So should it be a crime.....

I was overweight starting at about age 10.  Both of my parents and siblings were normal weight.  My mom cooked healthy meals.  But, I would sneak food. I would do it in the middle of the night, if they left the house, really any time I had the opportunity.  My mom would go with me to weigh****chers even though she didn't need to lose any weight.  I honestly don't know what else my parents could have done short of put a padlock on the fridge and cabinets.  I don't blame my food issues on my parents.  I was definitely loved and well taken care of.  They did their best to try and help me.

Ms Heidi, well said.  My first and biggest reaction is not surprise at what you saw.  Solution?  PAY IT FORWARD.  Preach your thoughts and concerns and suggestions to those willing to listen and make sure they are loaded in l,ove so people will understand.  This world won't change with timid people who "swallow" status quo.  I am doing my part, beginning within my family, but in the spirit of VOLUNTEERISM, spreading out to others.  With the passion you expressed in this blog, you too can find ways to PAY IT FORWARD

Seems to me we need to worry about our own journey and not forget the road we've traveled to get where we are. I pray I never judge another for being where I've been or am. 

The choices we guide our children to make are very difficult.  I struggle with this with my own children, my wife and I are always worried about what they eat and their health.  It's a balance between health, happiness, and perspective.  This case is sad.  

I think you struck a nerve.  My parents had a picture perfect preacher's family of stair step obese kids. My grandfather owned a grocery store in the depression (in the 1930's)  My dad was raised with a world view that you could spend your money on food or doctor bills. When I was in my early teens my parents moved to West Africa to be missionaries and teachers in a bible college.  I saw first hand a whole culture where if you had 20 more pounds it was the difference in living or dying with cholera, malaria or dysentery.  I was sick and lost 15 lbs over there and everyone was comforting me and encouraging me to gain it back. I was 13 when I moved there and weighed 185 lbs.  I thought it was the easiest way to lose weight I have ever seen.  My world view is twisted.  My parents and grandparents world view was twisted.  Did they need to be arrested because it was heart breaking?  A few years ago cigarettes were an accepted part of society.  Much like eating lots of sugar is now.  We have an addiction and food producers know and take advantage of that. They even have lobbyist. Should sugar producers be jailed?  They are making some of the cheapest, cleanest, sweetest product ever?  It is not a problem for everyone.  Just addicts.  We spent almost 6 years as foster parents in a group home.   Believe me, taking a kid away from their parents because they included them in a choice to buy doughnuts for the family is not typical kid in care.  We are blessed and cursed with an abundance of available food. If I eat certain foods I want more of them. I will eat them past enough, past the full mark and past disgusted with myself.  I want to tell people the options from obesity that are out there.  But they aren't asking. I think it is way out of place for me, a total stranger (that is still overweight), to point them on my journey.  I want to say 'I was your weight 2 years ago.  You can have what I have if you do what I did.'  But then I realize they may not want my journey.  They might become offended by me suggesting that they even need a journey. We all had to hit bottom and do our own study for our journey. I guess that is part of it. So I do quietly ache for people with obesity issues. I see other peoples choices and remember them as part of my past. In a way they are helping me not to go back.

Sooooo...my youngest son is a midnight snacker, and secretly eats. He's the one that will eat all of his Halloween candy in one night if I don't take it away from him. No, he's not MO but he's definitely overweight and wears husky sizes. He would be MO if we didn't constantly have in in sports. He is very flat footed and his ankles turn weird so he waddles sometimes. I restrict sweets from him on a regular basis so sometimes we let him have some. We are teaching him moderation. Since I am MO am I going to be judged if I take him to get some donuts? Will someone want to call me a child abuser? Maybe that little girl waddled because she has the same ankle problem as my son? Maybe that is part of the reason she is overweight? My 7 yo daughter has a girl on her team that is either MO or pretty close to it. But she's one of the fastest runners on the team and best players. Her parents are MO but they are keeping their daughter active. What if they take her to get an ice cream after a game. Is that child abuse?

I know yhis seems out of left field, Heidi, but I'm curious. Do you have strong feelings on returning shopping carts to the designated areas at stores, or leaving them by your car when finished?

Flipping killin me LOL