Category Archives: Uncategorized

How You Should REALLY Use Your Digtial Scale

In honor of our secret agent week, I couldn’t resist this happy little photo. So many of us allow the scale to be our evil nemesis. We step into its bathroom secret lair and allow the number listed on it to determine whether we’re having a good day or a bad day. We step up to it frightened, contrite and naked (unadorned even with jewelry) and allow it to determine whether we’re a good person or not. Ninja kitteh says, “unless you’re using it as a secret agent paw print scanning device, just put it away already. I don’t let any silly piece of hardware make me cry.”

Good advice kitteh. Good advice.

Stuff that Weighs More than Me: Giant Hovercraft

R.A.W.R.–Random Acts of Weightloss-industry Rebellion

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In light of this week’s James Bond/Secret Agent theme, I’ve been thinking about some specific revolutionary maneuvers of my own. Recently the “Screaming MeMeMe!” has helped to clarify what we’re up against. There’s a whole lot of hate out there my little chicklettes. But both you and I have the power to be a force for good. And there are so many ways that we can act up and cause trouble for those who sow hate.

Now not everybody is ready to be as public in their rebellion as those who participated in Marilyn Wann’s I Stand campaign, or those delightfully awesome folks who are gaining supervillian status over on Red No. 3 as Agents of Obesity. Or even those who participated in the Kiss-In to protest Marie Claire’s nasty article.

But that’s okay, because there are plenty of covert operations you can participate in as well. One of my favorites is NAAFA LA’s bookmark campaign where they print out body positive bookmarks and slip them into diet books in libraries and bookstores. And of course NAAFA LA’s Big Fat Flea Market is also an act of positive rebellion in quietly asserting that people of all sizes deserve to look fabulous at reasonable prices. And I love the post-it note campaign at Operation Beautiful, where folks are encouraged to post body-positive notes on public restroom and dressing room mirrors.

There are so many ways to be quietly positive in a world that shuns us and shames us. Sometimes it’s simply a matter of saying something nice to someone trying on a pretty dress at a department store, sometimes it’s about leaving a NAAFA brochure at a weight loss clinic, often it’s about just being you as hard as you can. So my little chickies, lets think this week about how you can perpetuate so R.A.W.R. And enjoy the secret thrill of making the world just a little better and a little safer for every BODY.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Finding the Right Training Program

I expect you to DIE(T) Mr. Bond.

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My husband and I have been watching a lot of vintage James Bond lately. So this morning when I was trying to decide what to write in my blog, I have to confess the above scene popped into my head. Except to James Bond’s query, “So do you expect me to talk?” Goldfinger’s reply IN MY HEAD was “No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to diet!” It’s always an interesting morning when your hubby rolls over in bed and asks you what you’re giggling about.

It led to an exceptionally silly line of thinking wherein I imagined what the secret evil lair of the weight loss industry would look like. I wondered, could the weight loss industry qualify for James Bond nemesis format? Let’s see:

Impossibly thin, conventionally beautiful babes working as a front for the organization? Check.
Attempted world domination by bankrupting various segments of the population? Check.
Perpetuation of male-dominated societal stereotypes? Check.
Organization selling something completely different than what is outwardly offered? Check.
Organization offering products that are inherently dangerous to the population? Check.
Organization infiltrating other society groups including not for profits for financial gain? Check!

Yup, the weight loss industry (on the whole) qualifies for a secret evil lair. And with over $60 Billion per year in revenue (that’s Billion with a “B”) there’s a lot of money to work with. Surely they could afford a hollowed out volcano or two. There’s probably even enough left over for a private submarine entrance and a tank with sharks with frickin laser beams on their heads.

And the prospects for the world weight loss industry as an evil empire look frankly, pretty good. After all weight bias is extremely useful:

Government running out of money? Being forced to cut popular social programs? Blame fat people! Prescribe weight loss.
Company benefits program cutting into CEO’s yacht fund? Threaten to cut benefits without weight loss.
Faced with diagnosing a difficult condition or disease? Prescribe weight loss.
Health insurance costs spiraling out of control? Government deadlocked regarding solutions? Blame fat people! Prescribe weight loss.
Can’t balance a city budget? Arbitrarily single out inexpensive foods, make them illegal, and prescribe weight loss.

Yup, all that’s left to do is pick out the sexy mid century modern furniture and come up with naughty double entendre names for the front office girls.

Because our governments don’t want us to talk, they just want us to die(t).

Love,

The Fat Chick

Stuff that Weigh(ed) More Than Me: The Beatles

Sometimes It Takes a Village–And a Pedicure

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This week on the blog we’ve been talking about help–why it’s important to give it and receive it and how to find it. Now I’ve got to share with you about a group that has provided such amazing and powerful support for me. I’m talking about my local Los Angeles chapter of NAAFA–The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. This fabulous group of men and women is one of the best groups I’ve ever been in, and I’ve participated in a lot of groups. But this is one of the most genuinely caring and supportive groups of people I’ve ever met. And what’s more, we get stuff DONE! We cook up some sort of fabulousness nearly every month and sometimes even more awesome than that. Somebody has an idea, everybody gets excited and we just roll up our sleeves and get ‘er done. Like the INDD Spa Day shown in the video above. We just made a few phone calls, sent a few emails and BAM, just look at the awesomeness!

So my little chicklettes, I want to encourage you to find a group of people who are just right for encouraging you. If you’re in the LA area, then you should DEFINITELY join NAAFA LA. And don’t forget–there are some awesome folks on The Fat Chick Clique and in the Fit Fatties Forum.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Finding Help: Buyer Beware

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When it comes to fitness, if it hurts, DON’T DO IT!

So far this week we’ve been talking about helping others. And I’m a BIG fan of that. Today we’re going to talk about finding help for yourself. And I’m a BIG fan of that too. But in finding help, you DO need to be careful.

Settle in my little chickies, and I’ll tell you a little story–an instructive parable as it were. At one point in my life, when I was deeply worried about being thin, I panicked and I hired a personal trainer. Now believe me, I think having a personal trainer can be an awesome investment. But in this case, I was ruled by panic. Did I check to see if this guy was certified? Nope. Did I ask to talk to other students of his? Uh uh. Did I even do an online search to see if this guy was a maniac? That would be negative. I saw the guys phone number on the gym bulletin board, I called him and I started working with him.

I should also mention that at the time I could barely afford to buy food or medicine. But that didn’t matter because this guy was gonna do it. He was gonna make me skinny and from there on out my life would be PERFECT.

I should have known from the very first workout that this guy was not for me. The FIRST thing he did, before he did an intake questionnaire or asked me about my fitness level or fitness goals or potential health problems was to plunk me on a treadmill, crank up the speed, crank up the incline and to tell me to stay on there for 20 minutes. And by goodness I DID stay on there for 20 minutes. Sweating, wheezing, heart pounding, and feeling sick, I staggered over to where he was reading a muscle magazine. “Wow,” he said. “I wasn’t really expecting you to do the whole 20 minutes. Now we can get down to some real work.”

Now my little chicklettes, that scenario is what we in the business call a “clue”. The guy basically threw me into a “maximal” testing situation where he intended to test me to failure, but he didn’t check my history first, he didn’t monitor me and, here’s something important, he DIDN’T BOTHER TO TELL ME that’s what we were doing. Dangerous? Yup. Epic stupidity? Yah, you betcha! But he later confessed he didn’t tell me because he could tell by looking at me that I was “soft” and he didn’t want me to “wimp out”.

But did I yell at him? Did I quit giving him money? No I did not. I kept training with him because he was thin and muscular and I was fat. I trained with him for months. Unable to walk after our exercise sessions, frequently vomiting in the locker room after workouts and feeling sick and miserable, I worked with him until I got injured and couldn’t work out any more. And I guess you can tell at this point, I’m still pretty darn angry about it.

Look, if I had tuned in with my instincts, which were SCREAMING by the way, that I should RUN (well at least stagger) away from this guy, I could have avoided a whole lot of heartache and saved money to buy something awesome, like shoes. But I allowed my feelings of insecurity and false hopes to lure me into getting myself hurt.

So my little chicklettes, the lesson is this. Please do seek help. We all need help from time to time. No woman is an island. But please seek help that is competent, qualified, and compassionate. Do your research first. Shop around. Ask questions. Ask for references. Ask for qualifications. Any trainer, doctor, therapist or coach who doesn’t want to give this sort of information to you is not worth considering. And if your instincts tell you that this isn’t the right person for you or that you don’t feel safe, leave. Take your toys and GO HOME.

Because my sweet little chickadees, when it comes to helpers as with everything in life, you deserve only the best.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Exercise Animals: Getting a Little Lift

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Okay my dear little chicklettes. Sometimes it can be tough. But it’s amazing how far we can fly when we help one another. That is all.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Why it’s Good Karma to Put Yourself Forward

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Dancin with myself at the Relay for Life event…

Among many activities this weekend, I went and did the morning wake-up workout and stretch for the American Cancer Society Relay for Life in Southern California. It was early. And when I got there, it seemed like most people were still sleeping. I wondered if they even really wanted me there.

I went to plug my iPod and microphone into the sound system. But there was no power. There were lots of cables, but no power. So I followed all the cables to a gas-powered generator. Luckily there were directions on the top, so I fired that up. But after just a few minutes, it died. Okay. So I looked around and located the fuel gauge. EMPTY. But, I didn’t give up. I looked around and found some gas, brought it to the generator, filled it up, fired it up, got all my sound gear set up and started.

At first I was the only person exercising–all by my myself, at 6:30 in the morning, in the middle of this huge field. Suddenly somebody felt sorry for me and started doing some of the movements from across the field. He never did come right over, but he smiled as he did them. I noticed other people from way far away around the field start doing some of the arm movements along with me. They smiled and they danced from afar as they packed their tents in preparation for the closing ceremonies. I joked about having the most spread out fitness class in history. But I kept at it.

Eventually, one woman came right over and danced with me for a little while. When I went over for coffee afterwards I heard from everybody what a great job I did even though I didn’t have a big class of people in front of me. The lady who danced with me got very excited when she heard about my class, and I think she’s going to come for some of them. And one lady even gave me a hula hoop to say thanks! They loved it! So I could gone home bummed that I didn’t have a photo opp with hundreds of people dancing in perfect step. But I chose to be thrilled that I made a difference for somebody–anybody.

So here comes the metaphor kids…We’d like to believe that once we put ourselves out front, we’ll achieve instant rock star status and have a huge following. We want to believe that a limo will pick us up and whisk us to a dressing room featuring our brand of bottled water and bowls of M&Ms with just the green ones. But my experience, in learning to put myself out there as a plus-sized fitness instructor who supports body diversity is that it goes a lot more like my experience in that misty field at 6:30 in the morning. Sometimes you’ve got to fire up and gas the generator. Usually, you have to make your own crowd. Many people watch. Some join from a far. And just a few step right up. But my dear chicklettes, you never know how much impact you’re having or how much good you’re doing. You never know when you’re changing somebody’s life for the better.

So my little chicklettes, I’m going to suggest you put yourself forward this week in some small way. Help somebody out. Share your positive energy with complete strangers. Remember, you don’t have to be a rock star to make the world a better place.

Love,

The Fat Chick