I had some observations when I was younger, about why some people are overweight and others are not. I was always thin as a child. I probably appeared too thin to some people. I have small bones. And I never weighed myself or cared about that. I ate plenty of food, but not more than I needed. Here are some things I noticed about my childhood, compared to now (since I am overweight now):
Food Choices
When I was a child there was no junk food in our house. We never had soda/pop in the house, or chips or cookies, or unhealthy snacks of any kind. We didn’t even have popcorn. We put melted margarine on Cheerios to make “popcorn”. We had only wheat bread, never white. There were vegetables at every meal. Tall glasses of milk (I was an omnivore at the time). So when I wanted a snack, it was an orange or peanut butter on a slice of whole wheat bread or something. Never junk. Of course, I ate junk food whenever I could, at friend’s houses, at the movies, whatever. I had no knowledge of nutrition or what I should eat, healthy food was just all that was available. And I noticed that when I went to my friend’s houses, the food they had available was directly related to how overweight they were. I had two or three friends who were always overweight. When I would go to their houses, they had junk food, and they would buy huge servings of junk food when we went places. Enormous ice cream cones, donuts, all kinds of things. Which is hard to say no to as a kid, but sometimes I had to. I couldn’t even fit that much food in my body! And I wondered, “Do they not see that their eating habits are making them fat?” Bizarre. I mean, people would complain about genes and metabolism, but that wasn’t it. I couldn’t believe how obvious it was from my point of view. Coming from the health food house, with regular sized portions, into their junk food wonderland of huge portions. Wow!
So, when I became an adult, having no knowledge of nutrition, I would buy whatever junk I wanted. I used to eat corn chips for breakfast. My sister once told me she believed a person could live entirely on ice cream. We were clueless! And I started to gain weight. I had to learn about nutrition. Junk food isn’t filling, and I began to crave whole wheat and fruits and vegetables, but I always went back to the junk food. Not having junk food as a kid also meant I had to find other ways to deal with stress. No stress eating. I would call friends, write in a diary, listen to loud music, write poems. Stress eating would come later, when I was the one buying the food. Interesting.
My point? Food choices matter. Type of food, how much, how you use it. It was easier as a child, with someone else making the choices for me. But now that I have to resist the donuts all on my own, not so much fun. I guess my point is not everyone realizes how much their habits are contributing to their weight issues. There is more to it than that, I know, but it’s just an interesting observation.
Exercise
I thought I was a pretty lazy child. I always had my nose in a book. I hated sports. But I got a ton more exercise then than I do now. I didn’t get my driver’s license ’til I was 18. So everywhere I went, I walked. School, friends’ houses, the mall. Every day I must have walked a mile or two without realizing it. But now, as an adult, I pretty much just walk to and from the car. I plan to change that, and get into walking (I walked for a half hour yesterday, in fact), but it’s funny how effortless it was as a child.
As a child my daily activities included bike riding, roller skating, running through the sprinklers, jumping rope, fake tennis against the school wall with a frisbee and a tennis ball. I was active. Because it was fun. Not because I thought, “I have to get my daily exercise in.” I miss those days. Running down the sidewalk just because. Swinging on the swings. Always moving. Yes, I read a lot, but I played a lot too. Now, as an adult, I have to schedule in my exercise. Work 8 hours, come home, exercise for a half hour, eat dinner, watch TV, shower, and go to bed. This is not the most delightful life. Hard to motivate myself to take up what little spare time I have with exercise. Bleck. But I feel better when I do.
I just think it’s funny how people blame age and slowing metabolism, etc. for the reason they are not as thin and in shape as they once were. There may be truth to all of that, but a big part of it is also the fact that people’s habits change as they get older. Though some people had bad habits to begin with, I suppose. I didn’t mean to go on this long about this topic. I just like to analyze. 
‘Til next time. ~Me.
