Choice and Weight

I have lived back in Pittsburgh since mid-1992. From mid-1970 to mid-1992, I lived in Boston, Lyon, France, Laguna Beach, and San Francisco. During all of this time, my weight was like a yo-yo. I went from very thin to very fat and back many times, staying in-between at times. That is much harder to do in Pittsburgh. What is the reason? The reason is choice. If you have choice, you can choose to be fat or thin easier. In Boston and California, there is a wide variety of choice in restaurants and food stores. You can choose to eat fattening food, but you can also choose to eat healthy food which keeps you thinner. It's up to you. As for France, that was a long time ago, but you didn't have all the fast food you have here, and you pretty much had to prepare your own food. When I lived in Boston and California, if I chose to pig out on things like pizza or Mexican food, I got fat. If I went to health food restaurants and stores, I got thin. Also, the laws were so much more progressive in Massachusetts and California. Employers were required to give you lunch breaks. When you got your lunch break, if you went out and got pizza, you got fat. If you went to a salad bar or health food place, you stayed thin.

In Pennsylvania, there are no laws requiring employers to give breaks, and it shows in people's waist lines. Lots of times, people depend on vending machines to keep from dropping during the long work days without breaks. There also is very little healthy food if you eat out. There are few health food stores. The grocery stores do have a health food section. But basically, you have to go to one section of town, the East End, to hit most of the health food stores. You can get quite a variety of unprocessed food in the Strip District, but it closes by 5 p.m., is not open Sundays, and there's no parking on Saturdays.

Pittsburgh is a great city to walk, and there is quite a consciousness about exercise here. However, with little access to healthy food and no will on the part of employers to give employees sufficient breaks and access to healthy food, it's showing up on the waistlines and poor health of its residents.