Embracing Beginnerness (and Kitties!)

Leave a reply

Based on your awesome feedback, I have balanced yesterday’s snark fest with this video of an adorable kitten just learning to walk. You’re welcome.

I’m not just posting pictures and videos of cute stumbling kitties for the heck of it. I do have a point. Today I want to talk about embracing your beginnerness and why it’s so hard.

Yesterday I had a really exciting opportunity to audition for something. It was so cool. But it was my first audition of that kind EVER. After the initial euphoria of making it through in one piece wore off, I found myself in the car thinking of 100 things I wish I had done differently, and I was bummed.

But as Maggie said in the comments yesterday, “Hey our champions can’t be all perfect!” Sorry, I forgot. I guess I just forgot to embrace my beginnerness. The stakes were high, because this is not only something I thought I’d be perfect for, but also it’s something I really wanted. I got all caught up in the “shoulda, woulda, coulda” of it. But it was my first time. And I guess I should know by know, that I’m probably not going to be perfect at anything my first time out of the gate. In fact, I’m probably not going to be perfect, like ever.

I really should know this by now, because I’m constantly telling other people the same thing. (Blogger, heal thyself!) Every time I teach a new routine or I have a new student come to my class I remind them that it may take them a while to get used to the way I teach, or the type of routines I do. I remind them that every student was a new student once, and that every routine was new for each of us at some time or another. None of us, including the teacher, got everything perfect right out of the gate. In fact, none of us is perfect even after dancing together for five years!

But it’s so easy to forget. Once you finally get past your fear of messing up and try something new, you’re bound to feel a little regret for messing up. I guess a little frustration is healthy. It helps you figure out how to improve for next time. But there’s a limit to how much obsessing about how you should have done something is really healthy. There’s really no point to “shoulding all over yourself.”

If you want to be a bold adventurer who explores brave new worlds and tries new stuff, you have to accept you’re going to trip sometimes. You’ve got to be ready to stand up, roll your masking tape lint roller thingy all over yourself (or just dust yourself off) and start all over again. And remember, everybody was a beginner at one time or another.

The alternative to muddling around and not quite hitting the mark is not to try at all. And not trying at all is kinda sad and no fun. So I leave you with a song I LOVE. It’s by Irene Reid and it’s called “Aiming at Nothing”. Here’s an excerpt of some of the lyrics:

If you aim at the sun, even though it’s farYou might hit the moon or your might hit a star.
If you aim at ten, you might hit nine,
But if you aim at nothin’ you’ll hit it every time!

And just click the little arrow thingy below to hear an excerpt from the song:

Aiming At Nothing

I’d love to hear about some of YOUR beginner stories. Feel free to share them in the comments section or send me a private email at jeanette at the fat chick dot com. Tell me about how you were scared, and brave and found a way to muddle through somehow. Tell us how you wobbled on your new kitten legs, but went on to triumph!

And here’s to aiming at something, even though we miss it sometimes!

Love,

The Fat Chick

P.S. We’re aiming to hit the left coast this week with our Fit Fatties Across America project! Have you joined the fit fatties forum yet? Did you sign up for Fit Fatties Across America? Have you entered your time or distance for your exercise this week? Well okay, just checking.

P.S.S. Did you know that I do private training live or over Skype? I’m still running my “try one month for $25” special. That’s up to $100 off my regular rates!

Joan Rivers Gets Schooled re. Why She Should SHUT UP about Adele.

10 Replies

ALERT ALERT ALERT: NSFW, Plus likely loss of sanity points ahead

The following video contains Joan Rivers acting like a complete idiot and saying mean fat hating things about Adele followed by a response from Adam Hills that is brilliant but full of a LOT of profanity.

Okay, what have we learned boys and girls.

1. Joan Rivers is a mean spirited, nasty person who uses what she terms as “comedy” to spread hatred.

2. She does this on purpose in order to stir the controversy pot and get attention.

3. Some people (like Adam Hills) are starting to get more than a little sick of these tactics.

4. These people are starting to speak out.

5. People who live in surgically altered glass houses, probably shouldn’t toss rocks.

I’m not really sure what the take away message should be here. Obviously this kind of “comedy” is not new to Joan Rivers. She’s made a long, long, long career out of being mean spirited and nasty in this particular way. And she’s used to getting a lot of attention for it. But maybe she’s getting a slightly different kind of attention now than she’s used to.

Should we take heart from the fact that her appearance on Letterman was punctuated by audible boos? I mean this is not an audience known for loving kindness, but clearly even some in this jaded audience felt Rivers had gone too far. Should we take heart from Adam’s gleefully unrestrained and curse-word-laden tirade? Or should we wonder if he’s not being kind of mean spirited too? Is he justified? Is it ever justified?

Should I use my blog to shine a light on haters, even if the light shows them getting a seemingly deserved smackdown? Because the fact remains that this blog is not only adding a few more hits to the pile for Adam Hills, but also doing so for Joan Rivers.

Controversy breeds attention. There’s an old adage that says, “All publicity is good publicity as long as they spell your name right.” (Although my version of this saying goes, “All publicity is probably good publicity as long as it links back to your facebook page and YouTube channel.”) Clearly there’s some truth to this saying This video referenced above has already racked up over 1 million hits.

So I am sincerely asking you, should we give this kind of behavior any attention at all? Even if the attention is to shake a finger and say, “Shame on You!”? Or should I just post more cute videos of yawning baby hedgehogs? I would LOVE to hear your feedback. So fill up the comments or drop me a line letting me know what you think.

Because, even though I’m QUITE sure that there is no such thing as too many cute videos of yawning baby hedgehogs, I’m a little less sure of the alternatives.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Fit Fatties Across America–California, Baby!

1 Reply

Well hello out there. I’m so very proud to announce we have reached my home state, California in the Fit Fatties Across America project founded by myself and the amazing Ragen Chastain! We’ve walked, shimmied, swum, cycled and boogied across this great country of ours for a total of over 2,500 miles! And it’s only just March. It’s just so darn exciting to see what we can do together.

I’m especially excited about the way that we are busting stereotypes with this cool project. Many people hold the prejudice that if fat people never exercise. They think we just sit on the sofa all day eating bon bons. (What the heck IS a bon bon anyway?) But our mighty group of plus-sized exercisers have racked up over 2,500 miles in just over eight weeks. It’s a testament to the power of the Health At Every Size approach to wellness, and it’s super fun!

Aside from the Fit Fatties Across America project, the Fit Fatties Forum is a great way to be inspired by exercisers of ALL sizes. Our forum currently boasts over 1,500 members as well as over 350 fabulous photos of fat people dancing, swimming, cycling, shimmying, lifting very heavy things, aiming arrows, and flashing some flaming hula hoops! The pictures are amazing. What a fabulous, myth busting, stigma shattering resource for men and women of all sizes!

Now, my loyal readers, I’d like to enlist your help. Some of us local California peeps are planning to meet at the beach to do the final leg of the Fit Fatties Across America project together on Saturday, March 19. But that means that as a group, we need to clock just over 200 miles in the next two weeks. Will you help us get there? If you’re not already a member of the Fit Fatties Forum, would you consider joining? It’s totally FREE! And if you’re already a member of the Fit Fatties Forum, would you consider entering your exercise totals for the next two weeks so we can reach our goal? And if you are a member of the Fit Fatties who lives in the LA area, would you consider joining us on March 19 to finish the last few miles of this great project together live, and in person? Let’s dip our toes in the big blue ocean together! Let’s show ’em just what a few fatties can do!

Love,

The Fat Chick

Stuff That Weighs More than Me: Mars-bound SpaceX Dragon Spacecraft

Leave a reply

Not only is super-rich civilian space traveler Dennis Tito planning a private mission to do a Mars flyby, the mission pilots are gonna do it in a commercial space vehicle that weighs more than me!

Dennis Tito recently hosted a press conference announcing the new privately funded space mission where a man and a woman (probably a married couple) will take a 501 day space mission leaving Earth, circling Mars and flying back home. (Boy I hope those guys can get space counseling. 501 days with your husband in a little tiny space capsule? YIKES! Get Deanna Troi on board, STAT!) The commercial Dragon spacecraft created by SpaceX is relatively small, but it’s no space bike. The capsule has to be large enough to contain the crew and enough supplies to last 501 days. (Just how many bags of Doritos would that be I wonder? At the press conference Tito announced that the science geniuses have calculated that the couple will need another roll of toilet paper every 3 days.)

The amazing project is dependent on Tito’s ability to raise the cash. But Tito seems optimistic. At the press conference he said, “Let me be clear, I will come out a lot poorer as a result of this mission but my grandchildren will come out a lot richer for the inspiration it will give them.” Nicely said Dennis.

And, here’s the stats:

Launch Vehicle: Falcon 9

Crew: 2

Cargo: Supplies to last 501 days (including 167 roles of toilet paper)

Height: 20 feet

Diameter: 12.1 feet

Dry Mass: 9.260 pounds (without payload)

Conclusion: The Mars-bound modified SpaceX Dragon Capsule will weigh more than me.

P.S. Special thanks to my space buddy Rod Pyle for giving me the heads up on his facebook wall. :o)

The Right Now Show Episode 006: Exercise and Chronic Pain

4 Replies

In Episode 6 of the Right Now Show, we address a viewer inquiry about exercising with chronic pain or disability. We discuss strategies for exercising with osteoarthritis, fibromyalgia and other sources of chronic pain, discuss the traffic light method for rating pain conditions and discuss techniques for getting the most out of your workouts.

Here are some other important resources for exercising with chronic pain:

This week I’m offering a special FREE BONUS VIDEO with additional information on exercising with chronic pain.

Here’s an extended (1 hr.) interview with me and Pain Specialist Dr. Paul Christo talking about coping with plus-sized exercise and chronic pain:

Here are some studies about the effects of exercise on chronic pain:

And here’s an extremely informative article about chronic pain and exercise technique:

Hollow Leg Days–FEED Me Seymour!

Leave a reply

I think one of the realities of intuitive eating is understanding that some days you are hungrier than others. Some days I hardly think about food at all. I go for hours and hours not feeling particularly hungry and eat a little bit and that is that. But some days are what my dear husband calls “hollow leg days”. These are days where you feel like you must have a hollow leg because it seems like you’ve eaten plenty to fill your stomach but still feel hungry. My husband says, “It must have gone somewhere. Maybe I have a hollow leg.”

I’m not talking about stress eating here or eating because you are bored. Although these are both potential pitfalls of intuitive eating. I’m talking about genuine, tummy grumbling, there’s gotta be a few more crackers in this box hunger. Sometimes it seems a tame thing that is kept at bay. And sometimes I find myself like Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors demanding, “Feed me Seymour!”

This intuitive eating thing can be really challenging. It’s easy to eat intuitively when you are craving spinach. It’s a little more challenging to eat intuitively when you are craving spumoni or sausage. It can be a struggle to quiet the guilt and keep the old diet thoughts at bay. Luckily, I get to observe a real, native, free range, lifelong intuitive eater in my own house. My husband has always been naturally thin, so people have encouraged him throughout his life to eat exactly what he wants. So he’s an intuitive eater. He always has been. And I’ve seen “hollow leg days” happen to him. (It’s his terminology after all.)

Since dieting was such a disaster and the HAES (R) approach has been such a force for happiness in my life, I plan to stay the course. Part of intuitive eating is pushing away from the table when I’m full. Part of intuitive eating is looking for something to eat again 2 hours after lunch because I am still hungry or I feel hungry again. These are two sides of the same coin. Part of pushing away when full, eating just one cookie or eating two bites of pie is the implicit understanding that I can have another cookie or another bite of pie or another 1/2 hamburger whenever I am truly hungry for them. Even if logic seems to dictate I “shouldn’t be”.

So when I’m having a hollow leg day, I’ll shout (or sing), “Feed me Seymour! Feed me all night long!”

Love,

The Fat Chick

What Happens When We “Let Ourselves Go”…

1 Reply

After I tell people that I support Health At Every Size (R) and after I explain what Health At Every Size is, people often share with me their fear that if they ever stopped strictly policing their body size, their food intake and their calories burned, they will grow “big as a house” and they will “never stop eating”. Now this fear is natural. We’ve been conditioned to believe that we are just one chocolate chip cookie away from total body apocalypse and that only constant, fierce and consistent vigilance will keep us from serious medical harm. There’s a $60 billion dollar diet industry as well as an unbelievably huge system of bariatric surgery and drugs and research grants and public health initiatives to support the notion that if we take our eyes off the thin body prize for even a moment, all hell will break loose.

Except, in my experience, it kind of doesn’t.

Some recent research coming out of Australia, seems to support the notion that Health At Every Size and Size Acceptance does NOT generally lead to giving up on health altogether. “The Role of the Fatosphere in Fat Adults’ Responses to Obesity Stigma: A Model of Empowerment Without a Focus on Weight Loss” details interviews with 44 bloggers in the “Fatosphere”. The subjects of these interviews often talked about moving from a reactive response to stigma (attempting weight loss to conform to societal norms) towards a proactive approach to stigma (recognizing stigma, reframing fat, and focus on self-acceptance). These bloggers described significant improvements in well being as a result of being associated with the size acceptance community and taking a direct approach to dealing with shame and stigma.

Granted, we’re only talking about 44 bloggers here. This is hardly a representative sample of fat people all over the world. But it does seem to map to my experience. For a short time after I declared all foods legal and nothing off limits I ate a LOT of cookies and chips and pizza. But after not very long, the bloom was off the rose. I found I really didn’t want another candy bar. I wanted broccoli. I wanted chicken. I wanted whole wheat bread and peanut butter. I wanted real food. Once the “forbidden” label was removed from foods, I found I could often take them or leave them. I could eat one cookie. I could eat 3 potato chips. Because you know what? I knew I could have them again whenever I wanted them.

Once I removed the notion of punishment from my physical activities and started focusing on finding exercise that was fun, I started enjoying my workouts a whole lot more. Rather than dragging myself up onto the treadmill and burning an arbitrary number of calories, I called the dog and we went outside for walkies. I got my heart pumping. I bumped up my Vitamin D levels. And I HAD FUN. When I accepted that I no longer had to do exercise that I hated, I found myself free to focus on fitness that I loved. I learned to look forward to workouts again.

Clearly I’m citing anecdotal evidence here. But there is plenty of other research by amazing people like Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor that explains what happens when people lose their obsession with weight loss and start focusing on the Health At Every Size approach to wellness. What happens is that folks get happier and generally healthier all without the nasty side effects of disordered eating, weight cycling and depression so common to the traditional diet-based approach.

So after I tell people about Health At Every Size and after people tell me that they can’t support HAES because they would lose all control and would wind up desperately unhappy and unhealthy, I still have an ace up my sleeve.

I share the overwhelming evidence that the HAES (R) approach typically leaves people at a weight that is natural for them with a body that is healthier and with a mind that is happier than ever before.

Seems like a safe bet to me.

Love,

The Fat Chick

And the Award for Best at Wearing a Dress Goes to…

2 Replies

Long before the final statuettes have been given out, the awards for who looks best (and worst) in a dress are being decided. From the moment these film actors and actresses stop onto the red carpet, the world is frantically deciding, do they look good? Isn’t it interesting that the Oscar is almost a secondary award to the main award–the best and worst dress lists? These lists begin to come out before the first Academy Award envelope is opened and before the stars and starlets have even had a chance to find a drink or have their first, post-red-carpet pee.

Anybody who has any doubts about the priorities of our culture need look no further than this night. Winning for being the best actor or actress often simply takes second place to who wore the best dress, had the right hair, and managed to score the most exclusive awards night jewelry. Even the directors, producers, costume designers, writers, set designers, sound designers and more are meticulously dissected based on hem length, cleavage, tux tailoring, strappy shoe wearing and bling.

I can’t help thinking that it all feels so “High School”. The pecking order for the most prestigious film awards in the world seems to share more than a little in common with your average High School prom evening. You have the popular kids, the AV nerds, the smart kids, the jocks, the goth kids and others. You have limo rides that are probably more awkward than fun. You have folks who have poured more money into one evening that anyone ever thought prudent or even possible. And at the end of the day, it seems all anyone cares, is how they looked in the dress.

Meh.

Maybe that’s why, despite multiple invitations to various Oscar parties, I opted to simply go to the pub with my sweetie. I ate sliders. I wore jeans. I drank wine. Life is good.

So maybe I won’t win the award for best at wearing a dress. But at least I had a good time. Oh, and I didn’t have to wait three hours to pee either.

I guess it’s all about priorities.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Stuff that Weighs More than Me: The H2 in the Best Buy Lot

Leave a reply

In honor of Wednesday’s post, I present the H2: a not so very fuel efficient ve-hic-le that I feel fairly confident weighs more than me. This bad boy gets less than 10 MPG and decidedly does NOT belong in the compact parking spots in the lot because friends, it is one big brute of a SUV.

Here’s the stats:

Engine: 6.2 Liter V8

Wheelbase: 122.8 inches

Height: 79 inches

Width: 83.1 inches

Length: 203.5 inches

Curb Weight: 6614 pounds

Conclusion: The H2 weighs more than a ton more than me.

Right Now Show Episode 005: The Big Fat Cookie Cycle

3 Replies

In Episode 005 of the Right Now Show, we explore the cycle of dieting, deprivation and desperation that I have dubbed “The Big Fat Cookie Cycle”. Learn a few reasons why dieting typically fails and why the Health At Every Size(R) approach seems to be so much more successful.

Here are some important references offering more information on Health At Every Size:

The Fat Chick Works Out! Book and DVD

The Association for Size Diversity and Health

Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight

Big Fat Stats

And finally, if you’re enjoying the show, don’t forget to subscribe at: http://www.youtube.com/jeanettedepatie.

Thanks so much!

Love,
Jeanette
AKA The Fat Chick
http://www.thefatchick.com