Start taking responsibility.

Reader's Digest . . . ever heard of it? My mom read it. She has for as long as I can remember. When I really started getting into reading, I would read them too. Then I moved out. And now, she has started sending me her copies as soon as she finishes them. I devour them. They are very interesting. And I've always enjoyed all the articles. Until the January 2009 issue that I've been reading.
Page 86 is the article called "13 Things You Never Knew About Your Weight." I started reading it and then started getting a little irritated and then just skimmed the rest of the article. Basically, instead of blaming obesity on people eating the wrong foods and not exercising, this article tried to find other things, such as "fat genes" to blame it on. They blamed obesity on genetics, stress (that one I actually get), an obese person's mother when she was pregnant, a spouse (this one I also understand), a virus, ear infections, and a few others.
Apparently, some people have fat cells that are passed down from their parents. If you have more than one fat cell, basically your screwed.
Obviously stress can affect your weight. The more stressed you are, the more likely you are to eat too much or too little.
Now, when your mother was pregnant with you, if she ate fatty foods, that could be the cause of your obesity. Seriously?! That's ridiculous.
Of course, if your spouse is obese, there is a greater chance of you becoming obese as well. Same as if your spouse is thin, it can motivate you to also become thin.
Ok so the whole virus thing. Apparently they are called "adenoviruses." Sounds like if you have the so called "fat cells" and you get this virus, it can increase those fat cells. Then it goes on to say, "We have flue shots; could an obesity vaccine be the next step?" God how stupid does that sound.
And last but not least is an ear infection. They talked about if you are over the age of 35 and have had a few ear infections, then it affects your taste buds and makes you more likely to become obese. Wow. That's dumb.
Ok here's the way I see it. If you eat gross, fatty foods and sit on your ass all day and just don't do anything, then you're going to get fat. (sorry, "obese") But if you eat relatively well and move around some, then you'll be a lot better off. So stop blaming genes or viruses for you being fat. Start taking responsibilty for the way you look and stop trying to blame something that is outside of your control. Do you see the thin people in Europe blaming genetics? Oh that's right, they aren't obese because they take care of themselves so they don't have to blame anything on ear infections.