Tag Archives: RASCAL

“Fall Back” in Love with You

I’m not going to lie. I love fall. It’s my favorite time of year. And one of my favorite things about fall is that in the U.S. we get to “fall back”. We set our clocks back one hour. As I mentioned last year, this can be a terrific time to start a morning practice that you’ve always wanted to start. In particular, I mentioned that falling back allows you to get up at the “same time” (sort of) as you did before, while starting your day an “hour earlier” (sort of). Naturally it’s harder to get to bed on time as well. But spring forward is a topic for another day–several months from now. And last year I suggested the week that we “fall back” is the best week all year to start an exercise program.

This year, I’ve learned that isn’t necessarily true. Since I’m still recovering from illness and injury, this week would be a terrible time for me to start a new exercise program. And thus, I have to admit, my statement last year was naive and not all that inclusive. It’s sad that life had to literally kick me in the pants to learn that, but so be it. I’m sorry that I made such a sweeping, ablest statement.

But I still would like to mark this special time of year, when basking in the glow of whatever Halloween candy is still left, we get to turn back time.

So this year, in honor of the RASCAL challenge, I’d like to invite you to “fall back” in love with yourself. Maybe it would be fun for you to take a little time this Sunday to remember just what is so incredibly awesome about you. And maybe you could reward that awesomeness with some little act of self care of kindness or love. Maybe it could even be a RADICAL Act of Self Care And Love. It’s too late to join the RASCAL challenge for this year, but I’d like to invite you to take a look at the list just to get inspired. There’s a list of over 100 things on there that you can do to take care of you. Or you could come up with something of your very own. Or not. Every BODY and every life is different.

This year, I’ve made a new and different commitment. As I fall back, I will make a special effort to fall back in love with me, take me out on a date, and cherish and care for me in some special way. I’m not entirely sure what it will be yet. But I have a feeling, it’s gonna be awesome.

Love,

Jeanette DePatie (AKA The Fat Chick)

Marrying Me: A Day Full of Love

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I hope you’ll forgive me for being a bit tardy. You see, yesterday, October 14 was National Love Your Body day. It was also the 19th anniversary of my marriage to the absolute best guy on the planet. So it was a day with a whole lot of love in it. And as I contemplated my lucky, love-filled life, I had some thoughts about marriage and loving and loving your body.

I think my husband would be one of the first to say, that learning to love my body proved to be a very important turning point in our marriage. While I hated my body, I was unable to believe that anybody else could love me or my body. Before I learned to love my body, I felt lucky that anybody would even profess to love me. And when my husband told me he loved me and thought I was beautiful, I thought he was lying–either to me or to himself. But as I learned to love my body, I came to accept that my husband was telling the truth–both to himself and to me. And I still count myself lucky. But now I feel that I’m lucky to love and be loved by somebody wonderful and kind and special. I no longer feel like he is with me out of pity or sympathy. I no longer believe he is with me despite my body. I now accept that he loves ALL of me. So of course, I feel very, very blessed.

And as I thought over our years together before we were married as well as the nearly two decades we’ve been married, I thought about the things that make a marriage work. And I thought about how we are in many ways married to our bodies as well. We can’t really leave our bodies (more than temporarily) while we are alive on this earth. And while many of us live in a state of being disconnected from or even divorced from our bodies, we really only get one. So it’s a good idea to learn how to reconnect with and even love the skin we’re in.

So with that in mind, I thought I would have a little marriage ceremony for me and my body. Since I’ve already learned to love my body (most of the time) it’s more of a restatement of my vows, but here goes.

I Jeanette DePatie do take my body

From this day forward.

To have and to hold,

To love and to cherish,

For better or for worse,

For richer for poorer,

In sickness and in health,

Until death us do part,

Amen.

So please accept my somewhat belated wish that you had a happy Love Your Body Day. And let me humbly suggest that you do a little restatement of vows of commitment to loving your own body–to love and cherish all the days of your life. And let me also suggest that one of the best ways to love and cherish your body is to commit acts of radical self acceptance and love like the over 100 acts of love outlined in the new RASCAL program created by Ragen Chastain and I. It’s a great way to spend the rest of the year loving and being kind to yourself. We’re only accepting sign ups through THIS SUNDAY so, REGISTER HERE RIGHT NOW!

Love,

Jeanette DePatie AKA The Fat Chick

P.S. Want me to speak to your group on Love Your Body Day or Any Day? Click HERE to book me!

P.S.S. Want to get free stuff? Join my mailing list RIGHT HERE!

Radical Self Care

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I am so excited to announce our new challenge on the Fit Fatties Forum called the RASCAL challenge. This stands for Radical Activist for Self Care and Love. In this challenge, we encourage you to think outside the box about what self-care means and we challenge you to prioritize self care in your life. Given my current focus on healing, this challenge just could not have come at a better time.

One of the reasons I’m so excited about this challenge is that it helps us broaden our definition of what is included in the definition for “health”. Some of us believe that being healthy means being thin. If we are thin, we are healthy. If we are not thin, we can’t be healthy. I’ve talked quite a bit about this in the past. There are lots of studies that indicate that simply isn’t true. In particular, this study shows that healthy behavior is a better predictor of future health than BMI. But this begs the question, what is healthy behavior?

Of course joyfully moving your body is a wonderful healthy behavior. Of course eating in a way that is in tune with your body’s needs as well as your spiritual and emotional needs is a healthy behavior. But is that all there is to wellness? Eat an apple and go for a walk and you’ve got it covered? I don’t think so. To me health is nuanced and multidimensional. And health involves self-care. (Insert deep sigh here…) Why is it that so many of us are so good at taking care of other people and so lousy at taking care of ourselves? Are we conditioned that way from birth? I don’t know. But I DO know that self care gives us the strength to help others. Think about what the flight attendant says before you take off. “First secure your own oxygen mask, then you can help small children and those around you.” In other words, breathe. Take a moment to care for yourself.

And that moment may involve eating something wonderful or going for a walk. Or it may involve simply breathing. Maybe your self-care moment is spending just a few seconds of your day simply being. Maybe it means getting a little extra sleep. Maybe it involves asking for help. Maybe it involves doing a booty-shaking victory dance. Maybe it means calling a friend and reconnecting. Maybe it means writing a letter to someone who wronged you. Maybe it just requires 5 minutes of quiet and a cup of tea.

Self-care is different for each of us. But it is absolutely critical to our well being. That’s why I’m so excited about the RASCAL challenge. We’ve come up with over 100 official Radical Acts of Self Care and Love, and we’re challenging folks to do one of those acts every single day. Aside from the intrinsic rewards that come from self love, we are ACTUALLY rewarding you with badges and encouragement and prizes for taking care of yourself. Seriously. How cool is that?

I hope you’ll join me in spending some time to take care of yourself this month, either by taking the challenge or simply choosing to do it on your own. Because the world needs you to take care of you.

Love, Jeanette DePatie (AKA The Fat Chick)

Want to book me to speak to your group about radical self care? Click here!

Want to join my mailing list and get free stuff? Click here!