Sodies

 

Right up the point when Singapore went into its circuit breaker in April 2020, I used to be a fat bastard. I used to hover at the 97KG mark and for the most part, I used to spill out of my shirts. There was, as they say, a damn good reason why I didn’t wear ties, even when I was working in a full-time corporate job.

 

Me – Age 42 – taken from my personal Facebook page

It goes without saying that I didn’t look very good. My own mother described me as “gross looking.” For the longest of times, I didn’t occur to me that I was in an awful place and that’s made even worse by the fact that I worked in an image building business. I was just the way I was.

As I’ve said before, the circuit breaker was good for my health. There was no great secret to dropping the kilos. Regular exercise (walking more) and eating less did the trick. I never realized it but I actually like looking at myself in the mirror and I talk about shifting from losing weight to getting more tone because, I like the fact that if I stand straight, I can see lines on my body rather than a round mound (though I do have love handles and my chin is still a little bit too flabby). My new found interest in my personal fitness comes from things like enjoying the fact that I can wear tight t-shirts and I’m not going to offers to star in a porn movie for Telly Tubbies.

 

Me – Age 46 – Taken from my personal Instagram page

Whilst I am not about to enter any body beautiful contest anytime soon, I bring up the topic of my personal fitness journey because I realized that the transformation is as much psychological as it is physical. I still enjoy my food but after a big meal I make it a point to walk that bit more so that the body uses the food rather than stores it. Prior to losing weight, I was prone to sleeping in the day (sneak a bit of nodding off in the office). Now, I don’t feel like sleeping during the day even if I’ve slept less than the prescribed eight hours the night before.

Thanks to Facebook’s video feed, I’ve been made to realise that I’m very lucky to have had the mindset that I’ve had in the weight loss department. I’ve been watching “1,000 lbs. Sisters,” a reality TV series based on two morbidly obese sisters from Kentucky, USA.

In a way, the attraction to this show is the same attraction to a “freak” show. The two sisters in question are physically freaky. The “skinny” sister weighs 400 lbs. (181.44kg). However, you can actually recognize a human body. The “fat” sister tops the scales at 600 lbs (272.15kb). Both of them are so heavy that they need to go to a junk yard to weigh themselves. The name of the show is derived from the fact that their combined weight is 1,000 lbs. By way of a reference, 400 lbs is the weight of an adult male lion and 600 lbs. is the weight of a grizzly bear. However, whilst the lion and grizzly at that weight are pure muscle, the sisters are pure fat. For the fat sister, it goes without saying that she has issues with her mobility among a host of health issues.

I’m not sure if its funny or sad but the sisters in question thrive on being “freaks.” They have “fans” on YouTube and apparently their rise to fame came from the result of a “Chubby Bunny” challenge (which involved stuffing their mouths with marshmallows and trying to say “chubby bunny.” The fat sister in particular has developed something of a childish persona that gives her a sense of vulnerability. On one hand its very funny but on the other hand its really sad (do you really need to get morbidly obese people to stuff themselves with the wrong things?)

One of the questions you end up asking is, at what point is it OK to accept that someone is comfortable in their skin and what point to need to get the message that they are a walking time bomb? In the case of the fat sister, she is told by doctors that she has an 80 percent chance of dying in the next five-years if she doesn’t do something about her weight. Yet, she does things like go for men with a peculiar fat fetish, which means they sneak the food that she doesn’t need to her. In a way being “objectified” is her happiness.

One of the most pressing points is that despite their fame, the nicest thing you can say the sisters is that they are the definition of “trailer-park” trash. They grew poor and had to feed themselves that they shouldn’t have had. They live on a diet that is bound to clog the arteries amongst other things.

When of the points that the “freak” show that is the “1,000 lbs Sisters” should drive home as that there is an incredible health divide. Forget Asian images of the “Prosperous” look or that poor people eat simply and therefore eat healthily whilst the rich indulge in all sorts of exotic things that give them problems.

The truth is that modern life has made it such that “rich = healthy” and “poor = unhealthy.” In the USA it’s the “trailer-park” trash or the residents of inner-city ghettos that become obese. The residents of Wall Street and Hollywood are inevitably fit and beautiful. It’s not just the USA where this happens. I work on Shenton Way, which is Singapore’s main financial district. In the last seven-years, the bankers, hedge fund managers and so on, are inevitably very presentable. If I want to meet an obese person, I merely need to take a stroll to any of our poorer housing estates. Unfortunately, in “racial” terms, there is a correlation between ethnic groups (Malay and local Tamil), income levels and rates of diabetes.

It is the rich who can afford to be healthy. Gym memberships tend to be pricy. Only the rich can afford to hire personal trainers or keep a tread mill in the office.  Whilst the rich can afford the medical care, they do things that keep out of hospital.

This is not the case with the poor. They eat the cheapest food, which is often the most processed and therefor the least healthy. They can’t afford gyms. Net result, it’s the poor that end up in hospital (healthcare cost being a universal issue – in my recent week in hospital, my only thought was how much is this going to cost me).

Take the example of Cristiano Ronaldo, who is considered one of the best soccer players in the world. Mr. Ronaldo is young, good looking and very fit (which given his profession, should not be a surprise). So, when he was asked about what he drank at a press conference, this young, rich, fit and good-looking guy famously put away bottles of Coke (the sponsor) and said that he drank water. Coke stocks took a battering but how can you sue him for saying what everyone knows to be true – plain water is the best and soft drinks are infamously bad for you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sco9n_JTrEM

 

The “1,000 lbs Sisters” on the other hand quench their thirst very differently. They do not drink water. Instead, they drink “diet soda” because they were told that it cancels out the sugar in sweets (obviously not true). The best part is that they drink on average of eight to twelve cans of soda a day Just look at the dietician’s expression:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIAFe7zaCRU

 

Sodies – Copyright TLC

So, why is it such that good health is starting to look like something for the rich? This shouldn’t be the case. One of the best ways that governments can contain healthcare costs is by preventing the masses from needing healthcare. How can it right that industries depend on screwing up the life of the poor? Food processing companies depend on selling junk food to the poor. The healthcare industry on the masses needing hospitals. How do we accept a system that encourages those who can least afford it to binge on the things they shouldn’t? The odd sugary drink may be harmless but the system does not depend on people like me who have the odd drink – they need the “1,000lbs Sisters” and their intake of eight to twelve cans a day. This cannot be right.