My best friend is on his way to his new home in Manhattan, New York.  I went up on Friday to help him get packed up and moved.  I’m really excited for him because this is the culmination of a dream that he has had for years.  It’s certainly mixed emotions for me.  He and I have never lived more than a couple of hours apart for the last 12 years.  We talk on the phone almost daily and I hope that doesn’t change but the realization that I can’t just hop in the car and go hang out with him for an evening or a weekend is starting to sink in.  I made a concerted effort not to spend the entire morning crying as we packed up the truck.  Cried in public as we said goodbye.  Just a really emotional day.  

 

bulletin.aarp.org/yourhealth/healthyliving/articles/fat_and_fit_who_says_you_can_t_be_both_.html

To me this is a big flaming sack of duh, but I still think it’s fantastic.  To summarize the study-related parts:

Even before last summer’s pronouncement of an obesity emergency, researchers had reported different findings in a study published in December 2007 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). The study found that fitness—in this case the ability to walk quickly on a treadmill for a few minutes or longer—was a better predictor of who would die, and when, than BMI.

The study followed 2,600 adults over age 60 for 12 years. Participants were asked to walk on a treadmill at a quick walking pace, with a gradually increasing incline. Based on the results of the treadmill test, they were then put in five fitness categories, from least to most fit.

Researchers found that the least fit, regardless of BMI, were four times more likely to die during the course of the study than the most fit. But the most surprising difference in mortality was between the least fit group and the one just above that, who were half as likely to die during the study. In other words, just a little fitness could be twice as good as no fitness at all.

When the results were adjusted for other factors, such as smoking and age, fitness still mattered most.

So is it fitness, rather than fatness, that really counts? “That’s what we keep finding,” says Steven N. Blair, a coauthor of the JAMA study, and professor of exercise science and of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina. Clinical trials under way on the benefits of fitness will likely show that physical activity preserves brain health, too, Blair adds, meaning fitness may also lower the risk of dementia.

Another study of 5,400 adults, published in August 2008 in the Archives of Internal Medicine, found that fully half of overweight and one-third of obese participants were “metabolically healthy,” meaning they had few, if any, risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure or low levels of “good” cholesterol. On the other hand, about a quarter of “normal”-weight people were metabolically unhealthy and exhibited cardiovascular risk factors. This study did not measure the fitness levels of the participants.

To be clear, health and fitness (by any definition) are not an obligation, barometer of worthiness, or entirely within our control. 

 

 

I have a challenge for any fathletes out there who want to accept.  If you work out somewhere that has a locker room, walk around calmly and proudly…and naked. 

I noticed in my gym locker room that many of our fathletes become Cirque du Soleil contortionists to get into and out of workout close without exposing more than 4 square inches of their bodies at a time. No doubt there are thin girls who do this to, but I see a preponderance of big women doing this.  (I don’t know if it’s the same in the men’s locker room so some male fathlete will need to enlighten me!)

I noticed this some time ago and I started to do this, just calmly walk around – not be creepy, not freak out, just walk around like I normally would. ..and it’s been AWESOME!!!!!   

What do you think?  If you do it I totally want to hear about how it goes!

x-posted to (as you might expect) fathletes 

I’ve watched The Biggest Loser and other weight loss shows and I was pondering today as to what my issue with them is and I think it’s this:

I have no issue with people choosing what size they want their body to be, for whatever reason they want to choose.  It’s not my job to tell someone that they are too thin, too fat, etc.  My problem is that so often in these shows (and when I see people lose weight), they talk about how they "didn’t love themselves" and "couldn’t be proud of themselves" but now, since they’ve lost the weight, they love themselves and are proud of themselves.  

I have some huge concerns about that – what if something happens and they gain back the weight?  I’m guessing that they’ll gain back the self-loathing with a big side of failure to go with it.

Let’s teach people to love themselves for who they are, not the size of their body.  Then, if they choose to gain weight, lose weight, or stay the same, they still have solid self-esteem no matter what.

Am I just crazy?

You may have seen my earlier post about dance classes for bigger bodies in Austin, Texas.  If you are interested, it would be completely awesome if you could take this quick survey to help me get things organized and figure out what everyone wants. 

Just click here (if you can’t click for some reason, just copy and paste the url):
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=Hcnl_2bvgtWRWW7vUnpef5Qg_3d_3d

x-posted to a number of fabulous communities

An awesome article that happens to have my picture atttached (which was originally posted at www.elasticwaist.com/2008/12/health-at-every-size-athletes.php) made Yahoo Shine!’s Healthy Living Section.  So full of awesome!!!

My dance studio is doing it’s annual winter showcase this Sunday at 7pm at the Omni Southpark.  My BHM dance partner and I will be performing two numbers  -an East Coast Swing to Big Fat Mammas are Back in Style by Candye Kane, and a more serious waltz/nightclub medley.  There will be plenty of student’s dancing as well as a bunch of great dancing in our Pro show.

Tickets start at $18.00.  It is a charity event and the proceeds go to Lifeworks.

All the details are here:  www.godancestudio.com/44/showcases.htm

I went on a dance outing with a local BBW group.  In this group I (5’4, 280) am one of the smaller people.  My dance partner and I went out and danced a few dances, including a really fast two-step.  It was completely awesome to have people there cheering us on.

When we got back one of the women came up to me and said "I can’t believe how fast you can move", another woman said to her "You have to remember it’s easy for her because she’s so little".  

Coming from a world of 90lb dancers, this almost made me wet my pants laughing.

I gave a talk at a local high school girls about beauty, self-esteem and body image. 

I got to the school early, while the students were still in their last hour.  The Administrative Office didn’t know where I was supposed to go, my two contacts weren’t answering their phones.  Now, I went to a lot of different schools K-12 and so being lost in a school is not new to me, so I started wandering around.  Finally got a call from my contact who said that I needed to find "The Gold Room".  That was great, except all I saw were rooms with numbers.  Out of nowhere I hear someone yell "WHERE"S YOUR PASS?".  

That was when I discovered that you just never get over being scared of hearing that in a hallway.  I panicked – "Oh crap, where IS my pass?  I’m in the hall without a pass!"  Of course that was all going on in my head as the teacher rapidly approached.  As he got within a couple of feet of me I suddenly realized that he probably just meant an administrative pass (after all, I’m 32 years old, I was wearing business attire and carrying a briefcase). I smiled and said "I’m sorry, I don’t have a pass, do I need to go back to the office and get one".  He said, in his best stern teacher voice "You know very well, you get it from your TEACHER".  Barely avoiding doing a butt-shaking "I got mistaken for a high school student" dance, I explained who I was and what I was doing and he took me to the room.

The group was very interesting, girls who had made the choice to join a program for the express purpose of expanding their frame of reference.  They knew each other, were comfortable with each other, and were very engaged.  I was upfront and honest, like I always am, telling them my story.  Then I moved to the meat of my talk, I wanted the take-away to be the fact that teasing never does any good and that the best thing that you can do is remove yourself from the situation.  The girls were really responsive, and  we came up with a lot of things to say to a would-be teaser. 

Some of the ones that I have used in the past are:

"Thanks for sharing your judgments with me"
"Thanks for taking the time to give me your opinion, I’ll give that all the consideration it’s due"
"I appreciate you taking the time to share that with me"

I had a wonderful time, the girls really liked me and are going to be sending me some testimonials, and it all went well.  I’m so excited about doing more of this.

I was recently at an interesting class.  A participant was asking a question about a block in her life and kept cutting off the facilitator who was trying to lead her to the answer, because she wanted to tell her story. The co-facilitator told the other facilitator:
"Wait, don’t interrupt – she’s trying to tell you a story to justify her limitations!" He proceeded to sit down cross-legged on the stage in front of her, cradled his chin in his hands and said "Ok, tell me a story." It was refreshing and hilarious.