Scripted Interview

Interview 1: Adrian Rangel Sosa

 Interview: Childhood Obesity

Childhood Obesity is a serious and chronic disease that is overly concerning especially when you consider the number of other health conditions that arise when someone is obese that can lead to death. In the search for the answer to the question of who is responsible for childhood obesity, and how we can lower the number of obese children I chose to interview Adrian, He is a former overweight kid. As a child he struggled a lot with his weight and was often told by doctors that his weight was very unhealthy and something needed to change. He was told he was at risk for Diabetes and high blood pressure by the time he turned 14, today he is 16 and is a healthy weight and is no longer at risk for diabetes or high blood pressure. In this interview, I want to take a peek into what his life was like when he was younger, what changed, and how he was able to turn his life around and become healthier.

Question 1: How did you get into fitness?

 Adrian: It was in freshman year and he got into volleyball and he thought he wasn’t a good fit for the team and I thought I wouldn’t make it. Try to be stronger and lose some weight and have more control over my body…in terms of like movement.

Question 2: Has growing up overweight affected you? If so, how?

Adrian: I mean I wouldn’t really say so. In my experience no one really cared except the doctor. In my experience no, it hadn’t really affected me. And that hasn't changed since I lost weight

Question 3: Has your quality of life changed?

Adrian: No, not really, whe… of course there is also the aspect of age. All I know is brain fog right now and I lowkey feel like I am getting dumber. I have gotten more confident but thats about it.

Question 4: How did you feel about the things the doctor told you about your weight?

Adrian: Honestly I didn’t really think too much of it because it. He was always on me. 

Question 5: Have you been receiving support from your family?

Adrian: Umm… I mean… I guess? I mean mom did let me go to the gym when it was dark outside, and Dad paid for my membership earlier this year.

Question 6: What are some behaviors that have changed from then till now?

Adrian: I guess I want to work out and not necessarily play. There is this aspect and the idea of me working out has changed. I also try to pay more mind to what I can eat like what I can eat like if I have the calories to spare for that. I can feel like my body is feeling some way to the food. I notice.  And also just like and I guess I am more willing to go out of my way to do physical activity/ working out.

Question 7: Do you blame anyone for your being overweight as a child?

Adrian: Do I blame someone? I mean I guess mom but at the same time, but then again, I want to see it from her perspective. But none of them ever stopped me from getting more food. And then if I did eat little they would think there is something wrong and they were a little confusing. When we would leave the doctors office it was upsetting because they would say that I need to lose weight and eat healthier and then mom would take us to burger king.

Question 8: What’s been the most rewarding part of becoming healthier?

Adrian: Ummm… I mean I guess the confidence that comes with it. Well lowkey… the more rewarding part is the part to eat whatever I want after the gym. I am able to not restrict myself as much. 

Question 9: Going forward, what are some things pertaining to fitness that you hope to achieve?

Adrian: I guess the build that I want. The physique that I want. The other thing is better stamina like cardiovascular health to increase. I also want to increase muscle and I also want to get 100 on that pacer test. 

Question 10: If you have kids in the future how would you incorporate nutrition in your kids lives?

Adrian: Well… first I would see the specific nutrition guidelines they need. I don’t know anything about no damn child. I would try to give them enough or maybe more because they. Like honestly I would talk to my kids about how they want to look like when they’re younger. Being fat as a kid also played a part of what gave me my current build, like my calfs. So I guess it depends but I feel like all kids should be at least little bit fat.

Work Cited

Rangel Sosa, Adrian. Personal Interview Conducted by Yesenia Rangel Sosa. 24 November 2024. In Person meeting at Home.

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Interview 2: Josefa Sosa

Interview: Childhood Obesity

Childhood Obesity is a serious and chronic disease that is overly concerning especially when you consider the number of other health conditions that arise when someone is obese that can lead to death. In the search for the answer to the question of who is responsible for childhood obesity, and how we can lower the number of obese children I chose to interview Josefa because she is a Mother who has 3 kids. While her children were growing up, 2 out of the three of her children were overweight and told that they needed to lose weight by the doctor. Today one of the two who were formerly overweight have lost weight and is living a healthier lifestyle meanwhile the other one is still overweight. This is an interesting case because only one of her children is overweight now so I want to see why that is. 

Question 1: What was the nutrition for you like growing up?

Josefa: In my childhood? Ok well, I know what nutrition was because well yeah, sometimes we ate, sometimes we didn't, when we ate we tried to take advantage of the opportunity to eat because we were never guaranteed things to eat, I didn't know anything about nutrition.

Question 2: Has anything changed from then and now with how you see nutrition?

Josefa: Yes. I somewhat had a kind of mistaken concept of nutrition, but I had a more western notion because, let's say that during my childhood, in the place where I lived, women gave themselves injections to gain weight and people thought that if a person was fat it was because they were very healthy and my mother was always a skinny woman and I thought that my mother was skinny because sometimes we didn't eat, we didn't have to eat bye and so my mother said that a fat woman shouldn't be compared to a skinny woman because a fat woman couldn't do the same thing that a skinny woman did. She always knew, I don't know why my mother always had this thing of comparing herself to other women, so to speak. Did they say so-and-so is fat? Oh, well because she's very healthy, she's very healthy, she has to eat and I don't know what else. My mother said no, that is not true, that is not true because a fat woman cannot do the same as a skinny woman, that is, move, walk and do all kinds of things, let's say, with agility.

Question 3: What do you currently know about Nutrition? 

Josefa: Ok, so right now, from what little I know about nutrition, it is about eating, let's say, healthy, balanced, that is, eating a little bit of everything, but in small portions. That is according to what I know now. What I understand about nutrition.

Question 4: What are your eating habits like now?

Josefa: I try to… I try to make my meals in a way I think is healthy, I don't like to cook with oil very much. I try to make my food steamed, let's say.

Question 5: How did you feel when you heard what the doctors were saying about Adrian's health? 

Josefa: Well, frustrated, literally frustrated. First, Adrian was a very skinny child, but over time, as he grew up, I only dedicated myself to work and I wasn't taking care of what the kids ate. Then Adrian began to gain weight from eating so much  fast food, especially McDonald's and Burger King. We didn't go out and since they almost stayed at home and I didn't take them out, logically everything they ate stayed with them and they didn't burn the calories they had to burn. I think that it had a lot to do with the fact that the children spent more time indoors, because I didn't have time to take them to the park to play, to run, to socialize with other children and they always spent time at home and since I worked at night, during the day I dedicated myself to sleeping, so I didn't have time to take them to the park to play. He literally spent more time at home than outside. I think that contributed to him starting to gain weight and there came a time when he was, let's say, obese.

Question 6: Did you ever talk to your children about nutrition?

Josefa: Well, not much, the little that I know. I have tried to teach them, but well, no, I don't know much about nutrition, but what I do know is that a lot of food is greasy and it contributes a lot to being overweight, especially in children who are not active, which is very harmful to them.

Question 7: Has anything changed nutrition wise at home?

Josefa: Well, yes, quite a lot, quite a lot because now that they are older, practically everyone is making, let's say, their own food. Let's say that the older children are already taking care of, let's say, their food, what they bring and what they are consuming. I remember that when Adrian got to a weight that was quite high, well we started to have problems. I got frustrated because I cooked and he liked the food and he served himself two, three, THREE plates, literally you couldn't control his food and he would say…Adrian, I would tell him when I saw Adrian taking three plates serving himself I would tell him “Adrian, that's enough,” “What? Do you want me to die of hunger?”  I mean, it was frustrating, frustrating because well… and the fruit that I bought I almost had to put it in front of their noses so they could see it, because if I left it in the fridge, that fruit would spoil because they didn't take the fruit out of the fridge.

Question 8: What were your children's portion sizes like?

Josefa: Too big. Like adult plates. I say that from what I knew, children had to eat, let's say, what is like the fist of a child's hand, that is the amount that they had to eat according to me, according to what I came to learn. That children could not eat more than what they could grab, what could fit inside the fist of the child's hand, they could not eat more than that, but Adrian exceeded that.

Question 9: Do you feel like it is your responsibility to make sure that your children are educated on nutrition?

Josefa: Well yes, I think so. I have always said that children have to be educated, they have to be given, let's say, tools, and if they don't take advantage of them, then that's another thing, but you always have to give them the help they need.

Question 10: What are you planning on doing differently in the future, if anything at all?

Josefa: Me? I think that the change has already taken place because first we used to consume a lot of soda, juice, we consumed too much, that's a thing that we brought home a lot. Yes, but, you don't see soda in the house anymore, you don't see juice anymore, you see more water because that's what's being consumed the most right now. Water, I say that the biggest change that I thought about in the future in other words the removal of sugar, but that's already there. I think that now that they're older, they should already know what they have, what's good and what's bad.

Work Cited

Sosa, Josefa. Personal Interview Conducted by Yesenia Rangel Sosa. 24 November 2024. In Person meeting at Home.