Living Amongst the Skinny

New places are always interesting.  Living in Boise, Idaho for the last three weeks, I have noticed something very interesting.  No one seems to be fat.  Seriously, everyone is “fit” here.  I walk around, and everyone is skinny and happy.  I have no idea how people here manage to do this.  I drive by McDonald’s, and it is just as busy as it is everyone else.  People at the grocery store buy just as much ice cream as they do everywhere else.  And yet, skinniness everywhere I go.  I am convinced that I am the fattest person on my street—perhaps even in my entire neighborhood. 

The weirdest thing is that you would think people would be constantly working out and exercising, yet, they do not.  At least, I haven't seen anyone doing this yet.  Of course, there is a subset of bikers, runners, etc., but I don't see the vast majority of the population ever exercising.  I have been running in the mornings, and the places I run are completely deserted.

I just don’t understand how they manage to stay skinny.  Yesterday, a skinny neighbor invited us and a few others over for cinnamon rolls.  This is apparently a tradition they started a few years ago.  They do it EVERY Sunday.  We went over, and had some really, really good cinnamon rolls.  They had baked about 200 of them, and everyone was eating them like they were going out of style.  How many fat people do you think were there?  One, folks, and that person was me. 

So, as a result of being the only fat person in Boise, I have decided that I must do what I hate to do, and give up sugar.  I have been thinking about this for a while, after reading an article about how sugar may be causing increased levels of cancer.  I can’t remember if I posted it, but it is a real eye-opener from the New York Times.  Anyway, today is day one.  The plan is to go to the end of the year without overtly eating something ridiculously sugary.

Ending my love affair with sugar is not very exciting.  In fact, I am not looking forward to it at all.  Honestly, my real hope is that there is some kind of weight-loss-inducing mineral in the water that will cause me to be skinny without any real effort (like most other Boiseans).  But, until I get the loading dose of that mineral, I am going to have to do something, and if I am honest with myself, sugar is my problem.