Monday, January 17, 2005

January 17, 2005

11:29am

I was telling everyone last night that 30% of Americans are obese and Jo was like “is that it? I thought there were more?” I was like “what do you mean ‘is that is’? That is a hell of a high number. This is obese we are talking about, not overweight. It is 64% of Americans who are overweight.” So then we got into a discussion (in French, because it was everyone) about the differences between overweight and obese.
Anyway, that is the topic of my class today. I am talking about overweight/obese Americans. I can talk about this because technically I am not overweight. I may resemble Jabba the Hut’s sister, but my BMI is perfectly acceptable. But I am currently trying to talk myself out of going down to the bakery and getting a pain au chocolat. Mmmm, so good, are these pain au chocolats. Of course, I justify it by reminding myself that I am only in France a brief period and that I ought to enjoy the food while I am here because I will not be able to get it back in the states.

1 Comments:

At 8:15 AM, Blogger Ovonia Red said...

This morning I was actually able to order a single pain au chocolat *and* the baker woman actually smiled at me. How happy was I after that?

So I am now an utter goober. I did my little thing yesterday about fat Americans (and Hil, you don't alter the percentages at all. You are Canadian.) Anyway, to give them a frame of reference I told them how tall I was, what my BMI was (!), and how much I weighed (!!). I then said "If I weighed ___, my BMI would be ____ and I would be overweight. If I weighed ____, my BMI would be _____, and I would be obese." I explained to them that 18.5-24.9 was considered normal BMI in the states.

So then, one French girl has to point out that *their* standards of normal weight are not so high. So, here I am, standing in front of 14 French people who know that my BMI is pretty damn close to the top of the American range, and they tell me that, by their range, I am a honking fat American. Well, not in so many words. But it was in their faces. Boobless pigmies. That is where all my BMI is. In my boobs. French women have no boobs. Large-breasted over here is a B cup.

If a scale is 3/4 broken, then do you only weight 3/4 of your actual weight? I don't even have a scale here I can use. I have to guess. I keep telling myself that I have lost weight, but I know deep down in my heart that I haven't.

I can't exercise because I am sick. And because I don't have any exercise DVDs. But Mom is sending me some. Yea.

 

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