Do you remember Tang?

I always thought that being fat was 100% my problem. There is no one else to blame but me. I have control over what I put into my mouth and how much (or specifically how little) I exercise. Does it make any sense to say, “Damn you <insert delicious pizza name here> for being so delicious!”   Well, actually…yes. Please, let me explain.

Because I started this blog for my media/communications class at St. Kates, I should probably tie in the media with my weight. We learned about how the media uses framing to present an idea or issue to the public. There are two different types of framing, episodic and thematic. Episodic framing basically tells a story that the individual person is 100% at fault for their problems in life. You are poor because you’re lazy and made bad decisions. I was fat because of my love for pizza and I don’t exercise because…well, yuck. Thematic framing says that it is more of a societal issue and there is fault in our government and political decision making system. Let me explain.

I grew up poor. Now, I don’t mean we struggled a little, I mean we were close to being homeless. When I was six, we lived in a mobile home on my grandpa’s land. My mom got hurt at work and she couldn’t work for a while, the bank took our mobile home. We had no other choice but to move into the garage that was on our land. I am 100% serious when I say this was a 30×60 pole shed. There was no insulation, no bathroom, and 2 very large garage doors. I love my mom and dad more than words can say. I never once knew that we were in a tight spot. They did everything they possibly could to make sure I had clothes on my fat little body and food in my mouth. What do you think we ate? Fresh zucchini with grilled chicken? Heck no! We ate ramen and PB&J…we ate noodles and LOTS of bread. Why? Because its cheap!  Please see the picture below where I drank Tang on a daily basis.  That stuff has SO much salt and sugar (SO delicious) that I ballooned up like a little fat oomph loompa!

Do you notice that people who shop at Walmart tend to look different than the people that shop at Whole Foods? I’m not trying to make this post political by ANY means and honestly, I’m challenging my own thinking process here. It’s expensive to eat healthy. You can buy a bag of noodles for $1.29 but chicken is $3.99 a pound. Do you see the issue? You can buy an entire meal at McDonalds for $2.99 but a bag of salad mix is $5.00. I can honestly say now that growing up extremely poor probably had more to do with my weight than I ever thought before.