ABCE

Everything is so heavy right now, dear ones. Things in the world, things in our lives, the fucking patriarchy fucking everything up somehow faster now. I can’t heal that pain for you. I can’t heal it for myself, either. It hurts a lot, like constantly. I don’t have the answers to these things, but I do have some advice for us all to take heed. Hold onto the good ones in your life. Like, literally! Spend time with those you care about, even if it’s just sitting in a room looking at your phones. Seriously. Find the time to do something with the folks you can’t imagine your life without. We don’t know how long any of us have in this realm. Everything is temporary and nothing is certain, except love. Love is certain. Love is what gets us through! Love bonds and binds us to each other and allows our connections to bring and give strength back. It’s a beautiful cycle! We must nurture these relationships and I know it’s hard. Set reminders, or even put it on your calendar, to text people or t

You’ve probably seen the meme on social media:  “You are not fat. You have fat.  You also have fingernails.  But you are not fingernails.”  I’ve seen this in plenty of versions and I think it’s problematic on a lot of levels. It’s come up in a number of conversations recently and so I’m re-posting my response. First of all, as regular readers have probably already sussed out, I would be much more comfortable if this was written from the perspective of how someone feels about/for themselves instead of dictating to others how we should feel (ie: “I’m not fat, I have fat” instead of “You are not fat, you have fat”.)  People are allowed to look at their bodies this way because, hey,  underpants rule .  That said, I think it’s an idea worth some exploring. Let’s consider some other examples – can you imagine Facebook memes that say “You are not brunette, you have brown hair” or “You are not tall, you have above-average height.” You’re not thin, you have thinness? When I’m flying in for a sp

Weight Watchers announced on Monday that they are changing their name to WW to reflect their focus on wellness and health.   This is probably a clever move, though it’s not the first time they’ve made it.   In 2015, they launched a program called “Beyond the Scale” that seems to be the same thing they are talking about now, minus the name change. This idea that “everything old is new again” has been a long-running theme for the company.  They have built their business model on getting repeat business from the clients   they repeatedly fail . You see, WW has never had success is creating sustained   long-term weight loss . It’s a shameful track record — one they share with literally every other diet and lifestyle company that claims they can produce sustained, long-term, intentional weight loss.   They know that most people lose weight short-term and almost all of them gain it back long term (with a majority gaining back more than they lost). Moving forward, they will go by WW and will

Lately I’ve been getting more into Instragam  (in the words of Sam Seaborn/Aaron Sorkin: Let’s forget the fact that I’m coming a little late to the party and embrace the fact that I showed up at all…”) I’m not sure how I got there, but I found myself on a page of things that IG seemed to think I would enjoy. Except IG was dead fucking wrong. It was a bunch of “before and after” weight loss pictures (of course they didn’t include the “after after” picture that will happen when almost all of them regain their weight in a few years.) People were commenting about how their “prayers were answered,” and their “hopes and dreams came true,” and a bunch of them said something about “celebrating” with many asking people to celebrate with them. And that’s when I was reminded that diet culture conditions us to hope and pray and dream that someday we will be less than we are now, and to celebrate – and ask others to celebrate when there is less of us (for however brief that time may be.) Back in my

The Padded Lilies Here is a recent research review that found that physical exercise reduced the risk for gestational diabetes (GD) in "obese" and "overweight" women during pregnancy. Here is a summary of the research review, and also a discussion of how to use exercise and food timing and choices to keep your  blood sugar as normal as possible during pregnancy. Quick View of Study Details The authors reviewed 13 studies with a total of 1,439 participants. On the up side, they found that physical exercise reduced gestational weight gain and the risk of gestational diabetes (GD). This is good news. On the other hand, exercise made no difference in the risk for blood pressure issues, macrosomia (big babies), cesarean rates, or premature births. This isn't bad news, but it does point out that exercise is not the panacea that some doctors hope it would be. How significant are these findings? Well, it depends on the finding. The weight gain finding is negligible. The

Morgan Stacy is in recovery from bulimia.   She has been behavior-free for six months, which is major progress. However, Morgan’s college is putting her recovery in serious jeopardy with one of their required courses. Morgan is a student at Vanguard University, a four-year, private “Christian” school that receives state funding.   At Vanguard, every undergraduate is required to take a class in which they must calculate their Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a ratio of weight and height.   They are also required to measure their body composition via Biometric Impedance Analysis (BIA) and measure and calculate their waist-to-hip ratio. In another lab, they are required to keep a food log and answer questions about their caloric intake like “what are you eating too much of?”   Students are next given an assignment to determine the “factors” that “influenced your performance in these tests,” create a “body composition goal,” and then develop a plan for how they will achieve the results. In