Finally, the results of the Look Ahead study were published in 2012 with no fanfare because after all the years of treatment and support, the average weight loss was around 7 pounds. “Why? Why?” I ask myself, “Why does the scientific community refuse to admit this approach has failed?” There are a lot of reasons. The so-called obesity experts are still with us. Many of them are in their 80s and 90s, but they don’t dare retire and give up the influence they have on the public and the government. After all, if weight loss is not possible, then they have wasted their entire careers trying to achieve it. Then there is the aspect of “following the money.” What would happen to all of these obesity experts, diet programs, diet products, diet books, and diet gurus if we gave up trying to get people to lose weight?
I was stopped by an employee at a gym while leaving the gym. It ended up being a 45 minute long conversation. It started out with him asking me about my workout routine. When I told him about the training that I do, he said that I was “wasting my time” and that I’d never “get better” doing what I do. It turned into even more of a rant about the “obesity epidemic” and the issues that it causes. When I told him that I loved my body the way it was he flat out told me I was LYING! Then, he asked me if I ever stood in front of a full length mirror naked and noticed what I didn’t like about myself.
There’s more to it. So much more. A compilation of contradictions and a reflection of his brainwashing. I ended on the topic of respect because I was not going to get him to believe that fat doesn’t mean unhealthy. So, I told him that I hoped he spoke to thin people the way he spoke to me and that he needed to be more respectful to his overweight customers. I also emphasized that society should change its views and not be rude to others instead of making fat people feel guilty about the way that he looked. He said that this point-of-view glorified obesity and that he shouldn’t respect fat people because we “don’t respect people who urinate in public” (yes, he was really making this comparison).
I tried. Thin privilege is having people believe you when you make reasonable, logical arguments. Thin privilege is not being harassed by the employees at the gym. Thin privilege is being able to report this type of abuse and be taken seriously.
oh my god this exact scenario happened to me. Except I’m also a gym employee and I got into an argument with a personal trainer who INSISTED that I’m unhealthy (even though I’m not) and when I said “I love my body and the way I look” he said “Sure, keep telling yourself that, but it’s not possible.”
I just thought it was so romantic—the idea that you don’t need to be loved in return in order to love something or someone. Love can come from you. It doesn’t have to be reciprocal. People love their cars. People love all kinds of things, and they really love them. And we don’t really value that kind of love because it’s not a real, reciprocal kind of love, but it’s real love to them…
Marry your best friend. I do not say that lightly. Really, truly find the strongest, happiest friendship in the person you fall in love with. Someone who speaks highly of you. Someone you can laugh with. The kind of laughs that make your belly ache, and your nose snort. The embarrassing, earnest, healing kind of laughs. Wit is important. Life is too short not to love someone who lets you be a fool with them. Make sure they are somebody who lets you cry, too. Despair will come. Find someone that you want to be there with you through those times. Most importantly, marry the one that makes passion, love, and madness combine and course through you. A love that will never dilute - even when the waters get deep, and dark.
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