Fat Chicks Rule

Listening to your Body during Movement

I exercise every day. Biking, walking, yoga, swimming, and/or stretching. If I don't exercise I get tired, depressed, and feel worn out. I feel that I owe my body movement and the endorphins that come from it. I understand that some days my body is more open where I can bike 30 minutes, moderately walk for an hour, do yoga, and a sprint. Other days I'm lucky to get in my bike. Exercise instructor (and all around cool fat chick) Jeanette DePatie understands we need to do exercise but as much as our bodies can do and as we have to listen when it comes to intuitive eating, we have to do the same thing with exercise. We have to listen to the signals our body gives us duing exercise.

This sign to me represents a culture where we learn to ignore the signals our bodies send as we work out.  This is about a culture of masochism, where the more pain and agony you endure during a workout, the closer you bring your body to the edge of absolute destruction during a workout, the better.  And as an exercise teacher this makes me absolutely crazy.  Because, the messages you receive from your body are the most important line of defense, the most important tool you could possibly use to keep yourself safe as you work out.

We live in a culture of all or nothing. Where you either do hardbody exercise or none at all. Consider what I wrote about a few weeks ago about a study that was picked up by the media that fat women don't exercise but neglected to mention that we still moderately exercise. Not everyone (Not just fat people but thin ones too) can do a few hours of exercise a day.

The New York Times looked at a study that showed exercise was a key to longevity, regardless of weight.

Over all, people in the lowest exercise category had about twice the risk of dying from heart disease as those in the middle group and six times the risk of those in the group who exercised the most often and vigorously.

Meanwhile Atchka of Fierce Freethinking Fatties did an amazing run down of the Kramer study was picked up by the media as the reason you can't be fat and fit (I wrote about it in December 2013. Which he tracked down the author who even said the study showed that if you are fat, the best thing for you was to get fit.

These are different things. For example, if you are obese, it’s best if you are fit. Let’s say you exercise three times a week or four times a week, it has a protection compared to people that are obese and do not exercise.

The important issue here is to listen to your body. Take it for lovely walks, runs, swim whatever you and it enjoy.  Do it as much as you can while listening to what your body says.

Gather, Rather than Hunt

On Saturday morning, I decided to go shopping for pants. Being 10 am the morning before Easter, I figured I'd avoid the lines and the crowds at Marshalls, a close-out department store.

I've a hard body to buy for: a rectangle with an apple belly and large boobs, I usually have to try on many things before I can find maybe one item that fits me nicely. Most of the times pants that fit my waist make my legs look like tree trunks and pants that fit my legs make my stomach look like a giant sack. Tops are worse: clothes that fit my chest make me look pregnant or else I'm popping out of my shirt (Something my husband doesn't mind but work might.)

I don't really like to shop at Department stores. I prefer stores that stock only larger sizes (my issues with them are another story). No offense against thin folks, but at least I know the entire store is catered to large bodies including my size. However, I usually can get one or two things at Marshalls if I hunt. My local venue has gotten worse as far as plus sizes go. They used to have a large section in the middle of the floor. Now they are pushed over to the side and are limited to two large racks, and a few smaller ones. Dresses are the only sizes that are integrated.

Some days I go there and find some good pieces. Other days I don't know why I bother.

I was semi-successful on Saturday as I managed to snag Lauren pants that fit me nicely, and a pair of loose yoga pants that for $20 were good enough. Together they were $60.

Remember this is the “discount” store.

On May 4th is the Big Fat Flea in NYC. Last year I spent about the same amount at Marshalls and bought home a much cheaper and better selection. This is a flea market. Selection is based on donation, not a department store which is theory should be serving their customer’s needs. And knowing that two-thirds of the population need plus sizes, I’m surprised that Marshall’s plus size selection has shrunk.

Marshalls was a hunt. A hope that a wild pair of pants would appear and fit me properly. My hunting ground was only a few feet but still not a lot wild pants to be found.

At the Flea, it's a gather. I go through stacks and stacks of pants, dresses, shirts, jackets and miscellaneous. My size is located all in the same place, often towering because there is so much selection. I stuff things to try on in my bag which becomes heavy in my arms while my follow shoppers dig around with me, being friendly, giving advice. No one seems upset when someone grabs an Igigi dress before you can. You feel great when a person tells you, “This doesn’t look good on me, maybe it will look good on you.”

I come home exhausted but in a good way. My spirits are high as I check out my new clothes (and some are brand new with tags). And as I model my new clothes, I feel confident and happy.

I never feel this way at any department store.

 

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The Tankini

Yes, eat your grandma's gefilte fish

Short post tonight.

More  holidays are upon us, where there is ham, peeps, matzo ball soup, chocolate bunnies, and gefilte fish.

Life is too short, families are fleeting and if you like your grandmother's gefilte fish, you should eat it without worry of the calories or fat content because one day that recipe as your grandmother made it will be no more.

I never liked gefilte fish, but I'll take my late grandmother's matzo soup or my grandpa, who died too young, hiding the matzo in an easy to find spot and giving my cousins, brother, and me dollar bills for being so good at finding things.

As Jennifer Weiner says:

Food isn’t trouble, it’s holidays, it’s funny stories, it’s seasons. Clams and beach plums are summer; turkey and crispy, lace-edged latkes mean fall; gefilte fish tells us it’s springtime again. Maybe my daughters won’t eat more than the single bite that I’ll insist on, but the finished dish is only part of the point.

Everyone have a wonderful holiday!

Ditching BMI for All.

A recent study has said people considered “underweight” have a death rate 1.8 times higher than “normal” weight people. Us fatties were only 1.2-1.3 times higher (yippie?)

 

After reviewing more than 50 previous researches, researchers of a new study have found that excessive thinness is also not good for health. Clinically underweight people have a higher risk of death than obese individuals.

Are we going to break out the term: morbidly thin? Are there going to be Diet programs to help the poor, unfortunate, and stupid thin people, who can't help but not eat?

Are we going to have a national program to help the morbidly thin somehow get to magic BMI number 18.5?

No-- because a campaign like that would be ridiculous.

Or would it?

 

Recently, Yale student Frances Chan was forced to gain weight because the university health center Yale Health deemed her as having an eating disorder as her BMI wasn’t past the magical number of 18.5. (Yale later dropped it, I assume because they realized how ridiculous it was.) I’m not quite sure what Yale’s obsession with weight is but apparently Chan wasn’t the only student forced to gain weight or leave school. I just know when I went to college the school seemed to care about our academic achievement rather than our personal lives.

 

Even if she had anorexia (which she doesn’t, she’s naturally slender), forcing an anorexic to gain weight doesn’t cure the eating disorder.  In order to get Yale Health off her back, she ignored her natural hunger cues, overate, and didn’t exercise.

 

If someone goes to the doctor, they should not get a weight lecture, especially if they aren't there to talk about weight (in Chan’s case she was having a lump checked). The only time a doctor should talk about your weight is if you lose or gain it rapidly.  While Yale and other schools need to have outreach to students because eating disorders tends to hit college age women, there is outreach and then over reach. Like with many fat people, Frances Chan’s health was judged solely on her BMI.  

 People have different body types and BMI says nothing about their health. Being as healthy as you can trumps weight loss/gain.

...but for the people who have been losing the battle of the weight, if they can at least become fit, then they can have a very good prognosis and good overall health.