I never thought of myself as an activist, although I can be an opinionated so and so when I want to be. So I was very chuffed and frightened in equal measure last week when I was contacted by a journalist who wants to write about this very blog for the newspapers. Gulp. Apparently the 'Fatosphere' of bloggers in the US has veen getting a lot of publicity over the pond, and so 'Fat Acceptance' is becoming a bit of a hot potato.
I watched this for some inspiration:
What do you think?
The whole 'Fat Acceptance' movement is one that I'm not actually sure I'm a part of. It seems to have a reputation, especially with thinnies, for being a glorification of being fat, a two-fingered salute to the doctors and dedicated slim people of the world, and some kind of crass assumption that if we 'accept' being fat we are dedicating our lives to conspicuous pastry consumption and balls to the rest of the world. I have to confess that I'm NOT about that.
I think we should all accept ourselves as we are...whether we are fat or thin. I don't think that obesity should be held up as an aspirational lifestyle choice, because it isn't one. It's a pain in the arse to find clothes and people think you eat lard. But I don't accept that being fat is the end of the world, and I do know from bitter experience that the more I hated myself when I was trying to get slim, the more I cried and screamed about my fat, the more I starved myself (and then gave up in an almighty eating frenzy that led me around the kitchen to hoover up diet snacks because there would be nothing decent in the house while I was trying again to diet) THE FATTER I ACTUALLY GOT.
Since I stopped mindlessly dieting, and attempting to make myself into something I am patently never going to be, a size 12, I have been a lot healthier. Mentally I am a lot stronger for accepting that I may not be a size zero but I am just as good as someone who is. And I'd probably beat them in an arm wrestle, too. I've saved a fortune on subscriptions to Weight Watchers website and Slimming World too. Not forgetting weightlossresources.com. I have been known to have active memberships to all three...at the same time...
Accepting myself for the chubby bundle of fun that I am means that I have saved a fortune on diet magazines, too. And classes that I sign up to for ten weeks in advance "to keep me going" - but only actually go to once or twice because I realise that I'd rather beat my head on a brick wall than listen to another grown woman try and justify eating a biscuit.
Not dieting any more has given me the freedom to fill my brain with other things...it's no coincidence that I gave up dieting at around the time I started Relentlessly Positive, because Sue Thomason, the woman I credit with helping me make the decision to stop dieting, also gave me the practical advice on setting up a website, which is something I'd wanted to do for ages anyway. If I was spending my time writing down calorie charts and posting inane rubbish on diet message boards to try and keep myself out of the fridge, I'd never have found the time to come up with Relentlessy Positive, which has been a big part of my life since 2006.
But, I hear you cry, what about my health?
Well. I haven't had a full-on cold or flu for best part of two years now. I can't remember the last time I had a really bad cold, flu or virus, to be honest. I used to have a terrible time with my hormones but that's sorted itself out now and my periods are as normal as I expect they are ever going to be. I haven't had my blood pressure checked since 2007 but it's always been on the low side of normal anyway. I haven't needed to trouble a doctor for a long time unless you count the repeat prescription for an adrenaline injection - I've been allergic to peanuts since I was a *thin* toddler. I'm training for the Race for Life this year. I walk every day, and swim when I can. All the clothes I was wearing when I started this journey still fit me...although I haven't weighted myself since last year.
I don't know what's going on inside my body, but I feel absolutely fine. No puffing, panting or stereotypical wheezing from me...well, unless you count the first attempt I made to run - I managed a minute or two and felt like my shins were burning.
So maybe I *am* a part of the size acceptance movement after all.....
I've just watched the video and also the green room discussion (linked from the-f-word.com site). I feel like I'm from a different planet than all of these people. What I don't understand is why Kate is considered fat at all - is she deciding that she's fat? Has someone else told her she's fat? To what is she comparing herself to come to the conclusion that she's fat? I ask these questions because she doesn't look fat to me.
The other lady (sorry, forgot the names) who was explaining in the green room interview that she eats healthily, buys organic, has cut out sugar from her diet etc. Why was she explaining herself?
How have we got to such a state that ordinary people feel that they are such social misfits that they have to explain what they eat on national TV in order to prove that they are 'normal'?
Who are they trying to prove it to?
Kate even said: "We want to be recognised as human beings?"
There are some frightening similarities here to fundamentalist religion. Is health the new religion? Will we soon be subjected to random health checks in the street by armed police? Will we have 'fat cameras', like speed cameras that pick out anyone with a BMI of over 25? Will we have to prove that we eat organic vegetables in the correct portions and do more than 40 minutes aerobic exercise per day?
There's something very suspicious about all of this.
I can tell you one thing: IT WINDS ME UP!
And it starts with YOU!
As long as all of you believe you have to justify yourself and list what you eat to be recognised as a human being, everything is lost.
I'm not ever going to list what I eat to prove I'm normal. I'm not ever going to explain myself in order to show that I fit in. The only person I need to fit in with is me. Everyone else can get stuffed.
The whole world is stark raving mad so I think I'll stay here on my own enlightened planet.