Dances With Fat

Wait – Those Kids are Healthy?

danceswithfat — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:23:02 +0000

By now you may have heard that the children in the Strong4Life child shaming campaign who talk about being sick and teased because of their weight are actually healthy, confident kids who happen to be large. Recently another ad campaign showed a headless fat man with his leg amputated with pictures of crutches and soda, claiming that large fast food portions can lead to Type 2 diabetes which can lead to leg amputation. Not only does the photograph’s subject have a head, he also has both legs. What he doesn’t have is diabetes.

Some are asking “So what? They are actors. Actors pretend”. The problem here is that the entire reason that these pictures are used is so that people identify with them and become fearful. “I look like the man in the picture and I drink soda. I’m going to have to have my leg amputated!” “My kid looks like the girl in that commercial, she’s going to get diabetes!” Kids are meant to look at those pictures and be scared that looking like that means that they have diseases. I think that we need to be very careful about instilling a fear of being fat into kids considering that hospitalizations for eating disorders in kids under 12 are up 119% over the last decade. So these ads shame, stigmatize, and humiliate those who look like the people in the ads, and instill a fear of being fat in those who don’t. Would those people feel differently about the ads, or about themselves if the ads told the truth “This is a healthy, happy, outgoing child who is fat” or “This is a successful, happy, healthy man who is fat”? But there is something more insidious…

These ads send the disingenuous message to society that those of us who look like the people in the ads are sick, or going to get sick, that when we do it will be our fault, and that the way to prevent this is to shame us publicly for our perceived behaviors. Then comes the ridiculous “won’t somebody think of my tax dollars” argument and we’re off to the races as the food police don their badges and head out. People are encouraged to see a fatty drinking a soda, assume that we drink gallons of soda every day, and that they are going to have to pay for a leg amputation, and that this somehow makes it their business, and acceptable to “educate” us via confrontation. Because surely the best way to make people healthy is to shame, stigmatize and humiliate them at every possible opportunity.

Obviously the bottom line is that it’s not anybody else’s business what we do and that, at least in the US, your tax dollars go to pay for a plethora of things and unless you have a list of all of them divided into things that you are okpaying for and things about which you are currently engaged in an active campaign against, then you don’t even get to start this conversation with me.

But let’s be honest, they are using using healthy people to create shame, fear, and stigma around health problems those people do not have. That’s questionable at best. Just like diet ads have to say “Results not typical” every single time they suggest that their product might work, these ads should have to have a disclaimer “actor is healthy, successful and happy at their current size”.

Very Exciting Billboard Update!!!!

Get ready for the More of Me to Love Match. The awesome folks over at MOMTL (www.moreofmetolove.com) are supporting the billboard project with a matching donation in the amount of $5,000! That means we only have to raise $5,000 more to put up the first size positive billboard in Atlanta! In order to qualify for the grant we just need to raise $5,000, and get 1,000 individual donors (there’s no minimum donation so every little bit really does help). The amazing Marilyn Wann has graciously offered to send autographed copies of the Fat!So? Dayplanner to the first 10 people who donate $50-99, and autographed Fat!So? books to the first 10 people who donate $100 or more.

The Big Fat Money Bomb, which is our fundraising kickoff, is Thursday. You can find out all of the information here. If you want a reminder on Thursday just send me an e-mail at ragen at danceswithfat dot org and I’ll put you on the list.

This blog is supported by its readers rather than corporate ads. If you feel that you get value out of the blog, can afford it, and want to support my work and activism, please consider a paid subscription or a one-time contribution. The regular e-mail subscription (available at the top right hand side of this page) is still completely free. Thanks for reading! ~Ragen

Who are We Missing?

danceswithfat — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:18:04 +0000

I recently read an article about how Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson and Adele all need to lose weight. The author suggested that people stop buying tickets to their shows until they are thin.

I saw an article about how Melissa McCarthy and Gabourey Sidibe are a trend that we need to stop before we end up with a red carpet full of fatties.

So I’m wondering, how many amazingly talented people are we missing out on as a society for no good reason?

Does Autotune exist because we choose our singers primarily for their ability to fit a narrow stereotype of beauty, with the ability to sing a distant second?

How many horrible actors and actresses do we suffer through because the industry chooses them for their ability to fit a narrow stereotype of beauty, and not in any way for their ability to act?

Why, as a culture, do we ignore the actual abilities we are looking for and instead make the ability to fit a narrow stereotype of beauty our main criteria? People come in all shapes and sizes and so it makes sense that talented people come in all shapes and sizes. Why are we always so shocked when someone who isn’t traditionally attractive can sing? What does one have to do with the other? We’re so conditioned to think that talent only comes in a stereotypically beautifully package that we lose our minds when Susan Boyle stands up and belts out I Dreamed a Dream. I don’t mean to shock anyone here, but how someone looks has literally nothing to do with their chances of being a good singer, or actress, or dancer, or anything else. Wouldn’t it just be fantastic if we chose people based on their talent and not on their ability to walk a red carpet in a sample size dress?

Now for the good news: We are four days away from kicking some serious ass. Thursday we are doing our Big Fat Money Bomb to support kids by putting up billboards with positive messages to counteract the shaming, stigmatizing, humiliating billboards that the Strong4Life campaign has put out. The amazing Marilyn Wann has graciously offered to send autographed copies of the Fat!So? Dayplanner to the first 10 people who donate $50-99, and autographed Fat!So? books to the first 10 people who donate $100 or more. You can find out all of the information here at www.SupportAllKids.com If you want a reminder on Thursday just send me an e-mail at ragen at danceswithfat dot org and I’ll put you on the list.

Of Tongs and Truths

danceswithfat — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 08:37:08 +0000

When I was in 6th grade I did a science fair project to simulate nuclear fission. It involved a plexi-glass box, 100 mousetraps, ping pong balls with holes drilled in them, and bbs of different colors. Setting 100 moustraps and “baiting them” with bb-filled ping pong balls was becoming hard on my poor sixth grade fingers, so I devised a method that used my mother’s kitchen tongs. As I took my project and her tongs off to the science fair she said “Don’t lose my tongs!” I don’t remember exactly what I said but I’m sure it was something like “mooooooom, why don’t you trust me to be responsible, I’ll bring back your tongs!” The project was a big hit and won the the science fair (although the second place kid had set fire to bits of hair to test the flammability of various hair sprays so I didn’t so much have to clear the bar as just trip and fall over it. Also, you probably shouldn’t light a match while wearing Aquanet but that’s a different story.)

I lost the tongs.

I don’t know how I did it or wear they went. I know that my mom freaked out. She was so angry. Even when the anger died down I heard about it until I left the house and went to college. And when I went to college I started shopping for myself. And I found out that tongs cost $2. And I called my mom and she laughed and laughed. Based on her reaction I thought that tongs must be incredibly expensive, that I had caused my family financial hardship by losing them. I didn’t do my own research and so I walked around for a long time under a very misinformed assumption.

That whole story is very similar to the current obesity hysteria. It started with the idea that fat is bad, and the finding that therefore making people thin could be profitable. Then it got all blown out of proportion because people accepted the premise without really looking into it and then set forth to “prove” it with healthy doses of confirmation bias, guesses, confusing weight and health, and confusing correlation and causation, all driven by a diet industry that makes 60 Billion Dollars a year. If we don’t do our own research its easy to believe that hype, but the truth is that tongs cost $2, and there are healthy and unhealthy people of all sizes and no amount of hysteria will change either of those facts.

Healthy habits give us our best chance for health, although not a guaranteed chance since health is multi-dimensional and not entirely within our control. It’s pretty unlikely that healthy habits will make us thin, but if we choose health (and it is each of our choice) then we are best served if we keep our eye on the ~~tongs~~ ball. One of the most damaging things about the obesity hysteria is that fat people are told that healthy habits don’t “work” unless they make us thin so when people start healthy habits and don’t lose weight they quit doing things that will make them healthier because they don’t make them thin. It also gives thin people the dangerous misinformation that their weight makes them healthy no matter what their habit are. We can pick ourselves up out of the pile BS that that the diet industry and the obesity hysteria have created. We are the only people in charge of what we believe about our health, how we feel about our bodies, how highly we prioritize our health, and what path we take to get there. You are the boss of your underpants. Occupy Your Underpants!

Major Update:

A couple of weeks ago we talked about putting up positive billboards to counteract the negative Strong4Life billboard campaign that shames, stigmatizes and humiliates fat kids in the name of their health. I can’t stand that kids are having to look at these billboards every day on the way to school. It’s time to do something. It’s time stand up for these kids and put up our own billboards. We are kicking it off on Thursday, February 2nd with The Big Fat Money Bomb. The goal of the Money Bomb is to get as many donations as possible on the first day of the campaign for momentum and media. We will show the kids that they are valued and supported, and we will shows the bullies that we won’t stand for this and that we are capable of doing something big. You can find out all of the information here at www.SupportAllKids.com If you want a reminder on Thursday just send me an e-mail at ragen at danceswithfat dot org and I’ll put you on the list.

Fat Bodies are Not Evidence

danceswithfat — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:31:28 +0000

Consider the following true stories:

A doctor tells a fat patient that they need to eat less and exercise more without asking them what they eat or how much they exercise. When they say that they do eat healthy and exercise instead of asking for details the doctor says “That can’t possibly be true.”

A fat person goes to a personal trainer, explains that they practice the Health at Every Size(r) method and want to increase their strength, stamina, and flexibility. The trainer ignores their request and devises a weight loss plan.

A fat person is out for ice cream with their thin friends. Ignoring the fact that the thin people are eating the same thing someone walks up and tells the fat person “This is why you’re fat.”

Paula Deen eats a hamburger on a cruise and a website puts up a poll asking if that’s “ok” or if she “should only be seen eating healthier foods” (a poll that the Rolls not Trolls Group totally fat bombed by the way, when last I looked 84% of respondents said that people should mind their own business)

A fat child is told that he shouldn’t have any cake at his own birthday party because he shouldn’t ever have any sweets until he is thin.

Parents are accused of child abuse because one of their kids is fat. Even though these parents are officially labeled “child abusers” and the fat child is moved to foster care, social services allows their thin child to remain in the home of these so-called “abusers”

What do all of these situations have in common? If you answered “They are all effed up” you are totally right but it goes beyond that.

Fat bodies are seen as “evidence”. People try to claim that our bodies are evidence of unhealthy behaviors, lack of willpower, lack of self-care. Then they claim that this evidence is compelling enough to make it ok to target us for shame, stigma and humiliation “for our own good”.

Even more damaging, fat people start to internalize this message thinking “If I’m fat then no matter how healthy my habits are I must be doing something wrong. I deserve to be treated poorly and have my body and choices treated like public property.”

This is just not true. Fat bodies are not public property, they are not evidence, and they are not a sign that we need someone to step in and tell us how to take care of ourselves. First because nobody can tell what our habits are based on our body size. Second because our health is our decision – we each get to choose how highly to prioritize our health and what path we want to take to get there, with the understanding that we may be limited by the resources that are available to us.

If people really want to do something about health they will start concentrating on making sure that everyone has access to the foods that they would choose to eat, safe movement options that they enjoy, and appropriate evidence-based health care. Claiming to be for health while running a ridiculous “one shamed fatty at a time” campaign sounds a whole lot like being a bully and then blaming the bullied. I don’t know about you, but those bullies can’t have my lunch money any more.

Slightly off-topic, I am now blogging on issues of body image, beauty, and women’s health for NBC’s iVillage. My first post (about the intersection of body image and high heels) can be found here! Since I’m new it would be awesome and helpful if you wanted to check it out and comment!

Grading on a Big Fat Curve

danceswithfat — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:32:55 +0000

Pierre Dukan is a French diet guru. He thinks that, in their last two years of high school, students should be awarded extra exam marks if they maintain an acceptable Body Mass Index (BMI). He makes no mention of the vast shortcomings of BMI (including that it does not, in any way, measure health). He makes no mention of what would happen to students who are very tall or very muscular who would be punished academically for their strength and height.

He claims that it will be “a good way to sensitise teenagers to the need for a balanced diet.” I think it is just as likely that it will sensitize them to the ability to use dangerous behaviors to try to “make weight”. It’s not like he’s suggesting an education program about a balanced diet (one that, were it evidence-based, would likely denounce the low carb high protein diet that has made Pierre millions.) He doesn’t want to measure kids’ health, or the health of their diet (which would be problematic in and of itself). He wants weigh kids and grade them on their weight. That’s not educational, and it’s not about health, it’s punitively punishing fat kids.

Pierre says that it would not punish fat children: “There is nothing wrong with educating children about nutrition. This will not change anything for those who do not need to lose weight. For the others, it will motivate them.” It sounds an awful like what he’s saying is that it won’t punish thin kids or kids who manage to get thin. Of course it punishes fat kids – that is the point.

Those aren’t my biggest problem with this however. My biggest problem with this is the same as my problem with the Georgia child-shaming billboards and all of the campaigns whose goal is to end “childhood obesity”:

Where is the evidence? Where the frickity fricking frick is the evidence?

Where is the evidence that punishing fat kids with poor grades “motivates” them and makes them healthier or thinner in the short or long term? Where is the longitudinal study with the statistically significant sample, and the controlled variables? What is he basing this on…rectal pull?

Where is the proof that nutrition education leads to kids eating more nutritiously? Where is the proof that eating more nutritiously will make them thin?

Where is the evidence that billboards that shame kids under the guise of making their parents “aware” that they are fat lead to them becoming healthier or thinner? Where are the studies to back up this method?

Where is the evidence that sending home a BMI report card from school will positively affect kid’s health?

Where is the damn evidence?

The current “logic” that we’re working under seems to be “Fatness is such a horrible problem that we can’t stop to prove that it’s a problem or see if our intervention will make things worse before we start solving it!” And that’s just dumb.

I would call this a grand social experiment but it’s not. An experiment would be way better than this. First because they would need to get IRB approval. This might be difficult since they’re messing with the physical and psychological health of kids. But let’s pretend that they get this approval. They would then have to do all the scientific method stuff that’s apparently just too much trouble for these people – form a hypothesis, design an experiment, institute controls, blah blah. It’s just science, how important could it be?

But here’s the kicker: Let’s say the hypothesis was “punishing fat kids with bad grades will make them thin”. (Now, it would probably also behoove them to prove that that making kids thin would cause them to be healthier but that’s a different deal.) At the end of the experiment, they would evaluate the results and if kids didn’t get thin they would say “this intervention doesn’t work. Our hypothesis was wrong.”

But that’s not what happening. Anybody and their French brother can apparently say “I think this will work” and then treat their brainchild as if it’s a proven intervention and foist it onto children. Then when kids don’t get thin they don’t say that the idea failed, they say that the kids failed. And that’s unacceptable. You can file it under T for “Things that are total bullshit”

We need to stop letting people do this to kids, and while we’re at it we could stop doing it to ourselves. There is not a single study of a weight loss method that works for more than a small fraction of participant long term, not one. So when we don’t succeed at losing weight and we blame ourselves, it’s like putting a roast in the microwave and blaming ourselves if it doesn’t brown. If there is absolutely no evidence that something will work (and in fact a mountain of evidence that it won’t) why would we blame ourselves when it doesn’t work for us?

We, and our kids, deserve access to evidence-based health interventions. I believe that the burden of proof is on the person who wants to implement the intervention. First they have to prove that there is a problem, then they have to prove that they can solve it, then they have to be honest about the pros/cons/side effects of the solution. Then, and only then people get to choose if they want the solution. You’ll notice there is no step where someone gets to force other people to implement their best guess of a health strategy. I think if people really cared about kids health, they would take the time to find out what works before risking irreparable physical and psychological harm.

Oh the Humanity!

danceswithfat — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 09:37:12 +0000

I talk a lot about minding our own business, today I want to talk about the opposite.

When I wrote about ways to deal with the Friends and Family Food Police at at the holidays, I got an e-mail saying that I should just “keep my mouth shut and appreciate that they care enough about to say something”.

Um, no. I’m not going to do that. I respect everyone’s right to handle these situations in their own way, but that’s not how I roll. To me this behavior is inappropriate and I’m not going to smile pretty and take it. The people who are in my life must respect my choices (even if they don’t agree with them) and must treat me with the level of respect that I require. I give clear communication, set specific boundaries and consequences, and follow through. I respect someone’s choice not to be in my life, and I will not hesitate to remove someone from my life if they aren’t able to get it together. What I won’t do is be surrounded by family and friends treating me in a way that I find inappropriate while I smile and say thanks.

When I wrote denouncing bullying behavior disguised as being for our own good, I got an e-mail saying that I should “stop worrying about the words people are saying and appreciate their intentions instead.”

I get why this makes people uncomfortable. It’s difficult to see someone get upset with a person who seems (or says that they are) well intentioned. And I think that’s exactly what’s so insidious about this type of bullying. People get to mistreat us and then side step while waving their red cape of “good intentions”. That doesn’t work for me. I think that we teach people how to treat us and, well meaning or not, this behavior is not appropriate treatment.

When I did a video condemning the fact that Dr. Oz, who makes MILLIONS of dollars selling weight loss, was shocked to find out that there is research that disagrees with him, I received e-mails saying that I “need to find more compassion for Dr. Oz and where he is at in his journey”.

I would have a tremendous amount of compassion if Dr. Oz admitted that he was on a journey, and had bothered to find out that there is opposition research. But he chooses to call himself an expert and tell millions of people (as a medical doctor who they trust, and for profit) to do something when he hasn’t even bothered to do a literature review. I’m not scraping up a lot of compassion for Dr. Oz, I do have tons of compassion for the people he is so confidently and profitably lying to.

In this culture fat people deal with a whole bunch of crap and everyone has their own way to deal with it and that is totally cool, but I will not give up the option of insisting that I be treated with the level of respect that I require, and calling out fat shaming/hating/stigmatizing when I see it.

I’m Seeing Double

danceswithfat — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:21:37 +0000

Double standards, that is. I’m watching the show Friday Night Lights and there is an episode where one of the tall thin beautiful female characters decides that she is hungry, she asks her boyfriend for a long list of junk food from the convenience store, reminding him that she is eating all of it. You can see this repeated all over the place in pop culture. This is iconic – she is a hot chick who is “one of the guys”, she can eat her body weight in wings, she orders beer and not wine, she orders her hot dog with chili and extra cheese and in the event of a break-up she eats a gallon of mint chocolate chip punctuated with sprays of whipped topping directly from the can into her mouth. She looks like a model but eats like a linebacker. She’s “every man’s dream”.

But what about this girl: She’s fat, she can eat her body weight in wings, she orders beer and not wine, she orders her hot dog with chili and extra cheese and in the event of a break-up she eats a gallon of mint chocolate chip punctuated with sprays of whipped topping directly from the can into her mouth. She is a fat woman who eats like a linebacker. She is the subject of shame, stigma, humiliation and ridicule by everyone from random strangers on the internet to her doctor.

Why if someone is thin are these behaviors considered hot, but if she’s fat the exact same behaviors are irresponsible, disgusting, causing her diseases that she “deserves”, costing every tax dollars etc.?

And here is another layer of effed-upedness: I eat healthy most of the time, and yet I’m accused of those behaviors. So let me get this straight: If I were thin, my actual behaviors would be considered boring and uptight, but the behaviors that I’m accused of would be considered hot. Because I’m fat, the behaviors that I’m being accused of are considered irresponsible and disgusting and my actual behaviors are considered impossible. Feel free to read that sentence a couple more times if you need to.

The answer isn’t to stop “condoning” these behaviors in thin women or to start “condoning” them in fat women. The answer is for each of us to mind our own damn business. Each of us has the right to punch, but that right ends at the tip of someone else’s nose. Probably not coincidentally our right to judge others works exactly the same way. We are allowed to have all kinds of opinions, but nobody else has an obligation to care how we think they should live their lives. If we start with that, then we’ll soon find that this slope is just too slippery - whose behavior do we get to choose and who gets to choose our behavior for us? It’s a lot less fun when someone gets to tell us how to live. While we’re at it, let’s stop making assumptions. Let’s not assume that the way someone is eating tonight out at dinner is the way that they eat all the time. Let’s not assume that we can look at someone and know what they eat. Let’s not assume that it’s any of our business what people eat. Let’s stop creating a culture of guilt and shame around food, and we can also stop creating a culture of guilt and shame around bodies, mind our own business, make our own choices, and live happier ever after.

But Did I Learn the Lesson

danceswithfat — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 08:01:30 +0000

Wei et al. “Relationship Between Low Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Mortality in Normal-Weight, Overweight, and Obese Men.” JAMA. 1999;282: 1547-1553

My mom was telling me a story that she heard. Now, this is my mom and she is the best mom in the whole world, and she’s not always really focused on the details of a story so feel free to consider this a parable. Apparently there was a woman who wanted to be a model and she was told that she could make a career out of it but first she would need to lose weight. So she started dieting which lead to an eating disorder. She did the hard work to recover and got herself into college. Then she got called from a modeling agency asking her to be a plus size model. But, they told her, she needed to gain weight. She said “This was a chance for me to see – did I learn the lesson or not?” So she told them that no, she wasn’t interested in artificially manipulating her weight to get a modeling gig.

This really struck a chord with me. I spent a lot of my life trying to artificially manipulate my weight. Not for a modeling career but because I allowed myself to be convinced that it was healthier, and because I wanted the social acceptance that comes with having a body size that is socially acceptable. But it never worked, I was hospitalized for an eating disorder 15 pounds over my “healthy” weight. So I started doing research and it turns out that weight loss almost never works for anybody. And that my premise was half flawed and half bad choice. The flawed part was the idea that I had to be thin to be healthy, that’s just not true. The bad choice was that I thought I should solve bullying by trying to do what the bully wanted. Now it’s crystal clear that weight loss is not the cure for social stigma, ending social stigma is the cure for social stigma.

As I walk my fat body around the world I get all kinds of messages about how I should lose weight so that I can be healthier, or happier, more date-able or more socially acceptable (from people who have no idea about my baseline health, happiness, date-ability or social acceptability.) And I consider each of these occasions a chance for me to see if I’ve learned the lesson. I shudder to think of the money, time, and energy I gave to the diet industry that makes over 60 Billion dollars each year selling us a product that has the opposite of the intended effect 95% of the time.

So when Weight Watchers asks me to believe that Jennifer Hudson is finally a success because she lost weight (even though she was an American Idol Finalist, Grammy Winning singer and Oscar Winning Actress when she was “fat” and now the only thing she stars in are Weight Watchers commercials) it’s a chance for me to see – did I learn the lesson or not? Ok, that’s an easy one.

When someone tells me that they think I’m great but they don’t date big girls, it’s a chance for me to see if I’ve learned the lesson. Do I think that it’s a good idea to date someone who only wants me if I’m different than I am now? Sure they’ll date me if I lose weight, maybe even marry me if I can keep the weight off long enough. But what happens when time changes the superficiality of my body?

When they try to tell me that I’ll be all but immortal if I lose weight, it’s a chance to see if I learned the lesson. Do I believe the research, or the hype? Do I demand evidence-based treatment from my doctor or do I allow him to treat me based on the information that he got at the Allergan-sponsored seminar, or the prescription he’ll write me with the Meridia pen that he got when he played golf with his friendly neighborhood pharmaceutical rep.

When the Shape Magazine publishes its 1,153rd cover article on how I can “quickly and easily lose weight for good!” it’s a chance to see if I’ve learned the lesson. Do I really want to support these people with my money – do I really think that the 1,153rd time is the charm?

In our thin-obsessed culture there are countless opportunities to see if I’ve learned the lessons – that thin is not the same as healthy and that every body deserves respect. The more I learn that more I’m sure that I’m on the right track this time.

If you’re looking for a little bit of activism today, might I suggest emailing the Communications Director of Surgeon General Regina Benjamin to ask that she denounce the Georgia Fat-Shaming Strong4Life billboards? You can send a quick note to Mary Beth Bigley and let her know where you stand: marybeth.bigley@hhs.gov I sent my e-mail yesterday!

Stand

danceswithfat — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 06:35:51 +0000

Today is the Lunar New Year. According to my friend Belinda Mendoza (who is a Feng Shui expert) arguing today is bad luck. So no rant. Just a question – what do you stand for? The always amazing Marilyn Wann has come up with a brilliant campaign to inject some positivity into the Georgia Child-Shaming Billboard Debacle. Some of the pictures are below. Today consider putting the active in activism by getting involved with Marilyn’s Stand4Kids campaign either by sending a picture to marilyn at fatso dot com and she will create one for you (she’ll get your ok before publishing it), or passing along the pictures on Facebook or Twitter, or whatever you’re comfortable with.

Immortality would be nice but…

danceswithfat — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 09:53:17 +0000

I think that the diet industry actually tries to subtly sell us immortality. So much of our thin obsession – dieting repeatedly despite horrible odds, stomach amputation and banding is done under the guise of health. But I think that in many cases it might be more honest to say that it’s done because of a fear of death. We’re sold this idea that being thin will ensure a long life, that a long life is the most important thing, and that the diet industry is our ticket to it. So much of my hatemail says something about the fact that I’m going to die, as if the person writing the comment isn’t.

We know it’s not true nothing will ensure immortality or even a long life- people of every size die young and people of every size live to old age. There are no guarantees in life except that I’m going to die eventually and I don’t know when.

A lot of what I like about the Health at Every Size concept is that it supports my desire to have the best life possible between now and then. I spent a lot of my life being obsessed with being thin. Counting Calories in and calories out and just waiting for weigh-in day to see if I was “healthy” and “successful”. It turns out that whether I had lost or gained weight I was neither – obsession with thinness was ruining my mental health and that wasn’t working out at all. Now I roll healthy habits into my life and I can use all that brain power that I used to spend obsessing about being thin, counting calories, to do things that I love. Of course that’s just my experience, your mileage may vary.

I no longer believe that the diet industry will do anything except make money for themselves. Immortality would be nice, so would invisibility and having the super-suit from Greatest American Hero (although preferably with the instruction manual), but since none of those are really likely to work out, I’m focusing on the living the happiest possible life between now and then which includes physical health, mental health, spending zero physical or mental energy on being thin, and spending lots of physical and mental energy on things that I love.