About weight
Also, a study on dieting that points toward insaaanity.
Look, the point is to find a way to be happy with yourself. Working out for the thrill of it, and the pleasure of seeing your body change? Great! Eating less fat because you’re trying to do right by your body? Awesome!
We obsess and we cry when we eat a double-cheeseburger, and we listen very intently to those TV News hosts who talk out the sides of their mouths about the modern obesity epidemic while worrying that if they gain an additional five pounds, the producer will axe them in favor of someone who looks a little more … trim.
You have no idea if I’m fat because I looove food, or because I have a thyroid problem, or because I have arthritis that keeps me from being active, or if I have a genetically low metabolism, or if my mom and dad were chubby. That’s my business, and frankly, I may not know either.
And another thing – if I’ve got muscle underneath my fat, if I’m quite capable of any physical feat I desire (except sliding into the newly-shrunk seat belts at Cedar Point), I’m still “fat”. No one looks at body composition (fat to lean ratio) before judging you.
I refuse to obsess about food. I enjoy it, and while I like to eat healthy, I’m not going to get upset if I order a goddamned pizza.
I’m not going to obsess about working out. I enjoy physical activity, and I get pleasure from working out on a regular basis, but if I decide to sit on my ass for a week and play Zelda, anyone who’d make me feel guilty about it can stick it.
I enjoy myself, and I enjoy the life I have. I’ll enjoy you, too, whether you’re 90 lbs or 400+. So stop listening to people obsessed with what you are eating, and start enjoying who you are instead of who you might be. One day.
Well said!
Oh, yeah. This country is so fucked up about weight. If you’re not a stick, you’re fat, and if you’re fat, you totally suck in every possible way. And then there are doctors who blame everything on your weight if you’re fat. Nothing else matters, just the numbers on the scale.
Makes me so mad!
Yes! Very well put.
Whereas I didn’t watch the video, I’m going to enjoy my pizza for lunch and then go and workout this stress at the gym after work. What! I like my boxing glass, my trainer’s a hot Englishman.
The CDC says I’m obese. :-)
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/bmi/adult_BMI/english_bmi_calculator/bmi_calculator.htm
I say, “I’m not obese, I’m just built like a farm boy.” :-P
Seriously, the idea that you’d be considered obese is so laughable.
trewsville
The most damaging chart ever created…
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/weights-poids/guide-ld-adult/bmi_chart_java-graph_imc_java_e.html
I figure the problem isn’t that I’m fat, I’m just too short :-p
Re: The most damaging chart ever created…
We’ll just stretch you right out, then!
I actually think the whole bias against overweight in America is a major contributing factor to a recent finding about eating disorders. If you include binge eating disorder on the list of eating disorders, all other eating disorders combined make up less than half of the total cases of eating disorders in America. That study you linked to about diets shows why. Everyone’s trying to lose weight, and they give themselves binge eating disorder in the process.
Oh, and I agree with not being ashamed of how much you weigh. I weigh 350 lbs, and am damned proud of every single one, because each one is a day I CHOSE to be alive. I laugh when other medical students talk about morbidly obese as if they even know what it is. I am considered morbidly obese. In fact, I weigh enough that I could get a gastric bypass with no other symptoms. That’s just not right. The medical world hates fat so much, they would remove most of a person’s stomach and a huge chunk of small intestine FOR NO OTHER REASON. And every time a clinician comes to the medical school to talk about obesity, they make out like gastric bypass surgery is the best medical advance since antibiotics. To talk to one of them I should have been cut open long ago. I don’t buy it. I hope the rest of the students have some healthy skepticism as well.
hey. I came on LJ specifically to send you a loving “hellO!” and I see this. It is almost as if I somehow know when you’re going to post something that hits so close to home for me.
You know my situation…and I just wanted to say thanks. THe video was great and the link is really giving me something to think about. While I used to be “morbidly obese” I am still currently in the “overweight” range according to those bmi calculators. If i ever reach my “goal” weight, I will only be 0.2 points below “overweight” according to the cdc’s bmi calculator. That really annoys me.
I agree with what the video and you said. It is just so important to be happy with who you are instead of hiding because of your fat. I hate that i still do that, even now. anyway, it is a good lesson to listen to and something that i’ve been trying to put into practice for awhile now.
xoxo thanks again.
in addition to being a fat person with high self-esteem, i am an awesome fake bowler!
We obsess and we cry when we eat a double-cheeseburger… I seem to recall us eating some mighty fine cheeseburgers without obsessing OR crying.
I just don’t get this video. I am fat, and am accepting of the fact 99.9% of the time. I don’t need some feel-good youtube video to tell me not to shop at stores with wee sizes, or to tell me that “being fat doesn’t mean that i’m stupid.” Is that not just common sense? Is it not just common sense to live your life and to do the right thing? I don’t need a fat-empowerment video to tell me what i already know… that I have worth.
Anyone who does has a bigger problem than an internet video can solve.
Re: in addition to being a fat person with high self-esteem, i am an awesome fake bowler!
I’m afraid that yes, you are taking for granted something that most people with weight don’t have – a healthy sense of self.
-You- don’t need someone to tell you to be comfortable with yourself, but look at the rest of the comments to this post, here and in other journals on my flist that have reposted it.
Most people do.
Everyone has to start somewhere when it comes to working through a problem, or even sometimes knowing they have a problem in the first place.
Re: in addition to being a fat person with high self-esteem, i am an awesome fake bowler!
And you only won because you poked me in the eye!
(I wish I still had that icon with the eye laser)
Re: in addition to being a fat person with high self-esteem, i am an awesome fake bowler!
i don’t know WHAT you are talking about.