Hello kids! Sorry for the semi-demi-advertisement here, but I just realized that we are only one even dozen members away from hitting 1,000 on the Fit Fatties forum. Now I admit, I’ve been pretty distracted getting ready for today’s Bi-coastal Hot Flash Mob (woo-hoo!) and hadn’t realized that we were quite so close to achieving this nice large and ROUND number. Wanna help? Let’s get there today! 1,000th member gets a copy of my DVD The Fat Chick Works Out! Even if you’re a beginning exerciser. Even if you’re just thinking about starting to think about exercise, you’re welcome on the Fit Fatties Forum. And you’ll be surrounded by a supportive, loving community that can’t wait to answer your questions and rock out with you!
So join already. Upload a picture. Share your general awesomeness! And if you’re already a member, share with your friends!
Love,
Now that is some serious toppings kids. And there’s no question that this is a big, Big, BIG burger! This world-record-breaking patty was cooked and created at the Black Bear Casino Resort near Carlton, MN. I think you might just want to ask for a to-go box before you even start this bad boy. Here’s the stats:
Diameter: Over 10 feet
Patty cook time: 2 hours–flipped via crane and cooked for another 2 hours
Bun cook time: 7 hours
Calorie count: 4.1 Million
Weight: over 2,100 lbs.
Conclusion: The World’s Largest Cheeseburger weighs more than me.
Well kids, it’s been a video kinda week. But I wanted to share this amazing skit I created with my LA Rad Fatty Friends. It was super fun! Here’s the text in case you have trouble making out even one word of the awesomeness!
East of the ocean and south of the bay
Lies the land where NAAFALANs frolic and play
On playgrounds and beaches and all public spaces
With joy in their hearts and smiles on their faces.
Today, the NAAFALAns swarmed on the beach
With a spring in their hair and a song in their speech.
They gathered with skips, with giggles, with squeals.
Our own gnomie even sped on four wheels.
In swimsuits, trunks, muumuus, bikinis:
They gathered around to swim and roast weenies.
Finally came the fat rainbows twins —
Indistinguishable to all but very close friends.
Every NAFFALAN creature liked swimming a lot
But Sue, not a NAFFALAN, felt she could not.
Sure, Sue loved swimming: the splashing, the hats.
But didn’t, for the MeMes had called her too fat.
It could be the MeMes were hungry and dizzy
And that’s why they spouted such hate on the TVs.
No matter the reason, no MeMe would rest
Till all fatty bodies stayed inside and dressed.
With all of her belly, our girl loved to swim,
She wanted to splash with the hers and the hims.
Watching the NAAFALANS, she wanted to play
But the MeMes on TVs said, “Nay! Nay! And NAY!”
“You’re much too big, too threatening, too gaudy.
Please spare us the sight of your fat, happy body!
If you’re looking for fun, just do what I do:
Wear a super tight girdle and chug low-carb goo.”
Our girl sat back down, convinced to stay put
When suddenly, something rolled onto her foot.
The NAAFALANS had lost their big round beach ball.
It was curvy and bouncy and fun like them all.
“Hey,” said one NAAFALAN, who’d come for the toy,
“Wanna play at the beach with us fat girls and boys?
We’ve munchies and swimming and games that we play.
We’re a size-diverse group we call NAAFA-LA.”
Well, Sue stood up cautiously, looking around,
Then the MeMes on TVs yelled, “Sit yourself down!
Can you bear all the staring, the whispers, the looks?
Better stay in your parlor and just read a good book.”
All of the NAAFALANS sat there and happily giggled.
They patted their tummies and watched while they jiggled.
“If you want to go swimming,” they said with a smile.
“Fight and unite with us, do it with style.
“Your body’s a temple, deserving of praise.
Feed it and move it in all kinds of fun ways.
Show off its beauty, adorn it with pride.
This is no time to cower or shiver or hide!
They skipped to the beach, hand in plump hand,
To nibble and frolic and play on the sand.
Sue took a deep breath and, taking a chance,
Joined with the NAAFALANS in a beach party dance.
[Dance break]
The Memes went crazy and just kept on screaming
“After all that we’ve told you, the nagging and scheming,
You choose to defy us and put on display
Your tummies, and thighs and arms as you play?
“You bet!” all the NAAFALANS shouted with glee
“Your words no longer have power over me.
We’ll laugh as you yell and smile while you preach,
Because the NAAFALANS, my dear, just took back the beach!”
I’m sure you could guess that a whale weighs more than me. I mean whales are BIG. I mean REALLY big. But what you might not know is that the whale is the big mouth of the sea. Seriously. Whales need big mouths to eat their very big dinners. During the high feeding season, a whale will consume 4-6 tons of teeny tiny krill per day. In order to do so, their throats expand to take in as much as 50 tons of water in one gulp!
The blue whale is also the loudest creature on earth. Blue whale song can reach 188 decibels. For comparison’s sake, a jet engine on takeoff is about 140 decibels and the human pain threshold is 120 decibels. Luckily the whale’s song doesn’t hurt the ears of other underwater animals who have ears that can tolerate such high amplitude. The song of a blue whale can be heard up to 500 miles away.
And then we have the blue whale’s tongue. This thing is massive y’all. Here’s the stats:
Estimated length: 19 ft.
Estimated area: Large enough for 50 people to stand upon it.
I got yet another comment on the video of Julianne and I on Fox News as posted on my YouTube channel congratulating us for saying that plus-sized people should feel good about ourselves, and then chastising us for saying that fat can be healthy when “everyone knows” that fat can’t be healthy.
I replied, “please review some of the evidence listed below refuting the idea that everyone knows fat is unhealthy”. You see, somebody had started an argument earlier on the very same thread about the very same thing and a lot of size acceptance folks (including me) posted links to scientific studies that indicate fat people can be and often are healthy.
Within just a few short minutes of my reply, the poster withdrew her comment from my channel. I’m not sure what to make of this. Did the poster change their mind? Did the poster just not want to argue? Were they embarrassed? I’m just not sure.
I do know this. I hear this “everyone knows fat people can’t be healthy” argument a lot. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot. But just because someone says the earth is flat doesn’t mean I have to believe it. Just because somebody points to the horizon and asserts that I will fall off the edge of the world, doesn’t mean I can’t get in my boat and go sailing.
It can be hard to argue with folks who bring up the “everybody knows fat people can’t be healthy” argument. Sometimes it seems like there aren’t enough sanity points in the whole world to deal with this nonsense yet again. But maybe the best way to deal with the fallacies that “everyone knows” to be true is to stand up and say, “Not me! I don’t agree, and here’s why.” Because throughout history, “everybody has known” one lie or another to be true, until enough people stood up and said “Not me. I don’t believe it.” Or at the very least, some people stood up and said, “Oh yeah? Prove it!”
My dear chicklettes, don’t allow yourselves to be bullied by what “everyone knows”. Get your hands on the facts. Do the research. And don’t allow yourselves to be stressed out by arguments from those too lazy to actually support what they are saying with statistics or numbers or citations. Because what I know is that you are awesome and deserving of respect.
Well it was hot in So Cal this past weekend so I did what every single other red-blooded California resident did and I went to the mall. I wasn’t really intent on shopping but rather on killing loads of time. So I went to lots of stores and tried lots of stuff on. My husband was with me, so naturally he rendered his opinions.
Often as I tried things on, he sent me back to the dressing room with a smaller size. It’s not that I’m losing weight (I’m not). It’s just that my renewed body confidence and my supportive husband are encouraging me to come out of the fat closet and wear clothes that actually fit. Many of the clothes in my closet at home are gorgeous, but at least one size too big. Often when I try something on that I love, if it shows even a leetle roll or jiggle or chub, I buy one size larger. A lot of the clothes in my wardrobe hang on me. Because, somehow, in my little brain, I imagined that if folks couldn’t SEE the rolls or chub or jiggle, they would imagine that it wasn’t there.
Trouble was, they can’t really see my body at all. And I’m coming to realize that my body is FABULOUS and it’s simply a crime to hide it under a big drape-y thing that is far too large for my frame. So I’m actively working now to buy clothes that show my body rather than draping it under the wardrobe equivalent of a sheet and hoping that folks imagine my body is fantastic.
Now my little chickadees, I want you to understand that you can wear anything you like. If you want to wear a muumuu, then by all means do so and feel free to ROCK that thing. I’m just reminding you that you have a choice. Maybe you could dare to bare just a little bit. Show some arms. Buy a skirt that curves lovingly around your butt. Wear a shirt that shows off some fantastic cleavage. Whatever floats your proverbial boat. Because it’s your fabulous body and you should show it off (or not show it off) any way you darn well please!
An Olympian woman licks her lips accompanied by a boom chicka wow wow 70’s soft porn soundtrack in NBC’s Bodies in Motion clip on the NBC website.
I’ve admitted it before and I’ll admit it again. I am complete Olympics junkie. I LOVE watching the Olympics and cheering for people who have devoted a serious percentage of their lives to be incredibly good at something. But I have to admit how sad and disappointed I’ve been with the NBC coverage which seems intent on objectifying women and shows a ridiculous fetish-y need to show off the rear ends of incredibly talented women athletes.
First, there was the concern over the London weather being too cold for the beach volleyball players to wear their bikinis. Then there was the uproar over Gabby Douglas’ hair. And if that wasn’t enough, NBC felt the need to post a totally inappropriate video called “Bodies in Motion” that along with it’s 70’s soft porn style soundtrack featured a whole lot of women’s bodies, often without faces, in loving slow motion that featured, a lot of women’s butts. Not that Olympic booty isn’t wonderful. But seriously, these women train hard every day of their lives to be excellent at their sport. So why oh why do we need frame-filling close-ups of beach volley-butts?
Probably most distressing to me about this video is who ISN’T in the video. Weight lifters? Nope. Boxers? Uh-uh. Fencers, Judo Competitors, rowers, horseback riders, in short anything where women sport bodies considered slightly less movie-star-ready or wearing slightly more clothing? No, no, no, no and no.
And what really frosts my fridge is the effect that this desire for conventionally attractive bodies has on sponsorship dollars for women athletes. Sure if you’re gorgeous, blond, bouncy, ponytailed and razor thin, money can often be found. Meanwhile serious athletes like Sarah Robles often have to get by on a few hundred dollars per month and help from neighborhood food banks.
Let’s face it, not all athletes look like porn stars. Not all of them were considered worthy to star NBC’s soft porn video (which has since been pulled due to public outcry). Nope, lots of athletes look just like you and me. And nearly 1,000 of them participate in the fit fatties forum that I host with the ever-awesome Ragen Chastain.
So my little chicklettes, even if your rear-end is not bikini-clad or featured in barely safe for work fetish videos, don’t despair. Remember that fitness comes in all shapes and sizes.
In honor of the Olympics diving competitions, I thought I’d present this awesome looking bear and make a little suggestion. So often, when we’ve been berated for our weight and looked down upon, when we’ve heard the nasty comments, when we’ve internalized a need to hate our own bodies, we become cautious. We don’t want to try new things. We don’t want to wear a swimsuit in public. We stay wrapped in our robes of familiarity and just occasionally dip our big toe into the water.
Well my little chicklettes, my advice for you today is to pick something–ANYTHING–in your life and dive right in. Try something new. Plug your nose and plunge into the deep end of the pool. In this time with its dog days of summertime heat, it’s easy just to find a shady spot and lay low. But summertime is also the time when taking the plunge is most refreshing! So pick one thing that you’re holding back on or waiting for and just go for it!
“Big Ben” actually refers to this bell within the Clock Tower in London.
Thought it was time for some Olympics-sized stuff that weighs more than me. And since the Olympics are in London right now, the first thing I thought of was Big Ben.
Naturally when most people point to Big Ben in London, they are actually pointing to the clock tower. Big Ben is the nickname given to the huge bell located in the belfry of the clock tower. The bell was cast in 1858 and first chimed the hour on July 11, 1859.
The huge bell is not rung by a clapper, but rather by a hammer located outside of the bell. In concert with the Great Westminster Clock, the bell is accurate to within one second. The clock is actually powered by gravity. There are weights on huge cables that are wound by the clock engineers three times per week. The engineers check the clock against the world clock from time to time and add or remove pennies to the pendulum to bring it back to perfect time.
Here’s some stats:
Height of the Clock Tower: 97 Meters
Dimensions of Big Ben: 7 ft., 6 in. tall and 9 ft. wide
Weight of the “hammer” that rings the bell: Over 400 lbs.
Weight of Big Ben (the bell): 13.5 tons
Conclusion: Big Ben weighs more than me. (It just might be louder than me too, but the jury’s still out on that one…)
At the Blogging Panel at the NAAFA Convention with some amaaazing ladies!
One of the things I loved past about this past weekend at the NAAFA convention was the blogging panel. I shared the table with the authors of Dances With Fat and NotBlueAtAll and the fabulous moderator Julianne Wotasik.
And one of the common themes that came up again and again at the panel was the way that none of us, on the panel or in the audience, ever seemed to know ahead of time how we were able to impact other people. It always seemed the small things, the innocuous things, the tossed off things that would find someone and change the way they felt about things. And this held true when it came to blogging or even just an off handed compliment we paid a stranger or a moment of kindness that came at a critical moment. You just never know how much you can help somebody just by doing your thing.
I was astonished to hear a story told by Ragen Chastain of Dances with Fat shared with the panel about the effect her blog had on a person of size who had contemplated suicide. This woman had decided to use pills but wasn’t sure about the appropriate dosage for a woman of size. This woman went on the internet and searched “fat suicide”. It turns out that Ragen’s blog had had so much hate mail suggesting that fat people should commit suicide that Dances With Fat came up in the search engine. The woman spent the entire night reading past blogs on Ragen’s site and in the morning decided to send Ragen an email explaining why her blog had helped her decide not to end her life. Because Ragen had been so bullied in the comments section of her own blog, that woman is alive today.
So my little chicklettes, you don’t have to save the world. You don’t have to write a best-selling novel or be a movie star. Someone asked the panel how to help people find happiness and body acceptance earlier in their lives. And the answer was this: just be yourself as hard and as completely as you can. That’s it. And you can make the world a better place for you and so many people around you.
Hello kids! Sorry for the semi-demi-advertisement here, but I just realized that we are only one even dozen members away from hitting 1,000 on the Fit Fatties forum. Now I admit, I’ve been pretty distracted getting ready for today’s Bi-coastal Hot Flash Mob (woo-hoo!) and hadn’t realized that we were quite so close to achieving this nice large and ROUND number. Wanna help? Let’s get there today! 1,000th member gets a copy of my DVD The Fat Chick Works Out! Even if you’re a beginning exerciser. Even if you’re just thinking about starting to think about exercise, you’re welcome on the Fit Fatties Forum. And you’ll be surrounded by a supportive, loving community that can’t wait to answer your questions and rock out with you!
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