SAAS: Sewing At Every Size -- Circle Skirts

This is my SAAS (Sewing at Any Size) series on basic clothes that can be made for any size body without a commercial pattern. For other entries in the series, you can click on the Sewing topic in the sidebar category list.


As this may eventually become a book, please do not reprint or republish anywhere. You are welcome to copy/print/save for your own personal use.


The Circle Skirt

I have been slowly converting my wardrobe to a 1950's theme, with classic, tailored looks including the pencil skirt and the circle skirt.

The extreme example of a circle skirt is the Poodle, but they don't have to be that costumy.  I love the clean A-line swish of the classic cut, but knee-length can be adorable for summer. 

A circle skirt is right up there with the gored or pencil skirt for the easiest thing to make. 

But first, the math.

You need the following measurements:

Your waist circumference
The length you want your skirt to fall from the waist

Yeah...that's it.  But of course in an evil bait and switch, you also need the radius of your waist circumference (i.e. half the diameter of the circle).  For a "close enough" measure, you can divide your waist circumference by 6.28.  If you had geometry in school and want to be more precise, go to it.  Otherwise you can enter your waist circumference here to have the radius calculated for you.

Add the waist radius to the length you want your skirt.  If the total is less than 22 inches, you can buy standard-width fabric.  If the total is between 22 and 30 inches, you can buy 60 inch width fabric.  If your fabric has a pattern that must be a certain way "up", you'll need to use the more complicated cutting pattern below.  Remember that you'll be adding a waistband and hem, so you can fudge about 1.5 inches. 

If you wonder whether you can do this with your waist size, do up the math before you worry.  Remember that the radius of your waist is MUCH less than your waist size (circumference). For instance, if you have a 50 inch waist, you can still make a 50" long finished skirt with 60" fabric.  For every additional 6 inches around your waist, subtract about 1 inch from your maximum skirt length.

Simple Cutting Pattern

(For those who can work with the 45" and 60" methods.)

We'll call the waist radius plus length of skirt measurement (A).

Take a length of fabric TWICE (A) long.  Flatten it out and fold it in half lengthwise (i.e. bringing cut ends together) with right sides together.  Then fold it in half the other direction.  You should have 1/4 of the fabric with one corner containing a double fold and no raw edges.

We're drawing curves, so unless you're a pretty steady hand your best method is to create your own compass.  Use a nail, heavy weight, corner of a table, etc as one end.  Tie a piece of non-stretchy string around it at least long enough to stretch to measurement (A) plus several inches. 

Put the double-fold corner of your fabric against the point you tied the string.  From that corner, measure out the waist radius you obtain earlier.  Pull the string taut to that point, and hold a pencil or piece of chalk with the string.  As you move the chalk or pencil towards either edge of the fabric, the string will force it into a curve.  You should now have 1/4 of an even circle marked on the fabric. 

From the same corner, measure out (A), which should give you the length of the finished hem.  Using the same technique with the string and chalk or pencil, draw another curve at this distance.  When you're done, the mark should be the same length from the point along both edges of the fabric.

Now, without unfolding the fabric, cut along both curves.  When you unfold the fabric, you should have a doughnut shape. 

Complex Cutting Pattern

For those who are using a fabric with a pattern that must go in a certain direction.

Using craft paper, an old bedsheet, etc, trace a square that is measurement (A) on all four sides.

Follow the tracing and cutting directions above to create a single, 1/4 slice of the doughnut. 

Trace the slice onto the wrong side of your fabric four times, and cut out each slice.

Stitch the slices together to create your full doughnut. 

 

Finishing the Skirt

Add a waistband to the inside of the doughnut following directions in the post on a
gored/paneled skirt HERE. 

Once you have a waistband, try on the skirt.  Your body shape will affect the hemline, so note if it's too long.

If it falls just right, then make a narrow hem or use binding to finish the edge without changing length. 

If it's too long, mark the point where it needs to be trimmed to, leaving 1/2 inch for a hem.  Cut  to the mark (you may want to fold the skirt in 1/4's and re-do a smooth curve as before) and hem, or leave off the hem allowance and use binding to finish the edge (recommended for stretchy fabric).

Adding some Body

For the classic full, poodle look, add some petticoats underneath, or several slips.  You can make a very simple filler with cheap netting:

Take a length of elastic that fits your waist securely but not uncomfortably tight.  Knot or stitch the ends together to make a loop. 

Cut netting into 2" strips twice the length of your skirt.

Fold each strip in half.  Set the loop of the fold (a.k.a. the bight) under the elastic, then bring the tails over the elastic, through the loop, and tighten.  This is called a lark's head knot, and anyone who has done latch hook will recognize it. 

Pull the tails tight.  Continue tying strips in lark's head knots next to each other around the elastic loop.

If you do very short strips, this looks like a tutu.  If you do longer strips, it will fill out a circle skirt pretty nicely. 

If you want to get some twirling action with the circle skirt, you can get a more finished look by simply repeating the instructions on a silky fabric or tulle to make a second skirt.  The extra layer gives you some fill, and when it flares out you get a flash of color.

How to let yourself intersect

Intersectionality was originally put forth as a feminist concept, but has since spread to many other sociological arenas.  Essentially, it says that none of us live any part of our lives in a vacuum.  When we talk about fat discrimination, our gender, race, height, coloring, socioeconomic level, immigrant status, and a million other aspects of ourselves affect both the discrimination and our reaction to it.  A fat gamer has a different experience of discrimination than a fat lawyer, who has a different experience than a fat mother. 

One thing I see most people do if they are part of a subculture or non-mainstream identity is to segregate each aspect of their experience and create entirely separate lives for each one.  I am a different person when I am a gamer.  I have a specific set of gamer friends, a specific vocabulary, and a specific demeanor that comes out when I am gaming or around just gamers.  Erving Goffman and other theorists within the dramaturgical perspective would say that I have a specific gamer "mask" that I wear when I am in that environment.

A sociological mask is very different from what people call "posing."  This isn't attempting to act like someone else in order to fit in.  My gamer mask is ME.  It is an essential part of myself, with certain attributes that are emphasized and others that are de-emphasized.  For instance, I swear more.  I don't avoid swearing normally, but for some reason dice bring out the F-bombs in me.  And the aggression. You have masks of your own, unless you are extremely unusual, have certain developmental or personality disorders, or experience poor audience awareness like that which comes with the Autism spectrum.  You probably behave differently at work than at a party with friends, or with your grandparents.  You are still you, but you have adapted to your social environment.

One of the effects of this is that I keep different parts of my life separate.  If I have a party and invite both gamer friends and co-workers, I will have an internal conflict as to which mask I am in. So I don't.  I don't talk about work around my Pagan friends.  I don't talk about gaming at work. 

And here's the important bit:  I don't talk about FA much in either place, beyond "not interested in hearing about your diet" comments.   

But I am still fat at a game, at work, and at a festival. 

FA is applicable.  I just don't always overcome the barriers to talking about it.  Maybe I don't want to be seen as the "oversensitive, aggressively politically correct activist."  After all, many of the groups I'm in are not exactly socially aware and it's easy to come across as overly strident.  Maybe I just feel it is too personal.  But every now and then, something happens to remind me that it's not always personal.  Every circle of friends has people who are miserably uncomfortable in their own bodies because they have internalized hateful messages. 

So, if you're looking for a way to become more of an activist (and no one is obligated to do so), why not look close to home?  Could you start a forum or Yahoo Group for body acceptance geared specifically towards your spiritual group and invite your friends?  Could you start something for people with common interests?  Wouldn't it be cool to see an FA tattoo group called "Fat Ink"?  How about a motorcycle group called "Big Wheels"?  How about a Pagan HAES cooking group called "Magically Delicious"?  Of course these are somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but you get the point.  More and more, our society is fragmenting into very specific interest groups with the power of sheer numbers on the internet to provide specific community within those groups. 

By reaching out to people who have very specific interests, you can really target your message to them.  If you have a Christian FA group, you can talk about FA in the language of Christianity (i.e. God's love for bodies and how we should love the bodies he created for us).  If you have a Pagan FA group, you can talk about FA in the language of Paganism (i.e. appreciating your body as a spiritual warrior, nurturing it as a healer, loving the strength and pleasure it gives you to experience the world.)  If you have a crafter's FA group, you can talk about altering or creating sewing patterns for people of size, or body acceptance issues in scrapbooking (i.e. dare to be in the picture!!)  You don't have to worry about alienating others by using language specific to your identity, because others in that forum share that identity. 

Here are some specific tips for starting a topic-specific FA group or thre

1.  Don't hijack existing forums.  This is important, because going into a "Dieting Vikings" forum and preaching FA is called trolling.  Create your own forum.  If you don't want to run a full forum, ask an existing group owner if you can either start a thread or send an invite for a face-to-face meeting group with like interests. 

2.  Check for interest first.  Just send a shout-out:  "Would anyone here be interested in a (thread, forum, meeting group) to talk about body acceptance and size diversity within our community?"  I did that in a local forum and got over a dozen enthusiastic responses (and no trolls).   

3.  The best part of starting in new territory is that none of it has been said before!  You can go through archives of any FA blog and find discussion topics.  Ask blog owners for permission to print copies of posts (or link to them) for reading and discussion.  Re-visit the topics that are well covered in the Fatosphere but entirely new to this group.  What a fantastic opportunity to start fresh!

4.  You don't have to be an expert to start a group.  Let people know that this is something you're just getting into and ask if anyone wants to explore it with you.  Sometimes it's even less intimidating for them that you're all new together. 

So let FA intersect with other parts of you and your life, if you feel safe doing so.  I think you'd be surprised at how relevant it really is. 

One small step for man....

One    giant   leap   for   all human rights.  Prop 8 gets one more critical blow from the justice system, which is finally living up to its name. 

A quote from Judge Stephen Reinhardt:


"Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California, and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for 'laws of this sort.'"

What a great day to celebrate human dignity and diversity!

We Stand

Thank you, Marilyn Wann and all her photoshopping volunteers for putting together this project.  It means a lot to us to be able to take a stand.

If you haven't already donated to Ragen Chastain's fundraiser to put billboards up in Atlanta, GA protesting fat-shaming of children, they still need a few hundred donors to get a giant matching donation!  You can donate as little as a dollar, or as much as you'd like.  This is some real, tangible, and awesome public activism that you can be a part of. 

More information can be found at her blog Dances With Fat.

On Thinness and Fat Acceptance (Part 5)

This is part 5 of my series addressing the question of a caller on the first Body Love Revolution Telesummit. The caller was asking about the place for thin people (especially men) in the fat acceptance movement. Please read Part 1 for background.

Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

In this last post on this, I want to address the final element of the question: whether the participation of men is encouraged, threatening, or irrelevant to the FA movement.

Way back in 2009 there was a debate about men in Fat Acceptance feeling marginalized, and I commented on it.

Sadly, I think there's even fewer men blogging in the Fatosphere today than there were back then. Brian is still going at Red No. 3, and continues to be a great voice for fat men. There are a few male contributors at Axis of Fat.  Atchka posts at Fierce, Freethinking Fatties.  Those are the active bloggers I know of. (Please let me know if you're a man and I've missed your blog!) Paul Campos is also still writing articles all over the media attacking weight bias.

Feminism has always been tied closely to the FA movement, because historically women in our country have been held to a stricter and more physical standard of attractiveness than men. While most academic feminists are simply looking to be treated as equal humans, unfortunately there are some advocates of popular feminism that attempt to cast men as the enemy. They classify all men as physically, mentally, and sexually dangerous. They believe that men get a "free pass" when it comes to weight and appearance, and therefore suspect them of trying to co-opt FA and dominate the women's voices. Usually when men speak critically of feminism as "man-hating," they're speaking of a very narrow but vocal sect of feminists.

I don't blame men for feeling excluded from FA. The majority of the voices are women. The fashion posts generally cover women's clothing. A loud minority tells them they are all potential rapists and deserve to be treated as such. Add to this a societal pressure to be both strong and silent, and to take responsibility for everything that happens in the world, and you have a dearth of men willing to stand up and fight/blog for feelings of oppression.

So when encountering men in FA, a woman may ask herself "Why is he here?" Generally it's because he supports FA. Sometimes he may be seeking a sexual or romantic partner. Sometimes women will simply assume that the man is a fat admirer looking for a partner, which is a poor assumption to make. I've been told by several sources that historically, FA was focused on providing a safe and supportive atmosphere for romantic hook-ups, (including in comments earlier in this series) but while a lot of that exists today, there's a balance of political and social activism as well. 

Fat Activist Men

More and more, men are being targeted for the same body and weight issues that have been foisted on women. The rate of eating disorders in men has skyrocketed in the last decade. The ideal of the strong, muscled man has given way to the ideal of the forever slim, youthful man in popular media. Mannequins for male clothing stores are coming out with 27 inch waistlines. In a competitive job market, fat men are less likely to be hired or promoted. They are depicted as undesirable partners on TV, and are subject to the same stereotypes of lazy, weak and gluttonous as women.

Men are also under pressure to choose partners that conform to the beauty ideal set by our society. Straight men are under peer pressure to obtain the thin, large-breasted, medium-tall woman who can fit into a sample dress. A postcard on Post Secret said it best: "I love you, but I broke up with you because my friends laughed at me for dating a fat girl."

Thin men, of course have the same vested interest as all thin people in creating a size diverse society; they have family, friends, partners, children, and potential future weight changes in their lives.

All this adds up to men having a voice and role in Fat Activism. We women need to examine what we do to make them feel unwelcome in the community. Do you include content in your blog that appeals to men? I look back on my own blog and am guilty on this count. To some extent, there's a certain natural progression where women sharing their personal experiences will be more relevant to other women. But those of us that share general content may want to make an effort to include gender-neutral or gender-diverse content. How many FA women with fat male partners or friends post fashion and shopping choices they make? How many Fatshionistas include links and reviews for shops that sell large mens' options? Also, what is the tone we take when discussing men? Do we make generalizations of them as dangerous, insensitive, or sexually aggressive? Do we use value-neutral language?

The truth is that the FA community isn't yet perfectly accepting of men. But it can be.

Fat Dating

The other can of worms inherent in the question of men in FA is, of course, dating. Men who are attracted to fat women sometimes seek out FA as a way to meet potential partners. Heck, many women seek out FA as a way to meet potential partners. It's a pre-screening option against rejection due to weight bigotry. There are FA dances, outings, vacations, forums, chat rooms, and other opportunities to seek out all levels of friends and lovers.

Not everyone is looking. Some of us are in stable, monogamous or closed polyamorous relationships. Some are taking a break from romantic relationships in order to spend some "me" time and get their heads straight (I did this for a few years). Some are looking for partners of a gender that isn't yours.

And I really, really hate to have to include it, but here it is: Fat women aren't desperate. It is a common myth in our culture. Every slapstick comedy seems to trot out the big woman in a flowered dress who throws herself aggressively (to stalking/assault levels) at someone in the movie. Usually it's the man deemed least attractive by our cultural standards. If you're attracted to fat women, you'll do everyone a lot of favors if you clear this particular stereotype from your head before you seek us out.

In general, the rules for dating in FA are the same as they are for dating anywhere; don't be an asshat. Respect the No. Respect body boundaries (no touching without permission). Don't be a troll. Most visible FA women have had an experience somewhere along the lines of this, and it doesn't endear us to solicitations in general.  Keep flirtation and solicitation appropriate to the environment and context. Respect the No. This message is for men AND women. The latter sometimes feel they have license to be sexually aggressive towards men in a way they would never tolerate if the roles were reversed.

In conclusion, men are welcome and necessary to Fat Acceptance. There will always be a few people who disagree and think that FA should be some exclusive magical vagina rainbow connection, but I don't think that's a healthy or constructive way to view the movement as a whole. As with thin people, there will be fat activist women who resent men's social power, feel threatened, or simply fail to be inclusive. That is the reality. The ideal should be to realize that we can't have a fat accepting culture by only enlisting half the culture; we can only have war. We are not men or women at every size, we are human at every size.


******

This marks the end of this five-part series on thin/male inclusion in FA, a movement that predominantly identifies as female and fat. I'm generally open to learning, correcting and clarifying my thinking on this or most other issues; especially when it is this complex and full of subtext. So please voice your opinion in the comments if you feel I'm off track on any of these posts.

On Thinness and Fat Acceptance (Part 4)

This is part 4 of my series addressing the question of a caller on the first Body Love Revolution Telesummit. The caller was asking about the place for thin people (especially men) in the fat acceptance movement. Please read Part 1 for background.

Part 2
Part 3

In this post, I'm addressing the element of the question that is how a thin person can respectfully lend their support to the movement without co-opting the voices or having personal experience as a target of weight bigotry.

1. Every Experience is Different.

Let me start off with addressing the fact that everyone has some experience with prejudice. Whether you were bullied as a child for some arbitrary reason, or received snarky comments and hostility from service personnel or people in authority, everyone has had some experience. The trouble is that most people have trouble with the abstract thinking involved in extrapolating their experience to that of others. You can't assume that everyone felt or reacted the same way, because so much depends on personality, resources, and the level of empowerment you were allowed to develop throughout your life.

So when you say you've experienced, say, prejudice as a gay man, you'll probably get a response that somehow expresses how different that experience was from that of the fat person you're talking to. If done without a lot of insight, this can lead to a "more oppressed than thou" exchange. "Sure you got fired because your boss is homophobic, but at least you can HIDE what makes you different if you choose! I can't just not tell people I'm fat! That's why I can't get hired in the first place!"

Picking apart this exchange, you find that the fat person feels that they have to somehow defend and justify their experience and feelings. You may be trying to relate to them by extrapolating an experience of your own, but they may easily take it as (a) one-upmanship or (b) an attempt to negate or minimize their experience and what they're feeling. Your experiences are your own and you are an excellent witness to them; but don't assume that your experiences are similar to another's. Comparing oppressions is a no-win situation. Turn this into a more constructive conversation that acknowledges both experiences.

2. Examine Your Privilege.

As a thin person, you have certain benefits the world grants you whether you seek them or not. When you are in FA, you need to realize that a fat person's navigation of the world is very different. It's easy to say, "why don't you just do/say this?" when you do not have the weight of many years of intimidation and damage in your history. For instance, it's easy to suggest standing up to an asshat on a bus, but doing so is an act of extraordinary courage when you've been taught all your life to not draw attention to yourself and expect violence and shame when you do.

You also have privilege when it comes to many other areas of life. Understand that when you invite a fat friend to go clothes shopping, they may not find clothes they can wear in the store you visit. In addition, going to the mall or a size-limited clothing store means standing out like a sore thumb, getting glares from supercilious staff and hearing mocking titters from other shoppers. It can be an exercise in humiliation. Respect a friend's discomfort if they don't want to go. Or, if you take a fat friend shopping, plan to spend at least as much time in stores that carry clothes they can wear.

3. Put your money where your mouth is.

Your thin privilege does give you power in the world that can be wielded quite effectively against size prejudice. Clothing stores might not be used to hearing from customers who COULD be shopping in their store, but refuse to do so until they carry quality plus-size lines. Avoid giving money to companies that promote fat-hate (i.e. Subway, Slimfast) and let them know why. You have a lot of opportunity to make a real difference.

4. Let the fat person's words be heard.

Give them a chance to speak, be visible, and be confident in defending themselves. Validate their experience. They may be grateful for you standing up to defend them in a confrontation, but if they're already doing a good job of it, be willing to take a supporting role. Encourage fat people to speak through blogs, events and forums, instead of speaking for them. Then you can add your own voice. Acknowledge that they are the best witness to their experience, especially with prejudice.

If you were in on the Thursday, 2/2 Telesummit, you would have heard a wonderful example of this practice from Linda Bacon, a fierce ally in the fight for size diversity and HAES.  She deferred to Ragen Chastain (a fat professional dancer and HAES advocate) and solicited her opinion and experience throughout the call, and made sure that she didn't dominate the conversation.  When Ragen was cut off by a technological glitch, Linda tried her best to answer a caller's question about Ragen's experience based on what she'd been told, but worded it in a way that did not co-opt Ragen's voice and recommended that the caller ask Ragen again sometime to make sure she got Ragen's answer.  She was respectful and professional. 

5. Respect the triggers.

Don't complain about your own weight. In fact, eliminate negative body talk from your conversations altogether. Don't criticize food choices, activity levels, or talk about dieting. Don't ask if someone is losing weight; especially in a tone of voice that implies that it's assumed to be a positive change. If someone wants you to know their body is changing, they will bring it up. If you don't know the triggers, be willing to listen respectfully and be corrected until you do. Every subculture has their own language, and words might not have the same connotations as you're used to (e.g. "fat" or "queer").

6. Be a model

Not the catwalk kind; the developmental learning kind. Role models also come in all sizes.  Set and defend boundaries concerning your own body. When someone gives you a size-based compliment, consider using it as an opportunity to educate the complimenter ("thanks, but I'd be just as pretty if I wasn't thin/tall/etc."). Eliminate negative body talk (your own body or anyone else's) from your vocabulary and encourage those around you to do the same. Don't let doctors (or anyone else) make assumptions about your health based on your size. Refuse to be weighed in the Doctor's office if it's not relevant to treatment, and let them know why. Love your body and yourself at your size. Regardless of your weight, you can inspire others and act as a template for their own behavior.

As I've said, everyone (fat or thin) has a stake and voice in reducing size prejudice in our culture! I feel that even if a thin person adopts none of these, diets constantly, and still believes that people deserve the same human rights regardless of size, they are part of the solution and deserve the same kudos we give anyone who raises a hand for what they feel is right. We're all in this together.

On Thinness and Fat Acceptance (Part 3)

This is part 3 of my series addressing the question of a caller on the first Body Love Revolution Telesummit. The caller was asking about the place for thin people (especially men) in the fat acceptance movement. Please read Part 1 for background.

Part 2 was posted yesterday. 

In Part 2, I addressed whether there is specific hostility towards thin people in FA. In this post, I want to address the part of the caller's question asking whether thin people are welcomed as part of the "family" in FA.

There's a lot of crossover with the last section, but there are also enough nuances here to warrant its own posting. Here's the thing; you can fight with a group you don't identify as part of in order to secure rights for that group. But that doesn't change your identity or your privilege.

As much as we are all fighting for the idea of equality and for all humans to be treated as humans regardless of size, we fat people cannot completely ignore the fact that for thin people, this is a choice. They are already accepted. In fact they are held up as the ideal. They can't help this anymore than I can help being considered the opposite. That's what privilege means; you are granted a certain social status based on criteria outside of your reasonable control.

I consider myself an ally of the LGTBQ community. I write my government representatives on LGTBQ issues, push for awareness amongst the people close to me, and try to confront prejudice when I encounter it. I also vote. But all the advocacy I can engage in does not make me part of the "family". There is always a certain divide between me and my experiences, and my LGTBQ friends. I have privilege. I can get married, talk about my partner at work without retribution or stigma, and generally not have to worry about being subject to a certain kind of discrimination in housing, employment, or service because of my identity as straight and cis-gendered. When someone complains that they encountered LGTBQ bigotry, I can listen and empathize, but I can't relate. Not on the same level as someone who has also had that experience. I can try to extend my own experiences with fat discrimination, but it really isn't the same.

I have many thin friends who don't see me as a body size. But every now and then one of my thin friends will say something. They will talk about their latest diet, or complain about the size of their hips, or laugh over a "huge" pair of pants at a clothing store without remember that I wear an even larger size. They will make an unwitting comment that they would have never made if they knew it was hurtful, but their experience does not fully sensitize them to the nuances of fat prejudice. I expect this, and suspect other fat people do as well. There is a certain wariness and awkwardness I sometimes feel around thin people who aren't aware of their privilege. They may accept me, but they also have a certain power to hurt me. Even if they never use it, I can't ignore that power.

This is why only fat people can make fat jokes, or why only gay people can make gay jokes, or why only women can make cracks about PMS. This is the perfect example to highlight a very subtle form of otherness. I can make a joke that expresses my identity or my frustration with associated issues. You can't, because you are making them from the outside. It does make a difference.

Just to prevent anyone from thinking I'm throwing stones here, I want to give an example where it was entirely my fuck-up. I heard the other day that Canadian airlines are not allowing people to fly if their dress and appearance doesn't match the gender on their driver's license or I.D. I was really angry, and made a snarky crack about how Canada is forcing people to cross-dress in order to fly. My intention was to validate people's gender identity and highlight the ridiculousness of the rule. If a woman was born male (Canada won't change gender on official documents unless you're post-op) then she would have to dress up like a man in order to get on the plane. Here's the problem; I'm cis-gendered. As an outsider, my joke could just as easily be interpreted as reinforcing Canada's justification for the rule by saying it was easy to just put on different clothes for the flight. My intentions don't count; only the effect of my words. Luckily I have people around who call me on this kind of thing so that I can stop acting unintentionally like a jackass.

Now after pointing out the otherness, let me emphasize that I'm NOT saying thin people aren't welcome in this movement. Thin people have a vested interest in supporting size diversity, and we fat people need to acknowledge it. Thin people have friends, family, children, past and future size changes, employees, employers, and a hundred other reasons why they, personally, need to create a world without size prejudice. They are bombarded with "conform or die" messages every day that try to convince them to hate and fear others. They are told that their privilege, worth, attractiveness and health are contingent on never looking different. Thin people have a place and voice in the fight for size diversity! It's important for everyone promoting diversity of any kind to examine assumptions and privileges, and respect that each person comes with their own experiences and motivations.

In addition, fat and thin are arbitrary designations on what is really a spectrum. I have a size 10 friend I think of as thin, but she frets about what she sees as excess weight. As one of the speakers in the first telesummit said, we have the right to self-identity.

The ideal is to bridge the gap and eliminate any feeling of otherness between fat and thin people. We are fighting for humanity at every size. The reality, however, is that many fat people feel more comfortable around other fat people.  They know that the other fat person "gets it" on a level that a thin person can't. They will be friends with thin people, and there are often very close relationships with empathetic thin people that bridge the gap. There are many who truly see all people as part of the human family.  But there are others who still struggle with validating their own identity and their right to it. There are many who have had such devastating and traumatic experiences with thin people (even "best friends" who really weren't) that it takes time and familiarity to build trust. If you're a thin person in FA, you're very much welcome, but everyone on the fat-thin identity spectrum must bring patience and understanding to the table. We are not activists in a vacuum, and our lives have generally involved some wear and tear on the soul. Acknowledging the reality is the first step towards enacting change.

On Thinness and Fat Acceptance (Part 2)

This is part 2 of my series addressing the question of a caller on the first Body Love Revolution Telesummit. The caller was asking about the place for thin people (especially men) in the fat acceptance movement. Please read Part 1 for background.

I use "she" in this post because I am, in part, talking about my own experience in FA and I identify as female. This should not be taken to mean that people of other genders have not had the same experience or aren't welcome voices in FA.

The first part of the question outlined in Part 1 was whether we (i.e. fat acceptance activists) are hostile towards thin people. I think Marilyn Wann nailed this when she said we want to be all accepting, but, she said, there is still envy out there. While we would all like to think that once we become advocates for size diversity we suddenly consider everyone to be just like us, the truth is that we don't become activists in a vacuum. Many become activists because they are angry.

You see this often in anything that could be considered counter-culture. Some Pagans resent Christians. Some women resent men. Some fat people resent thin people. It is a perfectly natural first step towards breaking away from dominant culture; first reject the culture. My favorite name for it is the "Jan Brady Syndrome." See, as fat people, thin people are held up to us on a constant basis by everyone around us with the message "why can't you be more like Marcia?" This is a classic conflict between siblings, and often leads to trouble whether on the micro or macro scale. They are the ideal, and we are the failure. How can anyone come away from that without some resentment?

It is only after we have broken away and put space between us and the false ideal, and learned to love ourselves as we are and for what we can do, that this anger fades. It's something we should all work towards, with self-forgiveness and patience. Remember, though, that a freshly minted fat activist is just now struggling with the idea that they spent all their lives fighting desperately and futilely towards being just like Marcia, engaging in self-loathing and harm along the way. She has just had the massive paradigm shift that not only is she okay just as she is, but has ALWAYS been okay, even when everyone was telling her she wasn't. This is an amazing, liberating, uplifting revelation. But it also makes us angry. Really angry. We've wasted decades of our lives hating ourselves unnecessarily, envying the effortlessly skinny girls who had everything we wanted. We are conflicted, and ready to lash out.

This is why you see people projecting that frustration by making claims that fat people are somehow better than thin. You see slogans about how "real women" have curves (or eat cake, etc.). This is a defensive posture, because we still feel like we have to fight to assert and accept our identity as a fat person. We call thin people twigs, or make snide comments about them needing a cheeseburger. This is a perfectly normal psychological move to convince ourselves that we are normal, desirable, and generally okay. It is pushing back. We are making space for ourselves not only in the world, but in our heads.

Many people have moved beyond this stage. It should be a stage. We should actively work towards making it as short as possible. Some people skip it altogether, or only need a week. Some people need years. However long it takes, it takes.

What does this mean for thin people who have thrown their effort, their indignation, and sometimes their reputations in with us to fight for size diversity? It means you need a certain level of patience. You need to understand that it isn't personal. You can set specific boundaries with your FA friends and colleagues (i.e. "please don't make snarky comments about thin people; I identify as one and those comments are hurtful to me.") without getting on a soapbox or exchanging like for like. You can acknowledge the history and hurt, the defensiveness and fear that if we let our guard down for even a moment, our thin friends may cause us pain by some unthinking comment or action. It means really examining thin privilege, and knowing that it's difficult for us that we speak the same message, but yours is the only one people hear. That's why we can make fat jokes, but you can't. Even though you can't help the way you're made anymore than we can.

What does this mean for fat people fighting for body diversity? Remember that thin people have a personal, vested effort in making this a world where body diversity is the norm. They have privilege, but they do not live in a vacuum. They have friends, family, children, spouses, employers, employees, and others affected by prejudice. They may be recovering from or have an eating disorder triggered by our culture's fear of fat. They may gain weight as they age and want to be able to still love themselves. They are bombarded every day with messages that their worth to the world and the love they experience is contingent entirely on them not allowing their bodies to change. We also need to remember that thin people can't help the way they're made. They're living the size they come in.

The ideal (and goal) should be for everyone to acknowledge that we are all part of the same human family. We all come in the size we are, and none of us can help it. We should acknowledge that the very thin people suffer prejudice and snark and negative assumptions about their mental and physical health, and that the medium thin have to fight falling into our cultural trap of obsessing about their weight to stay thin.

But we're talking about human beings here, with human fallibility and emotions. The anger is a reality that must be acknowledged, respected, and resolved.  Remember that we cannot control our emotions, and have a right to feel them.  What we can control is what we do with and in reaction to those emotions.  Do we use them constructively or destructively?

It's not reasonable to expect us to become enlightened overnight, anymore than it's reasonable to expect everyone to examine and relinquish social privilege on demand. It's been five or more years and I still struggle with the little commenter in my own head that sees a very thin girl and starts diagnosing eating disorders (especially now that I've been studying the DSM).  I still experience some sharp stab of envy when I see someone in awesome retro clothes I can't wear.  With a lot of patience, though, I can work towards the ideal of letting that go and respecting all bodies the way I want to be respected. 

On Thinness and Fat Acceptance (Part 1)

I was in on the fantabulous Body Love Revolution Telesummit on Tuesday (There's still time to register for upcoming sessions!). A question came up that I think needs much closer analysis. The caller organized diversity events on his campus (hooray for him for considering size diversity!). He asked how and whether thin people, specifically thin men, are accepted as voices or advocates in this whole Fat Acceptance movement. It was a really thoughtful, and painfully real question.

The first thoughts that came into my head were about Malcolm X. Whatever you think of any or all of his messages, he did advance the idea of self-determinism; that a minority group does not have to rely on the majority to represent their voice or be a witness to their experience. He believed that if a group was not protected from hate and bigotry, they must protect themselves. This is why straight people are allies of the LGTBQ community, but not always accepted into every community as a full member of the family. It is about standing up for yourself, because being dependent on another person to approve you or vouch for you in order to be okay is NOT okay.

We as a fat acceptance movement have sometimes needed advocacy from thin people. I remember the introduction to Paul Campos's book, where the publisher would only take the book if Campos was thin. Likewise, Linda Bacon's advocacy success may be based, in part, on the fact that she is thin. Our voices must often be carried by thin people where they normally wouldn't go. This is not a bad thing. These people helped carve out huge chunks of new territory for us to carry the diversity message, and provided us with the strong empiric ammunition we needed to fight the good fight. On the other hand, they have a very different experience and perspective from Marilyn Wann, or Peggy Howell. They acknowledge and fight against size bigotry, but they have not really experienced it.

So when the caller asked this question, he's asking a few things. He's asking whether we are hostile towards thin people. He's asking whether thin people are welcomed as part of the "family". He's asking how a thin person can respectfully lend their support to the movement without co-opting the voices or having personal experience as a target of bigotry. He's asking whether the participation of men is encouraged, threatening, or irrelevant to the movement. It was a damn good, but complex question.

I will be giving my answers to these questions over the next week or so, trying to tackle each area of a complex web of activism and identity. Your mileage may absolutely vary, because there is no "one true way" of any movement. You may have answers to these questions that are very different from mine, because your experience and paradigm are very different from mine.

A Civil Liberties Segue

I don't usually stray too far into controversial political issues other than FA, and I don't plan to make this blog a regular platform.  But there's a disturbing thing happening in Michigan, and it has to do with my reproductive rights.  

The Michigan senate is considering a bill (SB600) that would allow drivers to purchase an official license plate with a "Choose Life" logo on it.  $25 from the purchase of the plate would go to the organization Right to Life, which claims to simply offer "abortion alternatives," but in reality is an active political lobby for criminalizing abortion and denying funds to organizations like Planned Parenthood, which provides many uninsured women their only opportunity to get routine health care like pap and pelvic exams, access to birth control, etc. (only a tiny portion of Planned Parenthood's operations involve abortion). 

Oh, and there's no option to purchase a plate that supports the other side of the issue.  The state is only interested in endorsing the anti-abortion stance.

Now when I say I'm pro-choice, I mean that I absolutely support a woman's right to choose to not have an abortion.  I support women who think it is the wrong choice for them, and who decide to either raise the child or put it up for adoption.  But the key word in that is "choose."  Choosing to not have an abortion, and taking away MY right to choose whether to have one, are two very different things.  

I think that this issue is an extension of the idea that a woman's body does not belong to her.  This same idea leads to people feeling justified in judging, criticizing, and attempting to control our bodies in other ways.  Weight, for example.  Anyone who's listened to office gossip knows that our culture (including most women) feel that a woman's body is a public object.  She has a social obligation to "maintain" it according to society's standards or face society's wrath.  In part, a woman is blamed if she is raped or harassed because to some extent our culture sees her as already belonging to other people (especially to men) and her body was never her's to defend.  Likewise, we have to fight against the expectation that our purpose (other than decorative) is as a machine for the reproduction of genetic material not our own.  What could be a more personal expression of our ownership of our bodies then deciding whether to give up nine months or more of our lives, threaten our physical and mental health, our economic security, and every other priority, to grow a human being?  Of course having the right to say no to that challenges every cultural assumption that we do not own our bodies.   

I don't think that the state of Michigan has any business becoming an endorsement mill for divisive political organizations.  I have no problem with their using the plates for sports teams (as they offer every team in the state).  If they're crossing the line into political positions such as abortion, they need to make sure that people on both sides of the issue have an equal chance to express their views.  Denying them even that choice pretty much sums up what's wrong with this situation. 

Ninja Commenting, continued

I have my dummy e-mail address (fatactivist @ gmail) and am going to try and post 2-3 comments per day on various articles with fat hate.  I find it helps to not read the other comments.  Today's theme was Paula Deen, and I left comments on 3 articles slamming the hypocrisy of Anthony Bourdain (who chain smokes and binge drinks on his TV show) criticising Paula Deen for cooking unhealthy food.  You know, unlike the butter sauce he puts on everything?  But he's thin, so it makes it okay for him to claim health superiority.  Even though he has to take a break to climb a set of stairs because he has no lung capacity left. 

I used to like his show. 

New Ninja Commenting Text

Until I make the reluctant leap to join the Hive Mind (aka Facebook), I'll continue to update comment cut-and-paste texts for Ninja Commenting here on my blog.  Here's the latest, which I'm using on general "why don't they just put down the donuts and take a walk" kind of fat hate threads, especially those targeted at "childhood obesity".  I think it covers the basics for someone not already in the fat acceptance paradigm:

Ninja Comment:

No one has ever developed a way to make fat people thin. Really. Everyone thinks that it's a very simple thing, but if that were so, wouldn't everyone be thin? No empirical study of weight loss shows more than a 5% long-term success rate for any weight loss method. That means that in five years, 95% of people not only re-gain all the weight they have lost, but generally end up approximately 3-10% heavier. That includes weight loss surgery patients.
The good news is that there are several studies showing that fat and unhealthy are NOT the same thing. Studies show that a person's level of exercise, regardless of how much they weigh, is the primary determinant of health. Genetic factors play a very high role as well. Stress (like in stigma and shaming) is a very important factor in developing many illnesses normally attributed to weight, but for some reason we blame the weight alone.

Trust me, kids know when they're fat. If they ever interact with our culture in America, they're not allowed to forget it. Shaming, bullying, and weight stigma have shockingly bad effects on health. For instance, eating disorders amongst kids younger than 12 have shot up in the last decade. Think about 9 year olds being hospitalized for anorexia before you condone weight-shaming in children. Childhood depression and other mood disorders have increased dramatically. Children who aren't even overweight for their age are developing a poor body image that will haunt them throughout their lives.

If you're interested in an alternative model for health instead of a fruitless pursuit of weight loss and panicked screaming about epidemics, (see the recent news from the federal health agencies that Americans actually haven't been getting any fatter for the last decade. Weight has not increased in any age category), use your search engine to look for HAES (Health at Every Size). You'll notice that a lot of the health specialists involved with promoting HAES are those on the front lines of eating disorder reasearch. They know that the old system of shaming and blaming is only going to do more harm.

Recipe box: Gluten-Free Crepes

I'm finally posting JD's Gluten-Free Crepes!  This is something he adapted from another recipe to work with the GF flour mix we use (below).   We generally eat them for breakfast, ideally with mascarpone cheese and sliced fruit.   Mascarpone can be found in a lot of food stores that sell specialty cheeses.  It's a very sweet, light, Italian cream cheese that tastes like crème fraîche.  The brand we find locally, Belgioioso, is gluten free.  You can also use regular cream cheese, sweetened ricotta, or Neufchatel. 

Gluten-Free Flour Mix:

4 parts white rice flour
3 parts potato starch
2 parts sweet white sorghum flour

measure parts by pouring into a measuring cup or container and use the same container for each "part".  If you have a kitchen scale, measuring by weight is even better!  Scooping the flour from the original container can compress it and give you uneven results.  Mix all the parts together very well (we put it in a big container and shake it thoroughly). 

Crepes

1/2 cup flour [see above for GF flour mix]
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
5/8 cup milk (1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons)

If possible, use a small round nonstick pan with tapered sides, like an omelette pan.

Preheat the pan on medium heat. Dampen a paper towel with vegetable oil and wipe it on the pan to give it a very thin coating.

 Mix all ingredients together. Whip until well blended. Pour just enough batter into the pan to coat the bottom, tipping the pan to spread evenly.  If it doesn't flow well, add milk by tablespoons until it is thin enough.  

Wait for approximately 1 minute, or until crepe is dry and slides easily in pan.  Flip crepe and cook for an additional 30 seconds.  The crepe should still be light and pliant without browning, but may have brittle edges. 

For the visual learners, here's a Youtube video on how to cook the crepes.  Skip past the mixing of ingredients and use the recipe above, but note the texture of the batter and watch how he pours it to coat the pan.

Makes 6-9 crepes.

Ninja Commenting

Ragen at Dances With Fat posted a piece on how we can practice some activism at home and take back some fat hating comment streams through Ninja Commenting.  Please read the post, because it's excellent :-)

I want to expand on her idea and use it myself.  The idea is to find mainstream news stories (not private threads or weight-loss sites; we're not trolls!) about weight.  These stories inevitably spawn some gut-churning nastiness in the comment threads, which I usually avoid.  No longer!  I don't have to read them, but I can post a comment to help challenge the paradigm. 

Step 1 is to create an e-mail account for the purpose.  I don't want to sign up for spam, so I'll create an e-mail account specifically to use as my news commenting account.  I will register it at most of the mainstream news sites I go to (cnn.com, Detroit News and Freepress, etc.)  I'll register more as I need to to comment on individual articles.

Step 2 is to put together some stock responses.  You will find that these articles and comment threads can be generally sorted into a very few themes:

1.  Fat and diabetes (i.e. you got diabetes because you're fat, or if you're fat you'll get diabetes)
2.  Weight loss (i.e. you'd be less fat if you just xyz)
3.  Fat myths (i.e. fat people are lazy, stupid, underqualified for anything, never exercise)

There may be others, of course.  But I can put together a few stock answers to general categories to simply cut and paste to comment threads without spending a lot of time typing.

Some definite necessities:

Ragen mentioned two very important follow-up steps.  Don't check the box that notifies you of responses or follow-ups.  Don't go back to the article to see if anyone has responded to your post.

Trust me, they've responded and you won't like it.  We joke about "sanity watchers'" points in FA, which means you should limit the amount of negativity directed at you when you have the option.  Mental health is still health.  So post your ninja comment and never look back.  It isn't for you; it's for that poor lurker who will come across it and have a seed planted in their heads that they might just be okay.

I'll keep this post updated with stock answers.  Please feel free to use my stock answers, although they'd be much better in your own words (especially if more than one person is ninja commenting the same article!).  Try to avoid putting links in comments, as they're sometimes rejected and sometimes require complicated formatting to work. Instead, cite sources and let the readers look them up. 

Stock Answer 1:  Fat and Diabetes

This is currently useful for the Paula Deen hate going around.  I took the quote from the ADA from Ragen's post.   

It's a common myth that weight can cause diabetes, but according to the
American Diabetes Association: "Most overweight people never develop type
2 diabetes, and many people with type 2 diabetes are at a normal weight or
only moderately overweight."  This is backed up by a lot of research. 
When they say weight is a risk factor for type II diabetes, they mean it
is correlated.  When two things are correlated, it means that they don't
know which causes which.  The type II diabetes could cause weight gain. 
The two could also both be the result of similar biological (genetics) or
environmental (stress, toxins, etc.) causes. No long term study has shown
that reducing weight reduces diabetes risk, which would make sense if the
weight was a symptom, not a cause. Other major factors that are often
ignored include stress and inactivity.  Rather than blaming fat people for
an illness that could affect anyone, maybe we should explore real ways to
improve health in our country?  I would recommend looking up the HAES, or
"Health at Every Size" concept for thorough research and effective models
for public health programs.


Stock Answer Two:  Childhood Obesity (or, "why don't the fat kids just put down the donuts")

No one has ever developed a way to make fat people thin. Really. Everyone thinks that it's a very simple thing, but if that were so, wouldn't everyone be thin? No empirical study of weight loss shows more than a 5% long-term success rate for any weight loss method. That means that in five years, 95% of people not only re-gain all the weight they have lost, but generally end up approximately 3-10% heavier. That includes weight loss surgery patients.


The good news is that there are several studies showing that fat and unhealthy are NOT the same thing. Studies show that a person's level of exercise, regardless of how much they weigh, is the primary determinant of health. Genetic factors play a very high role as well. Stress (like in stigma and shaming) is a very important factor in developing many illnesses normally attributed to weight, but for some reason we blame the weight alone.

Trust me, kids know when they're fat. If they ever interact with our culture in America, they're not allowed to forget it. Shaming, bullying, and weight stigma have shockingly bad effects on health. For instance, eating disorders amongst kids younger than 12 have shot up in the last decade. Think about 9 year olds being hospitalized for anorexia before you condone weight-shaming in children. Childhood depression and other mood disorders have increased dramatically. Children who aren't even overweight for their age are developing a poor body image that will haunt them throughout their lives.

If you're interested in an alternative model for health instead of a fruitless pursuit of weight loss and panicked screaming about epidemics, (see the recent news from the federal health agencies that Americans actually haven't been getting any fatter for the last decade. Weight has not increased in any age category), use your search engine to look for HAES (Health at Every Size). You'll notice that a lot of the health specialists involved with promoting HAES are those on the front lines of eating disorder reasearch. They know that the old system of shaming and blaming is only going to do more harm.

Happiness Project: Memories versus Clutter

Scanning important documents, photos and souvenirs and tossing the originals is one of the frequent decluttering techniques I've seen posted on organizational blogs.  I've always really resisted it, and now I have a good reason.  I've just had a catastrophic computer snafu, and irretrievably lost all copies of every photo I've ever saved electronically.  

Digital is convenient and compact, but anyone who works with digital files regularly should be very aware of their ephemeral existence.  You can back them up in various ways, but they are never entirely safe.  True, paper photos are subject to fire, flood and theft, but electronic images always held an extra element of intangibility and easy loss. 

So I'll get aboard with reducing clutter by ditching hard copy books for digital, because in a pinch I can always get another.  I'll scan unimportant documents like past bills where I can get copies from the companies if needed.   But I don't think I'll ever be comfortable with having my only copy of important photos and writing in electronic form. 

One of my happiness resolutions is to remove all kinds of clutter from my life.  But I think I need to define clutter as that which is unimportant and unnecessary.  Physical objects are not always clutter, and clutter is not always comprised of physical objects (stress, anxiety, overcommitment, etc. can be clutter).  I hereby declare that photos of important moments in my life (within reason) are no longer clutter.  I defy the professional organizers and take back the right to prioritize my own life and belongings. 

In exchange, I need to commit to caring for what's important.  I have photos tossed in boxes and piles that need organizing and arranging in albums.  I should toss photos that no longer evoke good memories, and reduce those that do to a representative sample.  I don't need a hundred pictures of the same beach in Cozumel.  I should scan what I do have and back it up to an online storage medium so that I am protected from both physical and electronic damage.

Maybe that's what clutter means to me: If it isn't worth the effort to protect it, is it really worth having at all?

Happiness Is....

Warning:  Sappy alert!

Happiness on this very snowy morning is warm gluten-free crepes with lemon curd and mascarpone, a pre-warmed car with all the snow brushed off, good music, and a partner who gets up early to make it all happen even though he doesn't need to be anywhere for two more hours. 

Happiness is being grateful every day that he's in my life.

Georgia's Idea of Sugarcoating

The state of Georgia is currently covered with billboards and videos telling people to "stop sugarcoating it" in regards to childhood obesity.  What's next, a campaign against bipolar disorder telling people to "just get over it already!"?

Let's start with the cognitive disconnect over what constitutes "sugarcoating." 

I'm routinely bombarded with the message from the news media, my doctors, the majority of websites, and multiple ads, that I'm going to get horribly ill and die.  More subtly, I'm told that I don't deserve clothes that fit, chairs that fit, public transportation seating that fits, or human love and contact.  My friends are told that they will get fat and die just by associating with me.  I am uncomfortable exercising in public because of hate vibes, sneers and verbal attacks.  Fellow fatties are physically attacked for daring to exercise, verbally assaulted for daring to ride a bus, rejected by lovers, friends, employers and service personnel, and denied custody of their own children.  They are denied adquate medical care, pay higher insurance premiums, and have to justify any illness or injury; even those common amongst thin people.  I am told, over and over again, in subtle and overt ways, that I am a failure as a woman and a human being.  All because I am fat.

Where the fuck does the sugarcoating come in?  I must have missed that part.  Or is it considered sugarcoating if they're not actually sticking knives into us?

Fat stigma and shame has not worked in a century or more, and will continue to not work.  Anyone in the mental health field with any experience with eating disorders will tell you that shame and stigma are demotivators; they do the opposite of what they're intended to do.  If shame and stigma were successful at creating thin people, no fat people would exist. 

So, since insanity is repeating the same actions while expecting different results, how about we try something new?  How about Georgia tax payers (and all of us) demand evidence-based research behind health initiatives, instead of popular media science?  HAES and similar weight-neutral, positive approaches are the only ones that show real, long-term health results. Not necessarily weight results, but perhaps public officials need a reminder that health was their real purpose. 

In the meantime, consider signing this petition from Change.org to stop these particular fat-shaming, kid-hurting billboards in Georgia.

http://www.change.org/petitions/childrens-healthcare-of-atlanta-end-the-stop-sugarcoating-obesity-campaign

The Biggest Winner?

Our office has begun the ubiquitous and poorly named "Biggest Loser" contest.  If you're lucky enough to be free of these where you work, the premise is that whoever loses the most weight in a certain time period wins a pot of cash, which the participants paid to enter. 

Now I don't think that health should be competitive.  There's enough "good/bad fattie" stigma from the world inflicting guilt if you don't exercise for hours every day or eat nothing but whole vegan organic foods.  But I think, as a matter of compromise, that the only way to get rid of these destructive weight-loss competitions is to first replace them with something constructive. 

So I propose a "Biggest Winner" contest, based on precepts of HAES, and focusing on adding health positive actions to your day instead of deprivations. This might already exist, and if it does please let me know!  If it's a feasible idea though, I'll eventually put together a full kit of daily e-mails, goals, charts, etc. that people can download for use in their office or organization. 

One of the challenges is that HAES is an entirely new paradigm for most people.  The idea of health independent of weight is radical, and it has to be presented in acceptable bite-size pieces if this is going to work. 

If you have any ideas for points or rules to add, remove or tweak, please let me know in comments or via e-mail at Jolandra6 at Yahoo (formatted here to prevent spam).

Contest Rules:
You earn points for certain physical or mental wellness activities.  It is self-reporting and depends on honesty, but the goal is to try out new wellness activities to see if you want to incorporate them into your life.  At the end of the contest (1 month?  6 weeks?)  the person with the most points receives some sort of prize/trophy/recognition. 

Any one activity can only count in one category.  If you go for a swim, it can count as exercise, meditation, or time for yourself (not all three). 

The maximum points for each day or week are to promote moderation.  You are welcome to go for a two hour run every day, but as 30 minutes of moderate movement is enough to gain significant health benefits, the maximum is to allow people to meet that mark without feeling that they have to overdo it to stay competitive. 

Points:
10 points for each 10 minutes of moderate physical activity (30 points maximum each day)

This can be any physical activity that raises your heart rate and breathing to aerobic levels.  You can walk, dance, swim, mow the lawn, etc.  It doesn't have to be traditional "exercise" as long as it gets the heart rate and breathing up! It can be done in increments (i.e. three 10 minute walks). 

5 extra points per day if the activity you chose to do is one you enjoy. 

This is defined as something you like enough that you want to continue to do it after the contest is over. 

10 points for 10 minutes of strength training or stretching activity (20 points maximum each day)

This can be traditional weight lifting, or any activity that strengthens or stretches muscles (especially core muscles) such as pilates, yoga, or simple stretches.  It is generally recommended that you give muscles 24 hours to recover after strength training; so alternate strength and stretch days, or work a diffferent area of the body each day.  

10 points for 10 minutes of meditation (20 points maximum each day)

This can be any activity that creates mental stillness, grounding and centeredness; whether traditional meditation, simple deep breathing, yoga, tai chi, etc.  It must be done without distraction or interruption, for at least 10 minutes at a time. 

10 points for adequate sleep the previous night

This is generally a full 8 hours, although your body's needs may vary.  Some people only really need 7, others may need 9.  If you require a lot of caffeine or other stimulants to get through the day, you're not getting enough. 

5 points for each serving of fruits, vegetables or whole grains (30 points maximum each day)

Look for foods you enjoy or haven't tried before and prepare them in different ways to get variety.  You may find that a vegetable you dislike is tasty if prepared differently.  Note:  It's still a vegetable if you put butter on it.

10 points for trying a new food (10 points maximum each week)

This can be anything you've never tried before, or haven't tasted for at least 10 years.  It can be a new way to prepare a familiar food, or a completely new ingredient.  It needs to be more than a simple variant on a familiar recipe, unless the taste is dramatically different.  

10 points for each day you drink enough water

Your water needs may vary, but the general rule is to drink half your body weight in ounces of water each day.  You need more if you exercise, breastfeed, or are ill, but you may need less if you have certain medical issues like low sodium or potassium.  Soup, juice, soda, milk, etc. all count towards your total for the day. 

10 points for doing something just for you (10 points maximum each day)

This can be anything that simply gives you pleasure.  Take some time to read or veg.  Go window shopping.  Get a mani/pedi.  Eat dessert.  Take some "me" time.  Avoid anything that serves dutiful double-purpose as being about someone else's happiness or accomplishing something.  If the activity is accompanied by the idea of what you "should" be doing, it doesn't count in this category. 

20 points for volunteer activites or charitable donations (20 points maximum each week)

Any cause you feel good about can count towards these points.  This can be anything from shoveling your elderly neighbor's walk to volunteering at Habitat or an animal rescue, to decluttering your house and dropping off reusable items at a charity resale shop. 

50 points for a personal wellness project (50 points maximum each week)

The focus should be on positive additions to your mental and physical wellness, but this should be a significant project for you, and you decide your goal for earning points.  You can split the points into days or make a weekly goal. 

Some ideas for personal wellness projects:

1.  A personal activity goal beyond the points offered above

2.  Commit a certain amount of time to decluttering your house each week
3.  Significant time spent with friends, family or partners
5.  If applicable, commit to keeping your blood sugar or other controllable measures within a certain parameter each week


While the focus is on adding positive measures, you can decide for yourself what your personal wellness goal will be.  If you want to set a goal to reduce or eliminate tobacco, caffeine, alcohol, etc. you can certainly set those goals!  You could also set a goal to reduce your level of criticism, or to focus on constructive thinking. 

The personal wellness goal should be achievable, reasonable, measurable, and contribute to your personal wellness (physical, mental, or emotional). 

2012 Body Love Resolution Telesummit

Have you registered yet?  It's a series of live interviews, accessible from anywhere with internet access, with many of the super-stars of size diversity.  Golda Poretsky will interview such well-known names as Peggy Howell, Marilyn Wann, Linda Bacon, Paul Campos, etc.  Many FA bloggers, activists, and other experts are on the list.  I'm really excited to have registered, and can't wait to listen!

You can register at http://www.bodyloverevolution.com/  There's a free basic access registration that lets you listen to the entire series, but the paid all-access is well worth it if you can afford it.  They give you download privileges for all the interviews until the end of March (in case you miss one, or want to keep it for future reference).  They also donate 20% of the proceeds to NAAFA (National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance). 

The one unhappy note is that signing up for the teleconference will subscribe you to various newsletters from the presenters.  If that says spam to you, use a temporary dummy e-mail to register.  I would prefer that they let you select the newsletters you would like (or opt out), but I don't think their data collection is that complex.  You can unsubscribe to any of the newsletters you do receive, and they promise to not sell your e-mail elsewhere.  I get it; I've done non-profit event organizing. Speakers need some kind of enticement or compensation for their time.  If they're not paid in cash, they need to be paid in contacts.  Altruism is a wonderful thing, but time is valuable.  So while it doesn't make me happy, I can see why an event organizer would feel the need to make this particular move.  I still think the telesummit is worth it, and registered for it this morning. 

Fresh from Florida

The parents flew us down to Florida for a week, which was really hard to come back from.  We spent most of the time in their gated retirement community swimming, sleeping and sunning.  It was a very welcome break after the craziness of this past semester.

About mid-week I noticed an absence of body consciousness on my part.  We were spending about two hours a day at the pool, and I was running around in sleeveless outfits the rest of the time.  While I go sleeveless in my usual haunts, I still have an undercurrent of anxiety whenever I do.  I feel conspicuous, and somehow daring (even if I know on some level that no one actually cares one way or the other if they can see my shoulders).  I suspect there was something about the age group in the community (55+).  When a gaggle of teenagers visiting their grandparents came to the pool to show off their bikinis, I would feel the anxiety creeping up again. 

There was something about the older crowd that made me feel free of body judgement.  Even though most of them seemed to be on Weight Watchers, I really felt that their criticism didn't extend beyond their own bodies.  They would tell friends they looked great, but the compliment seemed to arise from their clothing or health, rather than their weight. Is this a generational thing?  A reordering of priorities and prejudices as people age?  Or is it a false assumption on my part?  After all, feeling safe and being safe are not the same thing.  Has anyone else experienced a similar feeling?

If you're ever in the Sarasota area in winter, go see the Lipizzaner training sessions.  They're free (a hat is passed at the end) and you get to see how the young horses learn the various moves.  You also provide an audience for them to get used to clapping and visual distraction.  It's a much more intimate way to experience the Lipizzaners, and it can get really exciting if they're feeling fractious!

You also have no idea what grapefruit is supposed to taste like until you've had it right off the tree.  Who knew that it should be more sweet than bitter?  Well, other than people who live in the south of course :-)

If you're gluten-intolerant and flying Delta Airlines (maybe any airline) consider bringing a small bottle of handsoap on the plane.  The soap in the airplane bathroom said that it left a "coating of wheat proteins on your hands for long lasting moisture."  I've written the airline to complain. 

I hope everyone continues to have a safe winter season, wherever you are!

Students Speak on Photoshop and Body Image

I came across this great discussion on the NY Times Learning Network, asking students to share what they think about the effect of photoshopped celebrity images in the media.  The blog mentions the attempts by several countries to force advertisers to reveal when an image has been altered using a scale of 1-5 for the degree of alteration. 

I read through the first page of comments (there are four pages at this point) and it was both heartbreaking and hopeful.  Girls talked about how terrible they would feel about themselves after exposure to a retouched, impossible face and figure in a magazine.  Boys and girls both talked about the beauty of "real" people.  Instead of ivory tower academics discussing the theoretical impact of false beauty standards, here are the targets crying "foul!" all by themselves. 

It's a good read when we start to get discouraged about fighting the good fight for body acceptance.

Gluten-Free Buttermilk Pancake mix

Pancakes are tricky in the gluten-free world.  There are a few mixes that make whole-grain flavored pancakes, heavy on the sorghum flour.  I really missed that perfect buttermilk pancake taste, and the gluten-free bisquick was expensive enough to make pancakes an occasional treat.  I'm very picky about "substitutes" actually having the same taste and texture as the thing they're substituting for.  I don't want an unsatisfying "something vaguely like what I'm craving."  I want the real thing. 

So JD set out on a mission to find the perfect from-scratch gluten-free buttermilk pancake mix.  He's finally calling it good and letting me post the recipe.

He starts out with our gluten-free flour mix, which he measures by volume by pouring the flour into the measuring cup.  Since different flours compact differently, you should never scoop it: you'll end up with a slightly different amount of flour every time. 

4 parts white rice flour

3 parts potato starch
2 parts sweet white sorghum flour

Whisk these together thoroughly, then place in an air-tight container and shake well.  We use a glass container with a stopper, and it keeps just fine on the shelf for months. 

From that, he makes up a batch of pancake mix he can store in the cupboard for weeks and make into pancakes whenever he'd like.  For 6 cups of dry pancake mix, you'll need:
 
3 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour (recipe above, or your own)

1-1/2 cups buttermilk powder  (NOW brand is gluten-free and available on Amazon if you can't find it locally)
1-1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup shortening

Mix all the dry ingredients, then cut in the shortening with a pastry cutter, pair of knives, or food processor until it's crumbly and evenly distributed.  This will store on the shelf for at least two weeks. 

To make the mix into pancakes:

1 cup dry pancake mix

1 egg
1/4 cup milk

This makes plenty for two people.  JD does silver-dollar size pancakes by dropping the batter by tablespoons onto a buttered nonstick pan.  They can be made with water if you have a casein allergy, but they won't be as fluffy.  I'm assuming that since the proteins in the milk are responsible for the fluffing (they form a surface to trap air bubbles in the batter) that you could use any protein-containing milk substitute.  If you use a sweetened milk substitute (like vanilla soymilk) you may want to adjust the sugar in the mix. 

Taking Pickles Off the Back Burner

So this weekend I caught up on a lot of things, like cleaning and packing five whole boxes of clutter for a giant garage sale next spring.  I felt like I should reward myself by tackling one of the "unnecessary" creative projects I've had sitting in my inspiration box for nearly five years now: homemade pickles.

Every single year when the world is inundated with so many cucumbers that people leave baskets of them in the office break room with a "free" sign, I sigh and say, "I should make pickles this year."  It never actually happens.  The reason it never actually happens is that I always assumed that pickling involved a huge, expensive, messy and complicated process. 

Then I found a recipe for cold-pack pickles on Dave's Cupboard.  It couldn't possibly be that easy...could it?  If the recipe was correct, the only thing I needed that I didn't already have was pickling salt, cucumbers and a few spices. 

So I grabbed some off-season cucumbers, dried spices (the grocery store didn't have fresh dill) and gave it a whirl.  I re-used some plastic yogurt containers to hold everything, sliced the big cucumbers into spears, and after about an hour's work I have four 1 quart containers of pickles brewing in the back of our fridge, each one with slight variations on the base recipe (extra spicy, extra garlic, extra dill). 

I love cold pack pickles:  They're much fresher tasting and crunchier than cooked ones.  The downside is that they do have to be stored in the fridge and are only good for about three months.  But I can make small batches at a time.  It opens up all kinds of possibilities (pickled peppers, anyone?).  The cost would, of course, be much lower if I grew my own herbs. 

After a semester of constant running around on "necessary" tasks, it felt really good to do something entirely for the sake of tasty, creative fun.  It shows that I don't actually have to slow down to take a break.  I won't know for sure if it worked until December 8th when I crack open the pickles, but I love being able to say I make them.  It has to do with the kind of person I want to be.

Gluten-Free Turkey Day Review

The great gluten-free post-Thanksgiving dinner was a mixed bag, but the good more than made up for the bad!   With a nine pound turkey breast and plenty of extras, we still have a week of leftovers and some good memories.

I did the turkey in what I call the "Scarborough Fair" style (parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme) with the herbs pureed and spread under the skin of the turkey breast to flavor the meat.  Herbs on the surface of the skin don't penetrate; the skin is designed to keep things out.  I nearly burned the turkey when I turned it up to 400 to brown, but caught it just in time. The drippings were pretty brown, but when I poured a few cups of water in the pan and let it sit, it made gorgeous, dark, flavorful gravy. The Honeysuckle White brand frozen turkey breast did come with a gravy packet, but I prefer to make my own.  I did look at the ingredients to see if the website had accurately listed the entire turkey as gluten-free.  The gravy packet used white rice flour, corn starch, and guar gum as thickeners instead of wheat flour! It was good to see that the company was making an honest effort to make their product safe for more people.

I cheated a bit on the cereal-based stuffing.  For lack of time and money to hit a specialty store for gluten-free corn flakes, I used corn chex instead.  The result was a gooey, nasty tasting mess and went straight into the trash.  I've no idea if the flavor of flakes differs so much from chex that it would vastly improve the dish, but I can't imagine it being enough to be edible.  I want to be fair to the recipe in that I did change the cereal, but I don't feel inclined to waste time and money on a re-try when it came out so terrible.  It would be different if it were just slightly off. 

The crustless strawberry cheesecake with fresh vanilla whipped cream was perfect, even if I did feel ready to explode by that point! 

It felt a little odd having Thanksgiving dinner with just the two of us instead of the big family crowd I'm used to associating with holidays.  I think I have some work to do in redefining what it means to be a family. 

A Very Gluten-Free Thanksgiving

The last-minute hunt is on for a Gluten-Free Thanksgiving dinner!  Our plans are still a little up in the air for Turkey Day itself, and if plans do happen then we'll have our meal on Sunday instead of tomorrow.  The problem is that Thanksgiving is a minefield of gluteny traditions.

The first and least obvious hurdle is the turkey itself.  Of course turkeys don't normally contain gluten, but manufacturers quite commonly baste, inject, fill and marinate their meat for sale.  This accomplishes a few things for them: it adds weight to products sold by the pound, and they're hoping that they can trick cooks into thinking their product just naturally cooks up all juicy and flavorful.  Unfortunately, they almost never reveal the ingredients of their "secret sauce" injections on the packaging, nor do they list allergens. 

Butterball's website says they're moving away from gluten ingredients in their turkies and gravy packets, but you have to call their customer service hotline with a lot number to verify that the turkey you're buying is a safe one.  My local butcher shop sells plain turkeys, but they're enormous and we have limited freezer space.  Ideally I wanted to buy just a turkey breast to roast, since I'm not a fan of dark meat anyway.  I found what I was looking for on the Honeysuckle White website, where they list their bone-in fresh or frozen turkey breast as gluten-free.  Their whole turkeys, however, are NOT labeled gluten-free (probably because of a gravy packet).  I also know that the local big box stores carry them, which means they're perfect for last-minute plans. 

The next hurdle is the stuffing.  I had originally planned to make the cornbread stuffing recipe from the last "Better Homes and Gardens" (don't ask, the connards cancelled "Ready-Made" and sold my subscription to BHG).  It seemed ideal because the corn bread recipe they used didn't include wheat flour.  Luckily I made a test batch and found out that it comes out eggy tasting and dry.  I ended up tossing the whole batch (and the recipe). 

Then I was listening to NPR on the way to work this morning and heard a piece with Chris Kimball of America's Test Kitchen.   He gave a fantastic sounding recipe for turkey stuffing made from corn flakes.  It sounds pretty flakey (bah dum dum *ting*) but it's Chris Kimball.  I can't believe he would offer up his reputation on a less than fabulous recipe.  So I'm going to take a leap of faith, grab some gluten-free cornflakes, and give it a whirl.  The recipe and other delicious-sounding goodness from the piece can be found at the NPR website.  It includes a honey-herb brie appetizer and a pumpkin spice cheesecake that would be gluten-free without the crust.  You could find a gluten-free graham cracker to substitute for the crust, but I haven't found one yet that didn't taste awful.  He also gives some tips on how to flavor the turkey with fresh herbs.

Mashed potatoes are easy; I would just use leftover chicken broth and herbs from the other recipes.  For cranberry sauce, I have a particular nostalgic fondness for the Ocean Spray canned cranberry sauce, complete with little jellied can ridges molded into the cylindrical lump, carved into slices.  I think it's all about what you grew up with.  The fancy homemades just don't hit the craving the same way.  Luckily, Ocean Spray's website says that all their sauces and juices are gluten-free.

Going Caffeine-Free

I know, right?  But while most people do just fine on caffeine, I found myself in a cycle of insomnia, leading to extra caffeine the next day, leading to worse insomnia.  I wasn't even that heavy of a caffeine drinker.  I would generally have one or two 16 oz cup of ice tea in the morning, then a 16 oz coffee.  After a sleepless night, I would sometimes add another 16 oz coffee or coffee drink from McDonalds before noon, plus one or more 32 oz ice teas (There's a McDonald's across from my office, which makes it an easy money-sink for drinks). 

First I just cut out the coffee, under the mistaken impression that iced tea had so little caffeine that it wouldn't make a difference.  When there was no difference in my insomnia levels, I did a little research.  According to Energy Fiend's caffeine database, 8 ounces of brewed ice tea contains 47 mg of caffeine, while a 16 ounce cup of brewed coffee from McDonalds has 145 mg caffeine.  So if I had two cups of ice tea in the morning plus a 32 ounce ice tea at lunch, I was at about 188 mg of caffeine, and might as well have had a large coffee. 

Further research found studies that suggested caffeine has a significant effect on blood sugar levels.  I have PCOS, and take Metformin to help control blood sugar.  Studies from 2004 and 2008 claim that caffeine has detrimental effect on blood sugar equal to the positive effect of blood sugar medication, in that it causes spikes after meals.  So my caffeine intake may have been cancelling out any benefit I was getting from taking Metformin.  I have to take this with a grain of salt because there are a lot of studies with exaggerated or correlational effects mis-reported in the news when it comes to pop medicine topics like diabetes.  But while the blood sugar theories did not make or break the decision, it was one more piece of the puzzle. 

So I first cut down to one 16oz ice tea in the morning, then stopped altogether.  I chose a long weekend with no plans so that I could sleep off whatever headache came up (only a mild one, nothing like when I quit smoking!).  We both missed ice tea with breakfast, so we looked for alternatives.  After trying a few herbal combinations, we finally settled on regular decaf tea.  As we did with the caffeinated tea, we put six teabags in the coffee pot and brewed hot water through the coffeemaker.  We let it steep a few minutes, then pour it off into a pitcher for the fridge.  It's massively cheaper than buying bottled tea or mixes, and I think it tastes better.

What's interesting is that I have a certain conditioned reaction to the tea.  I feel more awake after I've had a cup, even though it's decaf.  I believe that the flavor of the ice tea is the conditioned stimulus for my brain to feel energized, because I don't have the same effect from drinking juice or water.  Blessings upon the placebo effect, and may it last forever!

One surprise is that I'm not any more tired than I was.  I expected to be a zombie for at least a month once I quit caffeine.  There was a drop for a few weeks, but then I re-adjusted to what feels like the same level of alertness I had when I was chugging the caf. I've also seen a significant reduction in my anxiety levels. The brain has to adjust to different levels of blood flow and pressure, plus learn to work without the stimulation provided by the caffeine.  What I don't have is the crazy zen-like boundless energy some anti-caffeine proselytizers claim.  Perhaps that's really the experience for some. 

The lack of difference in my energy tell me that caffeine wasn't accomplishing anything for me, besides interrupting my sleep, costing me money, spiking my anxiety, messing with my blood sugar levels, and giving me occasional withdrawal headaches on weekends.

That's good enough for me!

Recipe Box: Gluten-Free Apple Coffee Cake

I found a fantastic recipe for peach coffee cake with streusel topping over at the Gluten-Free Goddess.   I just wanted to give her full credit for the original recipe, to which I made several changes.  I adapted a few items to fit what I had in the cupboard, added additional spices to give it a more spice-cake flavor, and added buttermilk powder to really up the moistness of the cake.  

Dry Ingredients:
1 cup brown rice flour
1 cup light brown sugar
3/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup tapioca starch
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2  teaspoon guar gum
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ginger
1/8 teaspoon clove
1/4 cup buttermilk powder

Wet Ingredients:
2 large eggs, beaten
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla extract



 Other:
5-6 tablespoons milk as needed
1 can (min 12oz) apple pie filling

For the streusel topping:

1/3 cup light brown sugar
3 tablespoons brown rice flour
3 tablespoons mayonnaise (use full fat, no miracle whip)
2 tablespoons chopped pecans or pecan meal
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, 325 degrees for dark nonstick pan.  put a circle of parchment paper at the bottom of a round 9-inch cake pan.

Mix dry and wet ingredients in separate bowls.  Whisk dry ingredients well until completely combined; beat wet ingredients together until uniform.  Combine in one bowl.

Add milk one tablespoon at a time until batter is smooth (will vary depending on flour and humidity)

Pour the batter into the cake pan and smooth.  add a layer of apples from the pie filling.

Mix all the streusel ingredients together in a small bowl until the consistency of wet sand.   Sprinkle over the top of the cake.

Bake for 40-45 minutes until brown.  Check at 30 minutes; if already browning then cover with foil for last 10-15 minutes.  Toothpick should come out clean.  Cool to touch before serving.  Run a plastic knife between edge and pan before serving for easy removal. 

Al Franken gives anti-gay witness academic bitch-slap

Normally I avoid specific candidate endorsement or tear-down on this blog, but I just saw this video:

Al Franken Takes Down Anti-Gay Witness

Over at Talking Points Memo.  I actually wanted to shout "SHAZAAM!!  TAKE THAT ASSHAT!" at the end :-)  Does this mean that despite all the insanity, some members of our government still actually think for themselves?  Now I'm tempted to move to Minnesota just to vote for him. 

Eating disorders on the rise amongst young children

CNN Health reports that the average age for eating disorders is dropping, so that children as young as 7 are requiring treatment for anorexia and other disorders.

I was very pleasantly surprised to see a lot of references in here about how our fat-hysteria is impacting children negatively.  A mainstream news organization very rarely wakes up to the idea that body judgement might be doing serious harm.

Quote:

"Our culture serves up such a vast smorgasbord of body judgments, is it any wonder that so many kids are unhappy with the way they look?"


The news itself isn't positive; the epidemic increase in eating disorders in children is absolutely devastating and the human element of personal stories from kids and parents really drives home the feelings of helplessness and fear surrounding these disorders.  But the issue is treated with a very considerate touch and not as an excuse for hate. 

Finally...they're getting it. Well done CNN and Margaret Renkl.