Lara Frater's Blog, page 22
January 17, 2011
Tune in next week
In Vermont. Where this fat chick snowshoed and walked in almost sub zero temps. New post next week.
January 10, 2011
The Good, the Bad and the WTF?
The Good
A doctor in Canada is talking about what I have said all along that yoyo dieting has a lot to do with people getting heavier. I probably would have been fat but if I hadn't gone on diets I probably would have weighted a good 50 lbs less right now. Not only did he blame yoyo-ing but said that exercise while beneficial did not really help weight loss. He also said: "I think one of the biggest misconceptions when we talk about obesity in general is that obese people are obese largely because of their lifestyles and because of the way that they live," Dr. Arya Sharma of the University of Alberta, told CBC News.
The Bad
Stephens College prostituted itself by going on a weight loss challenge. They lost a certain amount of weight and dignity, because some anonymous woman offers them a million dollars to do it. Now when they regain the weight, will they have to give it back?
The WTF
I don't know really where to start with the Gymanimals. Should I start with the anti-fat rhetoric? The encouragement of eating disorders? The stereotypical gender roles? The terrible clip art graphics? The horrible music that won't shut off? Or the fact when I searched for the URL, google suggested gay animals? (I would much rather have seen a site about a gaggle of gay gooses.)
The gymanimals the latest site to exploit fat children would like boys to be big and buff and girls to be thin and dainty. Probably what bothered me the most was the anorexic villain. This site villifies not only fat children but children with eating disorders as well. And sites like this only encourage more eating disorders and bad habits. Better to send the animals back into the wild where they can eat and move normally.
January 3, 2011
Even More ReVolutions
Diets usually start the day after New Years. There is still leftover "bad food" in the fridge and you didn't actually stop drinking after midnight and have a salad? Right?
When I did Weight Watchers, no one dieted during the holiday season so it was only a handful of us at the meetings. Come January the place would overflow sometimes to standing room only. WW was supposed to be a lifelong lifestyle change yet very few people seemed to do this during the holidays. So what they meant by a lifelong lifestyle change was only January to September.
The difference between Health At Every Size (HAES) and Weight Watchers (and most diets) is this: I do HAES every day during the holidays, after the holidays, on my birthday and I do it for my health NOT for weight loss. On Weight Watchers, cheating meant the diet was over maybe just for the day or the week or for good. It also could mean a massive binge. There is no cheating on HAES. HAES has led to less binging. WW and diets involve restrictive eating, meaning you restrict the amount of food you eat causing your body to crave food. HAES what's called intuitive eating meaning you eat because you're hungry. Did I overinduldge during the holidays? Yep. But compared to my dieting/bingeing days, it was nothing.
Healthy Weight Week celebrates the diversity of healthy weight (and not the narrow BMI chart) and every year announces the worst diet products of the year.
January 2, 2011
Viva La ReVolution
Are you dreading January, the month full of watching friends and loved ones setting themselves up for failure with unrealistic New Year's Resolutions to diet/lose weight? Want to do something different, something inspiring, instead? Join the New Year's REVOLUTION and give yourself some self-love for the New Year! Check out the webpage that tells you about of this ReVolution and provides incredible resources for you to use throughout the coming year:
http://2011revolutions.blogspot.com/
Starting January 1 and throughout the month of January, we will flood popular social media with HAES-friendly, anti-weight-loss-dieting messages.
Action Item: Profile Picture
Please participate by changing your Facebook and Twitter profile pictures to an image of something that makes you feel good about and in your body. Not sure what to post? How about the HAES text image created by Amanda ofFatWaitress.com specifically for the New Year's Revolution event:
http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/8328/haesborder.jpg
Action Item: Facebook Status
Please post one of the following messages, or something similar, on January 1 to explain your new profile picture. Consider reposting the message throughout the month of January so that it continues to capture attention.
• I'm starting a New Year's Revolution. I've changed my profile pic to an image that inspires me to love my body and seek out Health at Every Size, and I'm participating in the 31 Days of HAES at (insert linky here). New Year's Resolutions are so often about body hate and not being good enough just as we are. Join me and spread body love, acceptance, and liberation! Change your profile pic to an image of something that makes you feel good in your own skin, and repost this message to encourage others to do the same.
• I'm part of a New Year's Revolution. I've changed my profile pic to an image that inspires me to love my body and seek out Health at Every Size. Change your profile pic to an image of something that makes you feel good in your own skin, and repost this message to encourage others to do the same. For extra credit, take action to reinforce body love TODAY. Visit (insert 31 Days of HAES linky here) for ideas to get you started!
• We're creating a New Year's Revolution! My profile pic is an image that reminds me to love my body and screen out negative messages this month that tell me otherwise. Let's not let the diet industry tell us how we feel about our bodies, our beauty, and our worth. Instead of New Year's Resolutions this year, what is your New Year's REVOLUTION? Join the New Year's Revolution FB Event or visit (insert linky) for 31 Days of HAES inspiration!
Action Item: Twitter Posts / #HAES Hashtag
Please post about the New Year's Revolution on January 1, and use the hashtag #HAES. We hope to have #HAES reach the top 10 most popular hashtags on New Year's Day!
In your Twitter posts, be sure to direct people to the New Year's Revolution Facebook Event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170500166324089 and/or the New Year's Revolution Webpage:http://2011revolutions.blogspot.com/
Viva La ReVolution!
January 1, 2011
Professor Calls for an End to New Year's Weight Loss Resolutions
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jon Robison, PhD, MS
Phone: (517) 507-0287
E-mail: robisonj@msu.edu
Professor Calls for an End to New Year's Weight Loss Resolutions
(Okemos, Michigan) Ordinarily, the Holidays are a time for planning New Year's resolutions -and more often than not, weight loss is at or near the top of the list.
Time for a change, according to Dr. Jon Robison, nutritionist and health educator at Michigan State University.
"The research over the last 25 years is quite clear. There is no evidence that any of the popular approaches such as low fat, low calorie and low carbohydrate results in long-term weight loss for the vast majority of people who engage in them," says Robison. "There are no exceptions and none of the approaches works any better than any of the others."
Despite this complete lack of evidence, however, people are still being seduced into trying to lose weight with the latest reincarnation of these approaches from a diet industry with $50 billion in annual revenues. Furthermore, the relentless pressure, particularly on women and children, to lose weight increases the likelihood of eating disorders, disordered eating and body hatred.
To reduce anxiety about food and weight while at the same time promoting good health,
Dr. Robison recommends that people discard the weight loss focus and embrace a scientifically supported Health-Centered Approach.
Dr. Robison recently summarized this approach in a special report, "10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Ease Concerns about Your Weight & Improve Your Health." The report is currently available, free-of-charge, on his website at http://jonrobison.net/?page_id=217.
Here is a sample of the 10 Things: (discussion of each suggestion follows in the report)
#1 – Save Your Time & Money! – Don't spend another dime on anything or anybody that even remotely suggests they will help you lose weight permanently.
#2 – Just Say No! – Do not use (or let anyone else) your weight, BMI or any other measurement of body size or composition as an indicator of health!
"While this approach differs substantially from the traditional wisdom about weight and health, please keep in mind that the traditional wisdom in this case is clearly not working or helping and may, in fact, be causing considerable harm," Robison says.
Jonathan Robison holds a doctorate in health education/exercise physiology and a master of science in human nutrition from Michigan State University where he is adjunct Assistant Professor. A former co-editor of the journal Health At Every Size - he has been helping people with weight and eating-related concerns for more than 20 years. From Keynotes to Intensive Training Workshops, Dr. Robison is available to help both lay and professional groups understand and implement Health-Centered Approaches for helping people with weight- and eating-related struggles. For more information visit his website, www.jonrobison.net.
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December 27, 2010
Countdown to Revolutions!
Another short post today, since a blizzard knocked out my home interweb (BTW this fat chick trekked in the snow yesterday for fun and today to get to work) and I want everyone to continue having a festive holiday.
Every year sometime around New Year I urge that all people give up the resolution of "This year I'm going to lose weight." For a long time that was mine and it never lasted. I no longer resolutions, I continue to work on self-improvement no matter what day of the year it is.
Remember the motto of the diet industry is "Results not Typical." Or should I say the former motto as the FTC has banned the term. Diet ads can now only have results that are typical (But don't worry Weight Watchers, you can tout your six pound average weight loss). Results listed in diet ads are often the minority. (And I bet of the minority, a majority regain their weight.)
So this year instead of resolutions, think Revolution! Instead of going to a diet, embrace Health at Every Size. Instead of joining a gym do what I did and take a long walk in the snow (Dress warmly). Instead of eating (pun intented) the lies the media and diet industry, join a fat acceptance group such as NAAFA, ISAA or ASDAH.
My year round revolutions are as follows:
1. Love my body
2. Nurture my body with healthy movement and foods (i.e. not diet foods).
3. Encourages others of all sizes to love theirs.
December 20, 2010
Happy holidays and a Merry Carnie Wilson
I would like to wish everyone very happy holidays whether you celebrate all, one, or none. I won't burden you with long posts in the next few weeks. I had my annual holiday party yesterday and it was one stressful but fun day (I now owe $.60 if there was a soda tax).
Carnie Wilson, the former poster child of weight loss surgery (she can join other former poster children of diets: the late Lynn Redgrave, Sarah Ferguson, Kirstie Alley et al) has regained most of her weight and now seems to be closer to acceptance of her own body.
I really can't sympathize with her. I felt her own toting of how wonderful and life saving the surgery was just encouraging young impressionable people that WLS is the easy way to go. It's not. It is major surgery on a vital organ.
December 13, 2010
FDA takes a step back
Although the FDA has been very good in the past couple of months rejecting two potentially dangerous and ineffective diet drugs, it's committee has recommended approval of another called Contrave. (Although a third of the committee didn't recommend it.) Contrave is a combo of anti-depression drug bupropion (brand name Wellbutrin) and naltrexone which is used to treat addiction. On a personal note: Wellbutrin is a terrible drug which I took for depression. It did not cause weight loss or make me feel less depressed. It did cause me to be more depressed, nervous, and nauseous. I wouldn't recommend it for depression let alone weight loss. Naltrexone which is used to treat drug and alcohol addiction can also cause liver damage.
The drug "works" even though 21 people withdrew from the study and there might have been one fatal heart attack. And like many other diet drugs, you have diet while using it.
As always diet drug makers work on the premise that fat people are that way because they eat too much so a drug that causes them to eat less will make them trim.
And I will repeat this again: NO DIET DRUG HAS EVER BEEN PROVEN TO WORK IN THE LONG RUN.
This drug looks to be same shit different day.
Be sure to contact the FDA and tell them to stop approving dangeous diet drugs:
Food and Drug Administration
10903 New Hampshire Ave
Silver Spring, MD 20993-0002
druginfo@fda.hhs.gov
1-888-INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332)
December 6, 2010
Weight Watchers
When I was 16, I went on my first commercial diet, Weight Watchers. After failing at my own diets, and OTC diet pills, my parents agreed to pay for a Weight Watcher's membership. I was excited, I would lose 50 pounds because now I had support and financial motivation.
At this time Weight Watchers used the exchange system. Food would go into different categories. Now I apologize if my memory fails me but I believe the exchanges were 2 fruit, 2 fat, 6 breads, 4 proteins, 4 open exchanges (where you could use any exchanges you liked) and unlimited vegetables. We also got a sneaker sticker if we exercised plus we had to drink 8 glasses of water a day. Every week I weighed in with a plus or minus next to my number. In the first few weeks there would be lots of minuses. I'd share with the group the excitment of my weight loss success.
Then the hunger would sink it. I would think of food all the time and I would stop losing weight. Weight Watchers no longer has minus next to the number but pluses or slashes (indicated no loss or gain.)
Then the bingeing started. I almost timed the biggest binge right. My WW meeting was Thursday night, so right after I would go home and gorge myself.
Before Weight watchers, I didn't binge. Maybe sometimes I would eat too much junk food, but I enjoyed myself. When I binged there was no enjoyment of eating anymore, it was like I had to shove as much food into me.
Then I would stop keeping track of my food. Then I would stop going all together.
And so this pattern went off and on for the next 8 years or so. The last time I went to Weight watchers, they had just started on their point system. And in the first week, despite being "good" I gained weight. And that was the end of Weight Watchers.
A lot of people think Weight Watchers is the better of the diet plans. But I will tell you, it made me become a binge eater. and I have long since assumed that my years of dieting/bingeing have ruined my metabolism and done permanent damage to my body. I hated vegetables and became fearful of foods that used up too many exchanges or points.
Now I hear that Weight Watchers is revamping their point system. Because based on "Scientific studies" not all calories are the same and a lean to "natural" instead of processed food (despite this story from NPR that points out the high amounts of sodium and low amounts of fiber in a Weight Watcher's frozen dinner).
What I think is that the point system has just a much a failure rate as the exchange program did. The changes are more to do with getting the name out there again AND to hide the fact that it is and has always been just another low calories DIET like all the others.
