My Favorite Fatling, Fat Bastard, Leader of the New American Fat Acceptance Movement with a Great Fattitude

That is my funny new friend, Fat Bastard, you are looking at.

Fat Bastard commented on a blog I wrote a couple weeks ago, titled "Observing The Amazing Struggles of the Amazingly Obese."

In that blogging I mentioned a horrendous incident that took place in a McDonald's, where a morbidly obese former acquaintance of mine nearly destroyed a McDonald's trying to sit on a stool.

Fat Bastard had the following to say about that particular morbidly obese person's attempt to get on a stool...

"Nothing does my clogged heart more good than a good story about fattitude. The fatling you describe is a real heroine.

McDonalds is becoming less and less fat friendly. They should have lift chairs so that fatling will not have exert themselves standing and sitting."

Fat Bastard has a blog or two. One of Fat Bastard's blogs is called BIGGER FATTER BLOG.

About himself Fat Bastard wrote...

"I'm Fat Bastard. I am the de facto leader of the New American Fat Acceptance Movement (NAFAM) and NIFAM which is the New International Fat Acceptance Movement. Like the name implies, I am a fat bastard. I promote, food, hedonism, pleasure, sloth, lust and gluttony."

And then there is Fat Bastard's credo at the top of his blog...

"THIS IS THE NEXT PHASE IN FAT ACCEPTANCE. THE DAYS OF JUSTIFYING OUR FATNESS BY LYING AND SAYING WE HAVE A MYSTERIOUS GENETIC OR METABOLIC DISORDER ARE OVER. WE NOW FREELY ADMIT TO AND EMBRACE WHAT THE FAT HATERS WOULD CALL GLUTTONY. WE FATLINGS ARE NO LONGER APOLOGISTS FOR OUR SIZE NOR OUR GREEDY GLUTTONY. WE ARE FAT BECAUSE WE EAT HUGE AMOUNTS OF FOOD AND WE LIKE IT. IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT GET USED TO IT BECAUSE FAT PEOPLE ARE NOW THE OVERWHELMING MAJORITY."

I had never read the term "Fatling" before. I like this word and plan on adding it to my vocabulary immediately. If not sooner. I also like Fat Bastard's "fattitude" word. Used in a sentence. You've got a bad fattitude for a fatling. Or one might have a good fattitude for a fatling.

Observing The Amazing Struggles of the Amazingly Obese.

I have blogged previously about observing the feeding habits of the only two morbidly obese people it has been my displeasure to observe up close.

That pair of morbidly obese people was one of each gender. Of the female of the pair I also observed the incredible difficulties carrying that much girth caused whilst attempting the most usually easy of activities.

For instance, getting out of a car, the obese person you see in the picture has to grab hold of the side of the car above the door, then rotate her torso to get her legs outside the car. And then with great effort pull on the door jam to yank herself into a vertical position.

How does one get to the point where that is what one goes through to get out of a car? Is it a gradual thing? Or is it just one day this is what you have to do to exit a vehicle?

From a sitting position on something like a couch, to get vertical this particular obese person would rock back and forth, gaining momentum, til enough momentum is gained to make one final rock forward into a vertical position.

If you are sitting on the couch, beside the rocking obese person, it can be quite a bumpy ride until verticality is achieved.

Once verticality is achieved this particular person will stay vertical for long periods of time, due to once that position is achieved it is easier to stay vertical than to sit down again.

An entire phone conversation, like the one you see documented in the photo, will take place while firmly planted to one location, This can go on for an hour. Or more.

The most horrendous incident I witnessed, courtesy of this particular obese person, was in a McDonald's in Gig Harbor, Washington.

There was a round table with 4 stools surrounding the table. Both the stools and the table were bolted to the floor. The obese person approached the table and stools with her bag full of 3 Quarter Pounders with Cheese, 2 Large Fries, 2 Apple Pies and a Chocolate Shake, sat the food on the table and then proceeded to try and get on a stool.

It was a stool that really was not all that far off the ground. Obviously, it was McDonald's, do you think McDonald's is going to have some sort of stool requiring gymnastic ability to mount it?

So, the obese person first tried to get on the stool via conventional means, but she could not lift her heft high enough to get on the stool.

And so she leaned forward and grabbed the end of the table, pulling hard to try and lift her heft on to the stool. Completely unaware of what a disturbing spectacle this was making for the rest of the fast food diners.

The table began to quake. I realized that the amount of torque her considerable mass was exerting on the table's grounding bolts would soon rip them from the floor.

I yelled, STOP it! You're gonna pull the table over.

We then moved to a regular booth where she was able to squeeze herself in between the table and the bench and blissfully consume her bag full of McDonald's goodies.

The McDonald's Table Incident etched itself deeply into my sub-conscious and regularly surfaces in various iterations in nightmares during the past 2 and a half years since the McDonald's Table Incident occurred.

My observers on the scene tell me that this particular obese person has increased by at least another 100 pounds since the McDonald's Table Incident of 2008.

Appalling.

Mixed Messages About Childhood Obesity & Eating At McDonald's

Did the billboard installers not catch the irony in the above pair of billboards?

With the billboard on top admonishing that one should not take Childhood Obesity lightly and to eat fruits & vegetables and be active. And saying that Food Stamps can help. Including a phone number to call to see if you qualify for Food Stamps.

And then below the Childhood Obesity billboard, a McDonald's billboard, touting McDonald's Dollar Menu, with a young lady on a McDonald's Shopping Spree, holding 2 bags, likely full of Dollar Menu items like the McDouble, Bacon Cheeseburger, Hash Browns, Fries, McChicken Sandwich, Sausage Burrito, Sausage McMuffin, Apple Pies and Hot Fudge Sundaes. She likely does not have the Dollar Menu Fruit n/ Yogurt Parfait or Side Salad in her McDonald's bags.

I don't know about you, but all those McDonald's Dollar Menu items made me a bit hungry for a Bacon Cheeseburger, a McChicken Sandwich and Fries. No wonder I must fight constantly trending towards the onslaught of obesity....

San Francisco Attacks the Childhood Obesity Epidemic By Banning McDonald's Happy Meals

The Childhood Obesity Epidemic is a very big problem. And getting bigger. But should government be dictating to McDonald's what McDonald's can put in a Happy Meal?

In San Francisco, that's in California, the Board of Supervisors voted 8 to 3 in favor of banning toy giveaways in Happy Meals and other fast food promotions, unless the Happy Meal has some fruit and vegetables in it, along with a lower fat, sugar and sodium content.

The mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, has said he will  veto the ban. But the supervisors have enough votes to over turn a veto.

McDonald's is not too happy with San Francisco right now and is fighting the ordinance.

A McDonald's owner in San Francisco, Scott Rodrick was quoted saying, "Somehow the San Francisco Board of Supervisors just took the happy out of Happy Meals."

The Happy Meal ordinance allows restaurants to give away a toy if the Happy Meal amounts to less than 600 calories, has less than 640 milligrams of sodium, less than 35% of the calories coming from fat, of which less than 10% can be saturated fat. Less than 35% of the calories in a milkshake can come from fat, with less than 10% added sugar.

Plus, the Happy Meals must  have at least half a cup of fruit or at least three quarters of a cup of vegetables.

The government micromanaging a Happy Meal like this seems a bit nuts to me. By the way, nuts, seeds, eggs or low-fat cheese are exempted from the Happy Meal fat quotient.

Methinks it's the parents job to decide what their kids eat. How about San Francisco passing an ordinance where a parent of an obese child gets arrested for buying his fat kid a Happy Meal, slapped with a hefty fine and forced to attend parenting school? Or, better yet, bypass the Happy Meal trigger and just start charging the parents of obese children with child abuse. That'd be more efficient.