Fat Shaming

From the Biggest Loser to X-Weighted to Village on a Diet, everyone's into fat shaming. In fact, most of weight-loss bloggers hate themselves and their fellow fatties as much, if not more, that the TV shamers who, after all, are paid to ham it up for the camera (pardon the pun) and who are, perhaps, quite nice and supportive in real life.

Today's Globe and Mail ran an article entitled "Shaming the obese - with photos like these - isn't working", which dealt not only with the "headless fattie" syndrome (pictures of fat bodies with no heads) but also with fat discrimination in general. I strongly suggest that you read this article. Here are a few quotes:

Weight bias is one of the last bastions of discrimination. Fat jokes are still de rigueur when an overweight/obese person comes into view. We allow ourselves to use language and images that would never be acceptable when speaking of people with disabilities, visible minorities or other identifiable groups.

These visual and linguistic shortcuts are not necessarily used maliciously but they fuel common stereotypes – namely people who are overweight/obese are lazy, slovenly and weak-willed.

[...]

The Protestant work ethic – the notion that individuals can achieve anything through hard work and discipline – is pervasive in Canadian society and it colours our attitudes toward people who are overweight/obese. It leads us to behave – often to the point of cruelty – as if all those who are heavy need to do is pull up their socks or, more to the point, push away from the table.

If only it were that simple.

Losing weight can be tremendously difficult for individuals for a host of reasons – genetics, environment, work demands, and illness – to name a few.

Last week, Toronto was host to the 1st Canadian Summit on Weight Bias and Discrimination. I, for one, am glad that the issue of weight discrimination is being brought out of the shadows. It is abundantly clear that shaming people into losing weight does not work. In fact, dieting is a losing proposition for 95 % of those who try. The interesting (and truly tragic) thing is that an overwhelming majority of those who posted comments to this article subscribe heart and soul to the idea that overweight people are uniformly weak, gluttonous people who CHOOSE to be fat and who could lose weight if they only tried. I wanted to cry reading the venom and bile contained in those comments.

The weight loss industry continues to make billions of dollars selling books, magazines and weight loss methods and foods to desperate people who starve themselves (either literally or nutritionally) and then, out of despair, eat themselves back to an even heavier weight.

I continue to believe that we have totally missed the boat by insisting on dieting rather than encouraging people of all sizes to enjoy physical activity of all kinds and enjoy healthy, tasty food.

The desire to shame is an ugly characteristic of human beings. It is something we should be ashamed of.

Health Comes in All Sizes

How can this woman be smiling? Shouldn't she be worried to death about her weight? Doesn't looking like her spell automatic health problems and an early and unfortunate death?

Maybe not.

Before I tell you who she is, here are a few of her stats (from the New York Times):

Age: 25
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 300 lbs.
Bench Press: 160 lbs.
Squat: 495 lbs.
Vertical Leap: 30"
Flexibility: Can do splits both ways

This is Cheryl Haworth, an Olympic bronze-medal winning weight lifter.

Health comes in all sizes.

Healthy Eating: Burgers, Fries and Pizza

OMG, she's lost her mind! It's all that mindful stuff that's gone to her head and now she doesn't know her (bleep) from her elbow.

Calm down. It's all good.

The Superbowl semi-finals were on Sunday. My wonderful husband usually takes care of the cooking on the weekend, but he's a die-hard football fan. Personally, I can't stand watching a bunch of men jumping on each other, then waiting around for a few minutes and then doing it all again, with the odd burst of speed from a guy who then gets tackled by six other brawny, testosterone-charged males. I guess there's no accounting for taste and since my husband is an otherwise gentle soul, I live with football.

But back to healthy food: What could my husband make on Sunday that wouldn't take him away for too long from the games? Why burgers and fries, of course!

The burgers were home made, using ground turkey, red onion, cilantro, an egg and a small amount of breadcrumbs to bind it all together. Seasoning consisted of about 1-2 tablespoons of pickled jalapenos and some Worcestershire sauce. The buns were multi-grain, quite calorie-dense so I just had a half a bun (the shame: I admit to taking into account the calories).

The fries were made with sweet potatoes, lightly tossed in olive oil and seasoned with ancho chili pepper and cumin (no salt). Then they were baked in the oven.

On Monday night, we had pizza (yes, that's our very own pizza in the picture). I have to thank Andra (via her Facebook page) for the idea. We bought a multi-grain crust but didn't use the sauce that came with it (waaaay to much sodium). Toppings were as follows: store bought pizza sauce that had no preservatives and very little sodium (one small can was enough for two pizzas), fresh tomato slices, arugula, goat cheese, red peppers, red onion (remember the burgers?) and a light sprinkling of mozzarella. Baked in the oven for about 12 minutes with a minute under the broiler and this pizza was absolutely divine.

So think again: burgers, fries and pizza can be really healthy and amazingly tasty.

One last thing, no one pigged out and the two teenage boys were delighted with their meals...as were mom and dad.

Some Thoughts on Exercise

This is the response I gave to an article on Canada's new physical activity guidelines that I read on the Obesity Panacea website:

I really think the whole "problem" begins when children enter school and have to take phys ed. I am totally in favour of physical education in our schools throughout both primary and secondary school, however I think that almost immediately, kids realize that they are either "good" at phys ed or "bad" at it and that no matter how hard they try, kids who are not natural athletes will be made fun of and get low marks in this subject. From an early age, many people are therefore totally turned off physical activity, seeing it as something they just can't do well and therefore don't want to do.

Although it has been many years since I was in a gym class, I still remember how pathetic I felt compared to the other kids. I was short, dumpy and slow. I was hopeless, whether I was running, jumping hurdles, climbing ropes or swimming lengths. Of course, I was the last to be chosen for any team sports. My marks in phys ed were pretty abysmal though I was often at or near the top of the class in the academic subjects. Needless to say, I got out of phys ed the minute it was no longer mandatory.

Fast forward several decades to the discussion I had with my teenage son the other day. He is in Gr. 12 and after having dropped phys ed the moment he could do so (he too is amazingly athletically ungifted, minus the dumpiness), he is now taking it again. Why? Because he now goes to a very small, private school that is essentially composed of nerds. Although his forte lies with the pure sciences and math, he enjoys his phys ed classes because they are very small and the kids have no particular talent for athletics. They just enjoy moving and working up a sweat. He told me that he would never have taken gym classes again in the public system because it was very clear that only gifted athletes were welcome.

Doesn't this sound like "health club" culture? So many ordinary people avoid going to the gym like the plague because they feel they will be looked down on by all those toned gym bunnies. People have the love of movement drummed out of them by a culture that only recognizes elite athletes as being of any worth. They don't realize that taking a good walk every day is worthwhile, that taking public transit can be part of one's exercise routine. It's "them" (the gym bunnies or even the guys who are PhD candidates in kinesiology, ie. the guys who were welcomed onto the team when they were at high school) against "us", the ordinary shlubs whose stomachs will never be flat, no matter how many crunches we do.

By the time the current school system has finished with kids it's too late. The best thing we could do for Canadians would be to eliminate the jock culture from the minute kids arrive at school, make phys ed mandatory for everyone, right up to high school graduation and give a simple pass/fail mark based ONLY on participation. The more athletically gifted could have their own classes, just like the kids who excel in art, science or music.

Today, I do what I can to remain active despite hereditary arthritis. But it's because I've really given the issue some thought and decided to try my best and put aside the deep feelings of athletic inferiority that were instilled in me as a child.

P.S. I looked for an appropriate picture to accompany this post, but decided against using one. Virtually all the photos showed "fit", slim people and the cartoons often featured "fat slobs". The stereotypes continue unabated.

It All Starts With Hunger

Source: robotandghost.com


I don't like being hungry. No one does. I'm not talking about "wanting" to eat something and feeling that you shouldn't. I'm not talking about a few extra bites that are probably unnecessary to your well-being. No, I'm talking about hunger: the physical feeling that makes a new-born baby cry (besides an uncomfortably full diaper), what makes you lose your concentration at work, what makes teenage girls who are trying to lose weight faint. Yes, hunger.

I know there are lots of weight loss bloggers who believe that you should embrace hunger, that it's a sign that you're on your way to weight loss. I don't agree. It's a sign that your body needs to be nourished. And as far as I know, nourishment is still not a dirty word.

Many people say they can't distinguish hunger from craving. That may be true. We're raised in a society of self-imposed feast or famine. It's Christmas! Yoopee! Let's eat until we feel sick. It's your birthday! Hoo boy! Let's gorge on chocolate cake. It's Jan. 2. Bummer. Let's live on melba toast and water all day to make up for Christmas. It's Jan. 5. Let's eat a whole pizza because we feel so deprived.

Call me crazy, but I just don't buy the feast or famine cycle anymore. And make no mistake about it: it's a cycle. The only people who succeed in constantly starving themselves are the people who've decided they want to live to at least 120 and who live cheerless, gaunt lives that seem totally bereft of joy. But hey, they're really skinny.

Most people eventually give up on constant hunger and many go back to gorging themselves. The old pendulum swinging way too far in one direction or another.

I've starved with the best of them. In fact, my first diet consisted of not eating one day a week. I starved myself down to a weight I couldn't imagine being today, a weight that I thought was still too high. But the minute I stopped starving, I gained the weight back and I didn't even have to binge or gorge. That's not my style, anyway.

In the last two years, I have started really working on eliminating the desire to starve as a method for losing weight. I reject hunger and make an effort to consistently eat reasonably when I'm hungry rather than feeling a misplaced sense of pride at conquering my body's legitimate request for nourishment. At the same time, I've also started pushing back on the spoiled-child voice in my head that would say, "That's not fair. She can eat that cake and I can't." Now, if I want the treat, I try to make sure that I'm not full already. I either leave some space for a little treat or I put it off until later. I haven't perfected this method (and since I'm only human, it will always be a work in progress), but I have at least become aware and awareness is absolutely crucial to success.

So, now that I've said no to hunger, what next?

Well, in my next post, I'm going to talk about my breakfast revelation...

I guess I'll just keep you hungry for more!

Skinny Genes

I'm stuck at the airport, trying to get to a short meeting in Sudbury. It's about an hour by plane, but the airport is actually about 35-40 minutes away from the place where the meeting is taking place. The weather is worsening by the minute and my original flight was cancelled. If the flight they re-booked me onto is late leaving, I just won't go. By the time I get there, the meeting will be over.

I also don't have much juice left in my laptop and it seems impossible to find a plug.

So here's a link to an interesting article in today's Globe and Mail. It's true, there really is a skinny gene...and I certainly don't have it!

Note therequisite "good news message": there is a skinny gene, but you can beat it...though you may have to exercise considerably more and eat considerably less than others. Fun life, eh?

Funny, Not so Funny

Thanks to Fat and Not Afraid posting at Fierce, Freethinking Fatties for digging up this commercial.

Definitely makes you think.