Living the Lifestyle, Wildcard Friday! 7-1-2022

steve0mania

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion.

Monday - crewahl (Charlie)
Tuesday – Flintwinch (Tim)
Wednesday - misterhub (Greg)
Thursday -imastar2 (Derrick)
Friday - Wildcard

Today's Topic: Culture and weight-management

Conceptually, managing our weight is simple: take in the right amount of calories in comparison to the amount of calories we burn.

However, in practice, weight management can be very difficult. Today I'd like to focus on the role of culture in our own weight-management efforts. We all live in a "cultural context" that includes our race/religion/ethnicity, our genetic make-up, how/where we were raised, how/where we live now, our spouse and family, our friends and colleagues, etc.

What features of your own cultural context have the greatest impact (positive or negative) in your weight management efforts? How do they effect it? Do you have to do anything differently because of your cultural context?

steve0mania

This is probably a more complicated question than I anticipated, so I'm going to take my first stab at this by simplifying it a bit.

With regards to intake, probably the biggest cultural contribution for me is Judaism. Some Jewish-foods are high-calorie, but that's not really a problem for me because I can always choose smaller portions or avoid very high calorie foods. What's more problematic, though, is eating on Shabbat and holidays. We are meant to have "festive meals" for many of these occasions, and that means greater portions and higher-calorie foods that I would typically choose. There are also multiple courses, including dessert, and there is nearly always wine involved. Of course I could choose to eat more modestly, but the choices are very different on Shabbat versus the regular weekday.

With regards to exercise, I grew up participating in some sports: swimming, baseball, a little bit of football. However, my dad wasn't a "sports-guy," so that never got deeply ingrained in me, and my parents were not fitness-people (they weren't overly heavy or anything, but they didn't do many/any physical activity in a purposeful manner). Thus, for the longest time, I never really exercised. However, my wife has always been into fitness through diet and physical exercise, so when I finally came around and joined WW, I had a very strong nuclear family support system already in place.

Growing up, my family and friends all ate a lot of fast food, take out, pizza, deli-food, etc. It's actually somewhat surprising that I only got heavier later in life. Nevertheless, I never really learned healthy eating habits. Again, it was only after joining WW that I learned about healthy eating, and again, already had a support system (my wife) in place when I started.

I'm sure there are a lot more thoughts and examples, but I gotta go do some work!

crewahl

Gonna have to think a bit on this one . . . . 🤔

misterhub

I grew up in Texas. My entire family is from Texas and steeped in Texas/Southern food traditions. That is - always make a lot of food and always push a lot of food - because food equates to love, and consumption equates to grateful appreciation. It’s taken most of my life to get past that.

I am not sure I really am. I see it in my own food preparation habits.

88olds

I was raised by working class people who had survived the Great Depression and WWII. We had a large extended family. Jobs were all to some degree physically demanding. House cleaning and upkeep were all DIY. Time off from work was for working on the house and yard. Aside from 2 of my dad’s male cousins, I don’t recall anyone being overweight. The older women tended to add some pounds. Meals were generous but mostly for sustenance except for Sunday dinner and holidays. Seemed to me that the adults ate as they pleased. In the 1950s and 60s they thought they had the world by the butt and food was part of the payoff. I don’t recall anyone ever going on a diet.

I think the part about eating as I pleased, minus the physical work, is where the trouble started for me.

crewahl

I’m not sure I have a specific cultural context other than generic American. I’m probably the definition of the median of America - white, middle class, 5'9”, brown on brown, aging, overweight, etc. My ethnicity is Swiss on my father's side and English on my mother’s side - two cultures that are not noted as the pinnacle of culinary innovation.

Like George, I’m the child of Depression-era parents, so frugality was part of my upbringing. Most of my childhood we didn’t have a lot of money, and rarely ate out. We didn’t have indulgent meals, so situations where there was a lot of food available was an opportunity for overload. I wasn’t overweight as a kid based on pictures, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what I weighed at any point until partway through college.

Also like George, when I started working and started making a few dollars - working with my mind and not my back - I indulged more in food and less in activity. I hit Steve's “conceptually” issue from the other side - eat a little more, move a little less. I’m still somewhat stuck with that concept that when food is available, I should eat until it’s gone.

One thing I can say stuck with me from my youth? There was a period in my teens when my father was out of work for 12-18 months. The cheapest protein on the market was fish, and we ate fish three or four times a week. I love fish (now), and it’s a default option for me when I’m eating out - but not at home. For me, the smell of fish cooking in the house is still the smell of scarcity.

Flintwinch

Like others, my parents grew up during the Great Depression, and followed that cultural patterntheir whole lives. We were a meat-and-potatoes-and-bread-and-dessert family. I ventured out in my eating as I got older, but the basic theme was the same. Now, I belong to the heart-health culture. Thankfully, heart-healthy is also weight-management friendly.

I've always been physically active, though I never played on organized sports teams. Tennis, ping pong, cycling, hiking were activities I engaged in often. Nowadays, only the cycling remains, along with walking. I'm sure that my active lifestyle has contributed positively to my weight management efforts

cakeman21k

I am also the child of depression / WWII parents who were also blue collar workers. My genetic heritage (German / Slovakian) tends to be towards the short and stout side, not unhealthy but definitly not long and lean. Growing up I do not remember ever having been short of food, although there was not a lot of eating out involved. Meals were the meat & potatoes or a cold cuts on wonder bread type. When I grew up and went out on my own my mother was not very understanding that I wanted to try differnt kinds of foods ( Chinese, Mexican, Greek etc.) Its all an influence on my food choices but its still up to me to eat a healthier type and amount of food if I am going to try and keep my weight under control