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A Rant & a Very Funny Thing!

Rant First ... scroll down for the Very Funny Thing!

It’s not the first time I have ranted about this; the eating habits of overweight “poor” people!


It was brought to my attention (again) by a picture on Facebook which has received, as I write, 158,939 comments. I haven’t read them all, of course, but I have scanned down for a few hundred and haven’t seen anyone supporting her. 

I thought it fair to look into the lady’s story further and it seems she may have been misquoted in the FB picture above because in an interview I read she says that her GP sent her to a gym but she just had a few sessions because she didn't have the willpower to stick to it and she was embarrassed.  I can sympathise, I’d be embarrassed too. On the other hand being slimmer and healthier would surely be worth the embarrassment.

She also said ...

"I tried swimming but it cost £22 a month and it 
meant I had to cut back on my favourite 
pizza and Chinese takeaways."

And I slightly sympathise with that too, £22 a month would certainly be a lot to me. Mind you in my thoroughness I looked up the price of takeaway Chinese meals in Wigan, her home town, and the average price of a main course for one seems to be about £5. Probably there'd side dishes too. I could cook a damn fine meal for that – and not just for one!

On the other hand Cristina (that’s her name) who gets more than £20,000 a year in benefits said in an interview ...

 "I need more benefits to eat healthily and exercise 
and it would be good if the government offered a cash incentive for me to lose weight. I’d like to get 
£1 for every pound I lose."

I don’t sympathise with that at all, at all – I think by the look of her that she has enough incentive to lose weight!

I have niece who was very overweight (caused initially by a health glitch) but in the past year or so she has worked absolute wonders. Yes she does go to the gym, every day at her own expense because she works hard to be able to afford it. She also eats only what she is allowed on her very strict diet despite belonging to a very foodie family. Even on special occasions she brings her own rice cakes or whatever instead of digging in with the rest of us. She has lost a phenomenal amount of weight looks absolutely beautiful and I am so proud of her. She has recently started writing a very honest blog Gym~Berry on her journey from overweight and unhealthy to the fine woman she is today!  I thoroughly recommend it and would do so even if I didn't know her!

She didn’t need government help, she didn't need any more incentive than her health and happiness being at stake and she had the intelligence and gumption to sort her own life out.


Having said all that I suppose that being a bit low in the IQ department is no more blame-worthy than being short sighted or hard of hearing – not sure about lazy or greedy though!

I so wish that people like this girl would learn to cook. It is said and I agree that more education is needed but information is as easy to get as logging on to online bingo so that’s not much of an excuse. On the other hand if someone hasn’t learned by the time they are grown up with kids they probably aren’t interested. What a shame, it’s mostly easy and can bring so much pleasure into your life and the lives of those you care about. 

It is to this end that I keep publishing my humble little ebooks – yes, I’d like to make some money but what I’d really like is for people to discover how easy cooking delicious food is and to have a go.  To this end my handy little ebook of hints and tips is free and includes a link for another free eBook. It's available in all sorts of formats including pdf so there is no excuse ~ get yours here now!  



And that’s enough ranting for now – it just this sort of thing really gets up my goat!!!


In Other News ...

I have completely revamped and updated my book on stress-free Christmas cooking. The contents have doubled and it now contains over 50 recipes and every helpful hint and tip I can think of.

I also changed the cover and have to say I am dead chuffed with my artwork!


And this leads me to ...

The Very Funny Thing

I was bemoaning to some friends that however hard I try, even sending out free copies, I never seem to get many reviews for my books (although those that I do are usually 4 or 5 stars). I was pretty boring so by way of changing the subject, and I don’t blame them, they asked if I had seen the reviews on Amazon for methylated spirits, Of course I looked immediately and was utterly delighted - see what you think!  



2 comments:

Sue said...

You'd think, wouldn't you, that the children she has in each arm would be incentive enough to get healthy and fit and that she would want to teach them how NOT to end up being like her when they are her age.

Each generation seems to be sliding more and more away from real food and the knowledge of how to spend their money on the fresh foods that can so simply be turned into healthy meals.

Bringing back good basic cooking classes in schools would be a good thing.

Sudden Lunch ~ Suzy Bowler said...

Absolutely Sue! Apparently she spends £300 a month on food! Well we eat very well including a glass of wine with dinner for me every night, my real man has meat for most meals and we spend nothing like that. Yesterday's lunch of roasted cauli cost me probably 5p + having he oven on.

But if ppl aren't receiving the education they could always look stuff up online - a lot easier than things used to be.

Also walking round looking for bargains might burn off some fat.