america the great...

... big fattie.

the owner and i went to watch game one of the bruins vs. the canadians on thursday. local townie hang that happens to be very hockey-friendly. we'd gone the week before, and it turned out the locals were stranger-friendly too. place was hopping and we were lucky to get seats front and center for the game.

this week they weren't quite as busy but some of the same faces smiled back at us.

eavesdropping as i do, most of the peeps worked in hospitals or at the airport. solid middle class. the accents were harsh and everybody knew everybody's sistah. they're the people who never move away from home.

here's the thing. everybody was SOOOOOOO FAT. fat. fat. fat. the men all were big, but the women were enormous. like, circus-lady big. an especially porcine-faced woman in a pink fleece was having her birthday. she'd already eaten and then polished off a celebratory cake-pan sized brownie with whipped cream. she'd been drinking beer when we arrived, but then switched up to the oh-so-festive sex on the beach after the brownie. i watched the bartender make them. it was a 6-7 oz. pour. (6 count.) so just the booze in each drink was nearly 500 calories. during the game, she had 5. so she drank more than her daily caloric needs in 90 minutes. after dinner with beers and the brownie that was enough for 8 people. plus whatever she'd pig-piled on during the daylight hours.

apple martinis, cosmos, espresso martinis (when did those switch to being creamy drinks? wtf? some dastardly plot to make it even more fattening?) and lots of sex on the beaches. the drinks were large and the pours very generous. good qualities in a local for sure, but i just kept looking around in shock.

massachusetts is actually in the top 10 for "healthiest" states, so we're not as fat as mississippi or louisiana. that hardly seemed believable in that place. then if you look at it relatively, it's very scary.

recently read a long excerpt from the china study. after ww II, many autopsies were done on the young men killed in action. less than 30 years old, prime of life kinda guys. the shocker? nearly all of them had life-threatening artery clogs. of course most of them smoked, and contrary to what we like to think now, their diets were grossly unhealthy. meat, meat, meat, butter and finish dinner with pie. yet, they were much thinner. the average american man now weighs about 30 pounds more than those guys did, while being only one inch taller.

sure the nicotine sped things up for them. but the major difference? activity. americans walk from the house to the car and then sit all day at work, with the greatest exertion likely to be key strokes. i can't tell you how many times i've been met with disbelief that i *carry* groceries on the t, or that i've walked from point a to point b when it's cold.

while i struggle with my deteriorating self, my hormonal betrayal and my bad habits, i resolved that night to move, move, move. i have. i already feel better.