My Most Favorite Dress Ever

I had this friend give me this dress who lost weight. This dress is called the Juliet Dress. This was the most figure flattering dress ever, I wore it everywhere I could for a few years til it wore out in the early 2000s, plan to get another after I save for it. In my case, clothes snobbery rules, you won't see me walking around in sweats, yes I know a 500lb flat broke clothes snob is rare. I do think the size chart has come down, but could see them customizing one. [would only need a little more room in the hips on the highest size]. My dress style is very different, many people like my choices, but also I've told I dress like its the 1890s, which to me is a compliment!

Clothes that look good on thin people do not necessarily look good on fat people. One pet peeve, is fat women wearing very tight jeans and/or halter tops etc. Toss them in the trash and go find something, that fits right and even more importantly you feel good in. Refuse to wear clothes that are an affront to your dignity. If you are poor, you can get good cheap clothes off ebay!

Plus Sized Wars: More Fat People in Fashion and on TV

Plus-Size Wars: NYTimes.com

This is an interesting article showing some of the new developments in fashion and on TV where more plus sized people are being given a place. This is a good development. It would be nice one day for fat people to be able to buy more clothes and have more variety. I don't know what people my size did 30 years ago? Wear bed sheets or have all the clothes custom made? Thankfully with the Internet us super sized people can find clothes. For years, I would buy dresses off ebay, pressing the 5x plus keys. Some high fashion shows with fat women would be a great thing to see.

NGC Special On Obesity and Cushings

I really wonder how many others are going undiagnosed? See the interview lower down, with someone who faced Cushings. In my case, I was found to have high cortisol too, [Pseudo-Cushings] and years ago, seven times the normal amount of adrenal hormones.

One thing if you really do know you are sick, keep pushing, and find a specialist or doctors who will help you. If I hadn't done so even on two of my conditions I would no longer be here.

Are They Trying To Fatten Us Up On Purpose?

Is there a reason Hardees has to sell a 1400 calorie hamburger, the so called "MonsterThickBurger"? Or that KFC came up with a sandwich the so called "Double Down" that uses fried chicken patties for 'the bread" with cheese and bacon in the middle? Are they competing to make everything as cheese laden and fat filled as possible? People scoff at so called "conspiracy theories" but its hard to ignore the fact at the very least corporate interests seem to be conspiring to make us all as fat as possible. Maybe its a deal with Big Pharma to sell more diabetes pills but some of this really makes me wonder.

Some have said fat and grease sells, but I have felt my own desperation in trying to get something less then plastic while on the road, if food with taste and some nutrients was out there, it would be bought.

Even now I am facing the facts when one has to pay under 20 bucks a meal at restaurant, they are either stuck with Chinese food--sauce and fat on the side, no egg rolls please, or copious amounts of disgusting food that is a nightmare for the lactose intolerant and forget trying gluten free, with a few limp salads thrown in for looks with fried crispy things tossed on top.

When I watched Jaime Oliver's Food Revolution, I wanted to scream at the TV, we are all being fed a load of trash! Only people on farms or big gardens, and those with cash for organic food, [young people seriously consider that as a lifestyle for your own sake] are getting the decent stuff anymore Jaime! Our TVs are full of what basically amounts to food pornography. I enjoy a good cooking show, but is there are a reason in a super sized nation that Emeril used to sing the praises of pork fat, or the host on Man Vs Food, fries a giant pork chop thing with skin and fat attached and yells out: "That's Pork Sexy!" No that is just gross.

Weirder still are the shows dedicated to fit and sassy Rachael Ray eating wondrous meals on a daily basis, though with a cringe some remember the so called Chicago Hot Dog Salad. Other shows display copious amounts of food and complex recipes, that Mary Ordinary would never get to see in her own kitchen outside of a thousand dollar food budget but perhaps on a cruise ship. Then there is the Italian female chef who while cooking foods that consist of every diabetics nightmare who almost disappears when she turns sideways. The mountains of Cool Whip, faux graus, chopped up raw tuna also form a dizzying array of food on the so called cooking channels.

I run my scooter down the supermarket aisles, endless greasy, salted, sugary and expensive foodstuffs look back. Endless bags of fried carbohydrates and bottles of high fructose corn syrup poured into everything. Aluminium silicate, Benzoic acid, calcium chloride and a vast array of the chemical kingdom for everyone! Very few know {read Fast Food Nation} that much of the tastes in processed food, do not come from food itself, but from chemicals whipped up in a lab.


At the grocery store, I follow the nutritionist's advice to "follow the perimeter", grabbing vegetables, meats, and fruits, some tempting "Eat me, I'm tasty" and others forming feelings of disgust, but overall fewer and fewer good things to eat, with more and more empty calories, foods based on white starch, sugar and few nutrients, plastic stomach hurting food, greasy tinned meats, and hamburger red on the outside but always a mushy grey when you take it home to break it down to cook.

Is it just my imagination or has food become just more worse for us, discovering even almond milk had listed as its first ingredient cane juice [basically sugar water] given my lactose intolerance and problems with soy, just made me sigh with food despair.

I can't help but think they want to make us as fat as possible.

Meet the Woman Who Can't Gain Weight

Meet the Woman Who Can't Gain Weight




This is a 21 year old lady with a rare condition they believe is related to progeria, who can't gain weight and has never weighed more then 61 pounds. One can read about other super-thin folks from the circus side show of years ago, who had various wasting diseases and could eat anything. It's interesting she admits she eats 5,000-6,000 calories a day and still stays so thin. It seems maybe it's time to analyze metabolic variations of weight [from very thin to obese] instead of assuming everyone eats the same? She talks about the discrimination she has faced but thankfully has good support from her loved ones.

A Revealing Conversation On Size Acceptance and Health

I and a fellow endocrine sufferer, who I appreciate very much, shares her common experiences with hormonal health challenges and size acceptance. We agree on much. [My questions in blue] Read on:

1. Describe your experience with size acceptance, what did you find positive about it, what did you find negative?

I originally joined the size acceptance movement in 1996. After purchasing my first personal computer and joining the citizens of the internet from home, I stumbled across the Dimensions Magazine website that broadcast the statement: Where Big is Beautiful. The print magazine articles were written by men and women who took pride in themselves as a whole person. This was a new discovery for me, having been a fat teenager and dealing with discrimination, bullies, and general bias because of my size.

I spent a few years mostly reading and studying materials from the NAAFA and Dimensions Magazine, and researching the phenomenon that is fat acceptance.

Over time, I began to learn that for me, the journey to "Size Acceptance" is really a journey of "Self Acceptance" rather than coming to terms with being just fat. As a person, I learned from the SA movement that I have a right to enjoy life just as I am. Since that time, I've even been able to help friends of all sizes come to terms with their own bodies. It's been an interesting journey. When I tell women with low self esteem that I love my body and who I am-- they begin to wonder how "I" could love myself, when they see me as socially unacceptable!

Things I learned from SA:
Doctors usually believe you're fat because you're lazy. Little research and questioning is done for fat people. Diet and exercise are the common prescriptions. Many fat people then turn to alternative medicine or "acceptance" of themselves and then fail to get help! Fat and sexuality are not mutually exclusive. Many people can and so see through the fog of the myth that fat people are somehow second-rate.

My opinions matter, no matter how fat I am! The anonymity of the SA movement online has helped many fat people find their confidence and ability to speak in regards to various issues. I think this has helped the most in fat people learning to advocate for themselves. They know they're not alone, and can voice their opinions.

Society still has yet to accept fat people as the norm in America. Theater seats are uncomfortable, airplane seats and being asked to purchase two seats is the norm. Bathroom stalls are too small. Stairs are too steep. Booths at restaurants are made with fixed tables. Hospital gowns for fat patients are hard to find (and you're made to feel like a freak if you ask for a larger gown at times). Chairs at airports and doctor's office have arms that can cause physical harm to a fat person.

There's a bias in America that fat people are nonsexual. That's so far from the truth! We are human beings just like everyone else, and we have carnal desires, wants and needs to be loved, feel affection and physical attraction. The lies that are perpetuated by the media don't help any.

Size Acceptance has its own militant activists just like every other agenda.

I am still a member of the SA movement, but left my formal advocacy agenda in late 2008.


2. How did you come to be diagnosed with Cushings?

When visiting a new doctor one day in 2007, I was bemoaning to my doctor that for years I'd been battling a host of issues that I thought were just normal things for a fat person. After years of being told that I was fat, lazy, an over-eater and I would have to deal with my health issues -- this new doctor started to ask questions. Every answer I gave created a new question. At the end of an hour-long exam, the doctor asked me if I'd heard of Cushing's Disease. I hadn't yet, but then she explained the textbook symptoms.

The trouble from that point was that local doctors aren't trained in what to do with Cushing's patients, and you have to find an Endocrinologist that understands the disease. There are few specialists who truly understand the full body of research in regards to this endocrine disorder. I saw two local Endocrinologists who laughed me out of their offices despite my doctor's referral. Finally, after much research on the internet and talking to my doctor, I found Dr. Ted Friedman in Los Angeles. Dr. Friedman took the time to meet with me, look at my history of pictures from spanning from current days to my childhood, looked at all of my physical signs and symptoms and prescribed a very focused and intricate testing regimen. After only 46 days of tests, MRIs and discussion, it was decided that I had been living with this disease some call the "Ugly disease" since birth.

Since that time, I have had two pituitary surgeries to help establish a period of remission of all of the difficult symptoms. After each surgery I've enjoyed 6 months of improvement.

3. Do you feel support was lacking in the size acceptance community regarding your diagnosis with Cushings?

Once I shared my disorder, the problems it caused for me, and that I was pursuing a cure for my issues, things began to change for me. When I announced I was having pituitary surgery to work towards a cure, I was treated like someone who didn't know what was right for myself. Constantly people were telling me reconsider such a "drastic surgery" that they felt could leave me crippled for life. Despite all my assurances that I looked at every angle, I received countless phone calls, emails and visits from people who insisted I was making a wrong choice. When I needed support the most from my friends, a dichotomy arose -- that of having to deal with friends who felt I was fat for life, and that of trying to cure a deadly disease.


4. Do you agree that in size acceptance there is a lack of truth about obesity being for some people a symptom of a disease process?

Many of my fat friends categorize their fat as a physical trait, and refuse to believe that obesity is a serious medical condition.

While I personally believe a rubenesque woman can be fit and fluffy, there are many fat people who have serious medical conditions that may go undiagnosed because of their attitude towards size acceptance, their fear of the doctors being emotionally cruel to them, and that there aren't any real serious medical diseases for fat people.

In many circles in the SA community, the talk of "dieting" is forbidden. The reason being that fat people need a place of solace from the people telling them that diets will solve all their problems and they refuse to diet. I can see the point in this argument, but the people that can't diet to lose weight have serious medical issues that should be addressed! I'm sure some people who say they diet really don't and they are fooling themselves, but people like me who eat only 1100 calories a day and gain weight have metabolic disorders that need serious help!

Diseases I've seen friends suffer with from obesity related issues:

Lypo/Lymphadema
High Blood Pressure
Heart Attacks
Deep Vein Thrombosis
Diabetes
Osteoarthritis
Osteopenia
PCOS
Cushing's Disease
Hypothyroidism
Growth Hormone Deficiency

The website bigfatfacts states: Weight is not a barometer of wellness. More Americans die every year from weighing too little than from weighing too much. An estimated 25,000 people die from obesity. Moderately overweight people live longer than those at normal weight. (Flegal, et. al.) (See reference notes at bottom of report)

Weight is not a barometer of wellness! So a fat person can have normal blood pressure, activity level, blood sugar, and labwork. But notice here it says moderately overweight people live longer. Most of my friends in size acceptance are overweight into the hundreds of pounds. Dear friends of mine are over 400 pounds, and one is over 500. Somewhere fat does become a barometer for wellness!



5. Where do you think the size acceptance movement is headed today? Do you think it has a future?

Size Acceptance is splintering into various new groups and is no longer a united front. Some advocacy groups want fat to be declared a disability, yet some don't. If it's a disability, then is it not healthy then? Other groups are insisting that super-sized people shouldn't be part of mainstream size acceptance as they are the "freaks" of the movement.

These kinds of separate attitudes don't do any fat person any good, and it's a shame to see that happening. I wish to think that in the future, we'll find a better united front and be able to be inclusive again.

I Love This Picture

I even did a painting based on this photo, she reminds me of myself when I was in my 20s. Nowadays out in the world, you gotta be tough, if you're a fat woman; but she does it looking good too. :)