Tag Archives: win

Arriving

I had a chance to put some of my steps technique into practice yesterday as I jetted off on a last minute jaunt to New York City. I’m going to be interviewed on the Katie Couric show today and it’s due to air tomorrow (Thursday) on ABC. To say I’m excited, is an understatement. Thrilled, terrified, hopping up and down with adrenal glands working mega overtime, that’s just the half of it. But I have to tell you a little secret. One of the most exciting things so far was arriving at the airport yesterday. The show sent a driver to pick me up at the airport. And as I descended the escalator to baggage claim there he was: a very nice, well-dressed man holding up a sign with my name on it. It may seem like a little thing, but to me it really wasn’t. I have been flying for over 25 years, and I have always wondered whether one of those well-dressed guys at the airport would hold a sign up with MY name on it. Yesterday it happened. I, well I “arrived”.

I wonder sometimes about the life that led me to this point. I wonder about the hard work and the sacrifices I have made. I wonder about the many, many sacrifices my parents and my husband have made. I wonder at the support of my dear friends and the multitudes of blessings I have received, and I guess my feelings all boil down to one thing. I feel grateful–deeply and humbly grateful for this moment. As my dear friend Kate advised, I’m breathing deeply and joyfully. And I’m trying to savor every dang moment of this victory.

I don’t know how the taping will go. I’m praying that it will go well. But whatever happens, I’m grateful for this little moment. For Rocky who drove me to the fancy hotel next to the studio and for that tiny little sign with my name on it.

Love,

Jeanette DePatie

AKA The Fat Chick

P.S. The episode is due to air on ABC tomorrow. So tune in and see how I did.

oxoxoxo

Overcoming Parking Karma and Adding More Steps to your Life

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Earlier this week, I wrote a post all about using the pedometer to gradually add to your fitness level. It’s easy to use. It’s safe. And it’s cheap! All you need is a pedometer. And this week, you could even be one of five lucky people to win a free pedometer from The Fat Chick! In that post I gave you a lot of advice about how to calculate your average daily step count, and how to figure out how much to ramp your step count from week to week. Today, I’d like to give you five steps to quickly and easily work more steps into your life. Here you go:

1. Park further away. Actually, this simple tool can actually allow you to exercise while SAVING TIME. My husband has terrible, terrible parking karma. It doesn’t matter where we are going–be it the the mall, the movie theater, the grocery store, but this guy is terrible at finding good parking. I used to comment on this fact all the time. And when I would, not so politely ask, “Could you have parked any further away?” my husband would look at me calmly and say, “Yes.” He would then proceed to park in the spot furthest possible from our end destination. Over time, he has stopped even trying to find the closest spot. And you know what? I’m pretty sure we get where we want to go even faster. Rather than circling the lot like a brain-dead vulture for endless minutes, we just park and walk a little further. We get more exercise, we skip the frustration of arguing with people who “steal our spots” and ultimately we get there quicker. Win. Win. Win.

2. Stop doing everything online. When I work freelance in an office, I add a lot of steps to my day and get stuff done faster by simply getting up from my desk and walking over to the person I want to talk to. They aren’t ignoring me to check out their stats on Facebook or Instagram because I can see them and talk to their faces. I found that I got people’s attention by talking to them directly and people were a lot less likely to procrastinate on stuff that I asked them to do if they realized I was likely to actually knock on their door and, you know, ask them to do the stuff. While online shopping is extremely convenient, all that gets exercise is your fingers. So I get up early and head over to the mall every once and a while to get some holiday shopping and some extra exercise into my life.

3. Get off the bus a little sooner. For those of you who take public transportation, this is easy. You just get off one stop before your final destination and walk the rest of the way. But there are opportunities for all of us to use this technique. How about the shuttle bus at the airport, can you get off one terminal sooner and walk a little further? Or the bus or tram that takes you to the parking lot, can you get off the shuttle a bit further from your car?

4. Find opportunities for “Spontaneous Boogie-down Sessions”. Sure you can get up from your computer and simply stretch or walk towards the coffee machine, but what fun is that? Why not set a boogie alarm? Set an alarm on your cell phone or computer to go off every so often and take a “Boogie Break”. Pick and awesome song, grab your air guitar and just go to it. Extra points for getting everybody in the office involved in spontaneous flash mob awesomeness. Extra EXTRA points if you get it on camera and send me a link!

5. Go walk around somewhere awesome! Even in the depth of winter there are fabulous places to go walking. Go walking outside and look at holiday decorations. Go walking at an amazing museum or park or zoo. Check out a botanical garden or pumpkin farm. There are so many fun things you can do while walking around. Go do some of them!

Also, please let me offer this note for people who don’t walk so well. All of these suggestions can be tailored for people who are less mobile. It’s all a matter of scale. Maybe you can’t walk from the furthest reaches of the parking lot. That’s okay! Maybe pick a spot that is one slot further away from the front door. Maybe park your scooter just a few feet further away from your destination. You can totally do a chair boogie if a standing boogie isn’t really in the cards for you. The point here is to do something a teensy, teeny, weenie bit more than you did yesterday. But only if you want to. There’s no rules here–only options and opportunities. You are in charge of you. So only do what feels right for you in your body.

Also, I’d love to hear your thoughts! Do you have a special technique that you use to get extra steps into your day? How about sharing them in the comments section? And don’t forget to follow the directions below to become eligible to win a free pedometer.

WIN A PEDOMETER FROM THE FAT CHICK!

All you have to do is click this link The Fat Chick Pedometer Giveaway and then follow the directions! Once you get there, you can like my Facebook page or put a comment on the blog or write a tweet. It’s easy and fun. Just remember to click this link first: The Fat Chick Pedometer Giveaway

Good luck!

Love,

Jeanette DePatie

AKA The Fat Chick

ROUND numbers–the 500th Post!

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Well hello there! Welcome to the 500th post on Fat Chick Sings! It’s always great when we reach a ROUND number. A 10-K, a 25th or 50th wedding anniversary, a 100 mile bike ride. The goal of meeting ROUND numbers help fuel us, keep us going and move us forward. The joy of reaching round numbers give us an opportunity to pause, celebrate, reflect and take stock.

In the final chapter of my book, The Fat Chick Works Out!, I encourage you to enjoy meeting your exercise goal and then to go ahead and schedule a little rest. And then I go on to define “schedule a little rest”. Schedule, means that you decide when you are going to rest, and for how long. Little means that the rest is long enough to feel like a rest, but not so long as to cause you to lose all the muscles and momentum that you gained. And rest means to actually take a real break from the thing you were doing.

So I’m going to take my own advice and schedule a little 2 week vacation from blogging. Don’t worry, I’ll be back October 1. And during this time, I’m going to reflect on the blog and take stock. The blog may come back looking a little different. Maybe it will have slightly different focus. While I’m reflecting, I’d love to hear from you. What do you like best about the blog? What posts make you say, “meh.”? You can leave me messages in the comments, or write me privately at jeanette at the fat chick dot com.

And it’s not like I’m dropping off the planet entirely.

Remember, if you live in the Bay area, come join us for a Hot Flash Mob in downtown San Francisco THIS Wednesday, September 18. We’ll be meeting at a secret location in the Financial District at 12:15 PM and dancing at 12:30. You can get access to the secret location when you RSVP either on the meetup group, or on the new Facebook event page. I hope to see you there!

And it’s not too late to join me at the Size Diversity Task Force retreat in Las Vegas coming up October 11-13. I’ll be hosting some super fun activities there and we are going to have a BLAST!

Thanks for hanging out with me. See you in two weeks!

Love,

The Fat Chick

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

Buy my book: The Fat Chick Works Out! (Fitness that is Fun and Feasible for Folks of All Ages, Shapes Sizes and Abilities)–available in softcover and e-book versions

Buy my DVD: The Fat Chick Works Out! (A Safe, Easy and Fun Workout for Klutzes, Wimps and Absolute Beginners!)

Buy a book or a DVD for a friend and save $5! Just enter FRIENDBLFT in the discount code box!

Check out my Training Programs–both in person and via Skype (Starting at just $25!)

Book me to speak at your special event!

Our Big Fat Community

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Working out at the ASDAH conference

Over the past week, just after my return from ASDAH’s very successful conference, I have seen a number of additional examples of our Amazing Big Fat Community in action. One event that drifts up to the top of the list is the Big Fat Flea Market hosted by the Size Diversity Task Force this past Saturday. I mean HOLY COW! We had tables upon tables of rad plus-sized clothing, we had 74 gorgeous, brand new corsets donated by Hips and Curves and over 1,000 of donated raffle prizes by size positive businesses including Amplestuff, The Butterfly Lounge, Club Bounce, Chair Dancing, Dances With Fat, Elle Hill, The Fat Chick, Hips and Curves, Igigi by Yuliya Raquel, Kiyonna, JW Assists, More of Me to Love, Size Queen Clothing and more…

It was a lot of work, but it was also an awesome opportunity to get together and support one another. And via facebook, twitter and live streaming we were also able to virtually shop for people who lived too far away or weren’t able to make it to the sale in person. We packed several boxes of fabulous finds for our remote buyers.

And by the way, if you are anywhere near the Pasadena area, I happen to know a LARGE influx of plus-sized clothing just landed at the Goodwill at Hastings Ranch at 3801 E. Foothill Blvd.
Pasadena, California 91107.

Ragen Chastain has also started raising funds for a very exciting documentary project called In Our Own Words, A Fat Activist History. This is an unprecedented opportunity to help preserve the history of the size acceptance movement and understand those who have paved the way for the current activists like Ragen and I to do our work.

I was also overjoyed this past week that ALL OF YOU helped to put my book, The Fat Chick Works Out!, on Amazon’s best-seller list. I want to offer my sincere thanks to all of you for helping to make my work more visible and more accessible to everyone who might need it.

I’m not listing all these things to brag. (Well I am bragging, but that’s not the only reason). I’m listing these things to remind you that there is a community of people out there who are actively trying to make the world a better place for people of all sizes. This community does its work in a variety of ways. From media interviews to fund-raising to helping somebody in a remote town find some gently-used, gorgeous clothing that they can afford. Which leads me to this important point: this movement needs you.

Not everybody can devote their entire life to the size diversity movement, but we can all give something. Even if it’s simply donating a few dollars to the Size Diversity Task Force for their upcoming build of the world’s largest paper mache sculpture composed entirely of recycled diet books. Maybe it’s simply joining the Size Diversity Task Force or ASDAH or the Fit Fatties Forum or The Fat Chick Clique. Even if you can’t donate cash, can you spend a few seconds each day sharing important size-positive posts on Facebook? Can you reach out and leave a few encouraging words in the comments section of a size-positive blog? Can you suggest resources or lend support to somebody who is being flamed online for daring to post or share size-positive viewpoints?

Which leads me to another important point: you need this movement. Whether you are fat or thin, tall or small, size discrimination and fat shaming hurts all of us. It can be really tough out there in the world and we all need friendship and support. And even if you live somewhere remote, where you may have trouble finding a way to physically meet with some of these groups, most of them have digital counterparts where you can connect via the computer, your phone or even good old snail mail.

So I’d like to encourage you to spend just a few moments thinking about a way that you personally, yes you, can reach out to the size acceptance community. Join ASDAH, or the Size Diversity Task Force or The Fat Fatties Forum or The Fat Chick Clique. Connect with one of these organizations via Facebook or Twitter. Donate to Ragen’s documentary project. You make the world a better place for other people of all sizes and you make the world a better place for you. And you’ll look fabulous while you’re doing it. That’s what we call a win-win-win situation!

Love,

The Fat Chick.

Like my posts? You’ll love my stuff!

Buy my book: The Fat Chick Works Out! (Fitness that is Fun and Feasible for Folks of All Ages, Shapes Sizes and Abilities)–available in softcover and e-book versions

Buy my DVD: The Fat Chick Works Out! (A Safe, Easy and Fun Workout for Klutzes, Wimps and Absolute Beginners!)

Buy a book or a DVD for a friend and save $5! Just enter FRIENDBLFT in the discount code box!

Check out my Training Programs–both in person and via Skype (Starting at just $25!)

Book me to speak at your special event!