Amy's Blog

WARNING: I get pretty personal in this blog…really putting myself out there, but after watching A Place at the Table http://www.takepart.com/place-at-the-table, I just had to get some thoughts out.

I’ve always taken an interest in health, fitness, and nutrition….at least since high school.  I’ve also been interested in obesity and childhood obesity.  I’m not sure where the interest came from.  Maybe because I grew up in a household where my mother and all of her siblings were overweight or obese.  My mom was always on a diet or starving herself or trying to lose weight.  She was a very unhappy person that lacked self confidence and a good understanding of self worth.  My mom gained most of her weight after she gave birth to my little sister.  Then, 8 years later, she had my brother and gained a whopping 80 pounds!! My mom is a short 5’3”, so the extra weight was not good for her at all.  As much as I hate to say it, I inherited some of those less than desirable qualities.  I remember sitting in the hallway with some classmates in sixth grade thinking that I was never going to wear shorts again because my thighs were so fat and that I wanted skinny thighs like my classmate sitting across from me.  From then on, I was on a rollercoaster always watching calories and always trying to lose weight.  Looking back, this was utterly absurd because from the time I was born until I was a freshman in college, I was always a healthy weight and a healthy BMI.  We played outside as kids, I ran track in junior high, we rode bikes together as a family.  And, despite my mom’s issues, we grew up learning the importance of nutrition, eating whole foods, fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.  My family never had much money growing up, but I remember summers being my favorite time of year because my mom kept our fridge stocked with so many fresh fruits, plums, cherries, peaches, grapes, and strawberries.  I am so thankful for that knowledge that I learned growing up, because I’ve always felt like that I have had the tools to lead a healthy lifestyle.  I’m not struggling to learn how to eat right or fighting to cut out things like sweets and soda because those things were never a part of my life growing up.  PS. My mom finally lost all of the weight, but it took YEARS, my youngest sibling (the fourth) was in elementary school by the time my mom made it to a healthy weight.

In college I took a 100 level human nutrition class.  I LOVED it and that started my thirst for educating myself on our biology and the science behind health and fitness.  I started reading every health and fitness book, magazine and news article that I could get my hands on….and still do to this day.  I’ve also become super interested in detoxing and cleansing and how digestive health plays into maintaining a healthy weight.  I became sort of obsessed with watching different documentaries on obesity, reading blogs by people documenting their weight loss journeys, etc.  I LOVED watching Obesity Rehab Center, Extreme Makeover weight loss edition, HBO’s weight of the Nation, etc.  Through all of this I also grew extremely interested in hunger in America and how food deserts contribute to childhood obesity….which does seem a little ironic on the surface.

I went to the Tivoli theatre in Westport http://www.tivolikc.com/ and watched the documentary by the same guys that created Food Inc. which I never saw.  The documentary followed three different families, one in Philly, one in Mississippi, and one in a little country town in the Colorado Rockies and how hunger has had an impact on their children.  Its amazing to think that in one of the most prosperous countries on the planet, one in four children live with food insecurity –  this affects 50 MILLION Americans.  Almost 24 million Americans live in food deserts….which means that the areas where they live have limited access to grocery stores and very limited access to whole foods.  These people buy a lot of their food at convenience stores where they can only get chips, sodas, snack cakes, predominantly processed foods and refined sugars. No fruits, vegetables, or whole grains.

The story featured a family from Philly –  a young single mother named Barbie, with two toddlers and no job. She was receiving a small amount of public assistance for groceries.   Barbie lived in a terrible apartment in a very bad neighborhood.  She had to use public transportation to get anywhere, including taking two different busses just to get to the closest grocery store.  The second family was a single black woman who was a cook at a local diner in a tiny town in Mississippi.  They had three small grocers, none of which carried any fresh produce with the exception of one of the grocers that would have fresh bananas on occasion.  The closest grocery store that carries fresh produce is 45 minutes away -that’s just a one way trip.  Her daughter was in second grade and suffered from obesity and asthma.  She rarely ate breakfast, and her after school snacks consisted of chips and sodas.   The family that touched my heart was the family in the small Rocky Mountain town.  The focus was on sweet little Rosie, mature and wise beyond her years.  She lived with her mother, sister, Aunt, and grandparents in a tiny little house where she shared the laundry room with the washer, dryer, and her sister.  She slept on two pillows on the floor.  The house was a total dump and the yard was a junk yard.  Rosie’s mom was a waitress at a local café and brought home about $120 a week.  They did receive some help from  a local food bank, but it was mostly junk food.  Rosie was SO smart, but had trouble focusing in school.  She said that she gets so hungry that her stomach hurts and she starts imagining that her teacher and classmates are bananas, apples, and oranges.  It was HEARTBREAKING.  All of these families were living in extreme poverty with limited access to whole foods.  School lunches were complete crap at all of the schools because most school cafeterias are working on budges of less than $3 per child.  The meals consist of mostly starches.

I was SO conflicted watching these stories.  On the surface, it looks like the root cause of the hunger and the health issues is poverty…but I think it is something bigger.  All three families were headed by single parents.  All three families also seemed to think that they couldn’t eat healthy on a budget.  The family in Mississippi had chips a hoy, oreos, soda, sunny delight, all kinds of junk in their fridge.  Maybe I’m totally ignorant, but I think that junk food is EXPENSIVE!!! I think that the root of the problems involved social issues and lack of education.

First with the social issues…..Barbie couldn’t have been more than 24 or 25…she was single with two small children.  She kept saying that she wanted to be more than all the single drug addict moms in her neighborhood and that she wanted to go to college…..but she made a lot of excuses.  I can’t imagine what its like being a single mom living in poverty, not knowing where your children’s next meal is going to come from.  BUT, why was she getting pregnant in her late teens or early 20s, not once but twice with no stable place to live or a job? Why didn’t she start college after high school?

And Rosie’s family, half of the adults in the house were unemployed, yet the house was in COMPLETE disarray.  Not only was it messy and cluttered, but it wasn’t clean.  They were allowing their children to live in FILTH, TRASH, just plain SHIT!  It was so sad, but it almost made me angry at the parents…..what are you doing all day if you don’t work???!!!!!

The main message of the documentary was that these folks were victims of circumstance and government mismanagement…..I will say that the CHILDREN are victims, but it is SO hard for me to buy the adults being victims.

Where do I begin…..I really do believe that we all have equal opportunity, but I believe that each person controls their own destiny through their individual choice.  I grew up in a household with structure and discipline…we had chores, we kept our home neat and clean, we did our home work, we ironed our clothes, we had a strict bedtime, we learned about good nutrition.  College wasn’t an option….it was a MUST.  It sounds like my parents were saints….they weren’t, in fact, I haven’t had a real relationship with my parents since college….LOOOONG story.  I got good grades, went to college, got a great job, and am now living a very nice lifestyle.  I accomplished all of this on my own…my parents did not have very much money and they definitely did not have any money saved for my education.  I did it all on my own.  My parents’ poor financial situation was all due to a series of bad choices that they made over a lifetime.  And I will admit, that all of my challenges -school, grades, financial, and some work related challenges were all due to poor decision making on my part….looking back, I can pinpoint exactly what I would have done differently over the years to be more successful now.  My sister and I grew up in the exact same household, I graduated from college, landed a great job, and enjoy a decent lifestyle for someone of my age and income.  My sister on the other hand, has struggled nonstop.  She dropped out of college at 19, got pregnant at 20, was raising a child by herself making $10 an hour by age 21.  Finally, by age 25, she made it back to school, but every day is a struggle.  She works full time, goes to school full time, and takes care of a 6 year old.  Money for food and shelter is VERY tight.  She has to plan every meal and every trip out to save on gas and groceries.  She thinks I had it easy growing up and getting through school.  She refuses to acknowledge that I worked harder and made better choices.  She’s a great mom, but her decisions over the years has made life twice as hard for her as it has been for me.  CHOICE.  PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.

I can’t help but think if those three families in A Place at the Table could go back and make different choices, how their lives and how their children’s lives would be better.  We need more sex and health education, more education on birth control, more education on how to make healthy choices on a limited budget.  I think the families that said the junk food is cheaper are people that haven’t actually made an effort to eat better.  Even eating canned or frozen vegetables is better than eating boxed macaroni and cheese, chips, and cookies.  AND water, water is free!!! I never once saw any of the families drinking water.  The Mississippi mom gave her daughter two choices at dinner – kool aid or cranberry juice! We had juice for breakfast on Saturday mornings…..RARELY did we have soda or anything other than milk or water.  I also can’t help but think how their lives would be different if they stopped and looked within themselves and took personal responsibility for their own actions and stopped waiting for the government to make their lives better.

I’m scared because our families are falling a part, our children are obese and are being raised by parents that are obese, don’t have good education on nutrition, don’t have a good sense of personal responsibility, and therefore can’t pass that along to our children.  One of the doctors featured in A Place at the Table said that our children will be the first generation to not outlive their parents.  Our future is at stake.

I also felt extreme guilt watching those children struggle while I thought about how much money I spend on food every month.  I never have to worry about where my next meal will come from.  Also, I realized that I take for granted my nutritional knowledge and my ability to access whole foods, and while I have all of that, I still put crap in my body.  I’m in the middle of a six month struggle with maintaining a healthy lifestyle, and I have all of the tools at my fingertips!

Little Rosie sais that she wanted her children to have a better life than she has now.  She wants them to have enough food and to get good grades at school.  She also wants Extreme Home Makeover to “rescue us from our house” but she knew that the chances of that happening were slim because “we don’t have a story”.  Meaning that no one was terminally ill, there was no extreme drama for the ratings, but it was ironic because they DO have a compelling story.  Their family is living in extreme poverty and living all of the major issues that are plaguing our country – obesity, hunger, unemployment, lack of personal responsibility, and lack of education.

I struggle because I get overwhelmed with these issues that I care so much about but yet I feel helpless, I have a life to live and don’t know how I can make a difference, although I’m going to continue to try.