Fat Friday: A Diet Is a Diet is a Diet

 

This was my response to a post by Heather Awad, MD.

https://www.kevinmd.com/2022/05/dont-give-up-on-intermittent-fasting-just-yet.html

This was not as awful as I expected it to be, but, nonetheless, is really nothing but dieting rebranded.

Weight gain is one of the side effects of dieting. Food insecurity causes the body to store fat. Dieting is a form of self-imposed food insecurity. Very few dieters lose significant amounts of weight long-term. The pounds that come off return with friends because diets are unsustainable. Eventually, chronic dieters cease losing weight even when engaging in severe caloric restriction. Googling "Biggest Loser Weight Regain" will bring up articles illustrating this phenomenon.

Unfortunately, these articles come with the suggestion that individuals who are unable to lose weight through food restriction should opt for weight loss surgery. However, weight loss surgery, like dieting, has a low long-term success rate and serious irreversible side effects including dumping syndrome, malnutrition from impaired ability to absorb nutrients, explosive diarrhea, and premature death.

A health at every size approach is better for all bodies. Rather than a stigma-based size normative approach, it encourages patients to care for themselves, whatever their size. 

Check out Ragen Chastain's cards for dealing with fatphobia in a medical setting.

https://danceswithfat.org/2019/12/16/cards-to-help-fat-patients-at-the-doctors-office-english-and-french-versions/

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Fat and Ornery

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

Hangry Wyrm sez:

"Hot damn, it's Fat Friday! Riots, not diets!"

Free use image from Pixabay

Blow Your Stack Saturday: Remember Then

 

Image by Tumisu, please consider ☕ Thank you! 🤗 from Pixabay

If you were to aspire a little higher right now, with no miss-understandings to handicap you, what would be your desire?

I remember what it was like to just write what I wanted to write without worrying about any commercial potential. 

I remember what it was like when exercise was fun before the worries about being good enough or whether it had the potential to make me lose weight.

I remember what it was like to take a walk without having to worry about randos hollering at me or well-meaning but ultimately discouraging people telling me they'll pray for me or admonishing me that if I just prayed harder all my handicaps would fall away.

I have a bad back. My upright walker means I can sit down when it starts hurting and then roll on my way when I'm ready. It helps keep my spine in good alignment. Walking without support, my right side slumps. For fuck's sake, if prayer works, there are people who actually need it. People with terminal or degenerative conditions. Not me. You'd think these people had never seen anyone use a walker before. 

I need to encourage myself to put on my headphones (the universal symbol for "fuck off and leave me alone") and get rolling again. Not today, though. It's cold today.

I have a sketchpad. I should get out there and start sketching again.

Why do people see the need to put stupid conditions on things? Find things you like to do and do them. That's my only advice. I'd rather encourage than discourage.

As a reminder, this blog is a diet talk and weight loss talk-free zone. It's fine to discuss how diet and weight-loss culture have impacted your life. It is not fine to encourage dieting or exercise with weight loss as a goal. That shit fucked up my already fucked up metabolism even worse. I will have to contend with body dysmorphia and my abusive life partner, ED (Eating Disorder), for the rest of this incarnation. ED doesn't need any encouragement. Don't feed him.

I'm answering a question from The Maestro Monologue.

https://amzn.to/3ltlntN

White, Rob. The Maestro Monologue: Discover Your Genius. Defeat Your Intruder. Design Your Destiny. (p. 15). The Mind Adventure Inc.. Kindle Edition. 

If you purchase a copy of the book through this link, I will earn a small commission from Amazon.

https://odysee.com/@DiggingInTheCrates:6/THEEARLSREMEMBERTHEN:c?r=GTwnGJ4fFBQfzuJgpHVpfKBKaC9b8B16

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Free use image from Open Clipart Vectors

Ornery Owl is Fat, Fierce, and Done With This Shyyyyyt

Free use image from Pixabay

Hangry Wyrm says:

"If you're hungry, eat!"

Fat Friday: Same Old Song and Dance

 I'm not going to link to the post that prompted this response. It contained the "encouraging" image displayed above.

After 33 years of trying to hate myself thin, I was fortunate to discover the principles of Health at Every Size and size acceptance. Otherwise, I would be 56 years old, still fat, and still loathing myself. I not only have endocrine system issues but I completely wrecked my metabolism with dieting. I have an eating disorder (no, not binge eating, which is what most people think when they see someone my size) that will never go away. I fight with ED, my abusive life partner, every day.

Diet culture destroys lives. Being thin doesn't make someone a better person. I don't eat more than my more slender counterparts. Most of the time I eat far less. The medications I'm on tend to kill my appetite. Still fat. Always will be unless I become terminally ill. I refuse to apologize for my body anymore.

Continuing beyond the comment I left on the blog:

I have "just begun" more times than I can count. I used to lose weight each time. Then the weight came back with friends. About 10 years ago, I no longer lost weight when I started dieting.

Below is the only diet that I follow. The Fuck It Diet is the only diet that works long-term for every body.

http://bit.ly/FIDCIE

I also recommend Health at Every Size by Dr. Lindo Bacon.

http://bit.ly/HAESCIE

I'm not really angry at the person who posted this crap because I was indoctrinated into the Diet Mindset for so many decades myself. I just cringe so hard whenever I see it these days. I want to shake people and scream "you're an intelligent person! How can you buy into this shit?" 

We buy into it because we're reminded every day that we're garbage if we're not perfect.

As Ragen Chastain of Dances With Fat (danceswithfat.wordpress.com) always says, you're the boss of your own underpants. I can't tell you not to try and manipulate your body's size through dieting. I'd simply like to suggest that maybe YOU aren't "failing" at dieting. Dieting is failing YOU. 

(You can buy Ragen's book "Fat: an Owner's Manual" from her website. You can also purchase this cool book of affirmations for every body that she co-authored. http://bit.ly/BodyLoveAffirm)

Dieting fails all but a very small percentage of people who engage in it, and the multi-billion dollar diet industry knows it. They wouldn't stay in business if there were diets that worked. Dieting triggers the body's starvation response, which prompts the body to store fat. That's why whenever a person stops dieting and starts eating normally again (in other words, not starving themselves), the weight they lost returns with friends. Eventually, some people stop losing weight altogether unless something catastrophic happens.

I have diabetes. While I'm not a perfect little saint, I do watch my carbohydrate intake. I often have to prompt myself to eat, because Januvia kills my appetite. I have to fight not to fall into the trap of allowing ED to praise me for not eating.

I wish that dieting wasn't so normalized. When I briefly went back to work in an institutional setting after a couple of years working as a home care nurse, I was reminded of just how obsessed people are with dieting. In the employee lounge, it was all the female employees could talk about. I wanted to go out and sit in my car so I didn't have to listen to the constant diet talk. It was, honestly, insufferable.

I'd love to be able to discuss good low-carb recipes without everything always cycling back around to TEH WATE LOOZE!!!111!! 

I know...thinness is next to godliness, and I am a dreadful fat devil tempting all the pretty, young, thin people away from their youth and slenderness with my devil's food cake and devil dogs and other devilish treats by refusing to buy into the diet industry's lies anymore. 

I honestly don't care about your size, how much you exercise, or your preferred diet. As the late Carrie Fisher opined, that shit's boring. I really hate it when I end up talking about it. I'd rather talk about almost anything else.

~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~

Free use image by Open Clipart Vectors

Fat Friday: Fuck Dieting

 

This is my response to a poem about dieting by Paens Unplugged.

https://paeansunpluggedblog.wordpress.com/2020/10/10/chucking-away-dieting/

Let me be as real as it gets. If I hadn't discovered size acceptance and health at every size 10 years ago, I would still be a self-loathing fat person in the clutches of an eating disorder allowing other people to psychologically abuse me because of my size.

Instead, I am one angry fat bitch perpetually fighting an eating disorder (no, not binge eating) who does not allow concern trolls to bring their diet talk and psychological abuse to either my virtual or physical door.

My endocrine system is screwed six ways to Sunday. Unless I develop a life-threatening illness, I'm never going to be thin.

People are welcome to think I'm a hideous fat land whale, ham planet, or whatever other dumb epithets they want to use. I can't control people's thoughts or lack of empathy. But they are not welcome to abuse me and I will call out anyone who tries. This fat, disabled crone ain't playin'. 

Also, diets don't work long-term for more than about 5 percent of dieters. Most people regain the weight they lose and then some within five years. Eventually, one stops being able to lose weight. I know. I was able to lose weight every time I tried to hate myself thin when I was younger. Once I was over forty, forget it. 

Fuck dieting. The only diet I follow is the Fuck It Diet. Which is a real book, as it happens!

Fat Friday: Shutting Down the Concern Trolls

This is my response to a post by Ragen Chastain about shutting down concern trolls.

Have you ever tried keto/paleo/whole 30/intermittent fasting?

a: I have, but I care about my health, so I don’t do that anymore.

I had kicked diet culture to the curb before "keto" came along, but I did Atkins twice and a couple of Atkins clones. I ended up feeling like I was going to pass out, I was moody as all fuck, my brain was even foggier than usual, and I felt sick most of the time. I don't remember if it was with Atkins proper the first time or with one of the clones, but my hair became very brittle and started coming out in handfuls. No fucking thanks.

As for "intermittent fasting," that's what I do when my abusive partner ED (eating disorder) comes in swinging and knocks me for a loop. I restrict my food intake (usually full-on starving myself) for a day or more and either sleep so I don't eat or sit there mired in self-loathing. Yeah, that seems very healthy, don't you think?

Fat and Ornery

Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors

Sly Speaks + Fat Friday + Friday Flashback: Diet Culture Rhetoric Is Not Poetry

This poignant gem was originally published on 17 January 2010 on my now-retired poetry blog.

life It would be far easier to diet if I didn't like food.

This, apparently, was the entire-ass poem.

A year later, I would finally take the long-needed step of ditching diet culture for good.

That is a terrible statement, let alone being a terrible poem. 

It isn't even a poem, it's a blurb. A very stupid and brainwashed blurb. It's a tweet that shouldn't have been tweeted. It is a lot of things, none of them good. A poem it is not. 

The Chili Bean Tanka is a better poem, and it is not a good poem. In fact, it is close to Vogon poetry in its poetic injustice.

It goes a little bit something like this.

I ate the chili

between the beans and the spice

digestive horror

beneath the cover of night

noxious eruptions take place

As I mentioned previously, I struggled over the holidays. My abusive partner ED (Eating Disorder) reared his ugly head and I relapsed into my old restrictive eating and self-loathing patterns. Which, by the way, never made me thin, they just fucked my metabolism over and made me hate myself even more. 

However, reading this micro-poem that should not be, I could see where I'd been myopic in my criticism of a poet whose book I reviewed recently. I gave the book overall high praise, but I stated that her "poem" which read as follows, and I quote:

love ends but calories are forever

was not so much a poem as unfortunate diet culture rhetoric, and I wouldn't want to read it as a tweet, let alone in a book of poetry.

Given the unseemly evidence above, that critique was hypocritical of me.

However, there is a lesson to be learned.

Next time you think publishing a pithy pearl of poignant perspicacity such as this...

Go to the kitchen and grab yourself a snack. Or at least have something to drink. Your blood sugar may be low because if you think that's worth publishing, you obviously haven't been thinking clearly. Step out for a breath of air and clear your head of the Diet Culture nonsense. You've obviously bitten off more of it than you can chew.

That being said, Words Written in the Dark is, overall, a thoughtful and thought-provoking volume of modern poetry, and I recommend it highly.

Fat and Ornery

Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors

Ornery Literary Services

Sly and Snarky

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

FOAD Thursday: Jillian Michaels Can FOAD Forever

A response to this post.

You know, it's hard enough having to deal with diabetes without having it made into a character flaw by sanctimonious assholes. I'm glad that Kai Hibbard came at Jillian Michaels full force. 

I give no quarter to those who say things like being fat causes diabetes. I would hazard a guess that in the case of people like me there is a genetic factor that both caused my train wreck of an endocrine system and promotes a heavy body type. But many people who are built like me (myself included) are actually very good at restricting food. Yo-yo dieting has also been implicated in causing the problems that being fat gets blamed for, because, you know, starving yourself isn't good for a body.

Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors

Fat. And ornery.

About Me Monday: Ornery and Sly: Stop the Bullying and Stigma

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Today isn't FOAD Thursday, but "The Biggest Dickweed" and anyone who supports it can FOAD every day. Please read about and sign the petition to stop this horrible, hateful garbage from being resurrected.

If you're one of these people who are so indoctrinated into diet culture (I was one of those people for 33 years, and it never made me thin, it just made me miserable) that you believe that shaming and bullying large people "for their own good" is a great idea, here are some key points refuting that belief.

This show caused so much harm to the health of contestants and viewers alike by perpetuating weight stigma. Since the show went off the air, we have research related to how weight stigma and yo-yo dieting actually harms people in larger bodies. Additionally, there is research from prior Biggest Loser contestants indicating long term negative effects:

Participants not only gained the weight back due to a slowing of the metabolism but that participants had increased leptin levels that cause extreme hunger: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html

From The National Association of Eating Disorders:
“Weight stigma, also known as weight bias or weight-based discrimination, is discrimination or stereotyping based on a person's weight. Weight stigma can increase body dissatisfaction, a leading risk factor in the development of eating disorders.” 
https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/weight-stigma

From Abby's Kitchen:
DANGEROUS SECRETS FROM THE BIGGEST LOSER & MY PETITION TO MAKE IT STOP
“A study published in the Journal of Obesity suggested that watching even one episode of the Biggest Loser increased hateful weight bias among viewers! This is particularly concerning to me when there are children watching, as it’s easy to sense and duplicate the disgust for fatness when they see it in their peers or even themselves."
https://www.abbeyskitchen.com/nutrition-dangerous-secrets-biggest-loser-my-petition-make-i/

From Today’s Dietitian:
January 2018 Issue

The Health Impact of Weight Stigma
By Carrie Dennett, MPH, RDN, CD
Today's Dietitian
Vol. 20, No. 1, P. 24

“The health risks of weight discrimination are consistent with the observed effects of racial discrimination.”

Being the target of weight stigma increases the risk of poor mental health outcomes, including depression, anxiety, poor self-esteem, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and eating disorders. These associations happen regardless of BMI, so it's unlikely that body weight itself is a cause.”

“Harrison says. "The majority of the clients I've treated for disordered eating cite bullying or shaming for their weight by parents, peers, coaches, or health care professionals as the initial trigger for their issues with food."
https://www.todaysdietitian.com/newarchives/0118p24.shtml

My reason for signing the petition is this.

Promotion of size shaming and eating disorders does not equate with "health."

I have had an eating disorder since I was twelve years old. I was not fat at twelve, but I was so terrified of becoming fat that I became bulimic. 

I never felt direct hatred for fat people, but I saw the way that they were bullied and shamed. I was already the target of bullying. I couldn't bear the idea of the bullying being stepped up if I got fat. 

I am fat at this point. Not the "I feel fat" kind of fat. (By the way, "fat" is not a feeling.) I am really, genuinely, truly fat, and yes, I am "that" fat. My size, like everyone's size, results from a combination of factors. The first and most important factor in determining a person's body type is DNA. 

One of the waitresses I worked with at the job I had eighteen years ago was a tall, sturdy young woman. One time in the break room she ended up telling me about her sister, who was bulimic and anorexic. She told her sister: "we're big people. We come from a line of big people. It isn't natural for us to be skinny." 

So, which sister was the "healthier" of the two? The one who accepted the way she was built and went on with her life, or the one who was so obsessed with the idea of becoming thin that she was going to extremes to manipulate her body to a perceived point of acceptable slenderness?

By the way, health is not a measure of personal worth. I am not asking which of these sisters was more worthy of being treated with common decency. They are both worthy of that.

I had a very difficult time during this past holiday season. My feelings of self-worth plummeted to the depths. I ended up starving myself. I also ceased my daily walks. I didn't feel motivated to walk, and I felt as if everyone was staring at me and judging me. Also, walking can be painful for me. No, not because I'm fat. I was fat back when I was waitressing. I was fat when I was working as a nursing assistant and later as a nurse. These jobs contributed to the spinal problems I now have. So did engaging in behaviors consistent with orthorexia, such as spending five hours a day at the gym on my days off from work. My size did not.

I don't know how people can fathom that it's okay to say whatever they want to a big person. Okay, I actually know how it happens. It happens because larger people have been othered and dehumanized. One of our neighbors saw me having trouble shoveling the snow off the porch. He came over to help. In fairness, he wasn't trying to be cruel, and I think he is in the early stages of dementia. But this is what came to his mind, and what society has led him to think is perfectly okay to say.

"My wife was built like you. She was obese. But at least you're trying. She didn't try, so she died."

If you think that "obese" is a harmless word, think again. Obese is a shaming, othering, dehumanizing word which leads to people being denied proper health care and even basic respect. Obese is a word that kills people.

I'm fat. I'm not stupid. I know when I'm being condescended to. I know when I'm being looked down on. I know when I'm being othered.

Sometimes my bad attitude prevails and I let the middle finger fly and go on about my life.

Sometimes I get broken and relapse into unhealthy behaviors (starving myself) and self-loathing.

I got broken over this holiday season. I starved myself, and I stopped taking my walks because I felt like I was being watched and judged and the walks weren't bringing on the almighty WATE LOOZE!!11!!! Which, of course, is the only thing that matters.

I am getting back in the saddle and charging back into action on my very large horse.

So, if you're one of those people who thinks it's okay to behave badly towards me and others who look like me because we don't fit your criteria of beautiful or fuckable or because we don't fulfill your criteria of perfect "health"...

Let's face it. It's never really about health. 

You may expect that this is where I tell you to FOAD.

Actually, I'm going to ask you to read the words above mine again.

Then I'm going to ask you to go read these blogs.

Big Fat Science
Dances With Fat
Heavyweight Heart

If, after reading those blogs you still think it's fun to ridicule fat people or concern troll fat people or you still think The Biggest Dickweed is good wholesome entertainment for the family...

Then you can fuck off forever.

Fat and Ornery

Image copyright Open Clipart Vectors

Sly and Snarky

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

The last diet you will ever need.
 

Come As You Are Party at the Camp 5 January 2020

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

I am not okay today.

Not at all.

I don't expect anyone to say anything about it.

People gave up on trying to cheer me up long ago because it doesn't last. The fact that my darkness returns hurts their ego.

"Well, I helped you. If you can't stay helped, that's your problem."

"Life's hard, Honey. Get a helmet."

"You think you have problems? Everyone has problems."

"Suck it up, Buttercup."

People like to help things that are tiny and cute.

Not big, ugly things.

People see the outside.

People focus too much on the outside.

I know that what's inside of this big, ugly body is kind of an interesting person. 

But the idea of "loving myself" is such an absolutely foreign concept to me that you might as well be telling me to go dance on Jupiter.

How am I supposed to even like myself a little when every day I get the message that anyone who looks like me is The Worst Thing That Could Possibly Exist?

How am I supposed to feel encouraged to take care of myself when every day I receive the message that I Brought My Health Problems On Myself by Being Too Fat?

It never occurs to any of these Dr. Oz wannabes that perhaps the ratio of adipose tissue is CORRELATED to the condition as opposed to causing it.

It doesn't help me encourage myself when all I ever hear is "if you just TRIED HARDER you could be thin and pretty and then Some Wonderful Guy would fall in love with you and Take Care Of You."

Hell, it doesn't occur to these fuckers with their platitudes that THE LAST FUCKING THING I WANT is for "Some Wonderful Guy" (TM) to swoop in and solve all my problems. Or Some Wonderful Woman (TM). If I were looking, I'd want the guy, seeing as I'm (gasp) straight. Which is the second or third worst thing that a person can possibly be and not just, you know, a sexual orientation. 

Of all THE WORST THINGS that a person can possibly be, I'm a lot of them.

First and foremost, I'm fat.

Fat.

FAT

FAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT!!!!!

Which is, you know, worse than being a serial killer or a horrible monster who tortures little animals, or a child molester.

To hear people tell it, the Worst Thing A Person Can Possibly Be is Fat.

Fat people never get to be neutral in stories. Certainly, they don't get to be the star of the story, at least not if they remain fat. They can be The Star if they Lose Weight and Become Hot (TM). They can't just be a cool fat hero or heroine being their badass self. They have to be Redeemed from their Fat. Because Fat is the Very Worst Thing That A Person Can Possibly Be.

I can't read cookbooks without the focus being Losing Weight so you can Become THIN (aka, godly). Even though I now reject all the stupid, sickening women's magazines telling me to how to be The Perfect Thin Pretty White Lady (I'm two out of those five things. Guess which two) I still have the THINNESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS crapola shoved in my face constantly just by going on the internet and looking for fucking recipes. For food to eat. Hopefully inexpensively, because I am far from rich. And hopefully with lower carbohydrate content because I'm fucking diabetic. Hopefully without the side order of Fat Shaming and Thin Praising that seems to be fucking inevitable.

I am feeling a little better for having said it.

I am going to keep saying it until it starts to sink in.

If your go-to is to ridicule and behave sanctimoniously towards fat people, you, not they, are the problem.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~

Check out the one and only diet endorsed by the Crazy Creatives Cheerleading Camp.

The Cheese Grates It: Goals for 2020

Image by Annalise Batista from Pixabay

I refuse to do New Years' resolutions. Those always imply crap like "New You in 52," which, of course, means diet culture. I raised the middle finger to diet culture closing in on ten years ago, and I'm damn well not sorry. I suppose it will be a battle every day of my life till the day I die to be treated as a human being without buying into the same shit that never worked for me in 33 years of yo-yo dieting and trying to hate myself thin, but it's a battle that I will fight.

Here are my big fat goals for 2020.

To format and release my first non-erotic published work in 13 years. Ketil and Yitzy's Adventure in the Xura Dream House is finished. I am currently in the process of editing and formatting it. It will be published in January of 2020.

To start publishing my poetry. I am currently formatting a book called The Poetic Rejects of 2019, which will, as the name implies, contain all my rejected poems from the past year. It may also contain some rejected prose, depending on the length of the piece.

To continue to submit works here and there, now and then, all the while giving no fucks whether or not they are accepted or published.

To continue working on and publishing my own stories, regardless of whether or not anyone else likes or reads them.

Basically, to survive another year.

Oh, I do have one resolution.

I resolve that I will never again do anything like the Battle of the Poems.

That was really stupid of me, and I'm dreadfully sorry.

Best wishes to you, whatever your goals are in 2020. 

You are welcome to have resolutions, but if they are diet-y resolutions, I don't want to hear about them any more than I want to hear about your bowel movements.

I guess I have one more resolution.

I resolve to keep bringing the snark in 2020. It is my goal to make the ghost of Ambrose Bierce proud.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~

I still miss these fuckers. Just sayin'.

The Cheese Grates It + Fat Friday: Is It Worth It?

Image by Erich Westendarp from Pixabay

I approached this post with trepidation and end my experience with applause because the author is that rare person who takes a position similar to Health At Every Size.

I became bulimic at twelve. My thyroid burned itself out in my early teens. I had PCOS (I say "had" because I've gone through menopause and now my ovaries are atrophied so I don't think it's an issue anymore.) I struggled with yo-yo dieting, orthorexia, and trying to hate myself thin for 33 years. None of it made me thin, it just made me hate myself. I had to stop dieting so I wouldn't gain more weight because every time I lost weight it always came back with friends. I can tell you from personal experience that it is NOT worth it.

These days I won't let people get away with being jerks. This includes medical professionals. Think what you want about my appearance, but you are not entitled to be abusive about it.

I still struggle with my abusive life partner, ED (Eating Disorder.) People don't believe me, but I am actually very good at restricting food. I went through a couple of days this past week where I refused to eat all day. Considering that I have diabetes, this is not a good thing.

This time of year is rough because so many people take up the rallying cry of "new you in 52," "I'm going on Keto (or whatever diet is currently in vogue)," or other such crap that I don't want to hear about any more than I want to hear about their bowel movements.

Thank you so much for being a voice of reason.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~

Blow Your Stack Saturday: Feminism That Turns Against Our Fat Sisters is Not Feminist

I'm still discouraged by the use of the term "promoting obesity" regarding plus-size Instagram models by a feminist activist whose work I've long respected. Regardless of whether one feels these (generally young) women are exploiting themselves or seeking attention by posing in skimpy outfits, they are not, in fact, "promoting obesity.' 

I've heard the dismaying argument that feminism should not support size activism on numerous occasions. To believe this is to believe that a person's size is "a choice" and that everyone could "easily lose weight" if they'd just "eat less and exercise more." If this grossly oversimplified belief were true, there would be virtually no fat people because everyone who could do it would do it. If this oversimplified belief were true, I would have been a willowy twig during the years that I starved myself and engaged in orthorexia. I never was.

The woman above was Ellen Maud Bennett, a 64-year-old Canadian who died from ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is highly treatable if detected during the early stages. 

Ellen had complained to doctors of feeling poorly for years. Their response was to tell her that if she lost weight, she'd feel better. When one of them finally decided to take her seriously, it was discovered that she had stage 4 ovarian cancer. She died a short time later.

Ellen did not want her death to be in vain, so she had her family include a letter in her obituary. I hope that everyone will take the time to read it, especially those "feminists" who believe that there is a certain weight at which your sisters should be disowned.

Here is Ellen's obituary.

For evidence-based arguments against current size-shaming medical treatment and societal prejudices against larger people, I recommend these three blogs.

Big Fat Science

Dances With Fat

Heavyweight Heart

Heavyweight Heart, in particular, has discussed the racism that was instrumental in forging our adherence to the hateful and unhealthy belief that a woman can never be too rich or too thin. All of these blogs are rich with scientific evidence against the currently held beliefs that fat is the very worst thing a person can possibly be. 

There are certain conditions that are correlated with a larger body type. Correlation is not causation. Generally speaking, telling a fat patient to lose weight in order to resolve underlying health conditions is like telling a man with male pattern baldness to regrow his thinning hair in order to lessen his chances of developing prostate cancer. There is a correlation between male pattern baldness and an increased likelihood of developing prostate cancer. Thinning hair does not cause prostate cancer. The underlying issue, increased testosterone levels, increases the likelihood of developing prostate cancer.

The Minnesota Starvation Experiment reveals what happens to the body and mind when a person engages in restrictive dieting behaviors. Diets do not work long-term in more than five percent of people who engage in dieting. Most people gain the weight they lost back and then some. After many years of weight loss attempts, the possibility of dieting bringing about significant weight loss sharply decreases.

I for one do not enjoy having every waking moment of my day focused on food because I am starving. I went through thirty-three years of yo-yo dieting, and all it brought me was "failure" and weight gain. Combining dieting behaviors with multiple endocrine conditions was a sure-fire recipe for a large body type. But neither I nor anyone else should be having to defend our right to exist and be treated with common decency in the bodies we have. 

If the majority of my sisters have decided to disown me and other women like me because we are fat, or to give lip service to supporting women of all sizes but then tearing down fat women as being lazy and "glorifying obesity" for not hiding our disgusting fat selves away from the view of decent people, then feminism has let me and my fat sisters down.

I will continue fighting for what's right, but I may no longer be able to identify as a feminist while doing so. I consider this a great loss. I first began identifying as a feminist in 1973 when I was eight years old and already tired as fuck of being told that I couldn't do anything interesting with my life because I was "just a girl."

Now I'm hearing "girls can do anything guys can do, but not if they're fat."

Fuck right off with that shit.

~Sly Has Spoken~

Image copyright juliahenze @123rf.com

Fat Friday #18: Wouldn't It Be Nice for a Diabetic to Find Low-Carb Options Without the Weight Loss Shilling?

So I ordered something from Amazon which ended up being fulfilled by Wal-Fart, and there was a free sample of an Atkins lemon bar in there. I ate it, and it was pretty tasty. I decided that as a diabetic, it might be nice to have a supply of these things on hand for those times when I want candy but don't want to inject extra insulin.

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a product that was a tasty snack with a low glycemic impact where it's true purpose was being helpful for diabetics rather than SO U CAN LOOSE WEIGHT!!11!1!1 AGAIN!!11!1!1 FOR THE TEN FUCKING TRILLIONTH TIME!!11!!1! UNLESS YOU'VE ALREADY DIETED SO GOD DAMN MUCH THAT YOU'LL NEVER LOSE ANOTHER POUND IN YOUR LIFE UNLESS YOU FUCKING GET CANCER!!!1!1!1!1

Yeah. I hate that shit. 

It's like if I eat one of these things I have to do it in a dark closet or something because otherwise, people will start congratulating my WEIGHT LOSS EFFORTS!!!11!1

Like, no.

I'm 999% done with that shit.

I will never diet again.

Diets don't work.

Fuck diets.

I don't care about the number on the scale.

I'm concerned about the one on the blood glucometer.

As for exercise, I'm not doing that to fucking LOSE WEIGHT!!!11!!! either. 

I'm trying to rebuild my strength and endurance.

I'm not able to go very far very fast yet. 

"But you'll get stronger..."

Sounds good, I hope I do.

AND THEN THE POUNDS WILL START COMING OFF!!!1!1!1

Fuck right off before I power-slam your ass through a wall. I may be physically compromised, but the rage inspired by crap like that will make me a beast.

Fuck your fucking weight loss rhetoric.

Just let my diabetic self enjoy the god damn Atkins bar.

Fuck's sake.

~The Cheese Hath Grated It~