Another Boycott

I admit I am overweight and unfit and if I am really truthful I am obese. But I did not get here by overeating day in day out. I don't believe I am alone in this. But I am sick and tired of jokes about fat people and what they eat. I am particularly tired of hearing it on my way to work every second morning on 94.5 (in Perth). I have been a listener of Botica's Bunch for probably 15 years or more - well since he first started on Perth radio really so it may be even longer. But recently the amount of fat people jokes told by one of the Bunch - Captain Paul - and then commented on and made worse by the rest of the Bunch made me turn off the radio. How dare they in their ivory tower judge me. They don't know my story. They don't know what got me here, but guess what, I have chosen not to listen any more. I am just one listener and they don't even know I am gone - but I am. I am not moving to another radio station as their morning shows are all really bad but I have a 6-stacker CD player in my car and lots of CDs to play. So goodbye Botica's Bunch have a great time in what must be your perfect slim lives.

And to the rest of the world who looks at overweight people and thinks they know their stories - well I bet you are not even close. Shows like Biggest Loser don't help - as all the people on there are overeaters - stories on things like Today Tonight are the same - someone loses a lot of weight and they show how much food that particular person eats in a day and so the public's perception is that every overweight or obese person must do that.

Sure some people overeat, some just because they love food, some because they use food for comfort and some because they can. But there are a lot of people like me, I eat what my husband eats and he is not overweight. You go figure. I'm not saying I don't occasionally enjoy chocolate (it is after all the best thing in the world) and other things like potato chips or cheezels but I deliberately don't have them in the house so when I do want them I have to make an effort and it is a conscious choice. Oh and for the record my boss' wife eats a family block of chocolate a night, pretty much every night of the week and she is a size 6.

I used to be a size 10-12 then I had babies and went on the pill for 5 months - that was all and no doctor has been able to tell me why that has made my weight increase, but it has.

So if you are thin and you see an overweight person eating an icecream don't shake your head and think to yourself - I know why they are overweight - it may be the only icecream they have had in a year.

And if you too are sick of being the butt of the jokes - just turn off the radio like I have.