Tag: shame

Why Can It Take a Lifetime to Lose Weight?

I would greatly prefer it if my brain would be less preoccupied with thoughts of doughnuts but it’s running its own show up there. I’ve often mused over what more I could accomplish if I did not have to devote any energy to trying to suppress all those food thoughts that bang around the ole …

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Do You Call Yourself a Food Addict? Reconsidering Weight Bias

Do you call yourself a “food addict”? Does it seem that an awful lot of people would like to believe overweight is primarily a purely behavioral issue and those of us who have dealt with serious obesity must be out of control “addicts”? The Centers for Disease Control define “obese” (vs “overweight”) as having a …

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Being Mindful of the Fat Labels We Assign to Ourselves

Words are so very powerful. Just read Orwell’s 1984 for a chilling glimpse of a world so intensely controlled by propaganda, it’s possible to commit a “thoughtcrime.” How powerful are words in your life? Think for a moment about the fat labels you might apply to yourself. Do you call yourself a food addict? Do …

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Managing Our Weight: It’s NOT a Level Playing Field

My primary objective is to break down the paradigm that says if you are overweight, there’s “something wrong” with you and replace that with the fact that some of us are simply born with bodies that want to be larger and brains that want to think about food. It’s only logical! Consider that our culture …

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The Truth of My Mother and a Lifetime of “Think Like a Thin Person”

As I continue my month-long visit with my parents, I am learning more about their lives in their senior years. My mother remains as slim as she’s always been. We were talking yesterday about what a “hard time” her friends here in the community give her, especially at the pool. Despite being generally in their …

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Resolving Our Conflicting Body Image & Weight Conversations

A stranger on Facebook thoroughly bitched me out for not being “supportive” of an extremely overweight woman who had written a post expressing her positive body image and her assertions that she “eats healthy” and gets exercise. She regularly posts photos and elaborate descriptions of her meals with all the delight of an enthralled foodie. …

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Weight—and Weight Denial—Weigh Heavy

We can deny an awful lot of things in our lives and find ways to believe what we want. We can carry on these deceptions for a shockingly long time and often get away with it! But deceiving ourselves with weight denial carries its own penalty. There’s nowhere to hide. If someone says they’re losing …

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When Weight Loss Motivation & Inspiration—Aren’t

Weight loss motivation and “inspiration” are all over the media. It’s supposed to be helpful, right? Keep you on track. Give you direction. But look at this particular “motivational” image: “Strive for progress, not perfection.” OK, good advice I’ll admit. In fact, it’s advice I’d share. But how about the image? Good grief, that woman …

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Being a Fat Spy in a Thin World

After the President’s stunning speech yesterday in which he discussed when he had been regarded with suspicion himself, the discussions and arguments about race are raging on. A friend brought this video to my attention. It’s a segment from the ABC television show, “What Would You Do?” Much of the conversation is about white people …

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An Overlooked Detail of the George Zimmerman Trial

Like the rest of the nation, I was riveted by the George Zimmerman murder trial especially since it was taking place very near to where I am from. I grew up in Daytona Beach, Florida, in the next county over from Seminole county, the location of Sanford. When I was a kid, Sanford was known …

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