Fat Chicks Rule

In dressing room at Elizabeth's plus sizes. St Johnsbury, VT

Moving right along.

Quick post today as I am about to head off to vacation in beautiful Vermont where I will swim, hike, walk, eat, visit places.

I don't usually feed the trolls but I got a funny comment for my previous post. I am very used to getting remarks such as telling me to stop making excusing for being fat and do something. (What? Running screaming in the streets?)  Most of these people have never read my blog but need to feel superior by putting me down.  Sorry, it ain't gonna work.  

But this curious troll started by saying how he is 50 lbs "overweight" and ran 4 miles a day on an incline. All I can think is that rocks. You are a fat person who is fit. You break the stereotype that most trolls think fat people are sit on the couch all day, eating two whole cakes.  However you obviously don't read my blog or even know me.  I don't make excuses for being fat. I am fat, end of story. 

So I tell the fat haters: Stop making excuses and love your body. Love it when it's fat, love it when it's thin. Do wonderful things for it. Put delicious heart warming food into it, take it on fun movement (As much as you can do. Don't worry if it isn't a 4 mile run on an incline). Nourish it with fun. Bet you'll feel better than hating it.

Less than Human

A while back I had been prescribed the anti-depression drug Wellbutrin. It was supposed to help with depression (and not cause me to gain weight.) It didn't and I had a bad reaction to the drug in general. Several years after that a doctor convinced me to give it another try, saying she would give me a mild dose. Guess what? Same bad reaction. I didn't learn it right the first time.

Case in point, the rehashing of the same useless and sometimes deadly diet drugs. The FDA has new diet drugs up for review namely Qnexa which is actually two other drugs put together: The "safe" part of Fen-phen Phentermine and the anti-seziure drug Topamax. And include such side effects as cardiovascular problems, birth defects, psychiatric issues among many others. Thankfully the FDA rejected this drug which to me is a miracle because it seems like every single fucking anti-weight loss drug is approved despite often deadly side effects.  The other drug is supposedly the new miracle drug (despite no long term studies): lorcaserin (which is a similiar drug to fenfluramine the deadly part of Fen-phen).

WLS is still being pressured for a cure all to diabetes. Even people not that fat. 

And now the US wants to include an Obesity Rating in electronic health records. Do these people not understand the purpose of electronic records? They aren't supposed to be your health nanny. They are supposed to be a method to reduce mistakes and the easy transfer your medical records to another doctor or hospital.  They also still think a BMI is a good way to measure it. (Congrats to Brad Pitt on being an honorary fattie.) My obesity rating? Fabulous!

So pressure to take dangerous drugs that don't work, risky surgery and a scarlet letter O in our health records, wouldn't that make a person feel like they are worthless, a second class citizen, and less than human?  I don't think the motto of the US is life, liberaty and the pursuit of happiness unless your fat.

Vintage Lane Bryant Ad: ‘Calling All Chubbies’

Vintage Lane Bryant Ad: ‘Calling All Chubbies’.

Obesity bad! I mean obesity bad! I mean obesity not that important

A recent article on change.org asked: Is the 'War on Obesity' Toxic for Girls? The article covers complaints from the Girl Scouts of America and National Collaboration for Youth about how the "War on Obesity" may be detrimental to girls' self esteem:

 "The childhood obesity epidemic has caused girls to be caught in a double bind—on one end they hear that children are overweight today and that is unhealthy and unattractive—on the other end of the spectrum they see images of girls and women who are super-thin and over-sexualized," reads a recent announcement from the Girl Scouts of the USA and the National Collaboration for Youth...

But you wouldn't know that from the weak facts the article gives about how obesity among children is a national crisis (despite that we are living longer and healthier) and we spend so much on obesity (despite a Kaiser report that higher medical costs go toward the maintenance of older people. You live longer you get more health problems, fat and thin.) 

This goes back to criticism I have for groups like the Rudd Center.  You can't have it both ways. You keep screaming how fat is evil, we end up vilifying fat and we send a message to our children that the worst thing is the world is to be fat. We create eating disorders and fear of fat people and we DO NOT create healthy living. 

ASDAH has stepped up their campaign about how "Let's Move" doesn't have any actual fat people involved in its planning. In other words, you're just a stupid fattie and they know what's best.  For those of you on AOL, Mrs. Obama will be discussing it tomorrow on AOL at 10am EST.  Be sure to give her some tough questions.

And in other news, the UK has realized that either (a) obesity was not to murder all British citizens, (b) obesity was not in fact going to destroy the health system or (c) obesity isn't that bad that they don't need to waste money on it.

Top Ten Reasons Discrimination Against Fat People Is Perfectly Okay

Top Ten Reasons Discrimination Against Fat People Is Perfectly Okay.

Top Ten Reasons Discrimination Against Fat People Is Perfectly Okay

Huge

I've been without cable for almost 2 years and without a TV for months. And I absolutely don't miss it. Don't get me wrong, I still watch TV on Netflix and Hulu but I don't watch the way I once did. And I stopped trying to find shows with fat characters.

Yes there are a few, (Glee, Drop Dead Diva, the Office), but for the most part TV is dominated by thin actors and fat ones tended to be overeaters, side characters, comic relief, thin actors in fat suits, stupid, evil and lazy. Also them being fat was the entire subject of their existence.  Take the point of this post, the new show on ABC family "Huge." Huge (starring the delightful Nikki Blonsky from Hairspray) is about a rebellious teenager named Will who is forced to go to a fat camp.  Will loves her body, decides to gain weight and sells black market treats to the other campers. Playing opposite Will is Amber played Hayley Hasselhoff, the thinnest fat girl in the camp, who seems to be moving towards body image disorder as she constantly checks herself in the mirror and is obsessed with losing weight. 

I'm not sure if I like this show yet, I need another episode. Will decides to flee the camp but it caught by strict head of the camp, Dr. Rand, (played by one of my favorite actresses Gina Torres). Instead of leaving, Will decides to stay and at the end of the episode seems to want to give it a go. Although there is a clue that Will might be staying to help the other girls. I will have to see future episodes to see if Will decided that fat isn't good or if Amber will decide fat is okay. 

Thankfully I have never gone to a fat camp. I went to regular summer camp until I was 14 where I played baseball, swam, ran, had ice cream and chips and met two of my closest friends. Exercise and eating healthy wasn't mandatory.  I don't know how realistic this show is about weight loss camps but I can't imagine any of this working. Campers are over exercised, forced to wear bathing suits, weighed, and fed nasty food.

I think I would have preferred that make a show based on the book Fat Camp Commandoes by Daniel Pinkwater.  Nikki Blonsky would make a kick ass Mavis Goldfarb.