Lara Frater's Blog, page 21

We love the children! (unless they are fat.)

If you've read my book, you'll know I was bullied as a child. As an adult, I tend to not let insults bother me but as a kid they made me miserable. While being bullied, adults rarely interceded. Supposedly now there are more anti-bullying intitatives...

Unless you're a fat kid. In Georgia, a group has billboards villainizing and victimizing fat kids and NAAFA considers believes these billboards criminalize fat kids: NAAFA demands that the Georgia Children's Health Alliance immediately remove their billboards targeting fat children. Billboards depicting fat kids are extraordinarily harmful to the very kids they are supposedly trying to help.  They have also pointed out that a recent study has shown fat kids actually eat less and that same year a study from UCLA suggests our media and cultural obsession with achieving a certain weight does little or no good and may actually undermine motivation to adopt exercise and other healthy lifestyle habits.

Instead of having programs that make sure all children of all sizes eat well (this also means having only carrot sticks for lunch isn't healthy), we have fat children targeted by Let's Move and this program in Georgia. All to make them thin. (Programs like this have never worked and can cause an increase in eating disorders as fat children eat less food than their body needs and thin children eat less so they don't get fat.)

Even worse the Safe Schools Improvement Act (SSIA) an anti-bullying measure does not include language about physical atributes such as fat, thin, tall and short. Golda from Body Love Wellness has a handy link and form letter to contact your senators asking them to please add body size into the bill. 

I don't think we need to pass on body hatred for our children. Encouraging them to have more play and to eat better is a good idea but let's pass on trying to put children into a narrow cookie cutter, some children are natural slender, some are big. Some stay big, some slender out as they get taller.

And if you live in Nevada contact your state assembly member asking them to pass the Healthy Workplace Bill. 

The cookie cutter

On Friday and Saturday I attended a Feminist conference at Sarah Lawrence called Breaking Boundaries which had speeches, panels and workshops about the diversity of bodies. Although a lot of it focused on fat bodies, there was also focus on thin bodies, disabled bodies, and racial stereotypes. 

Our bodies are all very much the same, yet unique. However it seemed that society keeps us in a very narrow cookie cutter: thin, tall, able bodied, white, if female waif and dainty, if male, muscular. However most people don't fit into that mold. I think one of the more interesting aspects of the conference was a panel run by disabled poets. One of the points brought up is if you had a choice would you not be disabled?

If you had a choice would you not be fat? Some people would say that you have a choice. You just have to eat less and exercise more and you'll be thin and svelte.  Except with statistics stating that anywhere from 85-98% of weight loss attempts fail. Despite these facts fat people are often blamed for not being able to lose weight and keep it off. There is still plenty of prejudice but fat seems to be the only acceptable prejudice because it technically can changed short termed. 

One thing never considered to affect the health care of fat people is stigma. Yet in this recent study The discrimination that obese people feel, whether it is poor service at a restaurant or being treated differently in the workplace, may have a direct impact on their physical health, according to new research from Purdue University.  However when we see studies "proving" fat is bad, stigma is rarely incorporated or given as another reason fat is bad. Fat people are expected to make themselves thin and not change the world view. Whereas someone disabled, gay, African-American etc expects the world to change (Not that it neccessarily has but in theory we are supposed to have a loving accepting rainbow world unless you are fat.)

But back to the conference. There I met some very different people. I didn't agree with everyone but I think a common thread was feeling marginalized, and being forced into this narrow cookie cutter. These are smart intelligence people who aren't looking for special rights but equal ones.  A favorite quote of mine is: "No one is free when others are oppressed"

So would I prefer to be thin? Before 2002, you betcha. After 2002 when I began reclaiming my body as my own, only on occassion, usually when bra shopping.

Mixing messages

On Friday night I attended a class called "Fat, the First Lady, and Fighting the Politics of Health Science" with Dr. Bianca Wilson. One of Dr. Wilson's points was about mixed messages from Michelle Obama and Surgeon General Regina Benjamin regarding the Health at Every Size and the "obesity epidemic".  Dr. Benjamin who has been attacked due to her size, released a video which started off with the OBESITY KILLS message ended with a positive HAES message. Let's Move also has a mixed messages. (I say even more mixed than Dr. Benjamin.)  

The fact is Let's Move's campaign associates health=weight allowing Mrs. Obama to open herself up to criticisms from right wing pundit Rush Limbaugh that she doesn't practice what she preaches because she, dare I say it, ate ribs. The left on the other hand defended her not by saying eating well doesn't mean every single food that goes in your mouth has to be "Healthy" (The majority of it should) but by defending the ribs as being lower calories. They also attacked Mr. Limbaugh's weight. (BTW Limbaugh made fun of Michelle Obama's weight as not being "supermodel").

So essentially all we get is two sides using fat as a method to insult each other.

Fat Hate Bingo

Okay trolls. Please use this handy chart when responding to my posts. I am asking that you respond with "But I don't want to be fat" So I can get the middle vertical row. 

 

 

Not trying to lose weight, the biggest exercise motivator.

AOL has a fluff piece from which starts with the "tried-true" method of weight loss eat less and exercise more (despite having yet to find a study proving that really works in the long run.)

And apparently all that we are missing is motivation.  

Here's motivation for you. You are very excited to do a new diet (let's say Weight Watchers). You start off perfectly, carefully counting your points, going to the gym every day and the pounds begin to come off. You continue with this cycle despite the reality that you are always hungry, feel cold and tired but it doesn't matter because weight is coming off. Cut to a few weeks, maybe even months later. You are still cold, tired and now irritable. The weight loss has stopped and every waking moment is filled with thoughts of food until you give in to a massive binge. While you are binging and off your diet, you see little point in exercising. 

Movement is good for everyone. We can't all be marathon runners (and kudos to those who are.) Do as much as you are able. Even if it's a slow two block walk. Accept that some weeks you may exercise more than others.

And the biggest motivator for movement is to NOT DIET. You see when you tie exercise to diet, you lose the motivation to exercise when the diet fails. Do what I do. I exercise a minimum of 3x a week, and don't care whether I lose weight or not. That has kept me motivated for exercise. 

Fat Bottom Girls

In the past I have posted that the television show Glee has done some fat positive things. The character Mercedes for example is a wonderful, talented diva. In the episode Home, she is told to lose weight or get kicked of the cheerleading team. She tries dangerous dieting but eventually accepts herself as is.  

After that Mercedes' weight almost never gets called out. Now we have another fat character on the show Lauren Zizes (Played by fabulous Ashley Fink of Huge). Actually Lauren has been a background character on the show since the beginning and now seems to be bumped up to a recurring character. Considering they seem to be adding new main characters on the show constantly, I am hoping to see Lauren as a regular in the future.

Is Lauren a fat positive character? Mostly. She seems comfortable in her skin but she is obsessed with food. In in many episodes she asks for food for favors and is option depicted as a loser. It turns out she's a wrestler which is why she eats so much and when confronted by mean girl Santana, she beats the crap out of her. (Yea!)

In the most recent episode Silly Love Songs, Lauren is wooed by bad boy Puck. Puck is indiscriminate on who he dates (he in fact dated Mercedes until she dumped him), but he is drawn to Lauren not only for her curves but she plays hard to get and she's "Bad ass". Lauren seems like she's content with her life and unwilling to change for anyone. And in this case she is positive. 

Blogger Lesley Kinsel of Two Whole Cakes was upset that Lauren was so bothered about Puck singing her Fat Bottom Girls. Granted Fat Bottom Girls is considered a positive anthem for Fat Acceptance, and I love it because we make the rocking world go round and it was sung at a service for the late Heather MacAllister. However if you read the lyrics to Fat Bottom Girls it actually isn't that positive. I always thought it was about fat girls being easy.

I don't know how much the Glee writers know about the fat acceptance movement and the song or if Lauren is part of it. But not all fat women would be happy to being serenaded with a song calling them fat. Lately I haven't been as much into Glee due to the terrible rendition of Rocky Horror. Having been a fan of the movie since I was 15, I was upset to see Transsexual was removed (Perhaps to not be offensive?) but calling a girl fat is still allowed. Just for the record neither terms bother me. I just find it odd about what is offensive and what isn't.

That being said, Glee still is more fat positive than most that is out there in the vapid sea of plastic surgery and unnatural thinness but it still doesn't reflect the real world.

Fat Acceptance in NYC

If live in or near NYC, there are three up coming Fat Positive events.

On Friday Feb 25, Fat, the First Lady, and Fighting the Politics of Health Science  at the CUNY Grad Center. 

On March 4-5 Sarah Lawrence College Breaking Boundaries: Body Politics & the Dynamics of Difference with Keynote speaker Marilyn Wann. 

March 18-19 Endangered Species at the New School featuring Erica Watson, Wendy Shanker and Deb Burgard. 

 

 

 

Eating normally and FDA just says no, again.

Alternet has a fantastic article by Judith Matz about how diets make you fatter (and to reliterated, had I never dieted I would have been fat but significantly less than I am now.) It's a long article but worth the read. I agree with Judith that people that dieting is a large contributor to the "Obesity Epidemic" (although not fat people are that way due to dieting, as some people are naturally slender or fat.) I also believe yoyo dieting causing a significant amount of "obesity related diseases" such as heart disease and diabetes. 

And the FDA has rejected the diet drug Contrave:

For the third time in less than a year, the Food and Drug Administration has rejected a drug promising to melt the fat away. The agency said yesterday it wouldn't consider approving the diet drug, Contrave, until its manufacturer conducts a clinical trial to further assess its heart risks.

So let's have another comparison

Health at Every size -- Learn your body's hunger cues, eat well, love your body.

Diet drugs -- Maybe have a heart attack. 

More proof HAES is a better way of living

As an addition to last week's post, Linda Bacon and Lucy Aphramor just put out a study of Health at Every Size (HAES) related studies and came up with some results that are contradictory to "Obesity-related science".  They talk a lot about weight cycling which I believe not only makes people fatter but causes some of the ill health effects associated with "obesity."

Weight cycling can account for all of the excess mortality associated with obesity in both the Framingham Heart Study [69] and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) [70]. 

As I mentioned in this blog before, I have a history of weight cycling. For 17 years I lost and gain weight plus more repeatedly. Had I never dieted I would have been fat, but much less than I am now. And with every diet cycle, I began to suffer new health issues, including bad cholesterol, fatigue, heart palpitations, and low immunity. None of which I had before dieting. What upsets me most is that if I have some kind of "Obesity related illness" in the future, it will all be blamed on my body size and not weight cycling. 

HAES doesn't have weight cycling. If you commit to HAES, you may lose weight, you may stay the same. But this article shows HAES is beneficial in health indicators regardless of weight loss. 

Some people might say HAES is a cop-out and that people are using it as excuse to not lose weight, but it isn't. Because I no longer deprive myself, I no longer crave high calorie junk food. Because I no longer associated exercise with dieting, I have increased my movement.  HAES (and studies that used HAES tenets before the term came into existence) indicated:

Evidence from these six RCTs indicates that a HAES approach is associated with statistically and clinically relevant improvements in physiological measures (e.g. blood pressure, blood lipids), health behaviors (e.g. physical activity, eating disorder pathology) and psychosocial outcomes (e.g, mood, self-esteem, body image) 

Six studies isn't enough but there will be more in the future.  

Tell me this, is it better for the population to try to eat right and exercise or repeatedly give up any kind of health behaviors when they fail to get to some arcane number?  

Once more for Revolution.

It has been said that a definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results.

Says the first line of this amazing article by sociologist Pattie Thomas. Pattie points out that people repeatedly do diets and expect that this time it will change. She further points out the diet industry is a $58 Billion dollar entity where we always blame the dieter and never the diet, and that the war on obesity is more of a moral panic than about health. I get many comments on this blog from people who think they are holier than thou because they are thin. 

Fat activists are often accused of being paranoid when they blame the weight loss industry for the panic over the "obesity epidemic" but $58 billion is a lot to be paranoid about. Especially when the diets tend to fail in the long run. (See Archives of Internal medicine, Nutrition Journal, and JAMA to name a few.) 

Thick skulled naysayers often think my call to end or actively trying to lose weight means that I am lazy, jealous, stupid, and encourage everyone to eat McDonalds for every meal. They Ignore my call to embrace HAES and eat healthy without worry about weight. Sure there are some people who do lose weight and keep it off longer than five years but they are the exception not the rule (I'm thinking that some people naturally lose weight after when they give up dieting, eat healthy and move. Or their goal weight isn't a "thin" number. Or they become OCD about dieting and count everything while ignoring hunger cues.) 

Last week was Healthy Weight Week. Make your healthy weight be whatever you are when you eat normally (i.e. follow your own hunger cues) and have fun movement. If you need help learning intitative eating, try HAES by Linda Bacon or Overcoming Overeating.

And to find fun movement try out different things and see what you enjoy. I just found out last weekend I love to snow shoe.