I’m not fat…I’m big boned!

My mother to this day will tell you that I was not fat growing up.  There are pictures in my book that prove otherwise…Oh the love of a mother.  Fat gene or skinny gene…it’s a roll of the genetic dice that I lost.  I believe that it was my mother’s point of view that inevitably gave me mine. I have a very good friend that has struggled with her weight since childhood too but she has told me before how her mother would make negative comments about her weight rather than being supportive. I think she has bitter feelings about being fat directly related to this. I know that given the opportunity to be left alone with little Johnny who did not pick her for the kickball team in the fifth grade – because she was the “fat kid” – it could get a little messy….and not for her.  My mother never harped at me about my weight or told me I was fat. According to her I was just “big-boned.” To me I was fat. Today I am fat. I am not angry about, mad at anybody because of it, and know that there are reasons for it but also know that even as I lose weight I will never be skinny. And I do not want to be skinny. I was not born to be a skinny chick even if my doctor tells me that at my height of 5’6” and large frame I should weigh something like 130.  Sorry, that is never going to happen – it is a physical improbability!

In Making Light of Being Heavy there are pictures of me at around 170 my senior year in high school. I had dieted like mad to get into a dress that I bought for senior prom and I was “skinny.” I can remember my dad coming up beside me at the dinner table one night pointing out my shoulder bone and hip bone and telling me to stop with the dieting. But according to the weight guidelines I was obese!

People should find a comfortable weight for them and consider that their weight guideline and just smile politely at their doctor who whips out the chart that says otherwise. A person’s main focus should be that they are healthy. I may be fat but I am healthy. People will ask how that is possible… if I am fat I must automatically be unhealthy. I am 44 and even though I am considered in the medical field “obese,” I do not have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart problems, varicose veins, joint problems, etc. Am I just lucky?

Hey!  Check out my YouTube video – Fat Chicks and Unfriendly Chairs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQR5AC-r9qU

With a bunch of butt shots with measurements (yes I said measurements!) coming up to the slow rocking beat of stripper music, my video Fat Chicks and Unfriendly Chairs definitely has the market cornered on making light of being heavy 🙂  Making Light of Being Heavy is a comical book with opinions and observations from a fat chick’s point of view that puts an unexpected and funny spin on dealing with the fat gene!

Until next time, keep laughing!

Related Articles

• Fat, the F Word (thehungryfab.com)
• Finally, a little vindication for the fat chicks…. (makinglight.wordpress.com)

Yes, I know I am fat!

The title of the article I refer to was “Fat and Unaware: Most Obese Americans Don’t Think They Are.”  This was based on a new poll by Harris Interactive, a market research firm.  News flash people, we know we are fat and as a fat expert myself I would say the resistance would be not wanting to call oneself morbidly obese but maybe overweight instead or just simply fat as I resolve to do because even though “fat” is not the greatest word either, it sure sounds better than morbidly obese!

Why haven’t they come up with words for short people like “drastically underheight” or for the too thin of the world “radically emaciated” to be used when defining them??  I am pretty sure a short person regardless of liking that particular character trait or not would prefer to be called short and the same for a person who is too thin.

Over the years in my business with medical transcription I have typed “morbidly obese” a zillion times and still get a little irked each time I type it.  When a person is of “normal weight” (and I use that term loosely) the usual phrase is “well‑nourished, well-developed…” But then one day a doctor referred to the fat patient as “overly nourished.”  Ha!!  That made my day.

According to the poll, about half of the respondents thought that surgery was very or fairly effective in keeping off the weight.  “It’s not as simple as portion size and activity.” said Steven R. Smith, an obesity researcher at the Burnham Institute in Lake Nona.  Surprise, surprise Steve, I have known that since I was in grade school.  “Smith agrees that the surgery, though it can start at $12,000, can reduce diabetes, heart diseases, and mortality, and even save money in the long run.”

This is where I get a little riled up….how is it better to physically alter the body you were given during the miracle of birth by medically removing or banding a piece of your stomach so the end result will be basically the ability to ingest SMALLER AMOUNTS OF FOOD more often to lose weight.  Gee, give me a minute, but I think I have read somewhere that that is one of the recommended ways to lose weight without surgery….Again, call me crazy and I am no medical expert but surgery sure sounds like an asinine approach to take.  In my field of medical transcription, I have typed countless reports in which years later the digestive system is out of whack and the previous gastric bypass patients have lifelong medical issues directly related to the surgery.

According to the poll, most of the respondents really thought that they were fat because they did not get enough exercise.  Yes, exercise definitely is advantageous to a person overall but certainly not the determining factor as to why a person is fat.  Genetics plays more of a part than anything else out there.  Didn’t you get my memo??

Until next time, keep laughing!!