Ten Lessons In Buying Bicycles for Fat and Plus Sized People.

I found this article to be very interesting. One thing, even if I have to use a three wheeler bike, one day again, I would like to be able to ride a bike again, some of my best memories as a teen and kid are from riding my bicycle around. I don't know if that day will come, but if I ever get to the point where I can walk over a block, I want a bicycle. Here is a discussion on a forum that is quite interesting, "Bicycles for very overweight people".

Poverty and Being Fat: Food is So Expensive Now

The prices are already shooting up, I'm already ready to pass out from sticker stock at the grocery store.There seems to be a direct correlation between how healthy a food is and how much it costs. The conspiracy theorist in me seems to think its like they WANT all the poor people who can't afford good groceries, to get fat and die younger. Why can I get bologna for a buck but every package of lean turkey lunchmeat in the store costs at least 3.99?-4.99a pound? Why do I have to pay $6.25 for a loaf of gluten free bread? Yes I have the flours to make my own, but the experiments have failed miserably lately, sigh, I will learn with trial and error.

I wonder if being broke, I will suddenly be pushed into out and out starvation too poor to even afford the fattening cheap stuff, and finally maybe weight will fall off. Well hasn't happened yet. I'm one of those strange people who loses weight the more food and money I have. Being a celiac, and poor, is nightmare city, that diet is designed for the millionaires of the world, but I got tired of itching to death, and fear now my bowels may be destroyed beyond the breaking point. One slip up can mean a week of pain and being doubled over. Pain teaches one not to monkey around.

Eating things at the end of the month like some old veggie patties from the freezer for breakfast and having only a few dollars to spend, one's food options get very limited. Being penniless and trying to assemble meals with the fewest ingredients as possible, it's gotten harder.

I dread meal time, and sometimes it seems such a hassle, with the lactose intolerance and celiac, I'd just skip if it didnt mean passing out. I'm quite sure my doctor would not like to hear about my 3-4pm lunch times. Meals on Wheels is full of wheat and says I am too young.

Grocery costs are skyrocketing. Even when I read the working class "Cooking Quick" magazine which keeps things more basic, I think well how am I going to afford all these herbs, and my pantry is getting pretty empty. Coupons are a joke, they allow for the most sugar laden, processed crap food, there are no coupons for green peppers or rice noodles that I have ever seen.

I plan meals out for when husband shops, and exact ingredients, I have no choice but to do so. It's getting tough. Right now I am craving salad, and some plums, and more. I am making left over chicken with rice noodles and some canned bean sprouts [the fresh are almost 4 bucks here] for dinner, I had soup made with kale and carrots for lunch with sandwiches on gluten free bread. So still trying my best, but just the effort to acquire food, and make it, seems like a marathon anymore. American wages are sinking like crazy, at least we still have a roof over our head and some income coming in, but food insecurity is nothing I am new to.

That said, the food pantries, are scary as well. They are short on food now due to the growing poverty and if you have special dietary needs there is no way they will take time or even have the resources to match them. One time I got some corn, 2 packages of cookies, pasta and a box of potatoes [I'm allergic to potatoes too] from one food pantry, the only edible item for me was some apple sauce. So avoid food pantries if you can help it. Beggars can't be choosers, and they are basically bastions of starch and sugar.

But overall, the less money you have the hardest it is to eat and afford a healthy diet, I still remember this one pre-Whole Foods Health food store, I used to for a treat in a city, I lived in years ago. The hippies still ran it, this was before they sold out to Whole Foods. Scads of salad, beans, seeds, varieties of hummus, cut vegetable salads, lean meats, the place was a mecca of the healthiest tastiest food on the planet, the rare times I had money, Id go fill up on their organic salad bar and swoon it was so good!. Is it funny, I have dreams about that place, ok maybe that is showing a little food obession, but I LIKE the healthy stuff. Too bad so much of it is so expensive.

There is something new out there being called recession pounds, they are predicting that more Americans will become fatter from the Great American Depression Redeux. That definitely will happen. Read this quote:

The specter of “recession pounds” is a concern weighing on health professionals, who point to numerous studies linking obesity and unhealthy eating habits to low incomes.
They fear that as people cut food spending they will cut back on healthy but relatively expensive items such as fresh fish, fruit, vegetables and whole grains, in favor of cheaper options high in sugar and saturated fats.
“People … are going to economize and as they save money on food they will be eating more empty calories or foods high in sugar, saturated fats and refined grains, which are cheaper,” said Adam Drewnowski, the director of the Nutrition Sciences Program at the University of Washington in Seattle.

I'm buying a grow light for my apartment to grow food in the corner of the living room. Yes that is how expensive food is getting.

Maire Claire Writer Gets Her Comeuppance!

Interesting article, "Obesity ? It's those sickly tiny pots of light yogurt that gross me out!": I'm glad to see someone fighting back against those snooty, elitist magazine types who put down everyone who is not a size 2. The idea of seeing someone kiss, and being revolted just because they are a bit fat, is beyond the pale.

Here is the article she is crying out against:



I find mainstream women's magazines more and more obnoxious, boring, the same re-run articles, the same obsession with body size. Blatant fat hatred is no surprise. Looks like they "apologized" well it's a little bit too late and the "apology" is weak.

Chubby Chasers Give Me the Willies!

Chubby Chasers and Fat Admirers/Fetishes:, the men that are out there with their overwhelming desire for the full figure and who love fat women over all other kinds. I have absolutely nothing against a man who thinks a 300-lb. and over woman is beautiful, as a summation of all her parts personality, values, and even, yes, looks, but to be frank the ones who have turned fat into a top priority and a fetish creep me out.

I'm glad whoever wrote this Wikipedia entry on fat fetishism gave a nod to fat people in size acceptance who got a bit fed up with the objectification of fat women. This website will help explain some terms I use here, like "fat admirers" [though they hold a more fence-sitting view], feederism and more.

Some people involved in the fat acceptance movement argue that fat fetishism undermines social movements towards fat acceptance, through counter-productive objectification and dehumanization of fat people.

This may be politically incorrect to some liberals and others but when it comes to Chubby Chasers and "Fat Admirers", outside of men who are dating fat women because they are overweight themselves, or looking for you as a whole person....Run like the wind!

I was a pretty enough woman [today I'm much older with years of illness notched on my belt], which garnered their attention, and have had some chubby chasing type strangers, show up at the grocery store, bookstore, and other places, come up to me to say "hello". Perhaps some were truly interested in me as a person, but I know especially at my peak weights, I was fat enough to gain some attention, and in my case, was oh so young, when hitting the top weights. Anyhow, their efforts were for naught, hitting on a woman who was attached by age 25.

Years ago, once at a conference for fat people, I got a secret admirer sniffing my trail and remember telling a lady whom he wanted to serve as a go-between: "Tell him, I'm married!" In certain circles of size acceptance, this was no stumbling block, but of course it was for me.

Luckily this man didn't even know my name or address, but a realization hit me: somebody who never spoke to me was enamored because of how I looked. Now this can happen to all women, thin women talk about their objectification, and when a men and women do meet each other, appearances is all they got to go on in the first seconds and minutes of meeting each other, but it just felt weird overall.

This is because by then, I had seen so much weird stuff around me. As a fully monogamous, then engaged and married woman, I was an outside viewer to the size acceptance date and relate world. I know today I was beyond very horribly naive, in thinking these groups could be about platonic friendship, size activism and not just about sex, but then being in the 500-lb. and rising class, social isolation from my size was already affecting me and I just wanted to make regular friends. My experiences include some fat acceptance conferences and social groups that focused on BBWs and larger women.

When it came to the men, the few good ones loved fat women regardless of their weight -- maybe they were overweight themselves, maybe they had grown up among a loved fat role model -- anyhow, they just saw weight as a physical trait, and did not glorify it. These were the ones who were overweight themselves or in some way, could relate to previously suffering from obesity or growing up with it in some way.

The worst men gravitated towards fat women whose mannerisms left their would be suitors believing that they were passive, compliant and easily controlled. In some cases, this was true, in others the vultures left empty-handed, sorely disappointed.

I believe most fat women who are mid-sized can date normally, the world is full of all sorts of sizes in healthy marriages, but very super-sized women especially need to be careful. People under turmoil and in vulnerable positions can attract those who do not have their best interests at heart. One friend said it this way, "Broken people can attract other broken people". This doesn't mean everyone who is very fat is "broken," but definitely they are facing things the normal healthy folks are not facing. This may include severe health problems or food addiction.

I have heard horrifying stories, even from other people in size acceptance circles and organizations, about the treatment of very large women. They ranged from an 800-lb.-plus woman being kept entrapped in a walk-in closet on the floor, to finding out about feeders. I had the experience of befriending a lady near my size [she was in the high 400s], thinking we would relate to each other, and then being shocked on finding her feederism website. That new friendship was ended quickly.

There are men who like their women more easily controlled and that can happen especially with fat women facing mobility problems. Very fat people who have faced social ostracization or rejection need to be extra careful as to their selection out in the dating world.

But as an outside observer, with my fiance and then husband at my side, it was quite obvious -- for men, it was an absolute buyer's market with women always outnumbering the men. While some men were overweight, super-sized men were basically nonexistent, and most of the chubby chasers were of a thin or average build. Married or otherwise attached couples made up a sizable number, but still remained in the minority. This was no place for Christians or the traditional, which is one reason I left size acceptance too. A wedding ring meant little, judging by the men who ignored the silver circle on my left hand and those of other women.

It seemed when fat women discovered the opportunities in this new "fat-loving" underground, they went absolutely boy crazy like teenagers. But boy crazy at 35 or 44 is different then boy crazy at 15; hotel rooms can be rented, and trips made with no more required parental supervision. It was no holds barred.

Promiscuity ruled that world [and I think it would be worse today], which is why I removed myself from it. This applied not only to the socially focused groups, but the activism one as well. Ideas about platonic friendship and finding a wouldbe fat sisterhood was a joke, in that crowd. My morals didn't fit into this hedonistic mentality, where very fat women offered themselves to any man who'd have them driven by the nudge that whispered, "Take what you can get honey!"

I still remember one conversation I had with one of the ladies in one of these social groups. "Hilda" [name has been changed] reveled in her largeness, claiming that she liked weighing 320 lbs., and when she fell under that oddly chosen benchmark, ate to get back up there, and dieted to not get too much over it, fearing the immobility that comes with larger sizes. She'd married a very timid man, who catered to all her desires who openly admitted he was only with her because she was fat.

One day I made the mistake of asking, "Well what would happen if you lost weight, say, to getting a digestive disorder or something?" "Hilda" didn't hem or haw for a instant: "Well, that probably would be the end of it!", she said.

It didn't take too to figure out that others like "Hilda" populated these scenes; outside of the regular world of dating and marriage, very fat women seemed all too vulnerable to the new flattery they encountered, and became easy marks for the most predatory of men. This doesn't mean there aren't thin women who also become marks, but just seeing human beings treat each other as objects will forever stay with me.

Towards the end, before I cleared out for good, I realize that some fat acceptance organizations seemed far more interested in fulfilling and pleasing chubby chaser and fat fetish/admirer desires, then raising any awareness or help for fat people. I want to keep this article rated G, but I found out about too much: women my size signing up to have soft porn videos made of them [they were told it would "empower" them], realizing swinging wasn't just something left behind in the 70s. You know life has gotten strange when your local plus sized social club, calls you "the prude" because of your refusal to join in on their lifestyle choices. By then I had seen enough.

McDonald's Happy Meal Resists Decomposition

A picture of a McDonalds Happy Meal exposed sitting outside is making the Internet rounds, and definitely shows something very wrong with our food [particularly fast food]. After I found out about the Silly Putty Chicken McNuggets, that was enough to make my stomach hurt.

Vladimir Lenin, King Tut and the McDonald's Happy Meal: What do they all have in common? A shocking resistance to Mother Nature's cycle of decomposition and biodegradability, apparently.

That's the disturbing point brought home by the latest project of New York City-based artist and photographer Sally Davies, who bought a McDonald's Happy Meal back in April and left it out in her kitchen to see how well it would hold up over time.

The results? "The only change that I can see is that it has become hard as a rock," Davies told the U.K. Daily Mail.

I was thinking about this, even if this lady has an apartment with a humidity of 10% [impossible during humid New York City summers even with air conditioning, how come no flies or bugs even came to pick at the burger?

Psychological Tricks to Get Kids to Eat Healthy Food?

Ah that isn't THAT healthy.....

This seems like 2 million dollars of wasted money, why not cook healthy food and provide it, instead of having to fool the kids into choosing the healthier foods? Kids aren't stupid if you hide the chocolate milk behind the white, they are going to dig for it.

These subtle moves can entice kids to make healthier choices in school lunch lines, studies show. Food and restaurant marketers have long used similar tricks. Now the government wants in on the act.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced what it called a major new initiative Tuesday, giving $2 million to food behavior scientists to find ways to use psychology to improve kids' use of the federal school lunch program and fight childhood obesity.

If they are eating nothing but junk at home, what makes anyone think they are going to pick all the fruits and vegetables at school?

Fat Girl Fights Back #2

In fourth grade, I struggled with an elderly "Wicked Witch of the West" style teacher, who refused to give me anything above a "C", years after being a student with mostly A's. My mind held a picture of this woman who wore the same blue dress everyday, and loomed over me, stuffing dirty Kleenex up her sleeves. She had to be over 80 years old and should have been in a nursing home. Years later, I would find my Catholic school's reunion website on Facebook, where her face was pictured right there from 1977, my memories and imagination did not exaggerate the gnarled cruel face and piercing eyes. Her ancient exhaustion with the youthful exuberance of my 4th grade class mixed into a toxic explosive stew.

This is the year, the boys started playing a new game called "Smear the Q*****"--in which they literally chased down their slower, fatter "peers", and beat them up. I'd see Peter--a slower overweight boy, though not as large as me getting beaten up and teased unmercifully. For him and those like him, the playground was a danger zone of daily scrapes, the occasional bloody nose and bruises.

Sometimes our eyes would meet, and we'd both look downward, sharing in the same outcast shame. In Pete's face, I saw how my tormentor's always operated: always in large groups, so someone couldn't fight back effectively.

Not even losing recess for weeks at a time [a punishment usually bestowed by the principal] dented this peculiar sport's popularity. Back then still, girl's were to be left more alone, but I knew about women's lib [thought I didn't understand it all back then] and knew who the next target could be. I carried rocks in my pockets in case someone picked me out for a lark. But frankly unlike the fat boys, for me there were lines of protection, a big brother who was taller and somewhat fat, but not over the line like me, and the children of Vietnamese immigrants who were being sponsored by the church who I had befriended, with a child in just about every grade including kids, a few years older.

Having been shot at in a helicopter to flee Communists, my best female friend of the same age from that family whose house I spent multiple hours at, playing board games and eating their spicy dishes of meat over bowls of rice, didn't put up with any nonsense, so she taught me to stand up for myself. By 4th grade, I knew to cower before a bully only encouraged them.

Without these personal bodyguards, I think my time on the playground probably would have grown worse then Pete's given enough time. Kids who are fatter, learn the hard way, they have to come up with some different tools to make it.

Fat Hatred and Disability On the Cleveland Show?

This lady is outraged at the portrayal of "Kendra on the cartoon "The Cleveland Show". I don't agree with her politics but understand her anger. It's business as usual sadly in multi-media land. I've only seen this cartoon a few times, it is too raunchy and nasty for me, but everyone is made fun of, on it, as this cartoon is part of the Family Guy franchise. Here is Kendra's cartoon "bio".

Kendra is also a redneck, and is possibly disabled. She is very much overweight, diabetic, a compulsive eater, and can barely get anywhere without use of her Rascal scooter, though is never seen without her cheerful attitude. Kendra first appeared in the Pilot at Cleveland and Donna's wedding. Kendra loves food, and is known to soak deviled eggs in her "flabs" before eating them. Kendra also has very bad gas. In Brown History Month, a paramedic said that her cholesterol was so high that it couldn't be measured by current science.

She is seen in A Brown Thanksgiving at the soup kitchen, with her family, on Thanksgiving, revealing that her family is poor.

More "programming" for the masses, but am I surprised to see a severely fat mobility impaired character married to an extreme caricature hillbilly "Lester" portrayed as doing nothing but eating buckets of ice cream, strewing food wrappers in her stead, with one show plot centering on her falling on the youngest child-Rallo, and almost squishing him to death while about to go into a diabetic coma? Not really. However there is part of me, surprised, that a character like this is even shown on TV, extremely fat people, especially those with mobility problems, well you don't see too many of them. I read about one show, where she was made the hero of an episode, saving two other females from a crooked casino owner.

What is even weirder is one time, they showed "Kendra" as super-thin. Odd that given most super sized people are fat by childhood. Is this supposed to suggest to us her life confined to a scooter led to the obesity?Here is the picture.

Anyhow, watching the cultural messages about fat people out in the world, it's getting worse and worse. Does this mean there are no fat people consigned to scooters who don't have eating disorders, No. But one can see the influences, that lead to a voicelessness in the experiences of fat people? Being super-fat in this world is almost like being forced into a total 24/7 caricature not of your own choosing.

Say Yes to the Dress: Big Bliss

Say Yes to the Dress, is the TLC program, that shows a large wedding dress shop, where they have made a show out of women selecting their wedding dresses. Well last night, they did their new plus size version.

Some things I noticed:

1. Most of these women were in the 20-26 size range, why couldn't the dresses have been made to actually fit them? Most could not zip their dresses up. Here the dress manufacturers need to actually make the dresses for the real sizes. The majority of the women were apple shaped vs. pear shaped. Any woman with bigger hips would have been even worse off.

2. The staff was very nice and accommodating, of course I found the constant tears and deflated egos, a bit off putting. The thin women cry too out of loving their wedding dress, but what is about TV that always shows fat women bawling their eyes out every two seconds about how horrible and overweight they are?

3. One woman with the square black glasses, had a very over-affected personality, such as if someone was writing a play and wanted to script in, a "tough as nails" outspoken fat "diva".

4. The dresses looked like they just fattened up "thin" women's dresses, I mean for goodness sakes, designing a dress that is "tight" around the stomach area? What fat woman would look good in that? They were far too tailored, and tight, and not enough give. Is this to save money on fabric?

5. I had my wedding dress custom made. Not everyone can afford this or manage that {I sold art to finance it}, but I never got to try on wedding dresses when I was married, I was so far out of the normal sizes, I did design my own dress and got someone to sew it. It had a higher "empire" waist with a full skirt.

6. Watching the ladies choose which dress is always interesting, as well as the reaction of the friends and family.