How fat is too fat?!

Vacation seems like such a memory now, even though I've only been "back to the real world" for a little over a week. My husband and I enjoyed a wonderful 5 day trek to Las Vegas! It was a combination of relaxation, fun, and awesome shows. Here's a very windblown self portrait from our last night in Vegas. We'd just finished walking to the Bellagio to see Cirque du Soleil's "O"!

One thing I did, that I have NEVER done on vacation before...I worked out! I've always asked, "who really uses the hotel gym," any time I've cruised past one on the way to the pool on previous vacation. The answer this time is ... this girl! Despite a fair amount of relaxation I worked out 2 mornings, and I logged over 30 miles on my pedometer throughout our stay!! Needless to say, I did not feel guilty at all about indulging in some delicious food during our trip! It was an awesome vacation! 

I witnessed a random weight-related situation one of our flights home that I've been contemplating blogging about and I keep going back and forth. Obviously something about the situation bothered me, or stuck with me, because I'm still thinking about it ... so here goes.

On our last flight, from Denver to Knoxville we were seated in the last row of the plane. Before the flight departed our flight attendants were hanging out in the back of the plane. A lady came down the aisle and put one of her carry on bags in the overhead bin about 4 rows in front of us. She then put her other bag in the aisle seat on that row. She didn't sit down, but instead came straight to the back toward a flight attendant. I could hear the frustration in her voice, and the conversation.

Passenger: There's no room for me to sit in my seat.

Flight Attendant: What do you mean? Is someone else sitting there?

Passenger: No, but the guy in the middle seat is spilling over into my seat ... there's no room for me.

Other flight attendant: Yes, I had to take him a seat belt extender a few minutes ago.

Passenger: Is this a full flight, or can I sit somewhere else?

Flight Attendant: I think we're full. He has to be able to put the arm rest down in between your seats. That's our policy.

Passenger: Do you really want me to try that?

Flight Attendant: Why don't you just wait back here and we'll see if we have an open seat.

OK, I went to Frontier Airlines website and can't find anything about overweight passengers and a policy. I guarantee they have one...even if it's not on their website! A little googling and I found this article mentioning that some airlines have started charging passengers if they require two seats. It sounds like most airlines are probably doing just what our crew did ... found the "offended" passenger a new seat.

My more important question is ... America, how did we get so fat? True, I think that many places like airplanes and arenas have downsized trying to make more room for more people to make more money. However, even at my heaviest I never had trouble buckling the seat belt on an airplane.

I keep replaying the scenario over and over in my head and can't decide if I am happy with how it was "handled," or if the gentleman should've been confronted. If there had been no extra seat on the plane, what would've happened? If he had been confronted, what good would the embarrassment have done? Or maybe the confrontation would've been his wake up call that he needed as an intervention of sorts? Emotional, physical, whatever ... maybe that would've been his proverbial straw that broke the camel's back? 

I try not to be judgmental, and I tell myself when I get frustrated seeing the very overweight women in the motorized carts at Wal-mart, that I don't know their situation, and I don't know if their handicap contributes to their weight, or if their weight is their handicap. I want to yell at them when I see the cart full of processed food, sugary sodas, and plain old crap ... "give a damn, and you can do something about your situation!!"

I know that change is hard. And I know that our society makes it pretty easy to just stay the way you are, and never grow out of a difficult situation. We enable people to make poor choices and live lazy lives. I don't want to be that person. I wish that somehow I could facilitate a change in that man's life so that he's never the topic of a flight attendant's conversation again. I wish I could waive a magic wand and make the pain associated with being overweight go away for those who physically hurt because of their weight. But I know those thoughts are ridiculous.

One thing I do know is that I'm glad my desire to change came from within me, and was no spurred on because I realized I was too fat for an airplane, or too fat for my job! Just this past week someone told me about a Texas hospital that has decided to not hire people with a BMI over 35. Granted, I've never been a fan of the whole height/weight chart that determines a person's BMI. I prefer the awesome tool we used during our Biggest Winner competition that calculated the number through a high-tech scale. 

I've always thought that as a group healthcare professionals are some of the most unhealthy people around. When you figure in the physical demands of most healthcare jobs and the stress ... and the fact that we're the last people to take care of ourselves, we're gluttons for punishment. This Texas hospital isn't taking any more excuses for being overweight. Their policy states "an employee's physique 'should fit with a representational image or specific mental projection of the job of a healthcare professional,' including an appearance 'free from distraction' for hospital patients."

Surely you're thinking -- employers can't discriminate against you because of your weight! Well, guess what? Only the state of Michigan and six US cities (including San Francisco and Washington, DC) ban discrimination against the overweight in hiring.

Although I don't agree with the hiring practice I have to say I'm not at all surprised! In this day and age when medical insurance is so expensive for employers to carry on employees. I'm glad that I work for a company that is trying to motivate us to get healthy by providing an incentive-based wellness program, earning points for positive lifestyle habits, and positive health changes. I've almost reached the highest tier in our wellness plan, and try to do things on a daily basis to earn more points.

I'm sorry this blog has rambled. But I've had all of these thoughts floating around for days! I want people to be inspired to improve their quality of life through their own choice. I don't want people to start their journey on a negative step, feeling like they were forced to lose weight for a job, or forced to lose weight so they could fit into their air place seat! The best step I've taken in a long time is to lose weight for me. I want to lose weight to improve the quality of my life. I want to lose weight to build a better future.

Thanks for bearing with me!