MISSISSIPPI: The FAT State: My attempt to become unfat

A New Year's Resolution Started on the Last Day of the Old Year

by Terry Thornton
email: hillcountrymonroecounty@gmail.com

Mississippi . . . the Magnolia State.

Mississippi . . . the Hospitality State.

Mississippi . . . Virtute et armis!

Mississippi . . . the Fat State

Mississippi THE FAT STATE is a title we don't need!

Recently all of the news services were discussing the sad fact that Mississippi is now rated the fattest state of the fifty. More than 30 per cent of our adult population are considered obese.

Obese by any other name is still FAT!

I am ashamed to admit it but I am one of those fat people in Mississippi; I am ashamed that I am one of those 30 per cent.

I feel as if I'm taking up more space than I deserve.

I feel as if I'm using more of the resources of nature than I should.

I feel fat!

And the reason I feel fat is I AM FAT!

And before it becomes more politically incorrect to be fat, I will unfat myself or at least try. To that end, I will post a short column each week stating my weight on that date. Maybe the public humiliation will be sufficient to remind me to eat smaller portions and more healthy food until the next public humiliation.

I am not going to tout any methods of dieting or weight control as any mentally-normal adult fully knows why he/she is fat and knows how to prevent more fat from forming. All I'm going to do is (1) attempt to eat less, (2) weigh myself once a week and (3) accurately report what the scale says once a week beginning today, Monday, December 31, 2007.

And I will continue this public humiliation until I can announce success in controlling my weight or admit failure and consign myself to live my life as a fatty.

I invite any of you who blog and who wish to join me in this public humiliation of fatness to do the following: weigh on your scales at the same time each week and post the information on your blog. Record your cumulative weight loss each week. If you participate, send me a link to your weekly posts and I'll summarize them and keep track of the cumulative genea-flab loss to date.

You, too, can be a "loser."

So here goes public weigh-in number one:

Subject....Date.......Weight...Loss/Gain (cumulative)

Terry.....12-31-07.... 230......00

Join me at the risk of losing weight.

Okay, I know that the call for papers for the 39th Carnival of Genealogy included all of this:

The theme for the next edition of the Carnival of Genealogy will be: New Year's Resolutions. As the year winds to a close in the next couple weeks it's a good time to review the progress made in our genealogy research and to make a plan for next year. So what did you accomplish last year and what road blocks did you encounter? What are your research goals for next year and how do you resolve to attain them?

Because I am not a "genea"-blogger in the biblical sense, I have, therefore, no plans for research in that field in 2008. No doubt I will post some genealogical related items as I continue to write History, Observations, Genealogy, and Stories (HOGS BLOGGER!) of the Hill Country but I have no specific plans to research any one of my family groups. There are too many excellent trained professional genealogists doing just that and I will await their publications (Lori Thornton, for instance, knows her "stuff" and sooner or later will publish the definitive text on our THORNTON line. I will be first in line to buy a copy of her work!). So, as you can see, I have no resolutions relating to genealogy and only the one above relating to flab.

But on a genealogical note I can't help but observe that among hogs are found razor-backs and lard-hogs. Those with one set of genes are razor-backs --- thin baconey animals. Those with another set of genes are lard-hogs --- just looking at slop makes them pluff up more. And after reviewing pictures of recent individuals from both my maternal and paternal lines, one could build a good case that I inherited the genes to be a lard-hog. We shall see.

This post was submitted to the 39th Carnival of Genealogy on New Year's Resolutions at Creative Gene.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!