Thankful Thursday

March 18, 2010

Thankful Thursday

[a not-always-weekly exercise in gratitude]

I am feeling very scattered tonight and tempted to skip this … which probably means it’s a good idea to do. So. Today I am thankful for:

1) The Two Lumps books, which include creator commentary and well as the strips …

2) … and a husband who reads me excerpts from it when I’m stressed out.

3) Yoga and weight lifting, which not only help me get stronger but also help me de-stress.

4) People who write things like “I would like to put forth the radical notion that, if a fat person is fat by choice, it’s okay” and “[F]at stigma isn’t about improving people’s health“.

5) A king-size bed with clean sheets, lots of soft pillows, and a cozy comforter.

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Living 400lbs

I blog about what it’s like to be live life at about 400lbs. :)

2 responses to “Thankful Thursday”

Patsy Nevins

March 19, 2010 at 9:03 am

I personally don’t really believe that anyone is ‘fat by choice’, because some people do NOT have the capacity to become fat, & some thin people do all the so-called ‘bad’ things which fat people are accused of doing. We ‘choose’ perhaps not to fight our genes, hormones, aging, personal history & try to be thinner than is natural for us, &, yes, perhaps there are a few naturally fat people who do push their limits & allow (& maybe in some cases, even desire) to get as fat as they possibly can. It is indeed their own damn business. I eat what I choose when I choose, which overall comes out to be pretty well-balanced nutritionally, but it also includes things such as chocolate, cream-filled cakes, the occasional donut, & when I am in the mood, some Ben & Jerry’s Karamel Sutra, & that is no more anyone else’s business than it is that I eat whole grain breads, fresh fruits, & often choose to drink V-8 juice, when I am not drinking my daily several cups of green or black teas.

In one sense, the point is well-taken, & it is one which I have tried to make over & over again for years in my comments…that our bodies, our lives, belong to us, & how we live is no one else’s business but our own. I am the same person when I eat a bag of chips & wash it down with a Coke as I am when I eat a skinless chicken breast & some salad & wash it down with V-8 juice. Could I possibly weigh 10 pounds less, maybe 15, if I ate just what is ‘prescribed’ & never indulged myself, & also of course increased my exercise to 3-4 hours daily? Perhaps. But I would not be thin, & to me it is not worth it to ever take that route again & the overwhelming evidence indicates that, now that I am in my 60’s, such behavior would not even be physically healthy for me, much less emotionally or psychologically healthy. And the simple fact is that the extremely heavy people shown & harped on in news articles or on TLC are very, very rare, most of us cannot be that fat however much we eat, & they could not get that fat regardless of food intake if they did not have the genetics for being fat, as well as perhaps some other metabolic/endocrine issues.

So, no, it isn’t anyone’s business how you live, how fat you are, & how you got that way. But I do maintain that the majority of us have an extremely limited degree of control over how fat we are.

Reply
1. living400lbs
  
  March 21, 2010 at 10:56 pm
  
  Considering I did write a post on how most people can’t weigh 400lbs, I’m not going to disagree with the idea that the control most people have over their weight is limited.
  
  But I also think that it shouldn’t matter if it IS a choice.
  
  Reply

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Former software tester, now retired heart patient having fun and working on building endurance and strength. See also About page.

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