I'd have to say that second worst to that camp, was when we'd go to an event at a bigger school out in town. Whether it be a Field day event or a kids concert or play. There would be chairs specificly set up for us or certain parts of that school's bleachers set up for us. I remember having major anxiety about these events. I love plays, but my heart would be racing so hard, because either someone far behind me would make a comment about my size, or i'd be WORRYING they were going to, so I could never really focus completly on the play/concert/event. Again, this was the early 90s, around 91/92. This school probably had one or two token fat kids and that was it. I was fresh meat. An oddity. I remember once we had a water issue at our school that needed to be fixed and the administration thought it would be "fun" to send us to another school for a day to eat lunch and attend a few classes. The classes were ok, because it was just my friends and I in the rooms, we didn't mix in with the students that actually attended there. Until, that is, lunch time. THAT was horrible.
When we walked in, the other jr high students that actually went to that school were all sitting down, eating and staring at us. I felt the sweat pouring down my face while I grabbed a tray and walked through the line. I could feel them all staring at me and laughing. It's funny how you don't forget these lame things that don't really matter now. They stick with you..and unfortunatly a year or two later I ended up having to transfer to that particular school, but i'll save that for another entry.
There is a very big deal made these days about the quality of school lunches and the choices kids make while they are eating lunch and snacks at school. I remember in highschool kids making a meal out of a carton of french fries and one of those wrapped up Hostess fruit pies you'd get at a gas station. Yet, they stayed slim. Healthy choice? No, of course not, but they burned it all off and i'm sure at home their parents didn't allow them to eat like that. Heck, their parents probably didn't realize what their kids were buying for lunch, as it was highschool, not Jr High or grammar school.
To be honest with you, I think that my choices OUTSIDE of school were what led me to be overweight. In gradeschool I packed the same sort of lunch everyone else had. (with the exception of the kid who brought in tofu burgers and sprouts and a fruit leather daily) We all had an Ecto-Cooler Juice box, a sandwhich of some kind, most kids had bologne or peanutbutter and jelly, a piece of fruit and either a small bag of chips or Little Debbie snack cake. Is that what we'd consider a healthy balanced lunch today? No, but everyone else managed to stay slim. They played sports and probably had a meat and veggie for dinner and cereal for breakfast and had minimal snacks after school. We ate a lot of Pizza, Chinese, chips, soda, etc at my house.
I'm obviously getting very long winded here, and possibly going on random tangents, but i'm literally just writing down things as I think of them/remember them. I'm going to stop here, and say that it's interesting that there are a lot more obese kids these days. I have to be careful with my own child because he's picky. However, I don't just allow him to eat whatever he wants, whenever he wants. It's a constant battle. I don't know if it's food ingredients, more time on electronic devices or what but i'm willing to be that a lot of it has to do with people not cooking as much anymore.
No comments:
Post a Comment