Excerpts from the diary of a pissed off bodybuilder

The Problem with Saudis and Food

A guy from work came to my office… okay, cubicle… a couple of days ago to talk to me about how to lose weight and the usual shit. And he brought another problem to my attention. I’ve heard people complain about this a lot, yet they’re afraid to do anything about it. Yes, I’m talking about dinner invitations or invitations in general. Saudis, Arabs in general, have a tendency to show “generosity” by inviting people to dinner, fighting to pick up the other guys tab, etc. Let’s just get one thing straightened out, when you’re poor and you keep on inviting people and picking up their tabs… it’s not generosity, it’s stupidity. You have to actually have EXTRA money to give away to be generous. But that’s not the point. I was writing down a program for my colleague who was in my office… okay, cubicle… and then he looked at me as if I wrote a love letter to his wife and he said “AISH HATHA?? (what’s this?)” so I asked him what was wrong? He said “My wife and kids can’t eat this!!” … a question mark popped out from the top of my head and I started questioning if this guy was on crack or not. I told him “No. No. This is for you.” He said “yeah I know. But families should always eat the same food together. It’s impossible to do.” Again, I didn’t have a clue about what he was talking about. Then I told him to prepare his own food and eat it with his family while they ate a different kind of food. It took me a while to get it through his thick head. Then he asked about what he’d do if he got invited to dinner or whatever, since he got invited a lot. I told him if it’s on his cheat day, he should go, if not, he should just apologize. This time he looked at me as if I killed his mom. “APOLOGIZE? BECAUSE I’M ON A DIET?? ARE YOU CRAZY?” he explained how it would be catastrophic if someone invited him and he didn’t go. It would start a “war” of some sort. Of course, being Saudi and having relatives from the planet cow, I knew what he was talking about. So I just told him my point of view. If people can’t respect your lifestyle, and they’d get angry if they tried to change it and you APOLOGIZE for rejecting their offer, then it’s their problem and not yours. He started thinking about it, but still he did not agree with me because it’s “tradition”. And tradition is like 1+1=2, any other answer is wrong. So, he decided then he “can’t” diet because he gets invited to dinner atleast 3 times a week. And of course, as usual, he can’t exercise because he “doesn’t have time”. It’s strange how people don’t have time to do a 45 minute workout, but amazingly they have time to stay up til 1 am to watch a 2 hour football match. The problem is that the same guy I was talking to came into my office… okay, cubicle… yesterday with chocolates and offered me some. I said “no thanks. You know I’m dieting.” And the f***er got upset and started yelling at me for saying no. I just tapped his big ass belly and said “I said no because I don’t wanna look like that”.

But you know who I can’t stand? Extremely overweight, and mostly obese people who think they’re only “chubby” that come to me and say “why do you torture yourself like this? Why don’t you enjoy food like us normal people?” well you know what, fatty? F*** you. I enjoy food more than anyone I know. I eat the food I love once a week. I enjoy it. Most people ABUSE food and eat junk and crap everyday and say that they “enjoy” food. Let’s face it people. Everyone is getting fatter because they do not want to lift a f***ing finger and they can’t say no to food. It’s not because we have more soft drinks, candy, fast food, etc. WE HAVE MORE BECAUSE THERE’S A LOT MORE DEMAND!!! F***ing fat asses drive all the way to Mcdonald’s, order junk that’s costs 30 riyals, then they say “allah yil3an McDonalds, it made me fat”. No, your stupidity made you fat. Your negligence made you fat. And your lack of self control made you fat. One thing that really turns my head is when a 19 year old that does drugs dies of an overdose, we say he deserved to die. When a 15 year old kid smokes, we look at him in disgust and say “where are his parents?”. But when we see a 12 year old obese kid with big cheeks we say “aawww, how cute!!” and when he dies at the age of 35 from a heart attack we say “poor guy, he was so young.” Why? What’s the difference between the 3? The first one was old enough to know that drugs were harmful and still did them, the second one is old enough to know that cigarettes cause lung cancer and all kinds of other shit but he still smoked, and when the third one knows that he’d die if he didn’t exercise and watch his diet yet he still neglects it, we call him “miskeen”.
I admit, what I do is not healthy. Especially contest prep. But what I do is still much much much much much more healthier than being slightly, moderately, and severely overweight or obese.

Keep on training, and stay away from ice cream. That shit’s evil. =P