Is It Just Me, Or...

Are there no more normal-sized people in the world? I've been noticing more and more that there are no more "average" people out and about. I'm not just talking about adults either, teens and kids too.

This was brought to my attention fully yesterday when Felts and I ventured out to Whipple's Dam for an hour or two of sunlight and fake-beach swimming (imported sand on the side of a lake). Last summer when I went out to the lake about the same time in the summer, most people were normal-sized, or perhaps I just didn't notice. This time around, over half of the people there were obese. Not overweight, obese. When did this shift happen? Even the kids were heavier.

Of those not obese, they were rail-thin girls (probably high school age). We've been hearing from the media how obesity has overtaken smoking as the leading cause of preventable death, but I never gave it much credence because I always saw more people out smoking than people who were morbidly obese.

I consider myself to be a heavier girl, as I do fall into the "overweight" category, and usually, I'm maybe slightly bigger than some of the girls on the beach. This time around, I fell into the skinnier category on the beach.

If I'm categorized in the skinnier category, you know the rest of the population must be growing.