Fat Acceptance.
Apr. 21st, 2009 01:10 pmI've been reading a pretty legendary thread over at Shakesville about how just because someone is fat, doesn't necessarily mean they're unhealthy.
I wanted to chime in for posterity here - so, SO true. I'm pretty healthy looking, not thin but rather athletic, which is deceptive cause I live probably one of the most sedentary lifestyles out of anyone I know outside of my disabled nephew. And I'm suffering from chronic disease and am probably malnutritioned due to my lack of money to afford the fresh veges every day and because I can't get to the shops to buy them myself due to my mobility issues.
I know people that are a little bigger than me but are WAY more mobile and fit. I would gladly be ten kilos heavier if I could get my mobility back. I'll admit that I'm a vain bitch and I dislike being overweight, but the additional weight and the bummer it might bring me would be hugely outshone by the ability to go swimming, running, dancing, walking, and all that jazz without being in excrutiating pain.
And when people start telling 'fatties' to stop eating so much food, I often think of my Mum. She's gotten curvier in her later years, though she had a couple of bouts of weight issues in the past (particularly when she was pregnant with Tina). She's so hard on herself and her appearance, but it's really not her fault at all. She doesn't over-eat. I eat just like her, actually - like a friggin' bird! She was/is on hormone treatments and antidepressants since menopause, and I think that probably has a bit to do with why the weight won't shift. She tries so many diets, and she eats SO responsibly. No needless fat, cholesterol or salt. Her one guilty pleasure? Potatoes. She doesn't eat refined glutenous food cause she, like me, is gluten intolerant. We both lean towards an Eastern menu as far as eating habits go. Lots of rice, curries, legumes and lentils, healthy alternatives to fattening side-dishes and so forth.
But her weight is what it is. Personally, I love her as she is. I love my Mum's squishy hugs.
So when people start giving shit to fat people, like their food intake is somehow someone else's business, I think of my Mum, and the other people I know who eat normally, who are just genetically predisposed to being bigger.
Does that mean I think people should say "Fuck it!" and over-eat or eat badly? Hell, of course not. But discriminating against people due to something that is none of your damned business? Not right.
Anyway, all this talk about food is making me hungry. I'm out of gluten-free food, I'm really starving. :(
I wanted to chime in for posterity here - so, SO true. I'm pretty healthy looking, not thin but rather athletic, which is deceptive cause I live probably one of the most sedentary lifestyles out of anyone I know outside of my disabled nephew. And I'm suffering from chronic disease and am probably malnutritioned due to my lack of money to afford the fresh veges every day and because I can't get to the shops to buy them myself due to my mobility issues.
I know people that are a little bigger than me but are WAY more mobile and fit. I would gladly be ten kilos heavier if I could get my mobility back. I'll admit that I'm a vain bitch and I dislike being overweight, but the additional weight and the bummer it might bring me would be hugely outshone by the ability to go swimming, running, dancing, walking, and all that jazz without being in excrutiating pain.
And when people start telling 'fatties' to stop eating so much food, I often think of my Mum. She's gotten curvier in her later years, though she had a couple of bouts of weight issues in the past (particularly when she was pregnant with Tina). She's so hard on herself and her appearance, but it's really not her fault at all. She doesn't over-eat. I eat just like her, actually - like a friggin' bird! She was/is on hormone treatments and antidepressants since menopause, and I think that probably has a bit to do with why the weight won't shift. She tries so many diets, and she eats SO responsibly. No needless fat, cholesterol or salt. Her one guilty pleasure? Potatoes. She doesn't eat refined glutenous food cause she, like me, is gluten intolerant. We both lean towards an Eastern menu as far as eating habits go. Lots of rice, curries, legumes and lentils, healthy alternatives to fattening side-dishes and so forth.
But her weight is what it is. Personally, I love her as she is. I love my Mum's squishy hugs.
So when people start giving shit to fat people, like their food intake is somehow someone else's business, I think of my Mum, and the other people I know who eat normally, who are just genetically predisposed to being bigger.
Does that mean I think people should say "Fuck it!" and over-eat or eat badly? Hell, of course not. But discriminating against people due to something that is none of your damned business? Not right.
Anyway, all this talk about food is making me hungry. I'm out of gluten-free food, I'm really starving. :(
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-21 06:23 am (UTC)yet i play netball every week, go to the gym, rollerskate, swim... everything! i do not look in ANY WAY obese, and i take a sz14-16 in pants (depending on the brand)but i am tall.
i look at myself in the mirror and see a relatively flat tummy with a little paunch, and a bit of wobble on the old thighs and bum, but NOTHING that would make me think obese! i dont even have pronounced fat rolls really!
i eat probably 30% junk and 70% healthy. i do all the right things without being obsessive over it, and i LIKE my body. i think it's HOT!
i have been a sz 10 at 55-60 kgs and i looked horrible. i had a concave stomach, hips that stuck out and looked ugly, i was always getting bruised more easily, i was always sick, my skin and hair were dull... i would never ever ever go back to that now. i do not think for a second that a sz 10 is a healthy weight for my frame, even a sz 12 for me is kinda pushing the skinny side.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-21 06:44 am (UTC)Women have curves.
Date: 2009-04-23 09:32 am (UTC)Re: Women have curves.
Date: 2009-04-23 10:20 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-21 11:43 am (UTC)It also chaps my ass furiously that people who are very healthy looking are also considered too fat (A size 10 or 12 is considered to be on the plus side of normal now? WTF?!). It's the extreme distortion that we see of women who are almost 6 feet tall with BMIs of less than 18 with 42FFF booobies on the covers of magazines that have made body distortion become the norm. Blah.
If your mom's gone through menopause, it's very easy to gain weight. It just is, and there's really not much that can be done about it, even when following a good diet/exercise regimen. Mom went through insta-menopause at the age of 50 due to a total hysterectomy and found herself gaining weight, even though she really doesn't eat all that much. I think the metabolism slows down and that's why it happens. Usually, if a woman's had a kid, her waist size tends to get a bit wider than it was (and the hips go out a bit too), and it irritates me to no end when you see, on talk shows, these men (who are NOT skinny/in perfect "body health" either) calling their wives fat pigs because they've just had a kid the month before and she's not back to where she's supposed to be. Assholes.
Gah.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-04-22 03:45 am (UTC)I modified my diet yesterday. I spent most of the day feeling hungry, but that just meant I actually looked forward to meals.