Losing weight isn’t as awesome as television and media make it out to be. For one, family doesn’t make it all that easy. Immediate family tends to associate weight with looking “healthy.” If you’re a little on the chunky side they tell you “Te
ves bien. Si pierdes peso, pierdes tu figura!” If you’ve lost some weight you get “Don’t lose too much or you’ll look sick,” making you feel like you’re one pound away from being as sturdy as a dandelion on a windy day. Extended family members are always great for a self-esteem check. They also have absolutely no regard for things like feelings when they say “Oh wow, you’ve gained a lot of weight. Life must be treating you good! Estas enamorada eh?” I’m convinced that mentality stems from not wasting food.
Everything we do revolves around food and its consumption. Growing up in a big family with minimal income, eating was sometimes not on “the menu.” Therefore, Latinos are steadfast against leaving food on the plate. If you don’t want to eat, it’s an automatic “¿Estas enfermo?” Quick! Lie and say yes because if you say you just don’t feel like eating too much, it’s like slapping the cook in the face. Nine out of ten times it’s your Mom/Grandma, who insists on getting angry about the whole anti-eating affair; going into a tirade of them having white meat “only on special occasions.”
On holidays we make, at least, four different kinds of carbs, two types of meat, a salad, with pan (because it’s a separate food group all together.) The best part? We are expected to have a little bit of everything. Not that we necessarily argue about it. Oh! But Heaven forbid you don’t eat in your other Grandmother’s house. ¡Pa’ que te quieres! I won’t even get into the dessert menu. Flan should just about cover it. You’ve had enough to eat when your legs refuse to get up and it sort of hurts to burp. You find yourself “rocking” to get off the couch all the while having an angry face because “I feel fea.”
So we are torn between getting healthy and out-doing last Thanksgiving’s feast. If we choose to get fit, we try to devise a plan that will allow us to convincingly fool our family into believing we’ve eaten already and they were too busy to notice. Or, do what I do and hold out until I’m ready to chomp on that piece of pudin de pan nestled in my brother’s hands, despite his kung fu grip.
Love who you are and embrace what feels right to you. Be healthy, be merry and enjoy your life. Lord knows good people like you are so worth having around for a long time. I will most definitely drink (and eat) to that!
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WOW Arlene good work! Very interesting and accurate read… are you sure you weren’t specificaly speaking about my family?? lol.
If you eat, “ten cuidado que pierdes la figura” or as you also mentioned, “la vida te esta tratando bien” because “estas gordo y colora’[o]“… If you don’t eat, you def must be sick not to want some of the pro cook’s orgasmic meals… There’s no win lol
Amen, amen and amen! It’s one of the main reasons I never made my kids finish cleaning their plates. At least we cook a little healthier now, but damn I miss the taste of rice made with tocino!
Thank you, I do it for my beautiful people
I DO believe you and I may be related. Let’s look into it LOL
KELYA MY DARLING!! I’ve lost 50 pounds and I get the “Estas muy flaca” ALL the time! When I was heavier, I got “Te ves gorda. Ya tu tuvieste su hija” JEEZ!!
Tocino gave me boobs. I am convinced of this LOL
I need boobs, I’ll keep note of this. LOL!
Funny thing. I moved to PR and while there lost about 25 lbs. eating nothing but PR food. I think it may have been the fact that though often fried and full of carbs, it was healthier than my usual take out.
Another great take on an issue a lot of Latinos, particularly women face when it comes to the dinner table. Your views are always, insightful, thought provoking, and comical. This reminds me of a joke I once heard about Latina moms offering people something to eat. If they offer you something to eat and you say “yes”, you’ll get un montón on your plate, if you say “very little”, you’ll get a very filling portion, and if you say “no”, she’ll shoot. Ha! The artful skill of negotiation comes in handy particularly around the holidays. Again, nice piece!
PS- I think tocino gave me boobs too once. LMAO! You brought it back with that one. Lord that’s horrible but sooooo good. An extremely salted piece of backfat that’s friend to crunchy on the outside soft on the inside perfection. Ain’t nothing healthy about it. Hilarious.
fried*
i agree with you ladies…where’s the happy medium? i usually hear, “mira no comas pan que te crea panza” when i’m caught gutting a proper roll of italian bread (happens very rarely i assure you
then, when it’s offered and i refuse it, “cometelo, que eso no es na’.” ay que confusión! i ditched cerdo long ago. my fam has not, so my claim to vicarious ingestion comes by way of the intoxicating aroma that bestills the air during its 3 hours of prep and cooking. i won’t rain on my fam’s cuero parade, trust me.
IONO
I’d always been “too skinny” even though I ate like a horse. I was so active, I’d burn it off and not gain weight. I got called Flaca-Talaka or people always tried to feed me more and never had one nice thing to say about the fact that I was healthy despite being “too skinny”. I look back at those pictures and I was NORMAL weight. The comments about my weight usually came after trying on a new outfit that they started out saying looked good.
Then I had two kids, changed jobs (from active to sedentary) and the weight crept up to where I was about 30 pounds heavier than before I had them. I was happy that the women around me were finally accepting me as one of their own because I started to fill in.
But I got sick, REAL sick and lost all of that weight. My body simply could not handle a steady diet of stress and tasty but unhealthy food. So here I am back to my pre-pregnancy weight but this time, women leave me alone because they know I’ve been sick and because of that, they cut me some slack.