Is it OK to Be Fat?

A couple of weeks back, I DVR'd Nightline because they were going to have a panel of women on (2 for Its OK and 2 for Its Not OK; one being MeMe Roth who is considered an 'extremeist' on the topic)..

First let me say that I HATE the word 'fat' but well, it was the name of the segment, and it is a 'bad' word..but why is that?

I tried to find the clip, but couldnt...if you really want to see it, I am sure its out there and its a fast watch; probably 20min since I fastforwarded through the 'mercials...Anyway, they start out with the usual statistics, and I always am completely shell shocked by these numbers:  2/3 of the US population is overweight, with 1/3 of those being clinically/morbidly obese...this alone costs ALL of us over $147 billion dollars a year in health care costs...I dont understand why everyone is fighting over health care, when you do the research, Type 2 diabetes and other weight related issues are the #1 cause of what drives the industry!  I mean come on!  When publishers start publishing magazines called Diabetes Today or Living with Diabetes, then there is a problem Houston...this crap is PREVENTABLE and REVERSABLE...but no, its OK, just stay the way you are, raise your kids to be that way...anyway, if we fixed some of the food issues (availability and costs first off) in this country, maybe we wouldnt be fighting over some health care reform (which honestly I pay ZERO attention to...lets face it I am more interested in celebrity gossip and fashion to waste my time on that!)

Obviously the media, and society in general, or so they claim is obsessed with being thin?  Really??? I dont see that from my pedestal :o) ... I see people all around me that claim to be victims (as one guy in the piece did); spouting "if 95% of the diet books and programs don't work what do you suggest I do?"

Really?  OMG...and yes I said that out loud, to the television.  You're a what?  Victim?  Someone forces you to eat like crap and not exercise?  Cause people thats all it takes (for the majority)...eat less, move more.

I bet that 'diet' will work for you.  And I bet its the only one you havent tried...

And I dont buy into the other statement said often in this piece, and also hear it in reals deals life 'round these parts..."I eat healthy, and I exercise too...I am just this way."

OK I know that there are situations that are out of some peoples hands...and some are dealt a load of crap when it comes to genetics...hey if there is one thing I will NEVER forget hearing as a teenager...at my extended fam's house at Easter one year in Lousiana:

Cousins talking about how 'little' I was...and yes they were ALL heavy..weren't always that way...anyway I was told "just you wait, when you get to be our age, just one day all of a sudden, you're gonna wake up fat, just like us".

And guess what?  They were kinda right...But it wasnt something I had to live with...I knew something was wrong and I finally found out I had hypothyroidism....although I had WAY many symptoms than just sudden weight gain...Anyway, point is, I didnt just decide to 'live' with it...

Now here I think is a celeb who is one of those that won't ever be thin...Sorry just had to put it in here for grins!!  I don't know...
The 2 who were 'for' its OK to be 'fat', one was a former thin model and now a size 8 and a 'plus size' model...the other a girl who was indeed overweight who is an advocate for the cause and I think her book is 'fatphobic' or something to that effect...

First off, OK, I am SO not on the bandwagon that a freakin size 8 is a damn plus size...OK, I am not saying THAT at all...I think that the industry is k.ra.zy in that respect...thats just dumb.  Again, culture as a whole, fixated...but I dont know why people wont be sensible about being healthy and looking to lose 100 lbs in 2 weeks??  I mean COME ON...Again I blame the instant gratification our society has become accustomed to by being able to get whatever and whenever they want for the most part...
Just like skinny does not automatically make someone more loveable, more honest, or more intelligent, it does not equate to health either.

The New York Times sums it up nicely:
"We need to re-engineer what public health agencies are telling people,” said Dr. Peter Muennig, the lead author of the study and an assistant professor at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia. “The ‘diet and exercise’ part is good, but the ‘get thin’ part may be dangerous.”

Question:  Do you think its OK to be fat?  Do you think that 'heavier' people can endanger others (e.g. on a plane where exiting in the case of an emergency might be hampered; the current buzz about SW airlines vs the director dude...

At the end of the day though, I must say I do not think its OK, when you are morbidly obese, or are endangering your own children...it is then NOT OK with me...I flip flop with the thinking that you can be healthy and 'fat'...I think though the guidelines put in place to determine health should be just that.  The determining factor....The girl on the show did not state any medical outcomes of any tests she may or may not have had so I dont know...
 
Every woman I know would say that of course she would rather be strong than skinny (I dont know about that; I might pick thin over strong). The irony, however, is that most women train exactly the opposite. Their entire focus is on skinnifying - read: endless calorie burning - instead of building muscle.  I am for both.  :o)

Now, nobody wants to look like the 1976 East German Women's Swim Team.  Not even the East German swim team wants to look like the East German swim team.  But your end goal definitely determines the type of training and nutrition program you use.  The difference is between seeing food as evil vs. seeing food as fuel (HUGE eye-opener for me once I got this little concept).  The difference is heavy functional lifting vs. endless reps with a 3-lb dumbbell.  The difference is deciding that what our bodies can do is more important than how they look.

I'm a girl.  In our society, even.  Believe me, I feel the thin pressure as much as anyone.  We are told over and over again that our looks are our power and we are only as good as our last Botox treatment.  But I, and I believe most of you too, don't totally buy that message.  We buy People but we also get Women's Health. We lift weights because muscle is more compact than fat (I still dont understand why everyone says 'muscle weighs more than fat'...a lb is a lb is a lb; a lb of muscle is still a freaking lb people..) and will help us fit in our jeans better but we also get a little thrill every time we go to put up our ponytail and a bicep pops out.  It's that balance that I'm always looking for, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not.

But I'm telling you, if comes down to wearing a size zero or being able to kick some bad-guy booty in a knife fight - at the very least I'm coming out of that with a chunk of somebody's ear. Well wait...Can't I be a size -0 and still be tough?  :o)  Now, if someone can please tell me where I can sign up for Krav Maga I'll be set.

PS.  Lifting heavy will NOT make you look like a dude. Unless you are a dude.  In which case, you probably should take the lipstick off.  At least on the weight floor.

Question:  Would you rather be strong or thin?  Do your body issues come from someone in your life (past or present) ... or are they self-imposed?

I grew up always being the heavier girl, and we wont even go into what happened to me when I hit junior high, and yes I recovered by high school (cause I got skinny)...and then off and on in my adult life, gaining 20 lbs (which I lost)  first year I graduated (and no it wasnt the Freshman 15 cause I didnt go to college right out of high school)..but even in my adult life I had to listen to my mother sometimes saying something about a few lbs I had gained or ALWAYS hearing her harp on my sisters weight, my BIL's weight...this person or that person for being fat...and then even so recently as the past couple of years are the reason since October I have been so 'dedicated' to dropping weight...In my head, and yes even today...I still think...if only I had been skinnier...then maybe I would have been good enough for him...

Sad.  So sad.  So much so that I sit here now with tears in my eyes....