Tag Archives: size acceptance

New Video and a New Plan

Study Proves “Not all Fat People are Unhappy”–Follow up to indicate Papal Affiliation With Catholicism

So I got a notice in my inbox this week that a study has been announced that indicates “Not All Fat People are Unhappy.” And honestly, my first thought was, “Duh.” I mean it seems quite obvious to me that not all Fat people are miserable, much as it seems obvious that the Pope is Catholic. But apparently the notion that not all fat people are sick, miserable, about to die and ready to throw in the towel is something we need to prove again and again.

But you know, before I cast to many aspersions on the study, I think maybe we really just need to look at the headline drawn from the study results. Because there are actually quite a few interesting things indicated by this piece of research. Let’s look at a few:

1. Your happiness seems to have a lot more to do with homogeneity than body size. If you are a fat person who lives in a town with lots of other fat people, you tend to be more happy than if you live somewhere with no other fatties.

2. The study creators speculate that being fat does not in itself make people unhappy. In the accompanying press release, study co-author Philip M. Pendergast states:

“In that light, obesity in and of itself, does not appear to be the main reason obese individuals tend to be less satisfied with their lives than their non-obese peers. Instead, it appears to be society’s response to or stigmatization of those that are different from what is seen as ‘normal’ that drives this relationship.”

3. Women tend to pay a higher emotional price for being fat than men do. The study creators speculate that this is because women face more social stigma based on body size then men do. In the press release Pendergast also says,

“Think about the advertising we see on television or in magazines—we are bombarded by images of thin women, and we are told that is the ideal,”

So here is yet another study that seems to indicate that how we feel about our size may have a lot more to do with our actual health and wellness outcomes than what we weigh. It follows on the heels of many other studies we’ve talked about on this blog regarding stigma and health outcomes like this one or this one. And all of these studies lead me to ask one very important question.

Even if we knew how to make people permanently thin (which we do not) should we ask them to change their body size to fit in? If being different leads to social stigma, and social stigma leads to poor health outcomes, should we encourage everybody to be the same for the sake of their health?

Even if we knew how to make people all be the same size (which we categorically do not) it seems to me that the answer is to deal with stigma rather than to make a completely homogeneous society to reduce stress on everyone involved. What if we actively worked to fight stigma based on body size? What if we actively worked to help people accept their own differences? What if we could feel better about our bodies? Might we be singing a song like this magnificent lady right here?

I mean just check these fabulous lyrics:

I looked in the mirror
What did I see a brand new image
Of the same old me ohhhh
But now I wonder why should I be surprised
I like the things about me that I once despised

There was a time
When I wished my hair was fine
And I can remember when
I wished my lips were thin

Makes no difference now y’all
How you may feel
I’ve done reached the point
Where I wanna be real
I’m tired of living living in disguise
I like the things about me that I once despised

Let’s face it, Mavis Staples has got it going ON! But she leads me back to my original question. Why can’t we take some of this time, money and energy that we are currently spending on stigma-inducing ineffective advertising that convinces people that they not only must be thin, but may easily obtain this state of grace by eating yogurt, and spend it on something that might actually help people feel better? It will help them feel better emotionally, and it will help them feel better physically. Why can’t we take some of the time, energy and money we are spending driving wedges into our society, by creating classes of otherness which we can blame for all our problems from the high cost of airplane tickets to soaring healthcare prices and spend it on something that teaches us to celebrate our differences. It will bring us together. It will help us live and breathe as a community rather than a simple pile of competitors in a winner-take-all, Victoria’s Secret model competition. When will we reach the obvious conclusions? Bears poo in the woods, stigma doesn’t help people, and yes, the Pope is indeed Catholic.

Call me captain obvious if you like. I’ve stopped spending on diets and weight loss schemes and self hatred because I like the things about me that I once despised.

Love, Jeanette DePatie (AKA The Fat Chick)

Join my mailing list and get free stuff! Get a boost! Have a Laugh! ;o)

Friday Dance Break

3 Replies

It’s been a tough week for me and in many ways a tough week for our country. So I thought for today’s blog I would post a FRIDAY DANCE BREAK!

Whatever else you may have to say about this week, it has been a great week for dancing. Here’s just a few of the things that have popped on my feed this week.

First, I ran across this wonderful piece of a plus-sized pole dancer on Britain’s Got Talent. I braced myself for Simon to be a total tool, but (spoiler alert) aside from some eye rolling, he managed to keep it together and be a gentleman. And perhaps the best news is that the comments are disabled on this YouTube clip so I don’t even have to tell you not to go there! Sweet!

And then there was this fabulous clip. This is a group called Company and they took SECOND place in the Vibe Dance competition. Props for the fabulous dancing and at least a teeny, tiny bit of body diversity. There were definitely some khaki’s above a size 00 out there. And this group is tight. And SO much fun to watch. Check it out!

There’s another version of the video with more closeups available here. This gives you a better chance to see the different bodies that are rocking it out.

And last but not least, this week, I ran across this adorable dancing kid on my Facebook feed. I mean how cool is she? Seriously?

Werk it girl. WERK IT! And it just goes to show, that when you get on our there and shake your thing, other people will want to join the fun. It takes the little guy a while to get with the program, but he does eventually get to steppin.

So there you have it. Not a lot of thought or philosophy. Just chock full of wiggling, jiggling bodies of all ages, shapes and sizes. You’re welcome!

Love, Jeanette (AKA The Fat Chick)

Stuff That Weighs More Than Me: Russian MiG

Tutus, Wonder Women and Haters

1 Reply

Look at that fabulous picture up there. Does it make you smile? Think it’s a story about motivation and joy and taking back your own power?

Sorry. It’s a story about a “self help” magazine asking a woman if they could use her photo in their magazine and then pulling a total hater move and making fun of her in the captions.

Apparently Self magazine contacted San Diego runner Monika Allen seeking permission to use her photo in the April issue of the magazine. Monika said yes, and was understandably excited to see her picture in the magazine. The online version of the magazine is already out. And she’s excited all right, but not in a good way.

The photo appeared in a section of the magazine called the BS Meter. Next to the photo was this copy:

“A racing tutu epidemic has struck New York’s Central Park, and it’s all because people think these froufrou skirts make you run faster. Now if you told us they made people run from you faster maybe we would believe it.”

Cue rimshot. Slow hand clap. You see what they did there? Run from you faster. Makes you wonder why magazine circulation numbers are crashing, right?

Now I’m sure the writer from Self was feeling pretty proud for their little moment, except maybe there’s a little research this writer failed to do. Like the research that indicated this was Monika’s first run since being diagnosed with brain cancer. And she was wearing this costume to help her feel motivated to keep running while she was undergoing chemotherapy. And she makes and sells the skirts to raise money for Girls on the Run, a charity that sponsors exercise and confidence-building programs for young girls.

Whoops.

Not surprisingly the backlash online has been sort of epic. This is what we in the biz refer to as a public relations nightmare of epic proportions. This is a “hey kid, you’re fired” kind of maneuver. Monika sent an email to Self saying how upset she was for the way the picture was used. And she took to traditional and social media to tell the world how upset she was as well.

Since the story originally aired and went viral, the Editor in Chief of Self magazine “apologized” on her twitter account and sent an email apology to the local news station with this little gem:

“in our attempt to be humorous, we were inadvertently insensitive.”

“I have sincerely apologized both directly to Monika and her supporters online. At SELF we support women such as Monika; she is an inspiration and embodies the qualities we admire. We have donated to her charity and would like to cover her good work in a future issue,” the statement reads. “We wish her all the best in her road to good health.”

Let’s deconstruct, shall we? “We thought we were being funny but we didn’t know that she would have a disease that people don’t think is funny. Had we known that this woman had the “Big C” we would have written a tear-jerker style exploitative piece instead of a snark piece. I mean come on! How were we supposed to know she had cancer. If we had known, that would have meant we were overtly insensitive, but since we didn’t know, we were inadvertently sensitive. We have sincerely apologized in public because the public is mad and it hurts when people write mean things online. (Although when people are mad they do comment more and our engagement numbers are up, but you can’t have everything.) At our publication we support women like Monika when it suits us and humiliate women like Monika when we feel like it. We have donated to her charity because hey money makes everything better and we’re kinda terrified that we will get sued. We’d like to cover her in a future issue because usually promising “exposure” to people gets them to accept just about anything. We wish her all the best in her recovery, because frankly, if this broad kicks the bucket, a few of us are going back to copy editing at Pennysaver.”

Speaking of being sued, please note that the above paragraph is not actually quoted from anybody at Self magazine. I made it up. And if it’s insensitive, I did it very much on purpose.

I wish Monika the best. I think she is frankly going to sell a LOT more tutus after this. And I think she is a woman we can all admire. But I think this is an indicator. It is really, really bad out there. When a newsstand publication thinks that they can get permission to use a photo depicting a conventionally beautiful woman and shame her in front of the world, it’s pretty bad out there. And for those of us who don’t meet the conventional standards of beauty, it’s a field day. If you are a fat, gorgeous, tattooed woman who dares to post a picture of yourself in a fabulous polka dot bikini, you just might find your picture used without your permission to sell diet ads. And when you go after the company, they will just make some excuse about how it’s the fault of their affiliates. Because they feel pretty confident that they can do whatever they want to you. Because if you are not conventionally beautiful, you are fair game.

Weak!

In fact, no one is safe from being abused online. Nobody. Don’t believe me? Check out this amazing Ted Talk from the gorgeous and talented Maysoon Zayid, “I have 99 Problems…Palsy is Just One.” When you have a minute, I encourage you to watch the whole thing. It is well worth your time. It was especially touching to me to hear her say, at about 12 minutes in to her presentation:

“The doctor said I would never walk. Yet here I am in front of you. But I grew up with social media, I don’t think I would be. I hope that together, we can create more positive images of disability in the media and in every day life. Perhaps if there were more positive images, it would foster less hate on the internet. Or maybe not. Maybe it still takes a village to teach our children well.”

I wonder. I wonder how many powerful and world-changing people are being crushed under the need for some hater to get their three seconds of fame in the comments section. I wonder how the search for snark is helping to foster the utter disregard for people’s lives and their well-being. I wonder how many of our generation’s revolutionary leaders are smashed when their photos are misappropriated and tagged in an amusing meme. I wonder how much more I could accomplish if I didn’t get nasty comments and hate mail every freaking day of my life.

Here’s hoping we can be part of the village that helps to lift one another out of the battle ground of the comments section and fight the good fight of making the world a better place.

Love, Jeanette DePatie (AKA The Fat Chick)

P.S. Want to join my list, get free stuff and be sure not to miss out on a single bit of the awesomeness? Click here to join.

Want to learn to face the spring holidays with more joy and less trauma? My dear friend and colleague Golda Poretsky is offering a HAES for the Holidays course just for spring. I am an affiliate, so if you join her class, you can support me at the same time. Win, win WIN!

The Red Handle, The Hot Button and Other Hair Triggers

Why self esteem isn’t just about you.

5 Replies

I talk a lot about self esteem and self efficacy in this blog, because I think both of those things are very, very important. I think the way we see ourselves and the way we approach the world helps to shape our world. On the other hand, I think it’s important to recognize that the world we live in shapes us in turn. Both self esteem and self efficacy involve more than just self. Because as John Donne said all those years ago:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main…

John Donne

We all function as part of the world. Our self esteem is deeply influenced by the opinions of those around us. And frankly, right now, the world is none too kind to people of size. Feeling good about yourself is really tough in an world containing people who after one look at you consider themselves justified in considering you less than human. Even when you approach the world in your best dress and your prettiest smile and your very most positive of positive thoughts, it’s tough going when what the world reflects back to you is pity, disgust, shame, disdain and yes, even fear.

And it’s also important to recognize that the tremendous amount of prejudice experienced by people of size in our culture is constantly reenforced by various factors. The diet and weight loss industry is worth more than 60 Billion dollars in the U.S. alone. And desire for a piece of the grant/research money pie has fueled a desperate fight against fat people also known as the “War on Obesity”. A need to find a scapegoat in our difficult economic times and even more difficult health care landscape has led to the fat person as social pariah–blamed for everything from the high costs of health insurance to global warming.

I’m not telling you this because I want you to be depressed. Far from it. But I also want to pay homage to the fact that feeling good as a less than skinny person in our culture can be really, really difficult. This is reality. And any work that we try to do to feel good about ourselves needs to be seen in the context of this reality.

This is why I think it is so very important to build community to support one another. I am by no means perfect in my self esteem. But a great deal of any of the strength I do possess in this regard comes directly from my participation in the size acceptance community. I am deeply indebted to those who have come before. That’s why I think it is so important to honor others who are building a better and safer world for people of all sizes. This year, we honored some of those trail blazers this year in the Shadow on a Tightrope anniversary. And my dear friend and business collaborator Ragen Chastain is doing very important work in her documentary film project honoring the history of the heroes and heroines of the size acceptance movement.

And beyond just recognizing those who have gone before, there is a veritable army of people out there right now, working to make the world better for people of all shapes and sizes. People like Marilyn Wann and Ragen Chastain. Organizations like the Size Diversity Task Force and ASDAH and NAAFA.

So in your look to bolster your self-esteem, I’d like to encourage you to think beyond yourself. First, I’d like to suggest that you take a look at some of the forces outside of yourself that may be dragging on you. Learning to recognize these voices that send you negative and shaming messages is an important first step towards choosing what to take on board and what to throw away.

Next, I’d like to suggest that you find community. Get together in the real world or the virtual one, with like-minded people who allow you to feel supported and safe at any size. I can’t emphasize enough how much community has helped me and supported me and strengthened me.

Finally, I’d like to ask you to consider how you might help others feel good about themselves. It’s not enough to simply take. Community implies a sharing of talents and resources and our very selves. That’s not to say that we all need to help in the same way. Some of us will march in protests. Some of us will send scathing letters. Some of us will simply support one another with a quick hug or a kind word in the comments section.

None of us is an island. We are all a piece of the continent, a citizen of the world, a member of the universe. It’s up to all of us to make that universe a better place for ALL of us.

Love, Jeanette (AKA The Fat Chick)

Do I owe it to anybody to lose weight?

1 Reply

Ahhh, the holidays! It’s a time for sharing food, family, friendship and GUILT. I recently shared some thoughts about setting boundaries for the holidays here. (And of course, there’s always this video.) For the most part, I find people can learn to respect the boundaries we set about talking about (or choosing not to talk about) our weight. After all, our bodies are our business, and not anyone else’s. But there are always those few people who find it their “moral obligation” to police our bodies. And those people will usually use one of the following arguments to keep talking about our weight and our bodies even when we ask them to desist:

1. What about your children? Don’t you want to be around to see them grow up, get married, have children of their own, and retire? First of all, let me remind you that you won’t be there to care for your children if you spend the rest of your life in prison. So, put down the butter knife and back away slowly. Seriously, this is like DEFCON 5 in the guilt wars over your body, so I can see how it might make you very upset to hear this, but let’s talk it through, okay? First of all, please remember that weight and health are not the same thing. Most people only have a limited amount of control over how much they weigh. And while there are some things we can do to help increase our odds of having a healthy life, none of us knows how many days we have left on this earth. One of the things that you can do to increase your odds for a long, healthy life is to manage stress. So as much as you want to strangle Aunt Thelma for asking this question over the holiday ham, please remember to take a moment and just breathe. Some other things you may be able to do to increase your odds are to exercise regularly, sleep well, eat a wide variety of healthy foods (especially fruits and vegetables), and engage in some regular activity to help manage stress. Note I said that these are things you may be able to do. Obviously, if you’re working two full-time jobs and taking care of a few children, stuff like stress management classes, regular exercise, or getting any sleep may not be possible for you right now. Not everybody has access to the same opportunities for healthy stuff (more on that in a minute). And maybe if Aunt Thelma is so concerned about your health, maybe she can babysit your little darlings three times per week while you take an exercise class, meditate, or just have fifteen minutes to go to the bathroom all by yourself.

2. But my health insurance rates are higher because of fat people like you. Oh dear. First of all, I strongly recommend assiduously avoiding any discussion of health insurance during holiday gatherings this year. Put it on the list with climate change and which direction the toilet paper roll should go into the holder as points not to be discussed during the holidays. But if your gentle attempts to deflect a discussion about how the size of your hips affects your Cousin Tony’s insurance premiums fall on deaf ears, here’s a few things you should know. First and foremost, there is only a narrow window of things that we have any control over when it comes to health. Fall Ferguson discusses this in a great post on the ASDAH blog here. In particular, she mentions the CDC’s discussion of Social Determinants of Health and references this diagram:

As you can see, health behaviors only account for a relatively small section of the overall determinants regarding whether or not a person is healthy. And notice it says health behaviors. To be very, very clear here, body weight is not a behavior. You cannot tell how healthy somebody is or whether or not they engage in healthy behaviors by looking at them.

Now, back to your Cousin Tony. He seems to think that if you would just lose weight, you would suddenly cost the health insurance companies less and somehow his premiums would magically go down. Well to start with, as a fat person you may be denied access to health insurance altogether. I have a number of fat friends for whom this is the case. So you may not be affecting his premiums at all. Also, if Tony wants to keep his insurance premiums down, then perhaps he can help raise your “social/societal” characteristics or socioeconomic status. After all, that has nearly twice as much effect as the whole healthy behaviors category. All he has to do is, pay you enough money to move you into a different economic bracket. No? Well maybe Tony can pay for child care so you can go to the gym more often, or pay you enough so you can quit your day job and get eight full hours of sleep for once? What’s that you say? Tony isn’t interested in paying for any of this stuff? Well maybe at least Tony can commit to fighting for social justice. Tony can take his pick. He could find for bias free healthcare or reasonable working hours or access to healthy foods or good preventative medicine. No? Well then maybe Tony just needs to shut up. Oh and let me remind you just one more time; Tony cannot tell whether you engage in healthy behaviors just by looking at you. Speaking of which:

3. I don’t like having to look at you because your fat body hurts my delicate aesthetic sensibilities. Most of the time, the answer to this statement is simple. Just. Don’t. Look. If your Dad’s friend Jim finds it uncomfortable to look at your fabulously fleshy frame, he can just look the heck away. You are under no obligation whatsoever to be attractive to anybody’s gaze or be considered as an object of lust. This situation is far less simple however, when you are talking about your spouse or your kids. I am unbelievably privileged to have a husband who thinks my fat body absolutely rocks his stripy socks. But I understand that not all women (or men) have a spouse that thinks this way. I have seen marriages get hopelessly tangled around one spouse helping another to lose weight “for their health” all the while not discussing the real issues around body size and sexual attraction. I have seen kids use weight as a tool to hurt their parents (and vice versa). I have seen kids who ask that the “thin parent” be the one to appear at school functions and do public things with the child in order to “escape embarrassment”. First, let me say that if this is happening to you, I’m sorry. You absolutely do not deserve this, and my heart hurts for you. Second, let me tell you that this situation is far beyond what I can cover in my humble little blog. There are no funny or glib comments that I can make here that will make this problem just go away. Let me suggest that you do whatever is in your power to find help. Maybe you can get some family counseling. A lot of counseling is available on a sliding fee scale based on your income. Perhaps a clergy person can help. If your family is not willing to go to counseling with you, maybe you can at least find some counseling for just yourself. And let me also offer some hope here. I have known people in this situation that were able to find help. And I have known marriages and families that have come through this with relationships intact and stronger than ever. Find some help, and hang in there.

Summary There is so much more I could say about this topic. In terms of my own health practice, I’d really like to get a little bit more sleep. So let me wrap this thing up. Regardless of what you decide to say to your Cousin Tony and your Aunt Thelma, please remember this: you do not owe it to anybody to lose weight. You don’t owe it to yourself, and you certainly don’t owe it to anybody else. Your body is your business. If Aunt Thelma and Cousin Tony are actually concerned about the state of your life and the state of your health, I’ve already suggested some things you can request. They can pay for your meditation classes or do a little free child care (as long as they aren’t expecting weight loss, or any other specific outcome in return). However if Tony and Thelma are just trying to pass a little holiday guilt and judgement along with the gravy boat, they can just step the heck off.

Ho, ho, freaking, ho.

Here’s wishing you a holiday that is peaceful–or at least calm enough to avoid homicide.

Love, Jeanette (AKA The Fat Chick)

P.S. Looking for a little help? How about joining my personal training program? Prices are going to go up in January, so why not lock into some holiday savings right now?

P.P.S. Want to get access to FREE STUFF? Just opt in RIGHT HERE!

Up Hill Both Ways: 30th Anniversary of Shadow on a Tightrope

4 Replies

A new generation is introduced to Shadow on a Tightrope. Photo Credit: Substantia Jones

I have to confess. I recently re-read Shadow on a Tightrope in honor of this blog carnival. I tore through the book at warp speed, reveling in the sheer, unadulterated, radical awesomeness of it. I was moved by the rawness and honesty found in so much of the writing. And I felt a deep sense of gratitude for the women who came before me in this amazing movement of size acceptance.

I felt all of these things, but more than any of these things, I felt a sense of awe. These women blazed a trail across this far-flung land. They build a bridge to one another through their written words. And they did it with pencils and typewriters.

Now I understand that there’s a real danger here that I will tell the activism equivalent of walking to school and back, in the snow, and that it was uphill both ways. But isn’t that sort of what we are talking about here?

In reading these stories, I was struck by how hard it was for size activists simply to find one another. I was fascinated by the level of manual work they did, collecting checks to cover the costs of photocopying medical journal articles and studies, copying them and mailing them out to one another.

I was also struck by how often a writer in the anthology refers to years or even decades in isolation–believing they were the only one to feel the way they did. And I was moved by the joy expressed in finding even one like-minded soul with whom to have dinner, swap letters or share late-night phone calls.

It’s hard to speak of size acceptance today, even with the myriad of online research resources and the powerful forums and channels that bring like minded activists to the distance of just one click from one another. While it’s true that modern life brings a different set of headaches (like moderating yet another absolutely vile YouTube comment) it also brings us comfort and tremendous support. Often, within seconds of writing a blog post or sharing a thought on Facebook, I’ll have a word or two of support or encouragement. I can debate difficult questions about the nature of size acceptance in real time, with scholars throughout the world. But even so, it can be hard to stand aside from the mainstream on notions of weight, weight loss, fat acceptance, and Health At Every Size.

But how much more difficult was it back in 1983 or even earlier? Shadow on a Tightrope, was created in a time when writers put their stake in the sand, said their piece and then waited weeks or months or even years to see what the world had to say about it. Yet it’s astonishing, how many stakes were planted, and just how much ground was covered by this early work.

We owe a debt of gratitude to these early pioneers. That’s why I am so excited to see projects like this one, celebrating the 30-year anniversary of a seminal work in the Size Acceptance cannon, or the history project initiated by Barbara Altman Bruno on behalf of ASDAH, and the tremendous work being done by Ragen Chastain to document the stories of the founders of this movement in their own wordsl

I am proud and honored to share in some small way, my heartfelt thanks to those who not only added to the scholarship side of the size acceptance movement, but also paved the way for me to step off the diet/body hatred merry-go-round and learn to love my body far, far earlier than I would have done without their guidance. For helping me reclaim weeks, months, years and even decades for body love, self acceptance and even joy, I’m very, very grateful.

Perhaps 30 years from now, the young upstarts will be rolling their eyes and wondering how we old farts ever built a movement without transporter beams and holographic recording. If at that point we are able to leave behind even a small fraction of work on par with that found in Shadow on a Tightrope, I will count us successful indeed!

Love,

Jeanette DePatie

AKA The Fat Chick

P.S. Want to get access to FREE STUFF? Just opt in RIGHT HERE!

Exercise, Empowerment and Free Botox at the Finish Line

5 Replies

OMG does my makeup look okay?

My friend and colleague Kjerstin recently posted this article about the upcoming “Diva 5K” in Miami Florida. The race, which exhorts women and girls as young as 8 years old to “Run like a Diva!” is offering an amazing prize package including botox (for winners 18 and older) and teeth whitening and laser hair removal (for winners 15 and older).

I cant even…

To my mind, one of the best things about participating in an event like a 5K is to empower women to think about their bodies in terms of what they can do rather than obsessing about how they look. Women can focus on being strong, and capable. Women can focus on being healthy and vibrant.

Unless we’re talking about the Diva 5K where women are encouraged to be wrinkle-free, white toothed and OMG hairless! Apparently all participants will get a chance to be greeted at the finish line “where handsome young men from the local dance schools will sweep you off your feet.” Because heaven knows, we can’t be interested in walking or running or otherwise exercising for our own sakes. Goodness NO, girl. We run to be thin, hairless, wrinkle-free and gorgeous for the hot “MENZ”! Jeez don’t you know anything?

As a fitness instructor with several decades of teaching under my belt, I find this sort of thing so intensely frustrating. We claim as an industry that we want people to exercise. And then we make ridiculous promises to people that we know are false, and we trivialize the unbelievable potent real rewards that come with being fit.

The fitness industry has always promised that if you exercise hard enough, you’ll look like a hot, young, supermodel, AND a hunky hot man will be waiting to sweep you off your feet. I’ve rarely seen that notion put into practice in quite as concrete a manner as we’re seeing with this Diva 5K, but it is a common notion nevertheless.

Yet, in reality, a 5K will make you look like a supermodel ONLY under the following conditions:

1. You looked like a super model BEFORE you started training for a 5K,

2. You have a hair and makeup crew near the finish line ready to bathe you, do your hair, airbrush your skin and make you over, and

3. Your finishers photos are heavily retouched in Photoshop.

Here’s a quick demonstration of what I’m talking about:

The sad thing is that the TRUE benefits of exercise (like lower stress levels, better blood glucose levels, better mood management, better sleep, a stronger sense of self esteem, a stronger immune system) THOSE benefits are often downplayed or overlooked. The transformations of the people that I have taught have had very little to do with looking like a model. I’ve seen a Mom, for the first time ever, have enough stamina to take her kid to Disneyland all day. And a man, who for the first time in twenty years can take his wife dancing again. I’m talking about people who can now bend over and tie their shoes, or walk their daughter down the aisle without pain or get their blood pressure or blood glucose levels under control. I’m talking about young women who for the first time in their lives look in the mirror and see power and competence and confidence rather than simple disappointment that they don’t look like the “after” picture they have been taught to envision for themselves.

I’ve done several races in my life ranging from a 5K Turkey Trot to a full on marathon. And yes, I have won some medals. And I plan to run some more. But if you’re standing at the finish line waving a gift certificate for free airbrush tanning or liposuction for me, I’d advise you to beware. I just might use my hard-won leg muscles to kick you somewhere soft and very private. Even if you ARE a hunky guy from the local dance class.

Love,

Jeanette DePatie

The Fat Chick

P.S. Speaking of handing out rewards, I’m happy to announce that our second winner in The Fat Chick’s Great Pedometer Giveaway is Susie Kline! Yay Susie!

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: