Bus-Size People

I'm honestly not sure what this editorial is trying to say. (Registration required, try bugmenot if you need a password.)

I think the writer is trying to be snarky and funny or something, but he or she comes off as dismissive and mean instead. I think the point is that we should tell people how fat they are, instead of being nice about it. Because that surely will help people lose weight. Because society right now is too nice to fat people. Oh yeah, that's the problem.

Fat's a delicate subject. We don't have fat sizes; we have "women's" and "big and tall," and then something called "plus size," which at least one youngster once misheard as "bus size." Jeans are not made "tent-size" for overeaters, they're just "roomier," as if room-size pants weren't large.

More Perspective

A thin, healthy reporter for the New York Times finds the new food guidelines a bit hard to swallow. Although as a dieter, I read it and think, "Duh, of course you can't have nuts" and "Tuna salad with mayonnaise? Are you kidding me?"

"The guidelines were beginning to feel like wartime rationing. I walked around with a nagging feeling of being just slightly deprived. After two days, it began to haunt me."

Thanks to La Wade for the link.

Celebs Work Hard Too

This article talks about women like Hillary Swank and Jessica Biel, who have recently transformed their bodies for film roles.

"The actresses won’t get much praise, though, from the general public, whose sentiment runs along the lines of: 'If I had a trainer and a personal chef, I’d be in the best shape of my life too.' Not so fast, say the fitness consultants to these stars...."

An interesting perspective, I thought. I especially liked Hillary Swank's "mind over matter" strategy.

I Love The English

This list of tips for people new to exercise has some good advice on it, but this one made me laugh:

Rewarding yourself for achieving a goal is fine but, according to Matt Roberts, you also need to punish yourself when you fail. 'You need to make it matter,' he says... one of my clients has set a fixed day when she's going to be photographed naked so she has to reach a certain shape by that time.'

Skinny Chicks Rule

If you think only fat people can win hardcore eating contests, check out the story of a 19-year-old, 100-pound college student named Kate who is the first person to successfully eat a 6-pound burger with 5 pounds of "fixin's" in under three hours--a challenge that has been in place since 1998. You go, Kate!

Health For Everyone

More on the "fit and fat" debate, agreeing that there's more to fitness than a number on a scale.

"Body composition is simply one aspect of fitness. There are many people who have high body fat, but are fit in all the other categories," he said, citing cardiovascular endurance, muscular strength and endurance and overall flexibility.... "It's not a reflection of health. "There are people who are never going to be normal weight. It's irresponsible and unfair to tell them that they can't be healthy."

Can't Put My Finger On It

I don't know quite what it is, but the new food guidelines really annoy me. "Tonight eat only half the dessert," Mr. Thompson said. "And then go out and walk around the block. And if you are going to watch television get down and do 10 push-ups and 5 sit-ups." It's not a bad idea, it just seems so punitive and condescending somehow.

Also, an hour to ninety minutes of exercise a day, every day? That seems excessive and unrealistic. At least for people who have to work for a living.

Sleep More, Weigh Less!

Okay, not really. In fact, the article cautions against leaping to such conclusions. But it does suggest that "insufficient sleep could be leading to a cascade of disorders." Obviously, this means I should sleep in more.

America: Doing Something Right?

That article I linked a few posts back about the body image issues of teenage girls was based on a survey of British teenagers. And according to this article in the London Times (written, it would seem, by an American), the situation is better in America than it is in Britain.

The American media and culture, this writer says, gives girls better tools for dealing with media images. The discussion of various differences between America and Britain as regards to weight issues is worth reading, but I will quote the part that mentions my favorite person, Kate Winslet.

"Kate Winslet elicited scorn in certain sections of the UK press after she declared that skinny beauty ideals were bad for girls. That made her a radical, in British pop-cultural terms. The same remarks — especially her public declaration that her legs had been artificially elongated on a magazine cover — made her a beloved character in America."

Speaking of Katie and the UK, she is going to be in Ricky Gervais's next project. Ricky Gervais was the creator of the brilliant sitcom The Office and I am ridiculously excited about this. Hence my mentioning it here, apropos of nothing.

Cup Of Heart Attack

In the interest of journalism, I tried the new Starbucks Chantico drink today. One reviewer said, "A cup of Chantico is as chocolate as you can get without falling over unconscious." And someone else commented on the Starbucks blog that "If you're on a diet, warm liquid chocolate probably isn't a good choice."

A six-ounce serving has 390 calories and 21 grams of fat, tastes like a molten candy bar, and is delicious. It's almost irresponsible to sell something that's so good, yet so terrible for you.

That's The Key

“If you look at it like this big adventure and you don't keep your eye on the Emerald City that you don't enjoy the yellow brick road, that's the key you have to enjoy the journey don't look for just the results."

Someone needs an editor!

Just Depressing

Even slightly overweight children experience "social suffering," according to this study.

"In addition to poorer health, overweight and obese children were more likely to be teased at school, to report feeling sad and angry, and to have difficulty taking part in sport. They were also more likely to agree with statements such as, 'Other kids do not want to be my friend.'"

Elusive Perfection

This article about the body image issues of teenage girls is interesting. I've been thinking a lot lately about how to help reverse this trend, and haven't come up with any solutions. Except that when I write my brilliant first novel (heh) it will have this theme!

I thought it was noteworthy that the "ideal" role models (J. Lo, Beyonce and Britney) are all "curvy and they've all spoken publicly about their physical flaws." But as a 15-year-old herself points out, "people say they're curvy but it's still a shape girls feel they have to look like. And that's not good."

Today's WTF

As usual, one of the articles that I read this morning gave me a WTF? moment. It's about businesses that cater to plus-sized customers.

Fabrey said he's been criticized for "enabling" overweight people. "They tell me, 'If you make their lives easier, they'll have less incentive to lose weight,' " Fabrey said. "We have an answer to that: First of all, we can't get you a husband or a wide airline seat or social acceptance."

So, wait. Social acceptance is hard to come by for overweight people; I get that one. And wide airline seats are sort of impossible to come by; I get that too. And then... husbands? Is it just me, or does this sentence make the assumption that his mythical customers are all single, heterosexual women who can't "get husbands" because they are fat?

I Left Out The Unnecessarily Obtuse Moby-Dick Analogy

[Note: all blog problems were fixed; there was a new file path and I had to change my settings. Both posts and comments should be back to normal.]

Anyway, here's a link! Weight Watchers is the only weight-loss program that this study found to be effective over the long term. Not that it sounds all that effective to lose five percent of your body weight and then keep half of it off for two years. These articles always make me feel depressed.

But it is a new year! Instead of feeling depressed, I will go back to charting out my Fitness Goals for the year and other ancillary resolutions. Such as: post more!

Internet Access Restored!

More soon.