I've wanted to address this issue for some time. My mom, my sister and I were all sitting at a restaurant getting ready to order food. My mom and I (fat girls) were discussing how high in calories salads are. My sister (skinny girl) angrily protested saying, "Salad is the healthiest thing you can eat! It's got roughage, you throw on some strawberries, chicken, pecans and some vinaigrette dressing, and you have a healthy low calorie meal! It did no good to argue with her because she was absolutely right. But, that is not the type of salad my mom and I were talking about. That is NOT what goes on a fat girl salad. When fat girls think salad, they think Cobb salad with ranch. In case you do not know what goes into a Cobb salad, it's bacon, eggs, blue cheese, avocado, and bacon. Or, we're thinking chef salad with cheddar cheese, ham and turkey and ranch. All high calorie items. If you are counting calories, you might as well have a cheeseburger and probably spare yourself about 500 calories.
I'm not saying fat girl salads can't be healthy. The salads I make at home consist of the following:
1 oz walnuts
1/2 cup slices cucumber
1 oz crimini mushrooms
1/2 oz pumkin seeds raw
1 serving raw sunflower seeds
1 serving organic spring mix
2 servings shredded cheese
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
That is a healthy salad folks. It's also over 1600 calories. That's a whole days worth. The only way to get away with eating that many calories and not gaining weight is to be on a low carb diet. Walnuts, olive oil and cheese are all high calorie items. 1 tablespoon of olive oil is 120 calories. 1oz of cheese is 120 calories and, yes, walnuts are healthy, but 1 oz of walnuts is 190 calories. God forbid I throw on some healthy avacodo. At the end of the day it is about calories in and calories out.
A later discussion with my sister about this topic helped me to understand better the attitude skinny girls have toward fat girls and it is basically this: Fat girls know nothing about nutrition and what is good for them. Well, that couldn't be further from the truth. Most fat girls, maybe because we are so obsessed with food, could tell you the glycemic index of a tomato, and the benefits of lycopene, without having to think about it. - I also want to add the side note that, while I do have extra body weight, I pass every physical with flying colors, I can run a mile in under 10 minutes, and I have preferred status on my life insurance. I am healthy!
You see, its not a matter of knowing, nor is it necessarily a matter of self-control. Its a matter of taste. Just as some people enjoy cake and ice cream, I could go without it. If someone told me I could never have it again, I seriously wouldn't care. That being said, some people enjoy these foods on a level I could never appreciate That, folks, is the difference between fat and skinny.
