Ask me anything: http://www.formspring.me/notblueatall

Reclaiming the word FAT: http://fiercefatties.com/2010/08/06/reclaing-the-word-fat/

Putting an end to fat talk: http://the-f-word.org/blog/index.php/2010/08/06/feel-good-friday-putting-an-end-to-fat-talk/

Scary facts about sugar: http://www.healthywomen.org/content/blog-entry/scary-sugar-facts-and-findings

Sara Rue loses 50 lbs. on Jenny Craig (insert my booing sounds here): http://tinyurl.com/239ua4g

Fall nail polish trends:http://tinyurl.com/276bedl

Fab new Ikea products (I’ll take one of each please!):http://tinyurl.com/294teks

Trailer for ‘Burlesque’: http://tinyurl.com/2erfof9

Just read this article: http://tinyurl.com/33aj7n9 and as you can imagine, I have some thoughts! Ha-ha! (The first few comments are actually surprisingly not bad at all, the 1st one is rad).

I don’t even need to mention why the photo is all kinds of wrong, right? Okay, it is wrong because it has stolen this woman’s identity by not allowing her to show her face. It doesn’t address the fact that she has a mobility issue and it is no one’s business weather or not she had this disability before she was whatever size she is currently. Or when this picture was actually taken. For all we know she could be quite happy & healthy. She’s out walking for one thing, not sitting on a couch drinking sugar syrup by the jug! Ahem.

70 Million? I am now wondering what this article is using to classify so many Americans as “obese” (scare quotes!). Is it possibly the BMI (body mass index – more badness on that here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439&sc=fb&cc=fp)? Because that was adjusted a few years ago and because of this, literally over night millions were suddenly considered “obese” by this newer version of the BMI. But they don’t specify so one can only wonder.

They go so far as to ask, “Is anybody listening” to the whole “OMZFATWILLKILLYOU” message. Um, everyone is listening. It’s hard not to hear it. It’s everywhere! We are inundated with the whole fat kills message anytime we leave the house, go online, turn on a t.v., watch a movie, read a magazine, etc…America hates fat, we know this. Yet, we’re all fat? Hmm…We’re a bunch of self-haters, yes?

They say that losing weight isn’t impossible and then include a link to a bunch of their past “success” stories. When you actually read each individual success story, most aren’t about someone who yo-yo dieted or other typical issues with weight loss. It’s mostly, “I stopped drinking soda” or “I started walking.” Nothing shocking. But that doesn’t work for everyone. Nothing works for everyone!

The article specifically mentions minorities and non-college educated people as being the most at risk of “obesity.” Funny, that. It’s not the fat that’s keeping us out of college, it’s the damned tuition (and I didn’t have to go to school to figure that one out)! I grew up very poor. Fresh fruits and veggies were serious treats to us. When we’d go to my grandma’s for dinner on Sundays I always looked forward to her fresh, crisp, green salads! Not candy or ice cream…SALADS! Because my family just couldn’t afford those kinds of foods on a regular basis. We ate generic, yellow boxed things that could provide sufficient nutrients so we wouldn’t fucking starve! And don’t get me started on my free hot lunches at school! We’re talking about lower income groups who simply can’t afford to buy healthier food. Watch the documentary Food Inc. and you’ll understand and see exactly what I mean and why.

I have done just about everything in my power to not look/end up like my birth mother. Genetics, you bastard! I am active and healthy and still have hips that could pass a watermelon (heaven forbid). I ate very healthfully and consciously for a very long time, nothing changed. I gave up soda, my co-workers lost weight, I did not. I became a vegetarian and gained a little weight. Now that my weight has stabilized, and I am broke as fucking hell, I can’t afford all of those gorgeously organic crunchy things I so love and crave. I buy when I can and make do when I can’t. Such is life!

I find it extremely problematic for someone like Michelle Obama (Rich!) to make it her personal mission to rid the country of fat people by 2025 (or whatever she said, sorry, it’s ridiculous and I don’t care). Talk about privileged?! Yes, she’s a minority, but she’s a special kind of upper class minority. I doubt she’s ever had more than an extra five pounds on her frame and seems so driven and confident I doubt even that is true. Not to personally attack her, I find her pleasant and smart and a great role model for the most part, but…obesity? Ugh! *sigh*

There is no one solution. There is no diet plan for the masses. There is no universal success story. I mean, shit! If Oprah can’t do it with all of her wisdom, fortune and fame, what hope do the rest of us have? Huh? Yeah, exactly! I am sick of the mainstream media telling everyone that my fat is going to kill me. My fat is not a damned disease. It’s just fat! I don’t have diabetes, or hypertension or any other fat related illness. I am not doomed. I am not a stereotype!

I don’t believe that the government should be telling us how to live our lives. I do think it should start at the source and go directly to the companies that manufacture all of the over processed foods. And aspartame should once again be classified as a bio-weapon! Diet drinks should simply have less sugar or another natural sweetener. We should not have to fear for our lives with every sip or bite we ingest! We should educate on nutrition, not calories! We should focus on activity, not exercise. We should celebrate life, not loss. I am just so very sick of this old rhetoric. It’s bullshit, but somehow no one seems to know it! Ugh!

Okay, I’m done for now. *steps off soapbox*

Thank you for reading & commenting. You’re amazing!

Hey peeps!
Sorry I’ve been silent the last few days. I’ve been fighting and then succumbing to a big baddie of a head cold. Boo! I’m not one to pop pills, even the OTC kind, so I’ve been sticking it out and had to stay home from work yesterday. Today would have been my usual day off, so no worries, but I’m determined to pop whatever I have to in order to get back to business tomorrow.

All of this staying home stuff hasn’t left me in the best mood, I am just no good home alone. I get antsy! Many reruns of I Love Lucy & Roseanne & Who’s The Boss have been watched. Very different shows! Such different relationships.

For some reason though, as I kept going online to check email/bogs/fb/tweets, something was missing. The usual excitement for the day’s fat-buzz just wasn’t there. Sure, it could be that my favorites and bookmarks are all unaccessible from my husband’s laptop. Or the head cold. Or…Or? I don’t know!

I don’t know what’s missing, but I’m not finding it either. The news even seems blah the last few days. And while I was of course excited to watch the newest episode of HUGE, I dashed to fatshionista.com for Lesley’s reliably fantastic recap and, nothin’!

It doesn’t even seem as sunny out as it should be. I mean, it is warm out and all, but it’s almost hazy. Perhaps my sudden blogging hiatus and foggy head left me without the usual zeal for all things fat. Maybe I’ve OD’d on old sitcoms.

Life doesn’t wrap up it’s own problems in 22 minutes followed by a nice comfy commercial for Pilsbury grands. Ethel isn’t next door, Mona’s not saying anything saucy and the Connor kids aren’t about to spill paint on the old tattered carpet.

I did have a fabulous weekend whilst trying to live in complete denial of this cold. Much lovely time spent with really good friends. The Renegade Craft Fair in SF was fantastic. After all was said and done I wasn’t looking forward to going back to the old grind. That is until I woke up feeling like death warmed over. Then I was grateful for being my own boss and not having to answer to anyone when I decided I needed to stay in bed.

Yet somehow this change of pace screwed up my enthusiasm for everything.  I think that I got so swept up in the LB hubbub last week that I assumed (you know what happens when you do that) the webz would still be a-buzzing with activity. Yet here I am. Nothing new to share or write about. Nothing fat related anyway.

I guess I just havn’t been doing this fat blogging thing long enough to know how to constantly create content for my readers. (I am grateful for each and every one of you by the way!) I will work on this. I love writing and especially feel so loved and a part of the fat acceptance community. I will continue to share my thoughts on things and fight for fat acceptance.

Sometimes though? I wanna write abotu fluffy things or political things or whatever tickles my daily fance. And that’s cool, too, right?

Hope you all have a fab Tuesday.

Cheers!

Yeah, that’s what just happened to me. I was rejected for being too fat! The company doing the survey Create With Context, offered a $15 gift cert. code for Amazon upon the completion of the survey. They did not specify beforehand that it would ask for height and weight (and then make you do math!) and finally ye olde BMI chart (they make you figure out yourself, too…so nice) before even qualifying. I could have really used that $15, yo! But I was very angry about this. So I responded to their email in kind:

Hi,
I went to take this survey and was rejected to due my BMI #.
This is problematic for so many reasons I cannot even begin to explain.
BUT here’s the 1st one:

1. The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an individual.

The BMI was introduced in the early 19th century by a Belgian named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet. He was a mathematician, not a physician. He produced the formula to give a quick and easy way to measure the degree of obesity of the general population to assist the government in allocating resources. In other words, it is a 200-year-old hack.

Want more? Here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439&sc=fb&cc=fp

I’m sure you’ll respond with something along the lines of “we cannot control the restrictions of the survey due to the specific needs and nature of the survey…” Yadda yadda yadda.

STOP SPREADING FAT HATE! IT IS DISCRIMINATION! I AM FAT AND HEALTHY!!!

I would of course prefer to take part in your surveys, but I feel that I can’t since I have been made to feel unworthy due to this ridiculous BMI nonsense. Please remove me from further surveys and hopefully one day you or your company or the world for that matter will wake up and realize that fat does not equal unhealthy.

Thanks,

S

Last night when I got home, after I walked Sir. Puppenheim, I explained to my husband the whole hubbub over the Lane Bryant tweet and subsequent shit-storm this incurred. His take actually surprised me.

He saw it purely as a corporate giant attempting to tear down an indie option for their customers. As though buying one t-shirt would somehow make us all see that we don’t need LB after all and thus the crumbling of the corporate control/structure of our time would ensure. He said it seemed that if fats can design and sell to each other then what the hell do we need with silly old polyester pushing LB. While I disagree with this theory, I like his take. He also thought that by shaming fats they would buy more clothes. Um, NO! I told him that there is no way that that is a business model. In fact no one depressed or ashamed would go into a mall/store to try on clothes in a fitting room and look in a mirror to buy clothes. Not happening. If anything, the opposite is true. We had a great lengthy discussion on the matter and I appreciated a non-fat & non-web opinion. It’s a rare thing.

Also, I love & heart this post from Lesley of Fatshionista on the matter:

http://www.fatshionista.com/cms/index.php?option=com_mojo&Itemid=69&p=472