Wednesday, August 27, 2008

That's no moon, it's a space station!

At first I thought it was a simple error...
A nearly half-ton Texas woman charged in the death of her toddler nephew couldn't have beaten the boy to death because of her limited movement from weight problems, her attorney said Tuesday.
No, no, Mr. Reporter; a ton is two thousand pounds, so 500 pounds would be a quarter ton. I kept reading...
Mayra Rosales, who weighs nearly 1,000 pounds...
Oh...
Oh, my!
Look, I try to be sympathetic, I really do, because lord knows I'm nowhere near as svelte as I used to be, but it only works to a point. Nobody just wakes up one morning and says "Oh, holy crap, I'm five hundred pounds! When did that happen?" There are all those intervening warning steps, like 350, 400, 450... You'd think that on passing one of those intermediary points between shopping at Lane Bryant and shopping at Omar the Tentmaker one would reduce the amount of stuff one put in one's cakehole, no?

18 comments:

GeorgeH said...

Who feeds these people?
Being self indulgent and half nuts will get you to 500 pounds, but once you are too beg to move, who continues to bring you the food and clean you up while you then double in size?

Dr. StrangeGun said...

Georgeh,

Democrats.

Tam said...

Well played, sir!

Anonymous said...

SOme of it is about metabolism. I weighed 230 in college, and dieted my way to 425, jan 07. That's why I had myself surgically altered, nothing else worked in the long term. Of course, there are some people who, sometimes, just need to have the small cone, don't opt for the double fudge bananna split every single time.

Anonymous said...

"...because lord knows I'm nowhere near as svelte as I used to be..."

Be not troubled, Tam, we lurves you for your mind!

(From someone who's wardrobe has contracted Chronic Shrinking Disease)

Anonymous said...

Ok, everyone's talking about weight but what about what the court's doing about the case. They put a bedridden, fat ass women on house arrest??? I don't think it needs to be said, but what the hell... how the hell is she even going to get out of her house!? And shouldn't the mom be charged with something too for putting her baby in the care of someone who can't move their arms.

Tam said...

I think the house arrest is pretty much a formality, although they did borrow a GPS tracker from Sea World and affix it to her.

And the mother is being charged.

It's apparently not her fault either. It's nobody's fault.

Sumdood has struck again...

Laughingdog said...

"There are all those intervening warning steps, like 350, 400, 450"

Don't forget the all important "Wow, I don't fit in a chair anymore" step, followed by the "When did the love seat get to be too narrow for me?" step.

Jay G said...

Hell, 300 was my trigger, and I didn't actually make it that high...

When you start to hit the tail end of a standard scale, that's about when you need to be thinking, hey, my bones aren't made of osmium, perhaps I ought to go on a diet...

RevGreg said...

My supervisor at work is easily 400 pounds plus and we've been trying to urge him to seek help since experiencing tons of health issues because of it. He had even lost some weight due to illness a few months ago and commented how he felt better but when I asked him the other day if he'd gained it back he admitted that he's +25# from his pre-illness weight in only a bit over a month. Last week the driver's side seat back in his van literally broke while he was driving us around at work...he's got the spare tire and some folded cardboard boxes wedged behind it to keep it up now.

Yeah, I'm a svelte 265# but I hadn't gained in years and actually have lost a few gradually over the past year. I still trudge through the woods for miles during hunting season and get around fine...I can't imagine being like him and not being able to walk the mall without stopping to rest (the individual I work with does this as an exercise program.) I wish I knew how to get him to take action but it has to start with the individual...frustrating!

Anonymous said...

I know a 24 year old woman-with a heart problem-who is pushing 375. She thinks eating a salad a couple of days a week is being on a diet.
Said young woman will not drink diet drinks, but drinks 4-5 cokes a day. Koolade only with sugar as a sweetner, same with iced tea. Presently, she is eating a breakfast of pancakes with syrup (not sugar free) sausage, and eggs.
Doesn't take a genius to know where this will wind up. Sad thing is, she has a 16 month old daughter.
I am 212 pounds. She would have to loose the equivalent of my ENTIRE body weight to come anywhere close to normal weight for her.
This young lady is my GF's daughter. My guess is she has a food addiction, as medical tests do not show a metabolic problem. Refuses to admit it, though.

Anonymous said...

Tam,

Rickn8or is right, we love you for your mind!!
You are pretty nice looking, too!

Seriously, (not that the above lines aren't true) as we age we do have to work at our health more. Unless we have REALLY good genetics. But I don't have a problem giving up Big Macs and Classic Coke if that means I can still see my -um, toes- in the shower.

Weetabix said...

"He declined to say where his client was the day of her son's death..."

I know I'm not supposed to infer anything from that, but I can't help thinking, "Hmmmm...."

Anonymous said...

My guess is that once you hit, say, 250-300 pounds (just a guess here...) it becomes too overwhelming to even try. If one was even trying in the first place.

So many of these cases are mental/psychological issues, NOT physical ones. I heard of a woman who had a food addiction and ate whole sticks of butter because butter had been so scarce when she was a child. I kid you not.

But yeah, you'd think that the person responsible for the food would come up with the idea of "diet", say, 500 pounds ago? It's a cinch she's not the one going grocery shopping.

Matt G said...

"Jamie Rosales, the boy's 20-year-old mother, believes the death was possibly caused by the morbidly obese woman rolling onto the toddler, said Oscar Vega."

Dayum! You leave a toddler within reach of a woman like that, you have to worry about her eating it.




I just realized that she can't use the toilet. Oh good gawd. Behind every fantastically morbidly obese person, there's an obsessing enabler... and apparently they're dealing with their poop.

Weetabix said...

"That's no moon, it's a space station!"

I have a bad feeling about this. Full reverse! Tam, lock in the auxillary power!

LabRat said...

I tend to get mentally hung up on calculating the caloric intake necessary to MAINTAIN that level of bulk, let alone continue the gain. Literally, eating has become a full-time job. Metabolism makes a big difference, but once you get to a certain level of morbid obesity, physics becomes involved in a number of things.

Having lived with someone who had a weight problem serious enough to require one of those little carts in the grocery store and is still dealing with the orthopedic fallout of years of this stuff, yes, perspective does slowly warp over time. She counted walking around the house as exercise and ate basically automatically, with no reflection whatsoever.

Me, I adore food and I also adore being able to move easily. I also hate shopping, so whenever the clothes get tight, the moving to eating ratio gets adjusted and there is less fast food and more fresh. It seems to work for me.

Anonymous said...

My question is: how do such people go to the bathroom?!

With a diaper or a bedpan? Except both would have to be custom made...