(An aside: when I started losing weight back in December-ish, someone at work said "Wow -- you're losing weight! You look great!" And I said that I had switched to a new antidepressant that gave me knifey stomach pain and made it hard to eat anything, plus I had the bad bad bad stomach flu. Her reply? "Keep it up!" Uh, keep up the knifey stomach pain and getting so sick I have to go to the ER, just to fucking lose weight? What is wrong with people?)

A friend of mine had that conversation repeatedly while she was doing CHEMO. Seriously, people.

"I'm in chemo"

"Well you look GREAT"

And for the record, in case anyone is wondering, she did NOT look great. She was deffinately thinner. She was also weak and grey and had big circles under her eyes. It almost looked like she was being systematically poisoned juuust enough to kill certain cells but not so much as to kill all of them (i.e. her).

Pushing health as a societal virtue is fine. It's making it into one of the primary virtues that bugs me. It's saying that your health - measured by how thin you are - is a major element in how worthwhile a person you are. And that if you meet a specific criterion you've fulfilled your daily requirement of doing good things.

And the gym bags and stuff bugs me simply because people will get on a crowded bus and swing their bags around without any consideration for the people around them. It's on a par with the people who insist on occupying two seats and forcing others to stand, or the people who get on with a big suitcase and park it right in the doorway.

And yes - any time I get a cold or sinus infection my mother will lecture me about not using throat lozenges - they've got sugar in them! they're fattening!

And part of my aggravation came from a run-in with a clueless young doctor. I was having major dental work done and couldn't chew ... and he was lecturing me on the evils of canned soup (salt! OMG!) His suggestion for soft foods that would be acceptable was ... potatoes.

And the gym bags and stuff bugs me simply because people will get on a crowded bus and swing their bags around without any consideration for the people around them. It's on a par with the people who insist on occupying two seats and forcing others to stand, or the people who get on with a big suitcase and park it right in the doorway.

And at least the people with luggage aren't declaring their virtue with it. "See how much crap I have? Move over, minions."

And the gym bags and stuff bugs me simply because people will get on a crowded bus and swing their bags around without any consideration for the people around them. It's on a par with the people who insist on occupying two seats and forcing others to stand, or the people who get on with a big suitcase and park it right in the doorway.

Yes, this. It makes me want to punch people.

It's making it into one of the primary virtues that bugs me. It's saying that your health - measured by how thin you are - is a major element in how worthwhile a person you are. And that if you meet a specific criterion you've fulfilled your daily requirement of doing good things.

I think a lot of that has to do with marketing and advertising. Shaming people into buying stuff has been a lucrative strategy for a long time. Our culture also judges your value on how much money you have. "You can never be too rich or thin."

What exactly are the primary virtues anyway? I don't know if it's posited above Parental Responsibility, or whatever else we'd consider at the apex.

And the gym bags and stuff bugs me simply because people will get on a crowded bus and swing their bags around without any consideration for the people around them. It's on a par with the people who insist on occupying two seats and forcing others to stand, or the people who get on with a big suitcase and park it right in the doorway.

Right, but that's a politeness issue. Unless you're saying people feel entitled to block the way because they worked out. Which maybe they do, but wouldn't past the smell test with Miss Manners.

Eh, here in Seattle people smell half the time anyway, not because they've worked out, just because they're dirty hippies hipsters.

I think it's the sense of entitlement I get from them. Whatever.

Thanks for the discussion - I was wondering if it was just me.

This sort of falls in the same category (to me) as complaining about people getting on the bus with their noisy and annoying children.

Yeah, but you know, Hec, there's a line and admittedly, it's different for different people, between, "Oh, they're just being babies/kids," and "My God, lady, control your little beast before I kill you."

Example number two is the person who lets their kid run amok in restaurants, crawling under other people's tables, etc., and then gives other customers the stinkeye, should they dare complain about their little darlings. Or lets them run up and down the aisles of a crowded bus while they keep their noses resolutely buried in a book or newspaper, or thinks it's okay for their kids to yank every blessed can off the shelves and drop them to the floor, thus creating hazards. There's just such a tremendous sense of entitlement that, if I can get meta, is the same sense of entitlement that winds up following the little ruggers into school and why teachers have such a hard time giving appropriate grades and punishment. Because the parents won't allow it.

I suspect that the surly gym goers Toddson's describing fall more into category two than category one.

insurance odds of what really affects your longevity and quality of life. I'm not sure how they factor weight into their tables, but I'm pretty sure they do.

Yes, insurance companies have no vested interest whatsoever in narrowing down what constitutes healthfulness.

I am pretty sure that insurance companies use the BMI tables.