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The sin that is back fat

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.

I’m working on fixing well-known bugs for an upcoming release and looking forward to finally submitting this theme to the Wordpress Theme Directory. I’ve also added a Paypal button so you guys can donate if you want/feel to. To all of you who donated, thanks!

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.

To all of you who donated, many thanks! I appreciate each donation that contributes to development.

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg. I’m working on fixing well-known bugs for an upcoming release and looking forward to finally submitting this theme to the Wordpress Theme Directory. I’ve also added a Paypal button so you guys can donate if you want/feel to. To all of you who donated, thanks!

Modern Clix is a minimal blog theme inspired in the Swiss Style of Design: It features Arial/Helvetica, grids, a generous use of whitespace for better readability and a strong focus in typography.

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.

If I had a photograph of you

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.

I’m working on fixing well-known bugs for an upcoming release and looking forward to finally submitting this theme to the Wordpress Theme Directory. I’ve also added a Paypal button so you guys can donate if you want/feel to. To all of you who donated, thanks!

Image

Sennheiser HD-202

I’m working on fixing well-known bugs for an upcoming release and looking forward to finally submitting this theme to the Wordpress Theme Directory. I’ve also added a Paypal button so you guys can donate if you want/feel to. To all of you who donated, thanks!

Something to remind me…

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.

I’m working on fixing well-known bugs for an upcoming release and looking forward to finally submitting this theme to the Wordpress Theme Directory. I’ve also added a Paypal button so you guys can donate if you want/feel to. To all of you who donated, thanks!

whew!

Exams are now over ! I also seem to have kicked that persistent upper respiratory infection and as we speak,  my daughter doesn’t have an ear infection (touch wood). We have sold our house (after finally getting it on the market, it sold in less than 30 hours). The Man is away with work a lot and The Boy is now on two weeks school break. Life has just been so busy! Add to that some sporadic work and the fact that I have had to send my laptop back to be repaired (resulting in limited online access) it all results in not being able to post on here in what seems FOREVER. I am scared to log into Google Reader because I haven’t had a chance to read any blogs in a looooong time. Not even the Fatosphere, which shows just how busy I have been!

 Image 2

Eiffel Tower, Paris

 

the big fat diet bandwagon and the smart women who fall off it

We are all familiar with celebs jumping on the diet bandwagon and peddling the likes of WW and Auntie Jenny. And we have all seen how one celeb is replaced with another after some time, generally without a lot of fan fare and generally because the original “star” has regained the weight they lost or failed to lose any in the first place. There is an abundance of weight loss and diet pills and programs. Here is a good analysis.

News today tells how Kate DeAraugo, former winner of Australian Idol, and her “tuckshop lady arms” had been snatched up by Auntie Jenny but it seems the deal didn’t work out quite as planned. Kate was criticised several times during her time on Idol for her tendency to “plumpness” and her curvier shape was more than evident when she was placed next to fellow group members of The Young Divas. While several of the other girls flaunted the “bootilicious” shapes promoted by performers such as Beyonce Knowles, Kate also carried her weight on her upper arms, neck, chin and all those areas not covered by the term “bootilicious”. Paulini had the butt, Ricki-Lee had the boobs and later, Jessica was just the cute little sister. It was Kate who got stuck being known as the “tuckshop lady” (school cafeteria/dinner lady for those not in the know). 

So Kate called Auntie Jenny (or they called her, more likely) and they got in cahoots with the idea of whittling Kate into a white version of Young Diva, Emily WIlliams and meanwhile convincing thousands of young women to follow that example. Unfortunately (or fortunately as I think) something within Kate didn’t “agree” with Auntie jenny’s fare and the whole deal has been called off. Kate cried gluten intolerance. Or was it lactose intolerance? Or was it more likely that either a/ she couldn’t stand to put the crap they call JC food anywhere near her mouth or b/ she managed to ingest it and didn’t lose any weight anyway? I would vote A myself but B probably isn’t far off the mark either. Kate pretty much gave the game away when she stumbled on Australian radio, saying one moment she had a gluten intolerance and the next that it was lactose that was the culprit. Considering Kate has been on the diet since January, it has taken them a while to work out she has a “problem” with the food. So much so, that rival WW has claimed that Kate used their “lifestyle changes” while spruking Auntie Jenny. Now how funny would that be if it were actually the case?

Personally I thought Kate looked fine when she was on Idol. Just as she has looked fine every time she has been slammed for being fat. She is a young woman who carries some extra weight, has a great singing voice and seems to have a bright personality. Who cares if she has tuckshop lady arms? (Yes, Kyle Sandilands, we know you care. But we don’t care what you think).

 

 

My Fat Spouse… is awesome and I adore him just the way he is

 

There has been an interesting conversation happening over at Babble regarding a particular website that is largely (no pun intended!) anti-FA and certainly anti-radical FA. I am not going to link to it as I don’t really want all the followers there, coming over here. If you are desperate to have a look at it, follow my link to Babble and go from there.

Basically the commenters at Babble who hail from MFS have a problem with the fact that they now have a fat spouse. There is a lot of talk about spouses who “have let themselves go” and as a result they are no longer sexually attractive. Yoganut says that a person “has a right to be upset” when their spouse makes a choice to get fat. Interestingly enough, I haven’t come across too many people who had made a conscious choice to get fat. But anyway… Yoganut also goes onto say that she has yet to meet an obese person who has eaten a “clean diet and exercised”. Personally, I have yet to meet anyone, fat or thin, who has eaten a “clean diet” their entire life or even for any extended period of time. And what exactly constitutes a “clean diet”? Are you allowed to eat a chocolate bar once a month? Once a year? Never? Or is it transfat that is out? Or carbs? Who decides exactly what a clean diet is? It is all so arbitrary and that is what makes the whole idea of a “clean diet” so ridiculous. But people like yoganut can’t see that. They are too preoccupied with their imaginings of fatties with IV lines of baby flavoured donuts inserted in their veins…

She continues by saying that “obesity itself can be a huge strain on the relationship”. Well no, that is not the case. Adipose tissue itself cannot do anything to a relationship. It is attitudes to fat that cause problems. And yes, laziness can cause problems in a relationship. But fat doesn’t automatically equal lazy. Plenty of fat people have proved that. Trying to equate fat with lazy is another straw man and it ain’t gonna float. Yoganut also says that these MFS members didn’t choose to marry an obese partner and that is what they are so upset about. Well hey, a lot of women didn’t choose to marry a bald guy but that is who they end up with. A lot of men didn’t chose to marry a woman with pregnancy induced stretch marks but that is what they end up with. And if I am a redhead when I get married, does that mean I have to stay a redhead through my marriage? If my spouse doesn’t like me being a brunette am I meant to stay a blonde? What about if I have always wanted a nose ring but my spouse hates them, am I meant to not get it? Or the tattoo I have always wanted? Am I meant to keep my waist length hair at that length the rest of my life? PEOPLE CHANGE. If you get married with the expectation that your spouse is going to be exactly the same person, and look exactly the same way, in 5, 10 or 20 years, then you are in for a might big shock. And even if on the off chance they do look the same, chances are their attitudes about a lot of things are going to have changed. Tell me, MFS members, do you all look the same way you did when you got married? If you were fat when you got married and are now thin, and your spouse was bitching about you on the internet, how would you feel? Maybe your spouse liked fat wo/men and now you are thin and they don’t like it. How would it be then? I am sure you would be really impressed with said spouse whining about it online.

If you don’t like who your spouse has become then do yourself and them a favour and end the relationship. I am sure they would be happy to be free of the nagging, harping and bitching you are constantly barraging them with. And obviously you will be happy because you are free to pursue a new, thin spouse. After all, we all know that being thin is the key to a happy relationship and a fulfilling marriage. Just ensure sex is good and your life is good too.

metamorphis - not the good kind

I find it intriguing how some people’s personalities change so much when they lose weight. I don’t know that it is a case of the “real” personality coming out, I think it is more likely to be a different side of their existing personality. Perhaps it is a personality evolution (involution?). Whatever it actually is, it can be downright nasty at times. Particularly when it comes former fatties and their feelings toward other fat people.

We have all heard that reformed smokers are the worst when it comes to anti-smoking rhetoric. I think former fatties would also be pretty high up there on the “worst of the reformed” hierarchy. I am sure you fellow fatties have had to listen at some point to a former-fatty waxing lyrical about the wonders of their miracle weight loss, be it from some super-you-beaut-weight-loss-program that either they or someone else have formulated or some amazing-virtually-non-invasive-weight-loss-surgery. Either way, the wonder beauty method is always “so different” to everything they (and by implication, you as well) have tried before. This oh-so-successful way to lose weight is pegged as being anywhere on the diet continuum from “so easy! I never feel hungry! I eat all the time!” to “I had to learn to get used to feeling hungry, I had to learn some self control”. No matter what the method is, if the former fatty believes it has worked (for now anyway) then “of course it will work for you!” and if you politely decline the offer of a free registration coupon/joint weekly weigh ins with the former fatty/a referral to the former fatty’s bariatric surgeon then you are naturally relegated to the lazy-undisciplined-have-given-up-hope school of fatties and are totally beyond all redemption as far as your “well meaning” former fatty friend/acquaintance/relative is concerned.

I have had dealings with someone like this, as I am sure most of you have. I knew a woman some time ago that I found warm, engaging, friendly, accepting and non-judgemental. Or at least she came across that way. I also thought she was gorgeous. She had voluptuous curves and showed them off to her advantage. She dressed with a certain flair but more than anything her aura was warm and inviting. She drew people to her. She was interested and she was open. She made you feel like you were perfect and wonderful just as you were. She rejoiced in the luscious bodies of other zaftig women like herself and she helped other (including myself) to celebrate and accept our own bodies no matter what size or shape we were.

Since I first met her, that woman has lost weight, amongst other physical changes. I didn’t necessarily agree with what she did but it wasn’t up to me, it was her body and she could do what she liked to it. But as she changed, things started to bother me and they weren’t physical things. I realised that her rhetoric regarding self-acceptance was simply that - rhetoric. And it didn’t seem to extend to herself. It was obvious to me that she had deep seated self image issues. Her appearance was more than just taking pride in herself, it was a full blown obsession.  Then, and now, I wish she could see beyond her appearance. I wish she could see the bigger picture.  But I don’t think there is much chance of that happening.

Even though I personally thought she was crazy being so self obsessed, I still figured it was her business. I didn’t have to agree with her politics and who was she hurting other than herself? She was a grown woman and able to make her own decisions about what she was going to implant/inject/paint her body with (or conversely, what she was going to remove/loose from her body). But then things got nasty.

Suddenly, seemingly overnight, this woman became a very vocal and outspoken fat hater. She began to lash out at fat women: at fat women she knew in person and at fat in general. She equated fat with giving up and not maximising self potential. She began to espouse the laziness and undisciplined nature of fat people. She pandered to the idea that fat people eat all day long (and eat crap food while they do it). Again and again she said that fat is “disgusting”. She spoke of weird and wonderful (more weird than wonderful) methods to rid her body of fat. She decried anyone who wasn’t trying to lose weight (at least, anyone that she though should be). Gone was the warm, caring, accepting woman I had met several years previously. She had been replaced with someone else. Someone else entirely.

I am sad that the woman I first met is no more.  But what can I do? Life is often about choosing one’s battles and this one is not for me. Not for lack of trying because being me, I have tried. But to no avail. She has chosen her path and I have chosen mine. She will continue to inject, peel, colour, pluck and reshape her body and I will carry the fat that she so despises and live a life I am satisfied with. I think I have a pretty good idea who is happier with themselves.

reduce this but not that

 

Upon reading Cacie’s guest post regarding her breast reduction over at Shapely Prose, I want to put something out there. It will probably start a shit storm but hey, what’s a bit of controversy between FAers?

The general consensus at SP seems to be that a breast reduction is all good if that is the path you want to tread. However if Cacie was planning to have gastric bypass or gastric banding or lipo or any other number of procedures aimed at reducing particular parts of her body, I am pretty sure the response wouldn’t be so positive.

Why?

Why is it ok to have a breast reduction but not to reduce any other part of your body? Is it because women don’t generally have their breasts reduced in order to lose weight (not primarily anyway)? The women I know who have had reductions did so because of pain and aesthetics. Not so different to many people who want to lose weight (by whatever means). There ARE people who are fat who are in physical pain because of the extra weight they are carrying. Losing weight won’t necessarily remedy the problem but extra weight can exacerbate it. By general FA standards, trying to lose weight is not an acceptable exercise (no pun intended). Not for any reason. Yet a breast reduction can result in the same outcome (less pain, more “acceptable” aesthetics) and is largely considered acceptable by FAers. Why is that? There are many problems that can come with a breast reduction, just as there are with weight loss. Yet still the double standard.  Again I ask, why is that?

What do you think?

(I don’t have a strong opinion on this one. I tend to lean to the “It’s your body” camp but I do find the obvious dissonance occurring to be intriguing).

This Angry Fatty won’t just shut up and go away, no matter how much you want her to

W ine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg. I’m working on fixing well-known bugs for an upcoming release and looking forward to finally submitting this theme to the Wordpress Theme Directory. I’ve also added a Paypal button so you guys can donate if you want/feel to. To all of you who donated, thanks!

Modern Clix is a minimal blog theme inspired in the Swiss Style of Design: It features Arial/Helvetica, grids, a generous use of whitespace for better readability and a strong focus in typography.

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.

This Back fat is sin!

I can’t believe that some people carried on so much about a so-called “chubby” Karolina Kurkova (who is apparently one of those supermodels). Well actually, I can believe it but I think it is ridiculous. The horror that is back fat was spied on Ms Kurkova during the recent Sao Paulo fashion week and of course, she was consequently slammed in the press for daring to wear a bikini while in such terrible shape. She was apparently displaying her cellulite, back fat and love handles for all and sundry to see and of course, that just isn’t the done thing. Personally I think the designations of ‘back fat’ and ‘love handles’ are more than a little exaggerated. The woman is standing and walking with her hip jutted out in an unnatural manner, if she was standing with her spine straight I bet her ‘back fat’ wouldn’t be nearly as conspicuous, if visible at all. I also think that the two creases she does show on her back (on just one one side mind you) can barely be referred to as ‘back fat’. And as for love handles, puleeze… where??? The strap on her bikini bottoms doesn’t dig into her hips, there is no muffin top effect on her hips so where exactly are these love handles??? And cellulite, well there are very few women who (without the benefit of airbrushing) don’t have any cellulite at all anywhere on their body. According the the press reports, the audience were ’shocked’ at Kurkova’s appearance. Yes, it qualifies as shocking to see a woman with two creases on her back because she is standing strangely and with some cellulite on her un-airbrushed butt. Horrendous…

 

 

I am sure they would all rather Korkova looked like the now deceased, Eliana Ramos who died at the grand old age of 18 from a heart attack which could have been (and probably was) induced by malnutrition. I am not going to post a picture of her, if you want to see it you can follow the link to the original article re Karolina Kurkova. Basically Eliana Ramos looked like a walking skeleton. And yet that seemed to more acceptable than for Karolina Kurkova to appear with back creases and cellulite. Sure, dying from the associated effects of malnutrition is much better than back creases and cellulite. No question at all…

still Angry Fatty

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.

Modern Clix is a minimal blog theme inspired in the Swiss Style of Design: It features Arial/Helvetica, grids, a generous use of whitespace for better readability and a strong focus in typography.

To all of you who donated, many thanks! I appreciate each donation that contributes to development.

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg. I’m working on fixing well-known bugs for an upcoming release and looking forward to finally submitting this theme to the Wordpress Theme Directory. I’ve also added a Paypal button so you guys can donate if you want/feel to. To all of you who donated, thanks!

Modern Clix is a minimal blog theme inspired in the Swiss Style of Design: It features Arial/Helvetica, grids, a generous use of whitespace for better readability and a strong focus in typography.

WordPress is an open source blog publishing application. It is the official successor of b2\cafelog, developed by Michel Valdrighi. The name WordPress was suggested by Christine Selleck, a friend of lead developer Matt Mullenweg.

If you can’t beat ‘em, pay someone to get rid of them…

  

This is appalling. It is more than appalling. It is disgusting. Guaranteed to stir up fat vilification and to have fat haters drooling all over the place, the Queensland government has offered $1 million to the town or city that comes up with the best idea to “beat obesity”. Additionally, “schools and workplaces will be able to compete for separate “fat-buster” prizes worth a total of $600,000″. The State Premier, Anna Bligh, “wants the state to become Australia’s biggest loser - of weight”. Well I can tell you right now who the biggest loser is - Anna Bligh! How on earth can they possibly think this is a good idea? Do these people not have fat relatives or friends? Do they not understand the potential consequences of this sort of propaganda? Do they not remember what happened last time a government didn’t like the physical characteristics of a group of people? Obviously not…

I can just imagine the way the fat kids at school are going to be treated now, or the fat people in the workplace. Let’s just sit back and watch the depression and suicide rate increase shall we? Ms Bligh tries to save face by saying this isn’t just about “losing weight. It is about encouraging Queensland communities to become healthier across the board”. Well then why even mention weight loss? Why not stick with the idea of movement because it is fun and fresh food because it tastes better? Why not? Because everyone loves to stick it to the fatties. Which Ms Bligh does again by trotting out the “more than 4000 Queenslander’s die prematurely every year from obesity-associated diseases”. ASSOCIATED people, that is the key word in that claim. They are ASSOCIATED with obesity, not caused by obesity. When are these people going to understand the difference?!

*sigh*

And then just to infuriate me even more (if that is possible) is this pile of statistical crapola in which the number crunchers claim obesity in Australia “gobbles up” $58 billion year. Once again people, the phrase is “associated with”…not to be confused with the phrase “caused by” and they are not interchangeable no matter what some journalists seem to think. Funny how no one mentions how every gold medal won by an Australian athlete costs about $16.7 million in tax payer funds, not to mention the costs of all the non gold medal winning sports funding in this country. Oh but that’s right, sport is GOOD and fat is BAD… how silly of me to forget that salient point…Why don't people get more information on stuff like natural products that can safely make people lose weight, lead to bettre sex & healthy aging if they want to.

State Governor takes on ‘fat aussie’

Victoria’s governor, David de Kretser, seems to have a bee in his bonnet about obesity. Or is he just jumping on the same bandwagon that so many others are already fighting for seats on? I became intrigued about this recently when my husband told me the Governor would be paying a visit to his workplace in the not too distant future. To be honest, I didn’t even know the name of the Governor of my state at that point, mainly because the role really doesn’t seem to carry that much power or relevance in today’s society. So Google-fu at the ready, we endeavored to learn more about the direct representative of the Queen of Australia (that would also be the Queen of England) in our state.

For those less than familiar with the hierarchy of Australia’s constitutional office - don’t be concerned. Basically because we are an offshoot of the Mother Land and not (yet) an independent republic, we still have positions of pomp and pageantry such as the Governor General of Australia and the individual State Governors. They don’t really seem to do a heck of a lot more than make a lot of speeches and greet the monarchy when they deign to pay us a visit but the Governor General does have the power to sack the federal government. Yep, the GG can boot the party in power (and consequently, the democratically elected Prime Minister) out of office. And it has been done before

But enough of the lesson in Australian history and politics, let’s get back to Professor David de Kretser AC. My husband sent me a link to a speech recently made by the Governor, relating to obesity and climate change. Initially I thought the Governor was going to (attempt) to make a link between the two issue, i.e. fat people cause global warming, just as others have done (or at least tried to). Thankfully, de Kretser didn’t take it quite that far although he did link the two together in that they are the ‘big issues’ of the moment. Interestingly, in that particular speech, he spent only a few paragraphs talking about OMGtheFATZ and considerably more time on climate change. This gave rise to a glimmer of hope: perhaps he was just mentioning theFATZ because that is the trendy thing to do these days? No such luck.

I had a peek at the other speeches Professor de Kretser has made since taking on the role of Governor in Victoria. Of the 10 speeches (listed on the governor’s webpage) given this year alone, half of them featured obesity as a major theme. HALF. One would think there are no other problems in Australia, let alone the world, other than theFATZ! Sure the Professor mentioned other social issues but none get as many mentions as theFATZ. This made me wonder even more. I had already worked out that the Governor wasn’t himself a fatty - that seemed pretty obvious. But when I started reading about his career history, it all began to fall into place.

Professor David de Kretser is a medical researcher. He is a doctor, a scientist. Admittedly, his field of expertise is men’s sexual health but it is easy to see his vested interest in slamming theFATZ. He continues to be a member of the Executive of the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University, a member of the Faculty of Medicine Research Committee and is currently (and has been since prior to his appointment as Governor) the Executive Chair of the Monash Institutes of Health Steering Committee. He is also the Associate Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences (Biotechnology Department). Additionally, he has too many patents already granted or pending for me to mention but I will be at least one of them has something to do with theFATZ. Biased much? Nah…

Of course Professor de Kretser doesn’t stand to make any money out of his research activities does he? Or his patents? Yeah right… What it boils down to is a man in paid public office, using his position to draw attention to a social issue whose ‘defeat’ would bring him great personal profit. Tell me again he isn’t biased…