Debate The Weight of the Nation

Well they mean well being against discrimination of fat people, but many here know where I stand regarding weight and health. Most of the women in this video look more midsized at the size where they are still healthy and active. Hey I do not begrudge them that, but there are those who lay outside this system. In other words, I think it probably is best for a young or middle-aged mid-sized woman, to try and follow such advice that HAES provides. Of course I would warn them to watch out for any weight gain, so they do not end up in my category.

What if you aren't healthy?

See:

Health At Every Size? And Healthism in the Size Acceptance Movement

Fat Kids Are Bad at Math?

I found this kind of funny, since my midsized overweight father, was a computer-math-physics whiz and probably would have more then qualified for Mensa membership. My bad health has affected many areas of my functioning for today, but when I was in school, and into my 20s, I used to hit the top 1-5% on various IQ and academic tracking tests.

Childhood Obesity Affects Math Performance

"Obesity that persists across the elementary school years has the potential to compromise several areas of children's development, including their social and emotional well-being and academic performance," said Sara Gable, associate professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at University of Missouri and lead author of the study.

In addition to the math performance findings, obese children reportedly felt sadder, lonelier and more anxious than kids of healthier weights. Researchers said this emotional well being also could contribute to their poorer performances in math.

Math was never my favorite subject, though new math of the 1970s didn't help.

What next saying fat kids get bad grades? Fat people are less intelligent? [I fear the last one is where they want to push people]. I mean this seems another 'study" meant to help cement those views that fat people are less intelligent. Take it from me, when you are supersized people expect lower intelligence. It's one of those other subtle prejudices out there.

How's that supposed to make the kids do better?

Enjoying Life

I was able to bolster myself up from the other day, I went and just had some "fun", I bought myself some comics--I enjoy various comics--think American Splendor not super-heros, visited a relative, this relative is good about keeping contact with me, sat outside, visited a new library, went to lunch with a friend, visited with another friend. I prayed too, and God always helps me as well in terms of getting a new perspective. My good friends help too.  I told one friend, "Well let's just try and enjoy life and see what we can make of it while here." I do not want to let the fat/medical/ blah blah stuff wear me down so I am depressed. What is the use of it all? What will that gain but give me more stress worsening my health?  It's better to accept what one can control and can't control. I take psychology self-help books with a grain of salt but this one helped me some years ago, in that he was realistic about weight issues. and it gave a fair minded assessment of it all. What do I have to "prove" to anyone? God will know what I eat, didn't do or not, or how hungry or not I felt. One wants to enjoy life while they are here, and make something of it.

I have decided there is a project I want to work on and get finished, it involves art, cartooning and my life as a superfat woman, done from a humorous side. Perhaps I will share some of my comics on this blog too. I have a character based on myself I've been drawing for 12 years. It helped me survive mentally even drawing this character, think of it as "self" art-therapy. Years ago, I did art therapy for part of a job, it is a field I really enjoyed.

I have realized I need to let some of the "drudge" stuff go and not always feel stressed out by responsiblity and trying to "fix" everything. With the medical stuff, I am  dealing with what I can. Also there are other people to help. I did get my letter done to a local store asking them to help access for the disabled. I will tell you of the results there. There are poems to be written and typed out too for my next poetry event.

A Hint Of What I Look Like

I want to keep some privacy on this blog, but decided I would put an altered photo up here, with no facial picture attached. This way you all can tell I am a REAL person. LOL, an outraged size activist once claimed I was a fake. In the pictures, you will see my size 13 Birkenstocks, and my always worn dress.

I seem to be losing some weight as pictures have shown but I am still above 500lbs, as one scale disappointingly told me the other week. Here is a picture of the legs. It is weird to have one near NORMAL leg, and one that is not. Yes this is lymphedema, but I've gone an entire year and a month without a leg infection, that is a big deal for me when it used to be 5 or 6 a year.

Why aren't there MORE treatment centers for the very obese?

See some obesity rehab centers here...[some are nursing home based and others are not]
See here,

Here is another list: [check out this physical therapist's website--he specializes in helping the very overweight, it is a good one]



What is that NINE or TEN for the entire nation? And even then they are limited to a few states. What if you do not live near any of these places?

I think about how there are endless centers for those who are drug addicts and alcoholics, but there is a smattering of obesity rehabs, where one can count them nationwide on your fingers. My particular state doesn't even have an obesity rehab. That said, they really will only take people who are total nursing home material. I am close, but can still shower myself, cook a meal and all that. Who wants to be in a nursing home unless forced to be? But then I wonder why there is so much treatment for other illnesses and so little for obesity? Maybe there would have been more advances with MORE treatment.

If all the politiicans and others really cared about the obesity epidemic, there would be special gyms, and centers for fat people to go to state wide. There would be specialists to deal with it all. Maybe because they have failed in the treatment? Hey getting help out there is very hard. I even called the local bariatric guy who takes no insurance to take me pro-bono acouple years ago offering him, some writing and good advertisement if he had some success with me. He turned me down flat.

While obesity has many different causes, wouldn't it serve fat people to have a place to go and for them to have their medical and other issues dealt with? They could analyze who has the endocrine problems, who has psychological eating issues/saiety- insulin resistant issues or even those who have other physiological issues impacting their weight.

I've offered myself up to researchers and more, remember I had help getting the PCOS diagnosed by a medical writer and journalist who was known nation-wide that I befriended.

For years I have wondered why I wonder why are there literally 10s of thousands of centers for those dealing with difficulty with drugs and alcohol [hundreds state by state] and a pittance of obesity centers in this nation? I don't begrudge people who need the substance abuse centers, I am glad help is out there for them, but what about those struggling with severe obesity?

Anyone else got any ideas about this?

Banning Soda

New York City seeks to ban big sodas from restaurants, food carts

Can they ban the crummy food too? Hey don't give them any ideas. Soon they'll ban fat people from buying any extra food.

Actually I see this as more "nanny government" taking away all the pop and soda from the bad "fatties", even though I have seen lots of skinny people who drink that stuff too.

I gave up soda except for a couple glasses a week, if that, because I started worrying about all the chemicals and I realized it made me more thirsty. I thought why am I wasting my time drinking this stuff? Of course I drank diet, trying to avoid sugar fits, but then Aspartame is some scary stuff.

Does the government actually plan to SOLVE the obesity problems by outlawing foods, as if adults were children?

Of course they will never deal with the issue of all our adulterated food or the modern American life which leads to bad health in itself.

I hope the market at least forces more good choices. Let the local and slow food movements expand! This whole industrial food system where everything is trucked in from a million miles away, is bound for failure and ill health.

Man Loses 270lbs

Man refuses surgery, drops 270 pounds

Hey think about the implications of successful dieting hitting the national news. I guess because success comes so rare?

I am happy for this fellow he got the weight off, but one thing I have noticed is for the supersized who do lose large amounts of weight successfully, most often they are people who had psychological eating addiction problems who could return to normal eating patterns and leave extreme ones, and who also can still exercise to a certain point. The problem with an article like this is some of the readers will assume everyone is the same.

Small steps are what began Bryan's weight loss journey. After leaving the hospital, he began to move -- at first pushing a shopping cart around the grocery store like a toddler learning to walk. Then he ventured to the mailbox at the end of his driveway. Soon, he was conquering several miles at a time.

He lost 130 pounds in the first six months, then dropped another 140 pounds over the course of the next year. At 5-foot-8, Bryan now weighs just under 300 pounds.

"It turns out it really is true," Bryan wrote in his iReport submission. "If you use more energy than you take in, you will lose weight."

Bryan switched to a day shift at work to conquer his bad eating habits. He's very particular about what he puts in his mouth, refusing to stray from self-prepared lean meats, vegetables and fruits. He eats five to six meals a day, every two to three hours. He measures his portions so that his total calorie count for the day hits 2,500.

I read this and thought they make it sound so easy. I wonder how he advanced from the small walks so quickly to the miles of walking. I did the small walking but remained STUCK as my body swelled up more the more exercise I did. Also if he can lose weight on 2500 a day that is pretty good. Some of us stay supersized on less calories then that. I am happy this guy was able to save himself from the horrors of severe obesity. Let's hope it lasts for him. The other day, I saw some controversy of some women in size acceptance being mistreated for losing from 700 down to 400lbs, such things are silly to me. For those who can escape all the more power to them!