Seeking Fat Acceptance (Read 3395 times)


an amazing likeness

    My wife did get the Governor of Tennessee to declare May is "Exercise is Medicine Month" henceforth. 


     

    I'll remember that while I'm passed out from overeating at Memphis in May BBQ festival.

    Acceptable at a dance, invaluable in a shipwreck.

    Trent


    Good Bad & The Monkey

      I want a pop tart.

       

      I want two of them.  420 calories in a shiny package.


      Mitch & Pete's Mom

        Hmmm, I think there is one thing that I have not see discussed here. Many people use food as a drug to mask a much bigger problem. This was me in college. This was many of the women in my support group. People who had been raped, abused or had other trama that was not taken care of at the time.

         

        For some of us, it was not just as simple as putting down the french fry and picking up an apple. Until I got the help I needed I held on to that extra 20 pounds. Once the medical doctor put me touch with the head doctor, I got mad at the right person, put things in perspective and the 20 pounds melted off.

         

        Perhaps many of these Fat folkes are really seeking acceptance in society for a truly deeper hurt without even realizing it.

         

        Medical doctors, family and friends should be on the lookout for sudden weight gain in people. Sometimes a french fry isn't just a french fry.

         

        Carlsbad 1/2 marathon 1/26.


        Mitch & Pete's Mom

           

          I want two of them.  420 calories in a shiny package.

           

          You can keep yer darn PTs. I've got homemade whole wheat maple scone and hot cup of coffee. Oh, and it's rainy outside.

          Carlsbad 1/2 marathon 1/26.
          Trent


          Good Bad & The Monkey

             

            You can keep yer darn PTs. I've got homemade whole wheat maple scone and hot cup of coffee. Oh, and it's rainy outside.

             

            Before a marathon, I'd rather have a PT than a scone.  After the marathon, bring on the scone.


            Mitch & Pete's Mom

               

              Before a marathon, I'd rather have a PT than a scone.  After the marathon, bring on the scone.

               

              Carlsbad 1/2 marathon 1/26.

                 

                I want two of them.  420 calories in a shiny package.

                 Which is why you only go to heaven once...


                A Saucy Wench

                   

                  No, this is a serious ethical issue. It's not just a question of business. It's also a question of how much we as a society want to invest in health, where we want to invest it, and who will be granted access and who will be denied--and who is authorized to make these decisions. And how we as people with some degree of power to control our environment might reorganize the system so that it leads to better living. And what values are involved in this reorganization.

                   

                  Ethics.

                   

                  and the withholding care part happens, not just with insurance but with a tendency to blame all health issues on the obesity itself.  People who are obese will often not get the same tests for the same symptoms as someone of a healthy weight.  If the symptoms CAN be blamed on weight they often will be. I've seen much less sympathy to pain given to obese patients. 

                   

                   I think what gets ignored in many of these insurance scenarios is that obesity is only one of many risk factors and because obesity is the patients "fault" it is ok to charge extra for that.   Truthfully I am probably at higher risk for heart disease and diabetes than my obese friend.  I have multiple risk factors...but not obesity. His only risk factor is obesity.   His blood pressure is normal. His cholesterol is low.  His fasting blood sugar is beautiful.  His glucose tolerance is exemplary.  His A1c is fantastic (why is it even being tested given the other numbers?).  He has no family history (despite every member of his family being obese) .  Quite frankly his lab numbers piss me off.

                   

                  Of course there is the flip side.  Because I am not obese and under 40 I have to fight to get insurance to pay for blood sugar screenings on me (and A1C? forget it).  Despite a high family history. Despite gestational diabetes.  Despite borderline fasting blood sugar numbers almost every single time it is tested and a shoddy history with glucose tolerance.  Same with cholesterol.  I've had high cholesterol since I was first tested at 21 (for work or it never would have happened).   But I still have to get pre-approval to get it checked every few years (oh thank god I am turning 40 and I wont have to argue anymore)   My obese friend whose cholesterol has never been above 145 gets his checked when he goes in for a cold.

                   

                  So in both scenarios obesity is given undue priority for health assessment.

                  I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

                   

                  "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7


                  A Saucy Wench

                     

                    Actually, yes, my viewpoint IS simplistic. It's pretty simple to be careful with the foods you buy, be careful what foods you put in your mouth and get some exercise. We should stop being so accepting with obesity because it IS dangerous, and it IS unhealthy. How can you say that  "it is not some lack of control that the rest of us manage to restrain from?" It definitely takes some self control to not go grab a poptart every morning for breakfast like all my friends do, or to grab a diet instead of regular, or not to walk into starbucks and buy a venti-moca-whole milk-frappacunio...I'm not assuming its all binging on junk either. It's simply living a healthy lifestyle, which the typical person should not have too much trouble with.

                    It's normal for humans to have the "seek pleasure, avoid pain" mentality. The average person wants to drive instead of walk, grab lunch at the fast food joint, and running 2 miles seems out of the question. But perhaps we should teach our kids that hey, a bit of pain never killed anyone, in fact, if you want to live longer and not die of clogged arteries, perhaps you should entertain the thought. 

                    I don't discriminate against fat people. I simply think they should re-evaluate their lifestyle and realize that continuing to live that way is by no means good for anything...

                     

                    I was obese working out 7 days a week and never eating fast food and never eating junk food.  There were other issues at hand.   In the end it is simple, at the beginning, it is anything BUT simple.

                    I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

                     

                    "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7

                    Trent


                    Good Bad & The Monkey

                      Can we ask the other issues?


                      Why is it sideways?

                        For Ben 1415 and mgrwn: the fact that business, money, and practical situations are involved does not disqualify ethical considerations. It complicates them (or attempts to simplify them). But in the end, a value judgment is involved. For example: the value claim, money is more important than health.  Or, the value claim: the survival of present economic relations is more important than the psychic health of the obese. Or, the value claim: my ability to buy (another) flat screen TV is more important than funding a certain health procedure.

                         

                        I don't deny the presence of business and financial interests. Just the idea that the presence of these considerations makes the discussion, "cold and hard," and somehow outside of the realm of ethical discussion.


                        A Saucy Wench

                          Can we ask the other issues?

                          some I wont go in to ,

                           

                          some are familial/emotional   loving with food and all that crap.  So yes I ate healthy real food.  But my family had pushed the clean your plate club so hard that my body had lost the ability to feel full.

                           

                           

                          Catch 22 for all that - my parents were SO into home grown local organic real food that when I did get the opportunity to eat junk as a kid it was scary. 

                           

                          I had some digestive issues that made my brain think I was hungry when in fact I was not.  But my stomach was growling and churning!  Combine that with low blood pressure and dizziness and its hard to not think DAMN I need more food!   So can I have a 2nd helping of bulgur and stirfry?

                           

                           

                          I had insulin resistance in the era of low fat high carb diets.  Yeah, that works.  But because i was young and only moderately overweight I never was tested until I had mostly worked it out for myself.   Even now, my body's reaction to even fruit is not pretty.   I had to LEARN all those things about how MY body worked.  It probably took 20 attempts before I made progress.  You dont get diabetic counseling until you have already fallen off the cliff.  I have to eat like I am diabetic.  Period.  

                           

                          But in short, I had to make my health, my weight, my life my number one priority.  I read volumes .  I researched volumes.  And you know when I made it happen?  When I was unemployed and had nothing else to do.  Not when i had my 80 hour a week job.  

                           

                          Even now with all I know about me, I gained 9 lbs in 8 weeks this summer.  Because things change and keep changing.  (fuck 40!! now I am also mildly hypothyroid)   So I am relearning it again and it still feels overwhelming sometimes.  .  Because I make it my number one priority.  Please dont look at my house.  I dont have time to clean it, I am too busy working out and processing my ginormous CSA.basket (and ok, hanging out here)

                           

                           

                          MTA: Which isnt to say that if I was on a message board preaching just accept it I wouldnt be arguing the other side.  But trying and failing at losing weight for 20 years was the absolutely most demoralizing, depressing thing.  To feel like a failure AND be looked at by people as a lazy slob when I had worked so fucking hard to get nowhere.  Why try, when I would only fail. Again.  Statistics back me up.  I would never have had the heart to try again had my dad not died of this wicked combination of shitty genetics and poor lifestyle choices when my baby was 8 months old. 

                           

                          I have become Death, the destroyer of electronic gadgets

                           

                          "When I got too tired to run anymore I just pretended I wasnt tired and kept running anyway" - dd, age 7

                          Scout7


                            For Ben 1415 and mgrwn: the fact that business, money, and practical situations are involved does not disqualify ethical considerations. It complicates them (or attempts to simplify them). But in the end, a value judgment is involved. For example: the value claim, money is more important than health.  Or, the value claim: the survival of present economic relations is more important than the psychic health of the obese. Or, the value claim: my ability to buy (another) flat screen TV is more important than funding a certain health procedure.

                             

                            I don't deny the presence of business and financial interests. Just the idea that the presence of these considerations makes the discussion, "cold and hard," and somehow outside of the realm of ethical discussion.

                             I agree.

                             

                            Besides, the business and financial interests ARE ethical interests.

                              I agree with most of what you guys say on here but my rant on BL comes from the fact that the show (especially Jillian) tells people that losing weight means you have to get off your butt.  I know so many friends and family that are on Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Curves, and they never lose weight because those are just diets that don't deal with the real, emotional issues.


                              I totally understand that BL is just a show and they definitely hype it up at times and they have to create drama but it motivates me to keep working out.  And, I LOVE how they play commercials about the Lap Band during the BL!  Now, there is a whole other topic we can rant about!


                              BTW....pop tarts are AWESOME!!!!  

                              Marylander


                                In line with this threads title but slightly off the threads direction.........

                                 

                                I get a kick out of the few who find the BMI scale so flawed.......Just because those that are athletic and carry a little extra muscle.....more than the norm.....will tip the scale and fall into the "overweight" column.

                                 

                                That is perfect proof to how being precieved as FAT is accepted.

                                 

                                If the BMI scale lables you as Obese......I can guarantee you one thing.....your Obese !

                                 

                                I've been just short of obese on the BMI scale (185 @ 5'7", 29 BMI) while my body fat level was around 12% (visible abs) with a belly measurement of 31". I know many heavier but leaner people around my height (powerlifting competitors). By objective measurement (body fat percentage) they are lean, not obese. I wish I was still as lean as I was back then. I'll get back there eventually...

                                Kirk