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Does your region affect your attitude toward weight/health?
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I'm from the Twin Cities in MN and there are a lot of health-conscious people here. At one point we were known to be a powerhouse for hipsters, so yeah there's a lot of healthy food eating folks and active people
I've experienced some level of resistance to weight loss and balanced eating. In the past, coworkers tried to discourage me from losing weight despite the fact I was still overweight and wasn't close to "skinny." People have tried to discourage me from getting thinner, but look askance when someone thinner wants to lose weight. That situation happened at a workplace one time, and it really irked me because clearly my weight was unhealthier due to body type.
After joining a fitness class, I've come across more people aiming to lose weight for health reasons and to enjoy physical activity. It seems common in the Twin Cities. When my husband and I drive away to visit his parents in WI where it's rural, the difference is obvious. A lot of people, especially women, are overweight to obese. Losing weight there is more discouraged and I've nearly had arguments with my MIL about how I am NOT skinny. She tried to make it a big deal one time and acted like she was freaking out. I decided the best thing to do was dismiss her reaction. Normally she is more balanced about things but that bothered me.
Where my ILs are from, people believe a salad is shredded iceberg lettuce with shredded cheese, drowned in ranch dressing. Where my husband and I live, people believe a salad has spinach, kale, tomatoes, and can be eaten with vinaigrette. It's definitely a cultural and regional difference.0 -
troutlilly wrote: »Where my ILs are from, people believe a salad is shredded iceberg lettuce with shredded cheese, drowned in ranch dressing. Where my husband and I live, people believe a salad has spinach, kale, tomatoes, and can be eaten with vinaigrette. It's definitely a cultural and regional difference.
My parents and grandparents call iceberg lettuce with shredded cheese and copious dressing salad. They're all from MN. And it IS a salad. It might not be your favorite salad, but it is a salad.
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DancingDarl wrote: »
Assuming just causes issues. I used to dance, I hardly have the time, and the only exercise I do is a Class in Solo seal every so often. I probably burn about 500 but I never count it. I am too busy as a stay at home mum to be worried about all that.
I was mainly just curious about the "worn out haggard woman" you see "all the time" going all-out with the exercise. Ballet is a great example: with multiple weekly classes and preparation for performances, I can't even imagine the calorie burn for a ballet company dancer, let alone a professional, and I couldn't even imagine describing these women as haggard, even with children, even at an older age, despite the grueling regime that starts at a tender age. My daughter's ballet teacher was in her 80s and the words I would use to describe her are "poised, elegant, graceful, gracious, strong."
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DancingDarl wrote: »What is this senecarr? I didn't realise you were this petty that you would let a debate become as ridiculous as telling people that dance is not exercize-especially when mfp has it on their database?
He is just teasing, hence the angel icon. He know that dancers in the US are actually like this:
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jmbmilholland wrote: »
He is just teasing, hence the angel icon. He know that dancers in the US are actually like this:
Nope. I mean it. Literally no one ever has ever burned calories moving in rhythm to music. It's weird - rhythmic, repetitive movement? Clearly exercise. Add music - calorie burn immediately stops. That's why they made chain gangs whistle while they work - it let them feed the prisoners less.0 -
No, absolutely not!
My attitude toward my health is a constant, and the people herd can do whatever.
I have found that internal motivation is stronger than external influence.0 -
My parents and grandparents call iceberg lettuce with shredded cheese and copious dressing salad. They're all from MN. And it IS a salad. It might not be your favorite salad, but it is a salad.
It's not a nutritionally dense, healthy salad. That's what people act like it is, and it's not. It's like people I worked with proclaimed "I'm eating a healthy meal today," and I find out it's chicken drowning in ranch dressing with green beans from a can doused in salt. Nowhere close to healthy.0 -
troutlilly wrote: »
It's not a nutritionally dense, healthy salad. That's what people act like it is, and it's not. It's like people I worked with proclaimed "I'm eating a healthy meal today," and I find out it's chicken drowning in ranch dressing with green beans from a can doused in salt. Nowhere close to healthy.
Are your coworkers also your in-laws? Sounds like you are in the same milieu in the Twin Cities or in rural Wisconsin.0 -
jmbmilholland wrote: »
Are your coworkers also your in-laws? Sounds like you are in the same milieu in the Twin Cities or in rural Wisconsin.
LOL, no they aren't. When coworkers have looked at my lunches they tend to say "oh, my lunch is healthy too!" They get super enthusiastic about it and at the time it seems mean to burst their bubbles.
I have to bite my tongue too, because I've been told "how are you losing weight and I'm not and we're eating the same way?" Um.0 -
Yikes, the "Instant Potatoes" line grabbed my attention. The Fiance grew up all over the world but formative years in Virginia, and I remember his kids asking me for "mashed potatoes from real potatoes" like it was haute cuisine. He had always made them from the dehydrated flakes, I'd never made them from anything except boiled or baked potatoes. They had to LEARN how to make them. I was like "you mash the potatoes. It's in the name."
We grew up with food food food but almost nobody very fat in my family, one guy out of about 50 of us, extended. Parents from New Orleans, and I live in a culturally diverse city with a lot of restaurants. We Like Food. The city is about half at least somewhat overweight, half not overweight, which I think is average.
And yes, Food is love and family.
This reminds me of when I served a friend's adult children red leaf lettuce. They'd only ever seen iceberg and thought the lettuce was spoiled.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »
This is 100% not my experience of the midwest. We always ate fresh food and vegetables when I was growing up (however, we ate canned when we lived in AK for a while, for obvious reasons). My grandparents in IA had a huge, lovely garden, and their idea of a perfect snack was home-dried fruit or, for special occasions, fruit pie, made at home. Birthday cakes and so on were normally homemade. Sure, we ate meat and potatoes (and a veg), and not the fried and delicious specialties that the South is known for -- but fresh and wholesome, yes. Going out to eat was rare, and my mother would have thought she'd be judged harshly if we didn't eat our vegetables or didn't have a home cooked meal (even though she now admits she dislikes cooking).
Today, I see similar things among my friends, including those with kids and in my neighborhood (which has a very low rate of obesity), except that the potatoes aren't as prominent, the vegetables are more exotic on average, and people eat out somewhat more, but not fast food normally, more likely local spots and a lot more ethnic cuisine (when I was a kid people ate "American" or "Chinese" or "Italian").
I live in Chicago, which is certainly the midwest, and specifically on the north side. There are communities and neighborhoods with serious obesity issues here, although on average the ones most likely to have close and recent connections to the South (and also problems like food deserts and poverty).
My ex husband is from Iowa. His mother referred to canned green beans as "real" beans. Ugh. They microwaved potatoes. They had a deep fat fryer. They ate Wonder bread.0 -
None of those things are common in my social circles in Chicago, sorry.
We mostly saw my grandparents in IA in the summer (died in the '90s, when I was just out of college), so maybe in the winter they ate lots of canned veg, although I know they canned some themselves. I seem to recall canned being more prominent than frozen back in the '70s and '80s (although I wasn't exactly sensitive to it, being a kid -- I just hated canned veg). My main memory of canned green beans and other veg, however, has nothing to do with the midwest. It was when we lived for a while in Alaska (and I'd say that's understandable).
We did not eat WonderBread, my mom bought Roman Meal (I claimed not to like "sliced bread" as a kid, so I rarely ate either, but thought Wonder had a particularly bizarre texture). We did not microwave potatoes (and we ate lots of potatoes). I also never realized anyone did mashed potatoes from a box until coming to MFP, so those weren't common either. We did not have a deep fat fryer and I'd probably be scared to use one now, since I never have. (My mom did make a version of fried chicken, in a skillet.)
We also went out for oriental (sounds so wrong now!) and never had "pasta," mostly just spaghetti. My parents would have thought the idea of a meal without meat or fish (yes, I agree fish is meat) was wrong and incomplete.
I think I grew up on a very midwestern American diet, but it was generally balanced, nutritious, and homecooked.1 -
For me it's not really about the population it's more about the weather. Where I live in Alberta (contrary to what Leonardo DiCaprio says) there's snow here 8 months out of the year, sometimes the temperature goes down to -40 Celsius and everyone turns into couch potatoes because they don't want to go outside. Staying fit and active is great in the summer when I can go to the lake, bike the trails or garden... And then October hits and we Cold Lakers (where I'm from) lay down for the long hibernation until May0
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kshama2001 wrote: »
My ex husband is from Iowa. His mother referred to canned green beans as "real" beans. Ugh. They microwaved potatoes. They had a deep fat fryer. They ate Wonder bread.
THIS. Sounds very MN to me.0 -
Santa hitting the booze again...lol0 -
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If you have access to a gym, I would try weight training and cardio a few times a week. It's not that hard once you get into it. It makes you feel better too so that you're more likely to walk and to chose good foods.
OK, there are trainers on here but here's what I was taught by a fitness trainer...
Weight lifting for women is just based on doing fifteen reps three times. It makes muscles which means energy requirements get higher all through the week whereas cardio is more about burning calories right at the time.
So my friend the weight trainer said to "select six weight lifting machines to do", then go to the side of the gym and do "three other weight related or stretching activities" then go do 30 minutes on the machines.
Sometimes when I go to the gym, people are on the weight lifting machines that I want so I just pick other ones.
I do this three times a week and things I notice are: weight loss, able to eat a little more food, better knees so faster walking, more energy all day long and just a general feeling of being healthy.
I wish you had more support in your journey. Keep at it!0 -
If you have access to a gym, I would try weight training and cardio a few times a week. It's not that hard once you get into it. It makes you feel better too so that you're more likely to walk and to chose good foods.
OK, there are trainers on here but here's what I was taught by a fitness trainer...
Weight lifting for women is just based on doing fifteen reps three times. It makes muscles which means energy requirements get higher all through the week whereas cardio is more about burning calories right at the time.
So my friend the weight trainer said to "select six weight lifting machines to do", then go to the side of the gym and do "three other weight related or stretching activities" then go do 30 minutes on the machines.
Sometimes when I go to the gym, people are on the weight lifting machines that I want so I just pick other ones.
I do this three times a week and things I notice are: weight loss, able to eat a little more food, better knees so faster walking, more energy all day long and just a general feeling of being healthy.
I wish you had more support in your journey. Keep at it!
That's nice. Who are you talking to?0 -
I live in Louisville, KY and it's an anomaly to be at a healthy weight. At 5'6, 135 lbs. I've been commented on as being too thin. Try finding a running group while you are at it. While losing weight, most of my peers said my heaviest was their goal, 200 lbs. I couldn't fathom 200 lbs being healthy, however it's the norm around here.0
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Yes. Where you live can affect where you are in the obesity compendium. Denver, for example has the lowest obesity level in America.
Dancing, nay be except for the waltz, can burn up to 800 calories an hour. I. Know hundreds of people who not only lost a ton of weight doing Zumba, but kept it off.
Dancing also does more to prevent dementia than doing crossword puzzles, and is a lot more fun.
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Funny, I'm in Houston, and I know we're supposedly one of the fattest cities in the country, but I seriously don't see it. I think, in a dense and diverse population, you can find yourself completely immersed in a sort of sub-population. And my sub-population is pretty healthy.
In my office, for example, I'd say there are more "fit" people than not. Most of the people I know run, or bike, or work out at the gym. Shoot, around 2:00 in the afternoon, the tunnels are packed with people in their professional suits, headphones, and sneakers, out for their daily walk. At lunchtime, the line at McDonald's is actually pretty skimpy, but if you go to Salata, you'll be waiting 15 minutes or more.
I live in the suburbs, and similarly, I'd say that the fitness level of most of my friends and neighbors is pretty healthy. Some of that is probably a "trendy" thing - I see a huge increase in people out walking, jogging, bike riding, etc., compared to ten years ago. I live in an area that's just well-designed for it - greenbelt trails that take you anywhere, lots of parks and gyms.
Sure, we're Southern, "food is love" types, and the food we cook for get-togethers isn't necessarily low-fat or low-calorie, but it IS whole, fresh food, homemade, and I firmly believe that for the most part, these aren't the food trends that are getting us in trouble, as a society.
So I guess I think that the question is much more narrow than "region." My "region" may be pretty fat and unhealthy, but that's a pretty easy influence to avoid, depending on your actual, immediate surroundings.0 -
JeepHair77 wrote: »Funny, I'm in Houston, and I know we're supposedly one of the fattest cities in the country, but I seriously don't see it. I think, in a dense and diverse population, you can find yourself completely immersed in a sort of sub-population. And my sub-population is pretty healthy.
In my office, for example, I'd say there are more "fit" people than not. Most of the people I know run, or bike, or work out at the gym. Shoot, around 2:00 in the afternoon, the tunnels are packed with people in their professional suits, headphones, and sneakers, out for their daily walk. At lunchtime, the line at McDonald's is actually pretty skimpy, but if you go to Salata, you'll be waiting 15 minutes or more.
I live in the suburbs, and similarly, I'd say that the fitness level of most of my friends and neighbors is pretty healthy. Some of that is probably a "trendy" thing - I see a huge increase in people out walking, jogging, bike riding, etc., compared to ten years ago. I live in an area that's just well-designed for it - greenbelt trails that take you anywhere, lots of parks and gyms.
Sure, we're Southern, "food is love" types, and the food we cook for get-togethers isn't necessarily low-fat or low-calorie, but it IS whole, fresh food, homemade, and I firmly believe that for the most part, these aren't the food trends that are getting us in trouble, as a society.
So I guess I think that the question is much more narrow than "region." My "region" may be pretty fat and unhealthy, but that's a pretty easy influence to avoid, depending on your actual, immediate surroundings.
I have a similar situation - I live in DFW, but my neighbors are not overweight and they're active. Lots of families out walking, running, bicycling with their dogs and/or kids. We have a good network of trails and parks available, even a small lake (very big pond for those that live near legit lakes). At work, there are very few who are overweight. Most are foreign and young.
Where I see the obesity is in certain restaurants (yes, the stereotypical ones), and at retail shops where there are a mix of people from the metroplex.0 -
That's how it is in Chicago too. There are neighborhoods and circles where obesity is quite common, but around me--at work, in my neighborhood, in my social circles--more people are fit and active than not, and being really fit and thin is quite common (and definitely a positive thing).
Walter Willett's new book is about this, I believe: Thinfluence.0 -
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