Tag Archives: Fat Acceptance

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

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

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

Is Exercise Sexy?

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The Shake Weight demonstrates the sex/fitness connection, sort of, well not really…

I saw one of those ads for athletic shoes the other day. You know, one of those ads where a perfectly shaped pert little body, glistening just so with perspiration shows a sexy godess of fitness–and I burst out laughing. I was giggling because I thought about how different that particular view of fitness is from fitness in my actual, real life. First of all there is no low mood lighting with special spotlights to highlight the shape of my rear end. I don’t, as a rule, casually drape a perfectly white fluffy towel over my shoulders. There’s no semi-pornographic, oom-chicka-mow-mow music playing where I work out. And there’s nothing that glistens, glows, or gently shines, because girlfriend, I SWEAT. And I think it’s pretty unrealistic that any amount of exercise is gonna make me look like that chick in the advertisement (even if I had the ARMY of stylists and digital re-touchers she’s working with). So I asked myself, given the huge yawning gulf between the advertising view of fitness and what exercise looks like in my world, is exercise sexy?

Well, I think exercise can be really sexy, but not usually in the way depicted on television. I think it can be sexy when it’s a kind and wonderful thing that I do for myself. I don’t think exercise as punishment is particularly sexy (even in a S&M sorta way). But I think the way that exercise makes me feel, is sexy. For example:

Improved Self Esteem–Feels Sexy

Stronger Body–Feels Sexy

Better Sleep/Better Rested–Feels Sexy (and more likely to be awake for sex)

Better Stress Management–Feels Sexy (and a lot more in the mood for sex)

And when you come right down to it. Research indicates that people who exercise regularly have better sex lives. So is exercise sexy? Yes, YES, OH GOD YES!!!!! Just don’t expect it to look like it does on TV.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Sweaty and Fabulous: Plus Sized Fitness Wear for EVERY Body

The National Weight Control Registry: Oh look, a Unicorn

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Results not typical…

Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard several people advance the National Weight Control Registry as evidence that people can permanently lose weight. To take just two cases, It is currently prominently featured on the Weight of the Nation website and it was thrown at Julianne Wotasik and I during our interview on Dr. Drew’s show earlier this week. Add to that, my new friend Angela sending her amazing slides for a new UK lecture on the NWCR and a blog post seemed kind of inevitable…

The National Weight Control Registry is a list of about 10,000 people who are at or above age eighteen who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for at least one year. There are follow up studies done on subsets of the group over time. But in order to initially qualify for this group you must only meet three criteria: be 18 or older, show an initial weight loss of over 30 pounds, and maintain at least 30 lbs of your initial weight loss for one year. As I mentioned on Dr. Drew’s show, I would have qualified for the NWCR at least two different times in my life. But alas, after the one or two year point, I regained my weight plus a little. (It was only when I stopped weight cycling that I have been able to maintain a steady, albeit higher weight.)

There’s lots of argument back and forth about the level of regain among participants. One follow up study from 2003 indicated that among the subset self selected for the review, over 70 percent had regained some weight over the two years of the study. Granted, most of them had retained a significant percentage of their weight loss at this point, but “recovery from even minor weight gain was uncommon”.

But here’s the main thing folks. The National Weight Control Registry is a study of a very, very small, self-selected sample of people who have lost some weight and kept some of it off. The study was never designed to apply to a general population– “Because this is not a random sample of those who attempt weight loss, the results have limited generalizability to the entire population of overweight and obese individuals.” So this is a study of what a very small percentage of people in the United States did in order to lose weight (lots of different things) and keep some of it off. Sure there have been glowing reports of what these folks have in common in maintaining some weight loss. Most severely restrict calories, exercise daily and weigh weekly. And many media outlets have shouted about the fact that most of these folks eat breakfast every day! (Since I’ve eaten breakfast every day for my entire life, and I’m still waiting for the magic weight loss to appear, I kinda wonder if this breakfast thing has a causal relationship with weight loss. But I digress…)

When I say the NWCR is a small sample, I mean it. At any given time, over 70 million Americans are trying to lose weight for good. The NWCR lists 10,000 who have managed to log some success in that regard. We’re talking about a .00014 percent success rate here. As a point of comparison, over 500,000 people completed a marathon last year. And when it comes to an Ironman race (that’s a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride followed by a 26.2 mile run all completed in less than 17 hours with no break) estimates run as high as 25,000 projected participants for this year. So why aren’t we suggesting that all Americans compete in marathons or even Ironman competitions to be healthy? After all, our sample sizes for successful people are 2.5 to 50 TIMES HIGHER than those listed in the NWCR. And since 25,000 people have managed to complete an Ironman, it’s clearly possible, right? Maybe those half million marathoners need to learn from the techniques of the Ironmen and just suck it up and do it. Anybody who doesn’t want to exercise for 17 hours straight is clearly a slacker.

We don’t suggest everyone compete in marathons and triathlons and Ironmans because it’s ridiculous. We know that not everyone has the time, health, money or inclination to train the average 40 miles per week clocked by mere marathoners not to mention the hundreds of miles clocked by Ironmen. While I adored my marathon training and am extremely glad I did it, I just don’t have that kind of time to dedicate to marathon training on top of all of the other fitness classes I’m teaching right now. And with plenty of research indicating that a mere 150 minutes of moderate exercise per week is all that is necessary to achieve extremely significant health goals, I’m happy too treasure my medals and move on. And since there is also plenty of research indicating that I can be happy and healthy by engaging in moderate healthy behaviors without significant weight loss, I’m happy to do that too and just get on with my life.

So my dear little chicklettes, I no longer qualify for the NWCR. Maybe you don’t qualify either, but that’s okay. Why not join my extremely exclusive Fat Chick Clique instead? It’s totally free, you get to get free stuff, and you can live your life however you want. Cuz’ that’s just how I roll.

Love,

The Fat Chick

What we Said BEFORE Meme came on…

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Hi everybody. There’s been a lot of talk about Meme’s hate speech approach to people of size on Dr. Drew’s show yesterday. And I want to especially thank Ragen for standing up for Julianne and I. I DO think it represents a minimal step forward that hosts feel the need to have people like Ms. Roth on the show. In the past, the host would have simply belittled and mocked us directly. So I think the fact that hosts are bringing in a proxy to do the fat bashing represents a small but significant shift in public opinion. (YAY!) But before the clip that’s currently highlighted on the HLN site, Julianne and I did get to say quite a lot and I want to share it here.

Thanks so much to everybody for all your support and cheering. It’s hard to be up there in the lights being attacked. But I know we can bear it because we have such a strong, POSITIVE, SUPPORTIVE community behind us.

Now it’s time to share a little of that love. I suspect that HLN chose that clip to highlight on their site because they thought it was the most outrageous and would solicit the most comments. So I’d like to ask you to go to that comments page and share some positive thoughts about size acceptance and HAES. Here’s the link. I think saying negative things about Ms. Roth will only encourage them to have her on again as she “solicits a strong response”. So I’m going to suggest that you refrain from bashing her in the comments. If you need moral support, please see Ragen’s excellent and wonderful post here.

I think it would be more helpful to shift the focus somewhat and say something positive about size acceptance or how something said about size acceptance resonated with you or was helpful to you. Sorry to give you MORE HOMEWORK, my little chicklettes but we still got a long row to hoe. But before you leave here’s how Julianne most beautifully and eloquently got in the last word: