Monday, August 1, 2016

Does Lack of Fun Make People Fatter?



I saw this conversation on Fat Logic, I do think that recreational pleasure for Americans is low in general.

I'm not sure about the theories that it is making people fatter but maybe it is just one piece of the puzzle. I think the toxins and other problems are having an heavier impact but lack of fun is tied to stress, and stress makes CORTISOL.

The fat logic people are slaves to the CICO beliefs, but I believe less recreation and social interactions means more depression and more stress and higher cortisol levels too for the population as a whole. It is bringing everyone's health down.

 I've had some friends tell me that I get to do some fun things, and that makes me feel weird. No, they aren't pointing to my supposed "life of bliss laying around in my apt by the lake" as one smear campaign believing cousin put it, but the fact when I am not housebound or too sick, I like to go out and explore and DO things, like going to the nature center or out to weird little towns not that far from the one I live in when I am not housebound. So they see my pictures too.

 I haven't been more then 100 miles from home since 2011 and that trip was 150 miles to my old town but I try to enjoy life as much as is possible. Going to Facebook and seeing all the vacations and travel is hard for me. I wish I could travel or had the money for it. Many people like me can't afford to travel anymore at all.

 More and more Americans got it in their head that life is supposed to be all work and no pleasure. In our growing authoritarian, totalitarian society, fun comes last. There's no parties in the gulag, no social time to be had among the pod people.

What happens in a society where social disconnections, workaholism and more combine to make life only about the DRUDGE and the only pleasure some people are getting is food? Even look at all the lonely people, they go home and their next meal is their only pleasure. I often wonder too if life is so boring for many lower class Americans who have no money to do anything that eating is their main recreation? Remember the 1970s when people did so much leisure activities? What changed? All the changes where everyone is behind screens at home worries me. I became gung-ho to try and get more social interaction going for myself during non-housebound times, and then I realized it wasn't just fat me staying home but the thin and healthy people too!

Ever wonder why the poor are fatter, those chicken McNuggets may be their most fun for the day. I even worry that I had too much "fun" eating a very tasty egg sandwich I had on food pantry sour dough bread with a food pantry Yoplait yogurt. Life needs more pleasures then food. Even then, food with real nutrients, which is more lacking in America, satisfies far more then fake food.

 Activity costs money in America. That's a problem. One caveat, the commenters here claim the fat people are not interested in free things like libraries, art museums and other intellectual pursuits which I do not agree with. That is a prejudicial statement.  I was in two art museums just a week ago on a non-housebound day.  I plan to apply for another scholarship class to an art center this fall [please let there be at least one day one so I can take the bus there and for me to get into the gym by then too]. I also go to free disability seminars. I am a very fat woman who takes advantage of all free intellectual pursuits I can.

"I know families like this, I think the problem is one of recreational pleasure. They can't afford skiing vacations and a new Mercedes, and they're not interested in the metric shitload of free museums, galleries, libraries, subsidised leisure centres, parkland and a myriad of other free things that are nice to do in the UK. The can't have the luxury goods that they see on the TV, so instead they eat. This is how they have fun. They eat and eat and eat. The kids are fat, the parents are fat. The dogs are fat. Food is the only form of pleasure that they can both afford and comprehend." We need to teach people to have fun outside of the context of consumption, whether it be food or goods. But how do you dismantle a machine that TV has worked to build in order to create the perfect consumer society? This thread is making me mad now."

This guy is from the UK, but I think he is right people need to be taught to have fun outside the context of consumption. I'll be honest with you, I hate the modern American life. Sometimes when it's 8pm in the evening and we are both in front of the TV, I think whey are we watching this box instead of doing something else with our life? Why can't we have people over to talk to? Why aren't we outside? The whole society is set up for passive consumerism and it seems doing anything costs money. Try to break out of this system or question it, it can mean major problems.

This is one reason I always had this desire to join an intentional community, yeah I know communitarianism has been used by despots but such communities aren't clamoring for someone in my state of health. I see being part of a community and doing things as important but when society changed to consumerisms, everything became about buying things and if you don't have money to buy things what is there to do? I hope this makes sense. Just living started costing too much money.

In my rural community, I hung out with more old school people who were into laid back art shows and music and that's what I did at night along with hanging out at an old school church where people showed up on Wednesday night. At the church, we did quilting classes and other activities. It was a different world. So wonder I have moaned and cried about losing that community for so long. It almost feels like a dream world in the more suburban wasteland I find myself in now. This is a smaller town but the culture here is upper class suburbs. They don't hang out in coffee shops with each other or openly debate politics. So wonder I get bored, but I am here because there's more resources here.  They had the discussion groups and the anti-war group too in my old town.

If I ever move, I want more of that old world back though I got the feeling vestiges of it were disappearing even in my 30 years behind the times town. Now as people become more inward and less community focused, isn't that going to affect people's health very negatively?

Doesn't passive consumerism lead to more obesity problems even in terms of the crappy food forced on people? Now they are even saying that fast food is making the kids dumber! I have seen a variety of articles on that topic.

 I have seen kids where the parents just plunk them in front of the TV. I saw a meme the other day where it said "Why did they get rid of the shop classes, kids used to be able to MAKE THINGS instead of being trained to be passive consumers?" I used to see lives I wanted and yearned for in my rural community, I wasn't able to make it happen though I lived on the vestiges of them and enjoyed my interactions, with people who grew their own food, who know how to build and make things. They'd hunt for morel mushrooms, had huge gardens and would sew their own clothes. Their families all lived close and they actually knew each other. I was stuck in an apartment with few tools but I often thought how ideal this was.

 Modern boring suburban lives and values are not enticing to me. I am not attracted in the same way. I felt like the rural people talked about things that were more real. I know this may sound odd. Many people in my old rural church as well grew their own food and even did crafts from woodworking to artistic ones. This gave people a chance for more activity, and more things to do that felt important.

  I think it's even moreso that systematic educational disadvantage makes understanding and appreciating those museums, galleries and libraries challenging. If reading is hard because your literacy is poor, books are punishments. If you're brought up in a family that disparages art and dance and drama as "poof" activities, you're not going to derive any enjoyment from live culture - if anything, it has the potential to be the locus of shame. If you're not fit enough to run 100m and you get teased for your size, plus your family can't afford the rugby boots, you're probably not going to play on a team.

 Something happened in American culture, where the literary and artistic world became for the elite. Its not a matter of the poor people being "too dumb" but this is a world I enter, and classwise, the "you are not welcome" messages can pile up.  I feel it here in the two art centers which cater mostly to the very wealthy. One is nicer and offers scholarships but I have felt that extreme class division acutely even if people are polite and I participate out of my love for art. One writing class wanted 150 bucks up front. I never was going to be able to join though I wanted to. We held poetry meetings at the library that went well for a while but petered out. When we went to another poetry conference held by an acquaintance, only 4 people were there.

 One advantage of this community is they do love their book clubs and I go to two on and off depending on how housebound I am. He is right about the families that disparage "poof" activities though. I grew up in a family that wanted nothing to do with these worlds. When I invited relatives to my art shows of 2006, I was turned down flat.

Even in the upper classes, I meet young people who simply have been cut off from these worlds, they definitely are even in my upper middle class family which sounds weird but there's plenty of people in the suburbs who disdain "culture".

If ones intellectual life is centered around the TV, it's not going to be focused on sports or the arts. There are often class and money barriers to both but there's also that educational and culture lines. My family never understood my cultural interests from zines to art shows, they would use terms like arty-farty to describe me.  They were new money, well my mother's side at least. I had the conflicting messages about wealth being necessary to be worthwhile coupled with this weird hatred of literary and artistic society or so called "cultural" society.

  I know what you mean. I live on the outskirts of town, not much in the way of entertainment, but I can occupy myself with a walk, take in some fresh air and the lovely view of the hills and just think. I can take note of the small foothold nature has amidst the neighborhood. I've seen some interesting life out here, and I'm not even that far from the heavy urbanization here in Southern California. But since it's so hot now, I can stay in and enjoy a movie, contemplate film and literature, get lost in some role playing adventure game, or work on a project. It's sad that people can't seem to enjoy the little things that aren't overconsumption of food.

These fat logic people while they are judgmental and wrong about their CICO beliefs that every fat person is overeating, may be on to something here. I do think America has become a very unfun and antisocial society.

 Life in America IS too much passive consumerism, and too many are overworked, pulling long work weeks with no time for anything else including leisure, friends and fun. I have met more people who tell me having fun is the last thing anyone should think of, and people need to focus on goals and success only. I don't agree with that. When I write of a toxic unhealthy culture it goes well beyond the food.  Other countries and other cultures, I think people do have more fun even if they have to work hard. It's not all competition and drudge. I hope this post makes sense to you all. For people to be healthy, they need verve in life, they need things to look forward to, they need healthy decent tasty food, activities, friends, happiness and FUN.

21 comments:

  1. This is interesting.
    I haven't been to a movie in years because of chronic pain. It is grueling for me to sit there for 2 hours in that seat. It has to be something I really want to see that will be better on the big screen than the TV. So, a movie I really wanted to see came around and I chose not to go see it because our car is old and we didn't want to drive it too much. Later that day I was depressed and wished we just went anyway, for fun and to get out. I am housebound a lot and suffer fatigue. So, I can relate to getting pleasure from food because of a lack of other pleasures.
    I went for a rare walk the other day and it felt so right and how life should be.
    I do do crafts in bed and that does help, but the lack of social life does make life seem not quite right.
    Good article! Food for thought!

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    1. I can't go to the movies anymore unless I have husband take me a chair, because the chairs are so low. I almost couldnt get out of them last time I went and I wrecked my hand having to try to hoist myself up with the attached cup holder. Sorry you face chronic pain. I have a hard time sitting for two hours and even when I watch movies at home they better be under 2 hours or its not happening. Having an old car and worrying about car breakdowns is tough too and I'm there with you. I don't like doing many things at night because of these issues. Sorry you face being housebound too, it is very tough. This hot summer has been a burden on many. Yes I worry too about getting too much pleasure from food because there is a lack of other pleasures as well, and I do the walks and crafts too. Why does one have to be healthy to have a social life? I wonder about that one sometimes. It doesn't take much to find yourself on the outs.

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  2. If you factor out car crashes and dance competitions and illogical romance's between millennials and you really just end up with a blank screen. Oh and armies of CGI robots all breaking the code for the anti zombie guns

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    1. It's so dull I agree. CGI ugh, hate it, can tell it's not real. {Aspie me I know....}

      So wonder I watch hours and hours of TCM. [you know the really old stuff] I watched this 50s movie called "Illegal" last night.

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  3. We always hear about how great america is, but if you can afford to travel outside you begin to realize that a lot of the world lives a lot better off than we do. I was in Germany with the infamous ex-wife and they have homes passed down through generations that are just beautiful. I was in Anne Franks house and was marveling at her sink and commode and they told me that people take their plumbing with them from house to house like we do appliances. And so to them it's an investment for the long haul.

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    1. I bet they live better too. My husband has been to Europe before and lived in England, he wanted to STAY but wasn't allowed as I wrote on the immigration article. Their homes sound beautiful, and that is interesting about the plumbing. So when you move there you have to take a sink and toilet?

      I don't think America is the best country to live in anymore. In fact I tell young people to think of leaving to have chance of a better life, better food, maybe a real job? Maybe some community?

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  4. Sorry you can't even sit to watch a whole movie at home. I have a friend who also has a hard time with the same thing. If I'm in bed I can watch a movie. But I barely get walks lately.
    My car broke down today. So I guess I wouldn't have enjoyed the movie anyway.
    Yes it is almost impossible to have a social life if you are chronically ill. It sounds like you really try to get out there! It was just too tiring for me and I rarely drive.
    I don't really like the big screen anyway. I feel like I'm being sucked in. It's too weird. Most movies today are horrid anyway.
    The weather is getting cooler here so if it stays, that is good. Hope you get some cool dry weather!

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    1. I have to lay in bed a lot because the Lippy swells while I sit up. I do walk around and sit up part of the day but a lot is in bed. My stomach and butt grows and legs do if they are not compressed. This is one reason I got diagnosed because nurses and PTs were observing this at home.

      Having a social life while chronically ill is too hard. I have a husband so it could be worse and he works from home well partially due to caretaking reasons but his own health too. I have him to drive me around and now the Dial a Ride, but I haven't done a bus ride in some weeks because it's been too hot, and only place I have gone is grocery store, during cooler days. I even asked to join the senior center and was turned down. Now I wish I had just showed up and hope no one asked how old I was. I'm grey enough to pass on my hair for 60 now. I may join this program that keeps people out of nursing home but even there I hope its not mostly Alzhemiers patients and some are physically disabled like me, its not an adult day care, something else, for people over 55. Church used to be a social avenue for me and that worked in a small rural close knit area, but here, it just never worked. Even then I was hanging out with far older people.

      A lot of movies are awful now, boring. I don't want the car cashes either. I'm hoping for a year where it cools down in August and we get a far colder Sept. I remember on Sept where I froze my butt in the 20s and that would be just fine with me right now. :p

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    2. I hope socially things improve for you. My social fortunes are pretty low right now, not online but IRL pretty pathetic. I do see one close friend twice a year for three days who comes to visit and another male friend of both me and husband around 1-2 every 2 months or so. I think it gets harder as one gets older. I did clear out the social calendar booting out narcs, including family but the family never really was around anyhow just enough to keep track of me not really be in my life in any meaningful fashion before I went NC.

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  5. Excellent post! There is a growing paucity in recreational culture. Not culture in an elitist way, but skills essential for arts and crafts due to educational cutbacks, etc. Go to any small town event and the core attraction/activity is usually food. People eat out of boredom or to bond when there are so many other alternatives for relating. Consider a street in Italy, land of so called "fattening"pasta. Healthy people WALK down the streets, sit leisurely at tables and converse, whilst surrounded by history, architecture, etc. In other words, cultural and intellectual pleasures are part of social life. When art and spirit is taken away or demeaned, we are infantalized, and what does an infant do but experience the world through its mouth? Thank you for connecting the dots and keeping the flag flying! :)

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    1. Thanks. I think leisure and recreation is dying in America or being relegated only to the upper middle class and beyond. It's true most functions are focused on "food", and sure a nice meal out is a good thing but isn't there other things to do? It's true when art and spirit is destroyed, it's regression to the oral stage? Even meals are different in those cultures, where they are expected to taste different and GOOD, not empty calories but of high quality. The foodies who can afford it get some good food here but there the good food is available to all. Yes cultural and intellectual pleasures abound. In America they are just about dead. Sometimes you'll get a taste of them in some college towns but it's dying out. Sometimes you can be like me a poor person living in a rich area and be on the edges of culture with no one to talk about these things. Thanks for your post.

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  6. I cleared out narcs too! I think about joining the senior center,they take you at 50. But my husband works a lot in summer, and then we have less money in winter. Ours costs 50 bucks to join. Plus I truly don't feel like I have the energy. Something always has to give for me. I have to pick and choose what I do.
    I never had good luck with churches. It makes me question Christianity a bit.

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    1. Glad you got rid of narcs. Wow I could join your senior center in acouple of years but ours the cut off is 60 and I think that's too high. Sorry you have less money in winter. I'm housebound and don't know how I will pay. The medically fragile one wants 50, I may have to look at the Y, with financial aid unless I can figure out some kind of deal with the other gym. I know I come up with all these activities to do. The exercise is needed of course. My brain always is cashing checks the body doesn't want to follow but the gym exercise thing I need to really do. It's true my energy is getting very low too and sorry yours is as well. I was in bed today for some hours. I did go grocery shopping at 7 am, nearly killed me because for some reason COPD hates EARLY MORNINGS, I am usually asleep at that hour but due to car problems and weather, I wanted to do it when it was cool enough out to breathe. Well you know my track record with churches....remember Jesus got crucified by the religious system of his day married to the state.

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  7. I dont trust ppl that hate fat ppl so much. There is a lack of community overall I agree. I live in a rural poorer area that is vibrantly involved with arts. I don't participate though I would like to because as a fat person I don't feel welcome. I'm stared at, sneered at, pics snapped, laughed at etc regularly in the community. It's a community, but one that hates fat people, so it might as well not exist for me.

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    1. I don't trust them either. Community involvement is shrinking. My old small rural town, the people there even had far more to do with each other. I know this sounds strange.... Sorry you are ostracized. I was treated okay in my small rural town, and am left alone here. I may live in towns small enough where people get used to "seeing me" even this one. Sorry you are laughed at and mocked. Some towns and areas are far more hateful to the fat. Chicago was really bad. The last two towns, while there has been some stigma no one gets in my face. I have a large man by me, maybe that helps? LOL I used to be tall and big and have a big mouth so maybe that bought me less trouble. I've gotten in fat bigots faces before.

      I live in an area of the country where fat is more tolerated, there's more of us, but probably if I lived in Colorado, or Southern California, I'd probably be getting harrassed every second. Poorer areas have more fat people.

      Things were worse when I was younger, I think people too can tell something is wrong with me from the way my body is shaped, all the wrappings, the walker, the hearing aids, I actually when I became older got a lot less "street harrassment". I hope you can have things get better.

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  8. Dear Peeps and Friends, i have also been told, more or less, that to have any interests beyond tee-vee and other consumerist crap is basically not allowed - because reading and talking about our planet's history is something that only the rich/smart do. Yeah was basically told to just shut the f* up and watch other people enjoy life. One of the Lord's best gifts to me was when the tv died back in June 2008. My husband misses the football, but evidently not enough to have plagued our house with another set. Besides, he likes watching the game with the guys over at Whereevers. Before the thing died, both of us were becoming more fed up with the little tricks played by media - loud one minute, barely audible the next (shows playing music and you can't hear what the characters are saying) and of course, commercials every three minutes. News teasers, and you just need the traffic and weather... Ugh, still glad the stupid thing croaked.

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    1. I've been told I'm too big for my britches too and to be quiet and quit going on about all the "crap". It's not like my narc family liked any of my intellectual forays not even the positive ones, ie, lets say I tell one of them "I love the novels of John Steinbeck"==this is true, a pretty neutral subject right? Their eyes would glaze over and they'd get mad.

      I didn't have TV some years when young due to poverty but I wonder if it broke me out of the "matrix" so to speak, those 5 years of NO TV. I have it now and watch old stuff and watch it almost like in an analytical sense. Nature and shows like that I can get into but they are few and far between. Yeah all the tricks are obvious.

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  9. I love when they show a commercial and repeat it as soon as the first run through is finished. That alone tells you who they are pandering to. It's like doors are two for one at the hard ware store. Oh wait hold on......Doors are two for one at the hardware store.

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    1. I hate commercials so much, maybe that is why I watch PBS and TCM so much to avoid them like the plague. I can't afford anything they show anyhow. The repetitive ones are mind-numbing.

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  10. Oh, I like that,'remember Jesus got crucified by the religious system of his day married to the state." I'll have to remember that!

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    1. Something to remember when discussing the foibles of organized religion.

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