The Clean Plate Ranger

Americans are fat. We all know that we are bordering on obesity. We've heard the statistics over and over again. On average, Americans are 23 lbs over their ideal body weight. The fact is that American's are becoming more accepting of a larger sized self. The older I get, the harder it becomes to loose "that 10 nagging pounds", and I've finally discovered why.

Because my parents drilled into my head, at a very young and impressionable age, to eat everything on my plate.

I don't blame them, really, because their parents drilled the same thing into them. In fact, if we are looking to place the blame, we can blame World Wars 1 and 2. As a result of World War 1, our government created the "Clean Plate Club" because of the limited amount of food in the country. The Clean Plate Club, first established in 1917, was a movement that began after Congress passed the Food and Fuel Control Act . The act enabled President Woodrow Wilson the power to regulate the distribution of food, which was becoming scarce. Wilson appointed Herbert Hoover as the head of this task and his job was to make sure that the precious food Americans had didn't go to waste.

Hoover targeted small, school aged children, with the Clean Plate Club pledge:

 “At table I’ll not leave a scrap of food upon my plate. And I’ll not eat between meals, but for supper time I’ll wait.”

And so it began a generation of Americans who were taught never to waste food. That generation were our parents parents, who then raised our parents to believe in the same pledge. Then along came the Great Depression and World War 2 and once again food in America was scarce. The Clean Plate Club was re-established in schools across the country and another generation reinforced the importance of never wasting food. They taught their children and so on and you see where I'm going with this?

Flash forward into the future, and here we are Super Sizing everything and eating whatever and whenever we want to, yet we still fell the need to never let it go to waste. Old habits die hard, and Americans continue to overindulge and take home "doggie bags" so that not a scrap goes to waste. I noticed that when a large plate of food is put before me I immediately feel a pang of guilt, like I need to finish it and if I don't I've committed a crime of some sort.

And we wonder why we are 23 lbs. over our ideal body weight? Go figure.

Fat Bottomed Girls

Is there any truth to the saying in the song, "Fat bottomed girls you make the rocking world go round."? Being somewhat of a "fat bottomed girl" myself, I wondered.

I'm sitting on the beach with a bunch of people this weekend, and the conversation casually turns to the shape and size of all people. The topic was about someone that knew someone in high school, that happened to be a "fat bottomed girl". It was told that this certain "fat bottomed girl" got all the guys.
Really?
We questioned this collectively. Yes. It was affirmed. This girl happened to get both handsome and not so handsome guys with relative ease.

OK, we said. "Was that because she was easy?" We couldn't help but wonder. The answer may surprise you. It was told that she was not easy in the way that one may think, but easy in that she was available. Then the fellas all chimed in.

"I'm not sure that's true," one said. "I've never been into fat girls."

"Oh yeah," one said. "In my twenties? After hitting back a few?" another said. "They all look like supermodels."

Another said, "I'm pleading the fifth here." And we all knew what that meant.

And one actually said. "Yeah, that could be true."

While there are much more important and pressing topics to be discussed on the pages of The Daily Dandy, I decided to poll it out to my boys.

OK fellas... to all the boys that comment here.Is it true? Is it a rite of passage? Does the "Rocking World Go Round"? Tell us what you think.

Gaga Worth The Weight

I gotta say bravo to this Lady.

Lady Gaga has admitted to gaining 25 lbs this summer by indulging in her dad's home cooking at his newly opened NYC eatery. Good for her. Leave it to Gaga to put a positive spin on the pressures of weight gain. I'm not really a Gaga fan, but one can hardly miss her. Her larger than life persona took over the music industry and she was everywhere, but I've got to hand it to her on this one. She knows she's gained weight and she doesn't care what you or I think.

Admitting to problems with bulimia and anorexia since the age of 15, Gaga released this statement after coming under fire from the media and her record label.





She has a eloquent way of humanizing the issue and putting it into perspective, doesn't she?

And they say that looking good is the best revenge?
Check out Gaga yesterday in Milan.

25 lbs heavier and still sexy. I say, you go girl! Ain't nothing wrong with being Born that Way.

Well, It's About Fricken Time

She finally had the baby.

Well it's about time. I feel like this poor chick has been pregnant forever!!! What's hilarious is that even the celebrities have been worrying about poor Jessica and her baby. Two notables took to Twitter to voice their concerns this week.

1. Chelsea Handler tweeted: “How has Jessica Simpson still not given birth to this baby? I'm getting frightened.” ...
2. Has Jessica Simpson had that baby yet?! I'm getting anxious," ..Katy Perry.

Rest assured Hollywood, she has given birth to a baby girl weighing in at 9 lbs 13 ounces. Which means?
Jessica Simpson just lost 10 pounds!

I predict the race will be on now, for the weight loss companies to $nag Jessica as their spokesperson, if she hasn't already signed with one. She may be more famous for her weight loss than anything else, which is sad, really, because I'm not quite sure why she's famous to begin with.

Wasn't she a singer?
Now she's a fashion brand mogul?
Who had a TV show and at one time wore Daisy Duke's on the big screen?
Then she was famous for bad mom jeans?
Then she was famous for being famously pregnant.

I don't envy this recent uphill battle she faces, you know, the one about losing the weight.

But I'm sure she'll do it in record time. 

Celebrities, these days, seem to do things a lot quicker than us Average Joes.