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my opinion on fat people and minorities.
i woke up to this article glaring at me on digg:
BLACK WOMEN IN THE US APPEAR TO BE SHRINKING
summary: 80% of black women are obese. black women have shrunk in the past 40 years by about 3 inches. this is not true for wealthy and middle class black women. in fact, women of that demographic are actually getting taller. children of fat black women are more likely to be fat.
we are literally dissolving people who don't fit into our consumerist culture. it's disgusting.
if all you have to eat for the week is a $3 a day food budget, you go to macdonald's. even their salads and their grilled options don't fit within that budget. you NEED to eat fatty, unhealthy food. if you're at the grocery store, and you have $50 a week to spend on three children and yourself, you make the cheapest peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you can, and buy as many campbell's soup cans as you can afford. get a little more money than that, and you can afford slightly higher quality food. however when you are a single working mother (as many black women are...not to be racist, but look at the numbers), you buy convenience before you buy health. that means microwave dinners and oven pizzas. in this hypothetical woman's shoes, she probably also can't afford a doctor to then tell her that her entire family is fat and malnourished.
in germany, fruit and vegetables are less expensive than processed food. they are fresher too.
again, not to be racist, but I highly doubt that this is the case for 80% of black women
there is also the BBW culture. I could never wrap my head around judging someone for being obese, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. there are way too many factors that go into a person's weight aside from sitting on the couch and sucking down pizza all day. I know many BBW women who share their extra pounds lovingly and enthusiastically, and it's much better to see than those who are ashamed for their size. but there is an element of the fat acceptance movement that I rarely see promoted. and that is the health at any size part.
i have a refined healthy eating pyramid that harvard put out a few years ago. it resides on my fridge at home. a friend of mine who is a BBW (who i hope is reading this, because i really want to hear her response to all this) saw this on my fridge at a party and scoffed at it. she said "ohh, a strong base of weight consciousness and exercize. many fat women are very healthy, and don't need to eat salads or to work out." I was really too shocked to respond to this. on one hand, she was right. many fat people don't need to kill themselves at the gym and eat like rabbits to feel good about themselves. but was she telling me that she doesn't eat whole grains and she doesn't avoid fatty meats or deep fried food? weight consciousness to me says that you are aware of your base weight, and you make an effort to maintain it. and to deny that hundreds of diseases can be prevented from just a few minutes a day of exercize is silly.
i know many other fat people that are very unhappy with how they look. i've seen them blow money on diets that don't work, and expensive fitness products, and make a pact to exercize more, but when it doesn't show instant results, after a week they go back to eating horrible food and not moving enough. this shouldn't be how you discover your base weight, and decide that remaining uncomfortably fat is your only option. but unfortunately, this is a very common sight to see. it even has a label: yoyo dieting, or crash dieting, just to show you how common it is.
i just recently lost about 20 pounds. it took me all semester. it's been excruciating. but I am much happier for this change. it was horrible to start out with, because my joints and CV system was so weak from years of bed - ridden illness. it wasn't that i just hated exercize (which believe me, i did at first), it was that it was legitimately painful for me to do so. but i had my boyfriend to encourage me. i started out with stretching in the living room. i set a timer for myself: ten minutes a day. that's less than a TV show. i started taking my dog on longer walks. which turned into walking one way and jogging back home. when i was ready to (after ohh, 2 months of barely moving at all), i went to the gym. now, I almost never go to the gym, because I can run and walk with max in our neighborhood. now, I work out for about 30 minutes a day, which is what the Mayo Clinic reccomends to all people of any age and size. just by doing all of this, I have more energy, I have more endorphins cheering me on, and I sleep better at night. it hasn't hurt my sex life either ;-). and better yet, my endometriosis is far less painful. i am happy for all of these changes. losing weight has just been an added bonus.
i looked at the research, and decided it was my responsibility, whether i lose weight or not to exercize. i owe it to my body, and anyone who will love me later in life. if i have good habits now, then no one will have to watch me decay from preventable disease.
i am not saying that fat people are careless. i am saying that baby steps matter. that you can be happier if you take care of your body. you can do so much more with your life. as for the weight loss, it wasn't that i wanted to be skinny. it was that i was an 105 pound person living in a 130 pound person's body. if you are 250 pounds, and you realize you have been living in a 240 pound person's body, then GREAT! but that is how you should learn to love your big, beautiful body. not from dissapointment and frustration to the point where accepting yourself is the only thing you know how to do. give your body a fair chance to change. and if you are then still a big beautiful person, then you're an idiot for not loving yourself.
know the stereotype, and make an effort to change it. if you can afford to eat better, then you owe it to yourself to do so. if you can't then exercize. if you are a person of size, because it turns you on to bathe yourself in bacon grease, and you eat your cereal with whipping cream, then you deserve the heart and joint problems you'll get later in life. i'd judge you just as hard if you were a twig - woman with the same habits.
queen latifah, oprah, and missy elliot all have weight problems. but they are honest about their figures. they have all lost about a person's worth of weight, and they adore their full figures for the amazing, beautiful women they are. follow suit america, follow suit.
BLACK WOMEN IN THE US APPEAR TO BE SHRINKING
summary: 80% of black women are obese. black women have shrunk in the past 40 years by about 3 inches. this is not true for wealthy and middle class black women. in fact, women of that demographic are actually getting taller. children of fat black women are more likely to be fat.
we are literally dissolving people who don't fit into our consumerist culture. it's disgusting.
if all you have to eat for the week is a $3 a day food budget, you go to macdonald's. even their salads and their grilled options don't fit within that budget. you NEED to eat fatty, unhealthy food. if you're at the grocery store, and you have $50 a week to spend on three children and yourself, you make the cheapest peanut butter and jelly sandwiches you can, and buy as many campbell's soup cans as you can afford. get a little more money than that, and you can afford slightly higher quality food. however when you are a single working mother (as many black women are...not to be racist, but look at the numbers), you buy convenience before you buy health. that means microwave dinners and oven pizzas. in this hypothetical woman's shoes, she probably also can't afford a doctor to then tell her that her entire family is fat and malnourished.
in germany, fruit and vegetables are less expensive than processed food. they are fresher too.
again, not to be racist, but I highly doubt that this is the case for 80% of black women
there is also the BBW culture. I could never wrap my head around judging someone for being obese, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. there are way too many factors that go into a person's weight aside from sitting on the couch and sucking down pizza all day. I know many BBW women who share their extra pounds lovingly and enthusiastically, and it's much better to see than those who are ashamed for their size. but there is an element of the fat acceptance movement that I rarely see promoted. and that is the health at any size part.
i have a refined healthy eating pyramid that harvard put out a few years ago. it resides on my fridge at home. a friend of mine who is a BBW (who i hope is reading this, because i really want to hear her response to all this) saw this on my fridge at a party and scoffed at it. she said "ohh, a strong base of weight consciousness and exercize. many fat women are very healthy, and don't need to eat salads or to work out." I was really too shocked to respond to this. on one hand, she was right. many fat people don't need to kill themselves at the gym and eat like rabbits to feel good about themselves. but was she telling me that she doesn't eat whole grains and she doesn't avoid fatty meats or deep fried food? weight consciousness to me says that you are aware of your base weight, and you make an effort to maintain it. and to deny that hundreds of diseases can be prevented from just a few minutes a day of exercize is silly.
i know many other fat people that are very unhappy with how they look. i've seen them blow money on diets that don't work, and expensive fitness products, and make a pact to exercize more, but when it doesn't show instant results, after a week they go back to eating horrible food and not moving enough. this shouldn't be how you discover your base weight, and decide that remaining uncomfortably fat is your only option. but unfortunately, this is a very common sight to see. it even has a label: yoyo dieting, or crash dieting, just to show you how common it is.
i just recently lost about 20 pounds. it took me all semester. it's been excruciating. but I am much happier for this change. it was horrible to start out with, because my joints and CV system was so weak from years of bed - ridden illness. it wasn't that i just hated exercize (which believe me, i did at first), it was that it was legitimately painful for me to do so. but i had my boyfriend to encourage me. i started out with stretching in the living room. i set a timer for myself: ten minutes a day. that's less than a TV show. i started taking my dog on longer walks. which turned into walking one way and jogging back home. when i was ready to (after ohh, 2 months of barely moving at all), i went to the gym. now, I almost never go to the gym, because I can run and walk with max in our neighborhood. now, I work out for about 30 minutes a day, which is what the Mayo Clinic reccomends to all people of any age and size. just by doing all of this, I have more energy, I have more endorphins cheering me on, and I sleep better at night. it hasn't hurt my sex life either ;-). and better yet, my endometriosis is far less painful. i am happy for all of these changes. losing weight has just been an added bonus.
i looked at the research, and decided it was my responsibility, whether i lose weight or not to exercize. i owe it to my body, and anyone who will love me later in life. if i have good habits now, then no one will have to watch me decay from preventable disease.
i am not saying that fat people are careless. i am saying that baby steps matter. that you can be happier if you take care of your body. you can do so much more with your life. as for the weight loss, it wasn't that i wanted to be skinny. it was that i was an 105 pound person living in a 130 pound person's body. if you are 250 pounds, and you realize you have been living in a 240 pound person's body, then GREAT! but that is how you should learn to love your big, beautiful body. not from dissapointment and frustration to the point where accepting yourself is the only thing you know how to do. give your body a fair chance to change. and if you are then still a big beautiful person, then you're an idiot for not loving yourself.
know the stereotype, and make an effort to change it. if you can afford to eat better, then you owe it to yourself to do so. if you can't then exercize. if you are a person of size, because it turns you on to bathe yourself in bacon grease, and you eat your cereal with whipping cream, then you deserve the heart and joint problems you'll get later in life. i'd judge you just as hard if you were a twig - woman with the same habits.
queen latifah, oprah, and missy elliot all have weight problems. but they are honest about their figures. they have all lost about a person's worth of weight, and they adore their full figures for the amazing, beautiful women they are. follow suit america, follow suit.
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