Tag Archives: size acceptance

Body Independence Day! The Right Now Show–Episode 015.

The Fat Chick demonstrates the right to Bare Arms on July 4, 2013.

In episode 15 of The Right Now Show, Jeanette DePatie (AKA The Fat Chick) shares her declaration of body independence just in time for the 4th of July. This is a reprise of a previous blog post you can find here. Assert your right to bare arms! Declare your freedom against the diet industry and appearance overlords! And enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the body you have right now!

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Stuff that Weighs More Than Me: F4F-3 Wildcat WWII Fighter Plane

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During the elebenty hours I spent at O’Hare Airport today, I did have the fortune to run into at least one thing that weighs more than me.

As you can see from the plaque (that also serves as a unique format for a “selfie”) this is an F4F-3 Wildcat. This single seat, fighter flew during WWII and was later used primarily for training missions. It also served as blog fodder and consolation prize for having spent nearly 2 lifetimes at the airport today.

And here’s the specs:

Length: 28 ft. 9 in.

Height: 9 ft. 2 in.

Wingspan 38 ft.

Weight Empty: 5342 lbs.

Gross Weight with Fuel/Ammo 7002 lbs.

Max Weight: 8,152 lbs.

Conclusion: This WWII fighter plane weighs more (and has been at the airport slightly longer) than me.

Love,

The Fat Chick

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Workplace Wellness Doesn’t Heal the Bottom Line

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I think we’ve seen lots and lots of press of late concerning workplace wellness. There are a variety of companies charging huge premiums to corporations promising companies healthier employees. And each of these companies, in turn, promises a healthier balance sheet by reducing worker healthcare costs. A lot of c-level employees have spent a fair amount of company cash on these promises. So it’s probably not surprising that when Rand Corporation issued its recent report concerning the effectiveness of workplace wellness programs there was a scramble.

Rand Corporation briefly posted the government-mandated report on its site last Friday. Very shortly after it was posted, it was withdrawn. The following statement was posted in its stead:

“This document was posted in error and has been withdrawn pending completion of contractual obligations to the project sponsor.”

Before the document was pulled, Forbes magazine managed to snag a copy. Forbes didn’t waste any time posting an article about the findings of the report. I’ll summarize the report for you here.

Most workplace wellness programs don’t work.

Yup, you heard it. It seems that most of the millions and even billions of dollars of corporate cash being dumped into workplace wellness programs that don’t offer any statistically significant benefit. In short:

1. Most workplace wellness programs don’t lead to better health among employees.

2. Most workplace wellness programs don’t lead to statistically significant weight loss in employees. On average attendees of the wellness programs lost 1 pound per year for three years. Even those few programs that showed larger weight loss numbers, were not able to sustain the benefits.

3. Most workplace wellness programs don’t lead to better behavior. Even smoking cessation programs generally led only to “short term” improvements.

4. Most workplace wellness programs don’t lead to better health markers. There were no statistically significant improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol, or blood sugar.

5. Most workplace wellness programs were unable to demonstrate lower costs for hospital or emergency care.

The bottom line is that, as a whole, the workplace wellness programs cost the companies money and did not create statistically significant cost savings. In fact, on average, cost savings averaged $2.38/month for year one and $3.46/month for year three.

Not long after Forbes published its article, it seems that the cat was well and truly out of the bag. And the Rand Corporation published the report. You can see the full PDF here.

All of this is especially relevant to us fat folk. For the past few days, I have been at the ASDAH Conference. I’ve been leading fitness classes, speaking about Health At Every Size(R) and hearing a LOT about how workplace wellness programs disproportionally affect people of size.

The fact is, that a lot of workers who don’t have a “government-sanctioned” BMI or waist circumference are required to choose between paying higher premiums and enrolling in company “workplace wellness” programs. Many of these programs violate worker privacy and shame workers in front of co-workers. Imagine if you are required to go to a workplace-sponsored “Weight Watchers” program and are required to step on a scale in the same room with your boss or your co-workers. Just think about the trauma this could cause. Then think about that trauma in light of the fact that these programs simply don’t work. The programs don’t help you lose weight in the long run. These programs don’t help you be healthier. And these programs don’t even save the company money. It’s a lot of personal drama and trauma that provides absolutely no benefit to anyone outside of the company selling the workplace wellness program and Weight Watchers.

It doesn’t benefit the companies. Which isn’t a super big surprise, given the fact that many c-level employees fail to scrutinize or even understand these programs before they are implemented. According to the RAND report, only 44% of companies who used wellness programs have ever evaluated them and only 2% have “detailed information” about how much the company has saved as a result. Uh-oh. There goes that boat you were gonna buy with your annual bonus.

It doesn’t benefit employees. Many employees resent being asked to show up at potentially embarrassing, and decidedly time-consuming programs that don’t work. They don’t like it and it doesn’t improve their health. Um, check please!

As advocates of Health At Every Size, this is a space that will be worth watching. In the meantime, I offer this health advice absolutely free:

1. Manage your stress.

2. Get good quality and quantity sleep.

3. Move around in a way that feels good and joyful to you.

4. Eat a wide variety of foods that taste good to you, and take time to savor and enjoy them.

5. Connect often with people you love and people who love you.

All that stuff is scientifically proven to improve your chances at good health. And you didn’t have to take time off work, step on a scale or tell your boss your intimate health details to get that information. You’re welcome.

Love,

The Fat Chick

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ADA Says Not All Fat is Bad

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The ADA suggests that not all fat is “bad”.

Well it certainly has been a week of ups and downs. On the one hand, we had the very disturbing news that the American Medical Association has gone against the recommendations of their own advisory committee and have declared obesity a disease. I can’t see this as good news for anyone outside of obesity task forces and large pharma companies. And I can’t help seeing this as anything as a black-or-white, gross, oversimplification of the issues of body diversity, and the role of fat in the body.

In the meantime, the research demonstrating the complexities of the issues surrounding fat, body diversity and obesity continues to roll out. This very interesting article recently released by the American Diabetes Association highlights the results of some new studies conducted in both mice and humans about the role that fat plays in the body. As always, I recommend caution when reviewing studies on mice as they don’t always directly correspond with results among humans. However, both studies seem to suggest that fat behaves differently in the bodies of creatures that are exercising as opposed to those who are sedentary. The study suggests that exercise changed the subcutaneous fat into higher concentrations of “brown fat” which has a different metabolic profile than “white fat”. The study indicated that the brown fat provided better glucose tolerance and glucose sensitivities.

The research seems to indicate that exercise can “train” fat to behave in a way that is more beneficial to the body, even without weight loss.

The upshot is that these studies lend further strength to the notion that exercise helps improve health even when weight remains the same. The article states:

These studies suggest that even if you’re not losing weight, exercise is still training your fat to be more metabolically active; even if you don’t see the results on the scale, you are still improving your overall metabolism and therefore your health.

Does that mean you are under some sort of moral obligation to exercise? Do you owe this to the world? Absolutely not! Your health is your business, and there are no moral requirements that you be healthy or do healthy things. But if our goal, as a society, is to be healthy, maybe we should stop slapping a label on a significant portion of the human population that reads “sick” or “wrong” or “diseased”. Maybe we should focus on making healthy behavior more accessible, more comfortable and safer for every BODY. Yes. Let’s do that.

Love,

The Fat Chick

P.S. I’ll be speaking on the topic of exercise for every BODY this Friday in Chicago at the Wellness Beyond Weight event at the Doubletree by Hilton O’Hare in Chicago. Drop by if you get the chance! You can buy the tickets here!

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Stuff that Weighs More than Me: Giant Orange

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Yup, that’s a person up there in the observation area!

Apparently, they just grow stuff bigger down under. The search for the stats for the giant espresso pot, led me down a rabbit hole of really, really big stuff in Australia. And the biggest of the really big fruit is this orange–which has observation windows and stairs.

Yup. Most oranges contain some juicy citrus fruit and a few pips. This orange incorporates a cafe, a souvenir shop, a 360-degree mural and a lookout area at the top. This orange has stairs.

I seriously want to go to Australia just to have my picture taken with this thing. Seriously. I’d fly on a plane for umpteen hours, just for that.

Speaking of planes, I’m hopping on one soon on my way to the ASDAH conference. I’ll be speaking or leading classes all 3 days. Can’t wait to see you there.

And just in case you’re wondering, “Orange you gonna share the stats?” here they are:

Materials: Fiberglass panels over a steel frame

Height: 45 feet

Diameter: 36 feet

Levels: 4 (Yes, this orange has four floors!)

Weight: 85 Tons

Conclusion: The Big Orange weighs more than me.

Love,

The Fat Chick

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The Tyrrany of Jolly

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Canadian doc crew interviews the Size Diversity Task Force

Recently, I hosted a Size Diversity Task Force meeting and a Canadian documentary film crew at our house. They were interviewing us regarding our Paper Mache in a Big, Big Way project and also about size stigma in general. One of the questions that came up really struck me. The question was, “Do you also feel pressure to fulfill what some might consider to be a “positive” association with being fat. For example, do you feel pressure to be jolly? And if so, is this a bad thing?”

I’ve given a lot of thought to this question over the years. And at least for me, the answers in order are, “Yes, yes and often times.” I would say that over the years, I have felt pressure to present myself as a “good fatty”. This means presenting myself as somebody who exercises and eats well. This means presenting myself as somebody who is happy and well dressed and tastefully accessorized, and frankly, not too much trouble to anyone.

And yes, I’ve felt pressured to present myself as jolly. In the past this meant carefully avoiding the expression of anger and the assiduous avoidance of the “angry fat woman” stereotype. It also meant feeling the need to be entertaining. If you look at the few fat people on TV and on the stage, if you look for the role that the world asks us to play, you will see many of us in the role of comic relief. It seems that we are allowed a small toe-hold, a small part to play as long as we are funny–as long as we are entertaining.

So for many years, I found myself playing the role of the funny fatty. It was as if I was apologizing for not being pretty to look at and compensating by at least being fun to be around. I learned to tell a good story. I learned self-deprecating humor. I learned to make people laugh.

And in many ways, this is a good thing. It is a good thing to be entertaining. It is good to laugh. It is good to be able to make people laugh.

But it also became a way that I experienced oppression. While it is wonderful to make people laugh, it is not so wonderful to feel like you must make people laugh. I often found myself calculating my worth based on whether or not I was entertaining. I felt like being funny was my job, my justification for being, the shield that would protect me, and the platform from which it was okay for my fat body to be in the world.

It was exhausting.

And this is why the expectation of jolliness is sometimes bad. Sure it’s great to have the option to be jolly. But once there is an obligation to be jolly there is a problem. Because nobody feels jolly all the time. And everybody should be allowed to express a full range of emotions including happy and sad and angry and tired and everything else. Every BODY has a right to exist whether they are funny or not. And I think sometimes, this pressure to be jolly is about not wanting to address the stigma and the pain fat people face in our society. Because it’s difficult to express just how angry you are about being called names, or not getting good health care or not being able to find nice clothes or not getting a good job when you are under a societal mandate to be jolly.

So, my dear friends, if you feel jolly, by all means, be jolly. If you feel sad, feel sad. If you’re mad as hell and don’t want to take it any more, then stand up sister, rise up brother, and be heard! Because big, little, fat, skinny, tall or small, your feelings are important. You are important. So please feel free, to simply be…you.

Love,

The Fat Chick

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Stuff that Weighs More than Me: Molto, Molto Venti Coffee!

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This week’s entry for stuff that weighs more than me was inspired by the picture above which was submitted by the most amazing and awesome Bev Whittington. According to Bev, the giant pot above can be found in West Australia in Swan Valley. However, after extensive digging, I wasn’t able to find out much about it. Please feel free to chime in with more info if you like Bev. Or if anybody else knows about this thing I’d love to hear about it.

In fact if you have any other pictures of giant things that weigh more than me, I’d love to see them! Please post them to my timeline or email them to jeanette@thefatchick.com. The more detail, the better. I’d love to feature YOU in my blog!

While I’m quite confident that Bev’s giant espresso pot weighs more than me, I am unable to say exactly how much more than me. So I decided to look for other giant coffee pots and coffee cups. And my goodness, folks do love their coffee. I found a huge number of giant java sources all around the world. I was literally spoiled for choice.

For this week I settled on the world’s largest cup of coffee. This was created by De’Longhi of Italy and was unveiled in London on November 5, 2012. This huge coffee cup was actually filled with gallon upon gallon of coffee (black). In fact, this super, molto, giantico, venti caffee was the equivalent of over 216,000 shots of espresso.

All that wake up juice was probably required for the four designers who labored for 504 hours to put it together. Here’s the stats:

Height: 9 ft. 6 in. (When somebody asked for a “tall” they weren’t kidding…)

Width: 8 ft. 8 in.

Volume: 3487.1 gallons (US)

Weight: Over 12 tons

Conclusion: Both the World’s Largest Cup of Coffee and the giant espresso pot in West Valley Australia weigh more than me. And can somebody get me some decaf?

Love,

The Fat Chick

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Once upon a body…Comparing Ourselves to Pretend People

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Melissa McCarthy is almost unrecognizable in these American and UK posters for the movie “The Heat”.

In popular culture it can be pretty difficult to find examples of bodies that represent how most people in our world actually appear. While the average American woman is a US size 12 on the top and a US size 14 on the bottom, the average American actress, pop music icon or model is closer to a size 0 or even a size 00. Both of these sizes are quite a distance from what most of us see in the mirror every day. But even these sizes often prove too large for film studios and record labels and fashion magazines. Even the size zero girls are likely to be “shopped”.

By “shopped” of course I mean digitally retouched in an image editing software package like Adobe Photoshop(R). And sometimes this digital retouching is done without the will of the original actress, model or performer.

Just today, I’ve run across two amazing examples of Photoshop culture. Apparently, one of the few plus-sized actresses in Hollywood, Melissa McCarthy was significantly “shopped” in both the American and UK version of the movie posters for her upcoming movie The Heat. In the American version her image is seriously washed out, and this over exposure seems to make both her signature dimples and her double chin disappear. The UK version is even more noticeably retouched. In fact the slimmed down face, redrawn chin and tiny head in relation to the body not only render her as unrecognizable, but also, not necessarily human. She just looks weird.

In other news, Beyonce was severely Photoshopped into a “model artists rendering” of herself in order to display a Roberto Cavalli dress. Not only does she not look like herself, but she also doesn’t look quite human with those impossible, stick-thin arms and legs and ludicrously elongated body. Which seems especially ludicrous when you compare these images with real images showing just how gorgeous she looks in this dress in real life.

Even Minnie Mouse is not immune to being “shopped” to sell a dress.

Check HERE for more Photoshop fun (and make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom…)

More and more often, stars are speaking out about the process of being digitally retouched against their will. They understand the impact that these impossible images are having on the way women, and especially young girls feel about themselves.

It’s no longer enough to compare ourselves against the very small, and elite number of actors and performers who happen to wear a size 0 or a size 00. Now we are expected to compare ourselves to artist renderings of impossible people.

Until we say “Basta!” or “That’s enough!” The only way for us to move beyond the tyranny of these images is to identify them as fictional constructs, and then refuse to buy products from companies that feel the need to display their wares on pretend people.

In other words, it is in our power to decide, “If it ain’t real, it don’t appeal”.

So what do you think? How do you feel when you see Photoshopped images? Are there any examples you’ve run across that are particularly misleading and damaging? Can you share them with us and let us know how you felt? Can you share stories about how you presented these images to your friends, your students and your kids? Or have you noted any amazingly and refreshingly honest images about how real people look? Please feel free to share those examples with us.

And in the meantime, you can resolve to stop comparing yourself to pretend people once and for all!

Love,

The Fat Chick

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Fat Hating German Gym Ad May Make You Stabby

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Warning, the bulk of this blog post (#450!) is likely to make you really, really mad. If you don’t want to be mad today, might I suggest you refer to fluffy kitty picture above. You can read his caption, “haters gonna hate,” and come to the same conclusion without needing to view a smug, stupid video ad from a smug stupid gym. You’ve been warned.

For those of you who are moving on, I was on a site featuring “funny ads” and I came across this gem:

Oh my goodness. He’s “fat” (but not really). His pants button popped off with SUCH FORCE it hit that poor, gorgeous woman in the head and killed her. Which, is like of course perfect, because you know, fat kills.

You see what I did there?

Do you think for one minute that this ad really cares about the fate of fat people? Because I sure don’t. I think this ad is for skinny people. It reminds them that fat people are the “punch line”, are the butt of the joke, are worthy of scorn. It reminds them that fat people are justifiable targets because, you know, health and stuff. It says, go to the gym and get skinny or we’ll target you next. And it will be okay, it won’t be morally reprehensible to target you, because, you know, health and stuff.

We know that shame doesn’t work. Shame does not get fat people to exercise, or eat well, or change their habits in any positive way. Even if fat people could statistically become thin people (which mostly they can’t) fat people wouldn’t do that because of this ad.

But this ad is not about shame. This ad is about fear. “Come join our elite gym so you can remain one of the ones with thin privilege. OMG you don’t want to become one of those icky fat people do you? Ewwww!”

What we know, is that in and of itself, fat doesn’t kill. Overweight people live statistically as long as thin people and obese people who engage in healthy behavior live statistically as long and about as well as thin people who engage in the same behaviors.

What we also know is that fat hatred kills. It kills because of the stress and the prejudice. It kills because fat people are afraid to go to the doctor. It kills because we are misdiagnosed when we get there.

The ad says, fat kills, kill fat. I think it’s not such a stretch to convert this to what is actually meant, “say fat kills, and you’ll kill fat people.” But the ad is okay, because you know, funny.

Not.

If you want to exercise, do that. Dance, hop, swing, play, skip and do whatever makes your heart happy! But I for one, don’t plan to give any money to an organization that teaches people how to hate me.

Love,

The Fat Chick

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

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Stuff that Weighs More than Me: Offshore Platform

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I was just watching the History Channel series “The Men That Built America”. One of the interesting bits was about how John D. Rockefeller got his start in refining oil in the great state of Ohio. Apparently at one time, Ohio was the number one source of oil in the United States. It was also the site of the first submerged oil wells or oil rigs. These were located in Grand Lake St. Marys.

There are a variety of different types of offshore platforms or oil rigs including some that are fixed to the ocean floor, some that are artificial islands and some that float. Offshore oil platforms represent some of the largest moveable man made objects.

The Petronius Platform located in the Gulf of Mexico stands 2,000 feet above the ocean floor and is currently one of the world’s tallest structures.

One of the largest and probably the heaviest offshore platform is the Hibernia platform in Canada. This gravity base platform is located in the North Atlantic Ocean about 196 miles east, southeast of St. Johns in Newfoundland, Canada at N46°45.026′ W48°46.976′.

Here’s the stats:

Start of development: 1986

Start of oil production: 1997

Depth: The Hibernia rests on the ocean floor at a depth of about 260 ft.

Height: The topsides extend about 160 ft. out of the water

Capacity: The gravity base can hold 1.2 million barrels.

Weight Integrated Topsides Facility: 37,000 tons

Weight Gravity Base: 660,000 tons

Ballast: After the Hibernia was towed into place, 450,000 tons of solid ballast were used to secure the platform.

Total Weight: 1.2 million tons

Conclusion: Any given oil platform weighs more than a little bit more than me.

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