.
I'm 5'10, 157lbs, and certainly not overweight. However, when I sit down in a restaurant, surrounded by people who all weigh over 350 pounds, I just feel a bit ashamed for contributing to this out of control American problem.
Maybe it's a good thing, because it will help me save money and focus on a more healthy diet, but it just bothers me that the new public-dinning norm is that you have to be as big as the restaurant to eat at the restaurant. If you're one of those sickly healthy weight people, then you become the object of attention for being abnormal.
What message are we sending our children, and what are we saying as a country about our own pride or respect for ourselves? Does EVERYBODY have a freakin' "thyroid condition" these days or what? Am I just over reacting again, or is this problem really becoming as big as the people perpetuating it?