Friday, November 15, 2013

Finding Fit



BY
Adejoh Idoko Momoh

First it was at the Wal-Mart, then the Premium Outlet would follow. It would be the same thing at the local Wendy’s or Burger King: all fat people.

Some riding automated carts so they didn't have to walk about shopping for their groceries or ordering the most fattening item on the menu irrespective of their balloon-sized-weight. It wouldn’t be too long before I would ask myself:

‘Where’s all the fitness, sexiness Hollywood has made me believe is synonymous with America?’

I would go to Food Courts, look around for a snack: candy, frozen yoghurt, sugar coated Danish and I would conclude America is a society that encourages obesity among its young. A society that charges a higher premium on small soda packs only so you are encouraged to purchase larger ones.


I would see this first hand when with a Nigerian friend training as a doctor in Florida at the time; I would go to the Altapointe Mall in Winterpark. Tired from seeing ‘Elysium’ and window shopping, we would settle for a blizzard. I would ask for a mini cone and my friend a medium, the red haired server lady would ask:

‘a mini?’ wearing that look sales people wear when they think you made the wrong choice and can do better. ‘if you’d upgrade your mini to a medium, you could get both cones for 99 cents each as opposed to the $1.30 cost of a mini or $2 medium’.

My friend, himself a few pounds heavier now would say;
‘Take the upgrade, whatever you have left over, I’d finish’.  I would look to him and smile. Run my palm over my now slightly bulging tummy and say, ‘I’d take the upgrade’. The lady would smile back as though I had made the wiser choice.

She would turn the cone up-side-down as though to show the blizzard was frozen stiff and I would remember my friend saying to me earlier nothing is quite as good as a blizzards frozen deliciousness.   


As we took our seats to enjoy our blizzards, I would notice a white haired lady with her American accent bent to reach the lowest layer of a phone case booth, her thighs about half the size of my waist and I would wonder: how in a society with unlimited options and organic food, people still couldn’t make the simple choice of living healthier lives.

Adejoh Momoh (momoh.adejoh@gmail.com) can be followed on twitter @adejoh

9 comments:

  1. Your Stories Are Always Captivating, But For Clarification I Would Like To Know Why You Always Write In The Future-Past-Tense Kind Of Way. How Come You Don't Narrate It Like It Happened?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Stealth. No reason in particular, I just think writing in that style makes reading a lot more interesting. It makes it sound like a child is telling the story, kinda like a folklore.

      Delete
  2. Na wa oh. Is it their fault they are over weight? Instead of being sympathetic, people like you would come up with articles like these. Nice read sha.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hahahahahahah, cause am gonna tell ur Nigerian Dr in Florida abt ur blog lol...but Sir, some people prefere em fat also there could be some genetic abnormalities causing high rise in obesity apart from their environmental factors which obviously encourages wait gain..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lol. Please tell my Doctor friend, it would increase my readership. I prefer them slim, healthy. Isn't that the argument people who are not willing to try to control their weight adopt?, they simply blame it on genetics?

      Delete
    2. Am dreaming of a white xmas...lalalalalal.....can u differentiate these...Fit, athletic, bulky, fat, obese etc.....whatever floats ur boat Sir...some prefere anorexic bullimic ones too lol

      Delete
  4. But the average life span of americans is way higher than naija pple...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. True that. That's because we do not have access to health services, Medicare and our government is generally not useful or interested in the provision of any such facilities.

      Delete
    2. Looking at the life expectancy of the US compared to Japan or countries in the Mediterranean where they eat healthy you'd understand the effect that unhealthy eating habits have on the American public. If you can read on the North Karelia project it will give greater understanding of how slight changes to diet can actually help.

      Delete