A Subtle Change
Hey guys!
As I mentioned on my Facebook page, I’ve updated my header to reflect a new tagline. It used to read, “my journey from obese to healthy.” And now, a subtle change.
This blog started as a weight-loss blog, as most of you know. At that time (3 years ago), I was naive and misinformed. I had drank the Kool Aid and believed that “obesity” was a cut-and-dry issue. I didn’t understand how obesity was a social justice issue and that all my talk about weight-loss was complicit in what, I now see, is a war on bodies. I also, like most people still today, believed my obesity was inherently unhealthy and that weight-loss, by whatever means, was a solution to this “problem.”
You all know I’ve since seen the light.
I hope, alongside you guys, we’ll continue to be the candles lighting a path for a more healthy treatment of bodies; a world in which we don’t war to homogenize a body type, frame it as a public health issue, and use fear mongering to fuel profit and a collective body dissatisfaction.
A world where any body is disenfranchised, shamed and warred against, is a world in which none of us are free or safe, even if at the time our bodies are considered culturally acceptable. We all know how quickly the tides shift.
<3,
The Cranky One
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2 People have left comments on this post
It’s just a little disconcerting, though, that your “newfound focus” and “seeing the light” and “putting down the Kool-Aid” coincided with your own weight gain. It honestly comes across as rationalizing on your part, and I’m not saying this to be cruel or snarky. On this side of the screen, it sounds like you got sick of doing the work needed to maintain the weight you were at (that for a long time you were happy with, as well as proud of your athletic achievements, strength gains, etc.) and so you eased up on your exercise regimen and got a little lax with your diet and let the chips fall where they may…so whether you consciously decided to tone down your workouts/loosen up your diet or just fell into the more common trap of “I don’t feel like working out today, what’s one day off?” and “I’m sick of depriving myself of (fill in food here),” I don’t know. But you did change your habits and you did gain weight and now you’re “suddenly” in this whole new cult where 300 pound women insist they’re not risking their health in any way by carrying around 150 extra pounds…and they also propagate the lie (and it is an obvious lie) that they *totally* eat healthy, OMG, just grilled chicken and steamed broccoli, nothing else, EVER — and that they *absolutely* exercise for an hour a day and have a “very active” lifestyle and blah blah blah, but their body “wants to be” 300 pounds and it’s natural? I just find your timing/bandwagon-hopping a little suspect.
No need to be disconcerted, Janie! I treat myself well and am so much healthier now than I was at my pre-gain weight (which was my bulimia weight, by the way). About everything else you’ve written, we’ll just have to agree to disagree.