Fat Chicks Rule

Ten Ways to Love your Body.

October 17th is Love Your Body Day

Do you love what you see when you look in the mirror?

Hollywood and the fashion, cosmetics and diet industries work hard to make us believe that our bodies are unacceptable and need constant improvement. Advertisements reduce us to body parts -- lips, legs, breasts -- airbrushed and touched up to meet impossible standards. The media tell women and girls that cosmetic surgery is good for self-esteem. Is it any wonder that 80% of U.S. women are dissatisfied with their appearance?

10 ways to love your body

1 Do not ever disparage your body. Don't tell it it's inadequate, ugly, not the right size, old, blemished, or not worth of love. Your body is the only one get. treat it with respect, no matter what condition it's in. 

 2. Give your body the nourishment it needs. Too often the diet industry and "Obesity" experts assume all fat people eat junk foods and drink soda. They ignore dangerous dieting practices and under-eating. They seem to care more that a teen has a burger for lunch than another one who has only carrot sticks. Eat what your body needs to function at its best. 

 3. Compliment your body in the mirror, even the "flawed" part. love your big nose, your c-section scar, your flabby jelly rolls. 

4. Whenever you say something bad about your body, immediately apologize and give it a compliment. There is no excuse for rudeness.

5. If a friend or loved one complains about their "flaws", let them know that they are beautiful.  

6. Give your body the physical activity it needs. For the most part your body needs some exercise. This could mean just a walk around the block or a marathon run. Learn your body's limits and don't hurt it.

7. Make a body positive website, blog, facebook, Tumblr or Twitter. Share this list. or make one of your own. Think of other suggestions to love your body. Engage in body positive activities. Start or go to a body positive group. 

8. Don't let anyone else disparage your body. We can tell strangers to fuck off, but maybe that wouldn't be such a good idea for grandma. Tell loved ones gently that you don't like that kind of talk and don't want to hear it again.

9. Don't wear make up or clothes to cover your flaws. Wear them proudly. Even models are heavily made up before shoots. Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. Change your perfection to realism. 

 10. Give your body a big hug and say that you love it. 

 

Hollywood Fat

Almost four years ago I chucked cable TV. I'd long since gotten my news from online papers and picked and chosen my TV  and movies from streaming sources. 

Fat women and men make up about two-thirds of the US population according to fearmongers yet you wouldn't know that from TV and movies. In most mainstream movies and TV (except for artsy, foreign, or comedy shows), the actors, usually just the women, are conventionally attractive like they cut from the same mold. They are usually slender, tall and made up. For example there is a recent movie called Seven Psychopaths that has seven people appearing on a movie poster. Five are men and two are women. The five men are gruff, not glamourous and distungished . The two women might as well be twins as they look perfectly the same. It's ironic because Gabourey Sidibe also appears (I'm not sure in what capacity, she seems like she's a dog sitter) but her name isn't headlined and she doesn't appear in the poster. 

When I was working on my book and researching movies and TV that featured fat actors,  I found roles for fat people were limited to background, side characters, or comedy only. If they were the main character they were dieting (Fried Green Tomatoes), hated themselves (Fat actress), it was a foreign or artsy film (Zuckerbaby),  poor quality (More to Love) or nuts (Misery). 

Flashforward eight years later where the NY Times has an article about female comedians who are fighting back against the pressure to lose weight. 

Self-acceptance has become a new form of defiance on television, especially among younger female comedians. Partly that’s because it’s refreshingly unusual. There’s little comic shock value left in profanity, obscenity or intolerance, but it’s still quite rare and surprising to see a woman not obsess about her waistline.

The majority of these performers are "Hollywood Fat" and the only true discrimination they might face would be lack of roles in mainstream movies and TV. They can still buy clothes at almost any store, probably won't get a lecture from doctor, or be told they are diseased. Rebel Wilson, the only one who might fall into the latter category, is a spokesperson for Jenny Craig. 

I'm glad to see actors that don't fit into the typical Hollywood cookie cutter. Mindy Kating is a very talented writer, a very funny lady and I think maybe the only Indian actress on television now that the horrible show Outsourced was cancelled.  However things still haven't changed since I first researched my book. Fat actors are still background and side characters, if they are seen at all. The movies are almost always comedies. If the fat character it is the main character it's either a comedy, or the main character is emotional disturbed. For example Precious is a wonderful movie starring two amazing actresses but both are poor and uneducated. Mo'Nique's character Mary had sexually abused her daughter and is a stereotypical welfare queen. 

Real change happens when we see a variety of actors on the screen and tube that are different sizes, different colors and from different backgrounds. One of the reasons I gave up cable was there was nothing on but the same cookie cutters. 

Speaking of movies, a good one is coming out about fat men becoming sumo wrestlers. Oh it's from Israel and a similiar movie was done in the UK 12 years ago.

So no real change to Hollywood fat.  

First do no harm... unless you're fat

A woman who weighed about 250 lbs was dropped by her doctor for being fat.  The "Doctor", Helen Carter decided to pull a number out of the air about what weight is too much for her to see. The magic number is 200. The reason is apparently her staff was bench pressing fat people and some got injured. 

Actually that isn't true, but "Dr" Carter has claimed people in her practice have been injured by those pesky fatties. One incident was a doctor was seriously injured pulling out a foot rest for a woman who weighed 280 (Please someone who knows the case elaborate on this because I'm not sure how a person's weight effects pulling out a foot rest. Was the patient sitting on the foot rest?)

She did recommend fat patients go to Obesity Centers. Marianne Kirby remarked on Obesity centers:

An obesity center, for those not in on the medical language of fatness, is not going to provide the same services as a primary care physician. An obesity center is not where a fat person goes when they have the flu. No, this primary care physician, who is meant to be treating the whole patient as a general care provider, is saying that patients really ought to go to that diet place down the road. Obesity centers are focused on weight loss through dieting, supplemented by weight loss surgery. None of that is going to deal with your hay fever or whatever else you’d go to your primary physician for.

The woman who was turned away, Ida Davison happens to be around my height and weight. I have never injured a medical professional, I have never damaged equipment. Many doctors (even the fat hating ones) have pulled out footrests without sustaining a life-threatening injury) If I told Helen Carter my history over the phone without mentioning my weight, I bet she would see me. I also have to wonder if she would see a man who was muscular but happened to weigh more than 200. Oh wait, the 200 lbs number is for women only.

If the injuries were to patients as Marianne Kirby mentioned in her article, I have, in fact, been injured. About 15 or so years ago, I went to a lab to get blood tests and I was stabbed repeatedly by several phlebotomists trying to get blood. Finally they used a big ass needle. Many doctors might blame that on my being fat. However I've never had an experience like that in any other lab or doctor's office. The issue wasn't me but the lack of skilled phlebotomists at this lab. It's easy to blame fat people when actually it's the doctor's office who either doesn't have skilled people or are unwilling to make a reasonable accommodation.

NAAFA puts out a great brochure for Doctors dealing with fat patients. It's not just a matter of equipment, but a matter of respect. Something "Doctor" Carter seems to be lacking in.

Recently a study came out indicating that $750 billion is wasted in the health care system. Some of it is fraud but about 210 million of it was unnecessary services. I had to wonder how much of this "Unnecessary services" was where the so called "obesity costs" come from. I have to wonder how many doctors see their fat patients and assume that they have all of the "fat related diseases". How many healthy fat people have gotten tests they didn't need? 

Still the worst diet in the world.

A few years ago, proponents of weight loss surgery (WLS) toted that it cured diabetes. 

Other research has found that bariatric surgery cures Type 2 diabetes in a majority of patients studied...

Said a 2009 article in the Los Angeles Times. 

Of course the same author wrote another article that gave these stats:

As many as 86% of obese people with Type 2 diabetes find their diabetes is gone or much easier to control within days of having weight-loss surgery, according to a meta-analysis of 19 studies published earlier this year in the American Journal of Medicine (78% of patients with a remission of diabetes and 86.6% with remission or improvement). But experts still aren't sure why obesity surgery helps resolve Type 2 diabetes or how long the effect might last. And they disagree on how big a role surgery should take in treating the illness.

Remission is the absence of disease symptoms but does not mean cure. WLS can put your diabetes into remission.

But how?

Some suggests it is the extremely low calorie diet WLS forces you to do. Type 2 Diabetes is based on insulin. When you eat a normal diet you release insulin. If you don't eat enough, you don't release insulin and diabetes can "go away." In fact just six weeks of starvation may put diabetes into remission. (btw starvation isn't healthy. A recent study showed it doesn't extend life in monkeys.) 

For the eight week study - published in the June 24 issue of "Diabetologia"- researchers tracked the insulin levels of the diabetics as they ate an extreme 600-calorie-a-day diet consisting solely of diet shakes and non-starchy vegetables. After one week on the diet, the diabetics' blood sugar levels were no longer elevated. After eight weeks on the diet, their bodies' regained the ability to make insulin, essentially curing them of diabetes.

Laurie Klipfel a diabetes educator and nurse who is pro-HAES points out in a blog post:

The immediate drop in calories (more so with Roux En-Y due to both decrease in food eaten and food absorbed) significantly decreases demand of insulin (less insulin is needed for less calories.)  Depending on the supply and demand, this decreased demand may now make the difference between making budget or not.  Therefore there are times the surgery appears to have ‘cured’ diabetes even before weight loss has occurred. Reducing calories in general such as in garden variety weight loss will produce the same effect and look like it “cures” diabetes, when in actuality it too just decreases demand.  Usually with weight loss diets, the drop in calories is not as sudden and drastic and usually weight is lost before benefit is seen. 

A study recently came out that while WLS has put diabetes into remission for some but not for others, the Mayo clinic estimates (based on a small sample of only 72 patients) that 21% of those who diabetes go into remission get it back between 3-5 years.

There are other less extreme ways than mangling your stomach to help type 2 diabetes. Diet (Not a weight loss one, but one related to diabetes), exercise, and stress reduction.

"Curing" diabetes with WLS seems to me the same as cutting off a broken leg. 

 

Run like the wind or a snail.

I am currently reading "Talking Fat" by Lonie McMichaels which I will be reviewing in a few weeks. But it opens with a story of a fat woman named Sarah who does a triathlon. When she posted a picture of her in a swimsuit, she was attacked with nasty comments. 

Nike recently released a commercial "Find your Greatness" that shows a lone jogger. As the person gets closer it is of a fat young man running.  

 

The positive aspect of the commercial is it shows a fat person doing movement and breaking a stereotype that fat people don't exercise (Some of us do and some of us don't just the same as thin people). There is no mention of dieting or weight loss. Just an ordinary kid on a run. 

On its website, Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity praised Nike for demonstrating “its commitment to demystify myths about overweight and obese people.” Rebecca Puhl, Rudd’s director of research, was surprised — pleasantly — by the ad, which she believes challenges stereotypes of obese people as lazy, crazy for junk food and lacking in willpower or self-discipline.

The negative aspects is what we didn't see. During the filming the kid threw up in a ditch. And this ad has made him decided to lose weight the old fashion way through diet and exercise.

It turns out Nathan is not actually an early-dawn runner. In fact, he threw up in a ditch during the shoot. In an editorial, the paper heralds Nathan as an inspiration, though it seems he was the one most inspired by the shoot. Nathan and his mother Monica have vowed to help each other lose weight through good old-fashioned diet and exercise.

I've never been against anyone trying to eat healthy or getting in more exercise.I hope one day in the future Nathan runs without throwing up. I hope he doesn't stop running even if he doesn't become thin. I wish him not to have my childhood, riddled with old fashion dieting that caused me to gain more weight than lose.

The other issue is stigma about a fat person exercising. In May I wrote that a fat person can't get a break. If they don't exercise, they face stigma for not doing it. If they do, they are made fun of. Dr. David Katz was happy to mention how horrible Nathan looked while running.

“He looks miserably uncomfortable, and as if he’s about to topple over. There is no hint of greatness in it — other than, perhaps, his commitment to do it.  But maybe he is a great mathematician — or orator — or pianist…” he wrote in an email.

 “So, I would have preferred they showed his pursuit of greatness in a way that was not so obviously far from great, so obviously impeded by his weight and so blatantly uncomfortable!”

In other words, because he looked uncomfortable, and not that "great", he should stop running?

Also next year I have decided to do at least one swim race. I'm sure I'll come in last. I don't care.

Snacks at school

Before I start, I don't mind keeping corporate products out of school. To me they take advantage of a vulnerable population who can be easily influenced. I also don't mind if schools cut back on vending machines or junk food in the cafeteria. I think it gets a little ridiculous if the kids can't have occasional treats for a celebration or buy a few snacks at a bake sale or even at school (Growing up I consumed most of my junk food at home bought from my corner store). 

A study in the Journal Pediatrics recently came out that showed that states that had stricter rules on snacks sold in schools had kids with lower weights than schools that didn't. It's a fucking miracle some might say. Here is how we can make all children super thin again (because they have never been fat children before.)

Except for one thing, the net weight loss between restrictive and unrestricted was about 2.25lbs . That's right. My weight in the morning compared to my weight in the evening is exactly the average that the good schools had over the bad ones.  However, another study in Sociology of Education looked at 20,000 kids from Kindergarten to eight grade discovered the same thing and dismissed the findings as insignificant.

It's not that middle schoolers aren't eating junk food; indeed they are, just like most Americans. It's that most of the junk food they're eating is not coming through the schools.

Again, I don't mind having less junk food in school.

But I have to wonder about one thing.

The Pediatrics study followed students from 5th grade to 8th. When I was 10, I was fat but didn't really care yet. When I was 13, I was dieting. I have to wonder if the same schools the restricted the snacks also hitting the anti-obesity message hard? Could the food restricting/anti obesity atmosphere be causing more kids to diet? 

The problem is discovering eating disorder statistics by state is near impossible. The only thing I could find was a study showing those in Western countries (Which have more pressure to get thin) have higher rates than non-western countries. Something the Pediatrics study failed to look into.

 

Strongest women in the world

Very short post tonight as I just go back from a vacation of limited interweb.

While I was sorry not to see  Holley Mangold or Sarah Robles win any Olympics medals, kudos to them for their attempts. I know Holley hurt her wrist so she lifted 30kg less than her best. I hope to see them at the next summer Olympics in 2016.

That being said, the winner of the Gold medal in Women's heavy weight lifting was this woman Zhou Lulu of China:

All together, she lifted about 734 lbs.

The silver was won by Tatiana Kashirina who was only 2 kilograms short of beating Lulu Zhou. However she did managed to beat two world records.

Both women would be considered obese by American standards. Zhou Lulu would be considered morbidily obese. If she lived in America, she would probably be pushed by pundits, academicians, doctors, and the weight loss industry to lose weight.

Looks can be deceiving

As I mentioned before I love to swim. If owned a pool, I would be in it every single day, maybe even twice a day, but I live in NYC which has a pool shortage. The pool I go to is overcrowded and often filled with obnoxious people who don't seem to comprehend other people are in the pool with them. Because of this and the fact I work a 9-5 job, I only manage to get to the pool one or twice a week. In two weeks I will be going to vacation in Vermont near a lake, where I will swim every single day, probably twice a day.  

When the pool is over capacity, I find myself on line to get into a swim lane because they only allow 6 people per lane. Three times when I got to the front of the line, the lifeguard looked me over and said "Slow". (Meaning slow speed lane), and all three times I corrected him that I needed a medium lane. 

Fat = unhealthy is so ingrained in people's head that this lifeguard looked at me and thought I was a slow swimmer.

This is Holley Mangold.

This is Sarah Robles

Both women are Olympic athletes in Women's weightlifting and will be in London. Sarah can bench press 570 pounds and has a good chance at the gold. She lives in poverty and couldn't find a sponsor. 

Meet Sarah Robles. She can lift as much as 570 pounds. In last year's weightlifting world championships, she bested every other American—both female and male. Sarah Robles is going to the Olympics in London this summer. But at home, in the United States, she lives on $400 a month.

Finally media company Solve Media did what Nike, Reebok and all the other loser companies wouldn't do, they sponsored this Olympic hopeful. Risto Sports is also sponsoring Sarah and Holley. 

Holley Mangold is athletic and comes from a family of athletes. She tried different sports including football and swimming before she decided on weight lifting. She weights between 300-390 and is not ashamed of her size

"I want people to be comfortable with who they are, whether they're big or small or have a huge nose and are uncomfortable with it, or are in the ugly duckling stage. Just be happy with who you are and what you've got," Mangold said. "I am a big proponent of trying to be healthy. I don't think anyone should be my-size big, but if you are, you should be happy at that size."

In the pool, the lifeguard may look at them and ask "Slow lane?" 

Fat acceptance isn't delusions.

For 17 years I believed the hype that if I did a diet, a weight loss plan, a lifestyle change, I would become thin, healthy, pretty and outgoing. I did everything, sensible diet plans like Weight Watchers, fad diets like slim-fast, low calorie, low carb, low fat. I went to dull gyms, climbing the stairmaster and walking the treadmill. Nothing worked in the long run. They all ended in the same way, my body not getting enough calories (even the "sensible plans") overrode everything and I began binging. During my yo-yo dieting years, I watched my cholesterol rise and my self-esteem plummet. I developed GERD, and my eating become so erratic and disordered that even almost 10 years since my last diet, I still have food and eating issues. 

Since ending the yo-yo dieting, instead of focusing on weight loss, I began focusing on health. I cut down on foods that my body did not like and which aggravated my heartburn. I refuse to ever join a gym again unless they have a pool.

Yet some people think I am deluding myself. That being proud of myself, my accomplishments and my body is a fantasy. 

Recently there was a first ever fat studies conference in New Zealand. Coverage of the event has been positive and negative.

"One of the reasons we're so fearful and hateful of fat is that we believe we can read people's bodies," Pause told AFP.

"So when people look at a fat body like mine, it tells them I'm unhealthy and that this is a diseased body. It tells them I don't ever exercise and eat nothing but junk."Pause said the reality is that some people are just bigger than others and fat studies highlighted the need for society to accept the fact, rather than constantly judging fat people and pushing them to lose weight." 

This quote from an article from Agence France Presse and picked by Alternet has more positive words from the conference organizers and presenters. 

On the other hand is this article from the Punch which starts off making fun of a fat kids, then explains it's not okay to make fun of fat people but you shouldn't going around accepting your fat because you will die. That's right fat acceptance = death. 

I call bullshit. Being fat is different, because in general it is a precursor to a range of deadly diseases. Being overweight puts people at risk of heart disease and stroke, diabetes and some cancers.

If you read my post last week, I talked about another study that proves people who are fat and healthy don't have decreased mortality (unless they happened to have diabetes and/or hypertension. (I have neither). Of course both diabetes and hypertension is bad for anyone of any weight. 

But which is a delusion?

My past belief that somehow I would join the 5% of people who lose weight and kept it off? That I should subscribe to a system that fundamentally fails most people who try?  That I should make myself crazy going on weight loss schemes after schemes, losing and regaining until I died younger than I should (which I'm sure will be blamed on my fatness)  

Or the belief that I need to feed my body wholesome foods and movement it can handle and let my weight fall where it lies. 

 

Weight alone won't kill you and Disney makes everyone a barbie.

Apparently another study (This one done as a study of other studies, aka a metastudy) found that "extra" weight did not cause a change of morbidity more than any other weight unless the person had hypertension or diabetes, then their risk increased 1.26 %.

However despite this proof that being fat (most likely) won't kill you, even if you are severly fat with diabetes and hypertension, the author of the study still wants to the doctor to tell you to lose weight.

Based on the study, Jerant recommends that doctors` conversations with patients who are overweight or obese, but not severely obese, focus on the known negative effects of these conditions on mental and physical functioning, rather than on an increased short-term risk of death. By contrast, Jerant added that it is important for doctors to talk with severely obese patients who also have diabetes or hypertension about their increased short-term mortality risk and treatment, including weight loss.

So let's get this straight. After analysing mortality studies, you discover that fat doesn't in fact kill (unless you are very fat and have diabetes or hypertension, then your mortality goes up a whole 1.26 percent). Otherwise you will die about the same time as everyone else. Despite this you still have to be bombarded with messages to lose weight and be thin. No one said, "Hey, it's normal for some people to be fat or thin, let's focus on disease prevention instead of weight loss instead!"

Speaking of being thin, one of my favorite movie characters is Urusla, the villain from The Little Mermaid. Sure she was a bad guy, but she was still awesome. She's not only a brilliant , magic-using, octopus, but a big fat fattie. Of course Disney villains are the only place for real body diversity. Every heroine is a Barbie, even non-white ones such as Jasmine, Mulan and Tiana.  Disney villains are fat (Ursula), have flawed faces (Scar) or disfigured (Captain Hook). Most the female villains are strong power woman (A no-no in society).

This is Ursula, she is confident and bold.

This is Ursula slimmed down to sell beauty supplies. 

And Ursula loses her confidence, her boldness, her beauiful curves, her tentacles now a pretty dress and Ursula loses everything that makes her different and original. She is now Ursula Barbie, pose pretty for the cameras. (And also so the designer could use the exact same mold for every doll, if you check out the other Disney villains they look the same).