Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Superguilt Me

Supersize Me scared the crap out of me. Blogfriends of mine have talked about the movie but prefaced this with the disclaimer that they don't care for fast food much or don't eat it much.

Not me, man. I love it. I love salt. Salty salt salt mcsalterson. It is more than easy for me to gulp down a crappy meal on the road to or from work and I have been known to go on such a bender. Seeing this film made me rededicate my life (wow, I did grow up fundy) to my present food plan of five fruits and veggies a day or die. Especially since I know that those are the choices. It also made me humbly grateful that I can stop the fast food and that relatively little damage is done for me.

That isn't why the film hurt, though. It hurt because of dad.

My dad is obese. He is bigger than most of the people Spurlock shows on the film. His condition has formed my personality in ways both good and bad. It has made me feisty as I have more than once chewed out strangers in public who felt it their place to ridicule him and compassionate as I have watched my dad struggle relearn and undo more than 50 years of bad habits. He spent most of January and February in the hospital after a pulmonary embolism and I wonder if he will live til I am 40. Food is his drug and he has to eat to live. What do you do?


I felt the need to blog this out after I returned the DVD. The clerk saw what I had rented and said "Hey, is this movie dumb?". "No, actually it was kind of frightening" Another bystander asked what it was about and just as I started to tell him, he walked off. I guess I was still pretty fragile from thinking of my dad but it bothered me. So even if that guy walked off, someone is reading this.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Superguilt me, indeed! Great post, Jennifer. Good to hear your thoughts on it. I think if I watched it once a week it would help me exercise regularly. Unfortunately, the guilt effect wears off in a short amount of time.
Kristen M