Saturday, March 3, 2012

Inherited Fatness

I am the sixth generation of fatty in my family.  And yet people are still surprised that we are all fat.  It doesn't seem to matter how much I exercise, or how healthily I eat; I must be lying about it, or else I wouldn't be so fat, right?
I had a long conversation with a family member today about this.  The Asperger's runs in the family on that side, the fat on the other side.  This family member was resistant to the idea of Asperger's at first, until someone suggested my nephew may have it too.  You see, this family member is the other Aspie in the family.  *grin*  She's starting to see that it doesn't make you a weirdo, and it doesn't mean there is something wrong with you.  But it still seems like she thinks there is something fundamentally broken in the fat members of the family.
I got a little excited/cranky on the phone tonight.  I generally don't medicate on Saturdays because I don't leave my house, and I am running low on meds and don't have the money to refill.  Which means what would have been a calm conversation yesterday ended up with me being more defensive than normal today.
Don't worry, I did apologize.  I'm not a bad person, just an emotional one.  When I was calmer, I did get her to see that since I have discovered HAES, my weight has stabilized.  It has gone down a little, but I am just happy to be stable.  I don't think there is anything wrong with being larger than I am - I just can't afford to buy new clothes again, and I am getting close to the point where I wouldn't be able to get them from the store anymore.
I digress.  I think I got somewhere tonight.  She wanted someone else in the family to diet.  I said I didn't think that was the best thing for the other person.  She's looking for the copy of Health at Every Size by Linda Bacon that I bought them last year now.  I hope she finds it.  I would like to see the other person in my family happier and not feeling bad about his size.

2 comments:

  1. Besides being overweight, the women in my small family also tend to develop arthritis of the hip: my mom, my aunt, me, my cousin's daughter. Notice, my cousin is the odd woman out, having no arthritis.

    Although my cousin's daughter told me right away when she was diagnosed with arthritis in her early 30s (same for me), I have never discussed it with her mother. One day, I innocently mentioned to my cousin (the mother of the arthritic daughter) how arthritis seems to run in the family (without saying anything about her daughter). She blew up. "MY mother developed arthritis because of a fall she had! It's not like YOU and YOUR mother!" I didn't say anything about her daughter and tried to steer the conversation to a less tricky topic...

    Talk about not seeing what's right in front of your eyes!

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    Replies
    1. No one wants to admit that some things might be genetic. Thanks for your reply!

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