Living ~400lbs

… and believe me I am still alive

January 2011

  • Culture Affects Science Reporting

    The bare facts in this piece on breakfast size are simple: German researchers studied the food intake of 280 obese adults and 100 of normal weight. The subjects kept records of everything they ate over two weeks, and were carefully instructed about the importance of writing down what they ate as soon as they ate… Continue reading

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  • Disease Doesn’t Mean You’re A Bad Person

    Very early in my career, I participated in a study of young women who were hospitalized and awaiting the results of biopsies to determine if they had cervical cancer. While I was interviewing one of my patients, the biopsy results of the woman in the next bed came back to her — negative. The fortunate… Continue reading

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  • Microagressions

    Microagressions is a site about venting those little racist/sexist/classist dings that hit throughout the day.  Some examples: “Excuse me, do you speak English?”  Man at the bus stop.  I am an Asian American woman.  I was reading Jane Austen.  In English. “Wow, from talking to you on the phone, I’d never know that you were… Continue reading

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  • You Know You Have Dust/Pollen/etc Allergies When…

    …you feel like you might be getting a cold (congestion, headachy, coughing, tired).  Do you drink tea and put your feet up?  No, you spend Sunday dusting and vacuuming the bedroom, changing the sheets and mattress cover, running the pillows and comforter through the hottest dryer setting to kill dust mites, washing your CPAP mask… Continue reading

  • Overanalyzing, The Magazine

    Anyone know who created this parody?  It’s so perfect – “The Shame and Guilt” issue indeed: A friend linked to the image; it and a writeup of “how insane and sexist” women’s magazines tend to be is here. Do you read women’s magazines regularly? UPDATE: Per The Atlantic this was created by Cracked.com. Continue reading

  • Fat Discrimination Research

    Rebecca Puhl, director of research and weight stigma initiatives at the Rudd Center, is quoted on studying weight bias in The Toronto Star: [It’s] one of the easiest [bias] fields to research as the prejudices are so widespread and socially acceptable that people easily admit to them. This is a form of bias that is… Continue reading

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  • MLK Day

    I was born in 1966, in a state which entered the Union in 1889, and thus had always been a “free” state; some of the founders came here because they couldn’t legally own land in other states.  Yet state history included two of the most prominent counties being named in honor of the pro-slavery President… Continue reading

  • Weight vs Wait: A Vocabulary Anecdote

    A teacher of my acquaintance does “use this word in a sentence” exercises with homonyms.   Asking the kids to use the word “wait” in a sentence, the boys wrote about “waiting for someone” scenarios; the girls wrote about “losing weight”. Second grade. (ETA: She’s asking them to use the word “wait” verbally, so the kids are… Continue reading

  • Things to Read

    A review of the book Deadly Spin, which is an inside look at how for-profit insurance companies use PR to make their policies palatable. From a piece on why the L.A. public schools are not participating in a reality TV show: “Reality TV has a formula. You either have to have drama or create conflict to… Continue reading

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  • Surgeon General: Dance for Fun

    From a recent New York Times interview with the US Surgeon General, Dr Regina Benjamin: My thought is that people should be healthy and be fit at whatever size they are. […] I want exercise to be fun; don’t want it to be work. I don’t want it to be so routine that you’re bored… Continue reading

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  • On Fat and Eating

    From Hanne Blank: Truth is, it is totally possible to be a fat person eating “healthy” and “sustainable” and “locavore” and “balanced” and “nutritious” and “organic.”  This fat I have on my hips here?  That’s some locally-grown, sustainable, artisanally crafted, homemade fat, right there, practically glowing with seventeen kinds of early 21st-century middle-class white American… Continue reading

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  • A year ago: Exercise Progress

    …I started a program of walking every day.   I didn’t keep up with it being a daily walk, but I did get consistent enough in walking and strength training that I did not have to use a cane since … last January?* I’m considering this a victory. Two things that helped: 1) Focusing on… Continue reading

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  • A few links

    Marilyn Wann launched a new HAES site at  http://2011revolutions.blogspot.com/, focusing at replacing diet resolutions with a revolution. Jezebel: If You’re Fat-Phobic, You’re Also An Ignorant, Bigoted Idiot and Biggest Weight Stories of 2010. “I don’t eat a hamburger and large chips every day!” A qualitative study of the impact of public health messages about obesity… Continue reading

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About Me

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

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