OK, so as a WAHM, I typically end up working 7 days a week, but for those who don't, TGIF!! :-) I hope everyone has a great and safe weekend!
I was musing yesterday on obesity. Now, before anyone jumps on me for it, I happen to weigh literally twice as much as I did in high school, and I was at the high end of the "healthy" range then. But yesterday was one of those days where it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheit in my area. We don't have AC at all in this old farmhouse (which I love!), so it was also about 90 degrees inside the house. Being overweight, that means unfortunately I was feeling pretty yucky and lethargic. And as such, I was on the couch, drinking ice water and watching an X-Files marathon.
For some reason, I got to thinking about the ladies and gentlemen that have been on the news that weigh 700+ pounds. And I thought to myself, how can they
afford to weigh that much? Now, typically they are married, and their spouse works. But my goodness, here in South Dakota a bag of chips is no less than $3. If you're eating one of those a day, that's $90 a month. I can't imagine eating so much per day that I am gaining that much weight over time. And when these souls are trapped in their home, it means there is only one income in the family.
I'm in a 2-income family, and we're barely able to make our $500 a month house payment, not to mention utilities, gas and then groceries. If I'm lucky, we can scrape together $75 a week for groceries, for a family of 3. So you know we're not getting all of our nutrients in either.
So my question yesterday was how do they afford it? They live in what appear to be affluent neighborhoods, so their house payments or rent are at least as much as ours is, probably more. They have almost new vehicles (whereas our "youngest" is a 1998, our 2nd is a 1994 in need of much repairs to be back to where it was when I bought it 4 years ago), so they have a car payment and higher insurance rates as well. I can see how "easy" it would be to lay on the couch all day eating junk food and watching TV, I did it yesterday after all. But...at the end of the day, I still had to go to work to pay for that privilege, since we can't afford to be a single-income family.
I guess it boiled down to, ultimately, my wishing I could afford to lay around the house, being fed by my husband and never having to move. After all, in times gone by, it was a sign of status to be overweight. It meant you had enough to not have to hunt and gather. In today's society, we don't have to hunt and gather, but for most of us, we still have to work our tails off. So, I wish I could afford to lay around the house, but even if I could, I think I would use the time to walk my dogs, play with my cats, and go grow a garden to gather from. :-)
Heather
