Losing a tooth to losing an attitude.

This week I have mostly been curled up in bloody agony with a crumbling wisdom tooth. Those who, like myself in the past, have claimed that childbirth is the worst pain ever should suffer this pain for a few minutes - give me childbirth every time!! Thankfully my wonderful dentist (Alan Parker & Associates) sorted me out in 30 minutes by giving me a local and pulling the darn thing out! Now that I have had this blight on my life removed forever I can get back to my current pet hate - diet adverts!!!

Why do I think I have a voice that needs hearing on this?? Because I'm a 'big girl' - a kind euphemism for a woman of generous proportions, a 'fat lass'... 

I was looking at my page on a certain social media site and noticed - yet again - that, apparently, Cheryl Cole has lost 13kg! Good for her, I'm sincerely delighted if she felt she were a mere 2stone overweight and managed to lose it. Personally speaking I would have been perfectly happy with her pre-weight-loss body and I suspect that, in fact, so would she.

I further suspect that she has not actually lost any weight at all but has had her picture and name hijacked by another diet company attempting to shame perfectly contented women into neurotic and panic stricken starvation or even worse into damaging their long term health with badly researched and/or tested eating regimes. 

Notice I use the word 'regime' instead of 'diet'?? dictionary.com defines these two words thus:

           diet: food or feed habitually eaten or provided: (1 of 5 definitions)

           regime: a ruling or prevailing system. (1 of 5 definitions)

So, diet is what you eat, regime is the people in control. That seems to make sense. We should all have a 'healthy diet', that is, we should all habitually eat or provide healthy food. That definition of the word definitely seems to hold water!

Regime, on the other hand, is a word that has been bandied about a lot recently, particularly with reference to the ruling systems of the various near- and middle-eastern countries that have been experiencing 'civil unrest'. The word seems to conjure up an image of ruthless dictators that abuse their position of power to amass more power and much wealth. They abuse their citizens, subjecting them to injustices and brainwashing to change the way they think.   

There's an interesting point of conjunction! These systems that claim to allow us to lose weight all have one thing in common with such regimes - they change the way we think. They seem to say that we can be slim, beautiful and popular if we will only buy their product/follow their rules/join their clubs.

"That's good", I can hear you saying, "We need to change the way we think about food!"

Well, speak for yourself! 

I'm not a big fan of 'Big is Beautiful' because sometimes it isn't. 

Sometimes big is a way of hiding from something painful. Sometimes it is a medical problem. And sometimes it is greed and/or laziness. Big can be unhealthy, it can cause or exacerbate some medical conditions, it can cause excess wear and tear on the body leading to heart disease and problems with the bones. It can even cause imbalances in the hormones that affect the natural functioning of the body, making every day life a misery. But sometimes it isn't! 

I followed a diet given to me by my GP a couple of years ago and lost 6 stone in 8 months. I was happy and healthy until I spontaneously developed 'multiple bi-lateral pulmonary thromboses' - lots of blood clots in both lungs!! The reason was probably the massive increase in the amount of vitamin K I was taking in via green leafy vegetables and the way it reacts badly with my, at that point undiagnosed, Factor V Leidens, a condition that is a type of thrombophillia and causes an increased tendency for the blood to clot. 

In a very real sense getting thinner had made me ill - so ill I could have easily died! In any case my medical lot now is to have to restrict the amount of Vitamin K I take in and subject myself to a daily dose of Warfarin for the rest of my life, something that carries its own increased risks of hemorrhage 

It is worth remembering that not all overweight people need to lose weight for their health. Sometimes a person that appears overweight to you is perfectly healthy and perfectly happy. Why should they be made to feel that they have to change their behaviour or appearance to appease someone else? Who do all these 'thin police' think they are??

In my opinion (and its my blog!!) the only valid reason to press someone else to lose weight is if their health is being adversely effected and if you are close enough in relationship to actually care. Otherwise, mind your own damn business! I don't chase you around insisting you do something about your bad breath/flat feet/hideous dress sense so why do you think you have the right to comment on my weight?? 

Most (not all) overweight people would like to lose some weight. For some it is the fear of future ill-health. For some it is for ease of movement or travel. Some of us, believe it or not, want to lose weight because we can't continue to pay out the extortionate prices for 'outsize' clothing i.e. anything over a size 16! 

Some of us would even like to lose weight so that we can feel good about ourselves, but why do we need to be thinner to do that?? Who is it that ;makes us feel bad that we are above a certain weight or dress size? Mostly its magazines, TV shows and television. How many times have you been watching your favourite sit-com or stand up show when the 'humour' turns to making fat people the object of ridicule. 

"You don't retain water," shouts Billy Connolly, "You are retaining chips, you're retaining mars bars."

The audience screams with laughter, everyone thinks its hilarious, fat people have lost another excuse for being fat. Well, I'm sorry, I'm fat and guess what? I DON'T NEED AN EXCUSE!! 

My body is working as it should. It is storing excess fuel in the form of fat against the day that famine strikes (OK, not very likely here in the UK, but you never know!!) Those who do not put on weight should look to their own health and ask why their body is shedding perfectly good fuel and why it seems unable to store it as it is supposed to. My body is fine - its YOUR body that has something wrong with it!

Ask yourself this, who says that being thin is better?? People who are looking to make masses of money out of you. Either by getting you thin or by keeping you that way! 

Next time you see an overweight person don't allow your lip to curl in disgust, after all what would people think if they could see YOUR disgusting habits displayed on your body for all to see...? 


Anita 'FatGirl' Kelly
Belfast