Why I'm a Walker, by Mary Ray Worley
1.
I walk because I can.
2.
Walking is fun.
3.
It feels good.
4.
It helps me reconnect with my body.
5.
It's empowering.
6.
It's energizing.
7.
It's relaxing.
8.
It enhances my overall health and well-being.
9.
Endorphins!
10.
Walking improves my body-esteem.
11.
It strengthens my heart.
12.
It helps me [avoid/control my] diabetes.
13.
It helps me sleep better.
14.
It helps keep me on an even keel emotionally.
15.
It makes food taste better.
16.
I get to see, hear, and smell beautiful sights, sounds,
and smells.
17.
Walking outdoors fills my lungs with fresh air.
18.
It's fun!
Regional
Resources
by Bill Weitze, Newsletter Editor
One
new project announced at the NAAFA Convention this past
August was the creation of regional resource books. In
the past, various individuals and chapters have had lists
of fat-friendly doctors, theaters with adequate seating,
and so on. However, these have been scattered and not
centrally organized. The goal of this project would be
to collect, either online, in printed books, or both,
these sorts of lists, and keep them updated using volunteers
from NAAFA chapters around the country (and, eventually,
around the world).
The
next step is yours. I'm not asking you write the books
(not just yet, anyway), but I'd like you to tell me what
sorts of things you want in these books. And, of course,
if you do have something specific to go into a regional
book, please send it to me.
Once
we get this up and running, we'll have regional contacts
for you for each part of the country (and world), but
for now, go ahead and send your input to me, Bill Weitze,
at newsletter@naafa.org.
Announcing
the Volunteer Spotlight
by Bill Weitze, Newsletter Editor
Starting
with the next issue, we will be spotlighting a volunteer
effort in each issue. The plan is to highlight effective
and fun events, demonstrations, and outreach efforts by
NAAFA chapters and other groups. Please forward information
about any effort your group did that you think the rest
of NAAFA should know about. Send your input to me, Bill
Weitze, at newsletter@naafa.org.
Donate
to to NAAFA using PayPal
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Welcome to the first e-mail edition of the NAAFA
Newsletter. In our last issue, which was published
in print and electronic format, I said that I hoped
to have regular print newsletters; however, budget
constraints prohibit that at this time. The good
news is that we will be e-mailing the newsletter
directly to you every issue if you sign up.
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Fear and Loathing in Los Angeles - Fat Hatred
Masquerades as Concern
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 by
Paul F. Campos, University of Colorado Law Professor
This article and Professor Campos's keynote
speech at the 2003 NAAFA Convention are both based
on Chapter 5 of his forthcoming book, The Obesity
Myth.
The cover of the March 2000 issue of Harper's magazine
features a photograph of an artwork entitled Sundae
1, by Jeanne Dunning. The photograph is of the head
and shoulders of a person of indeterminate gender,
lying on his or her back. The person's face is completely
smothered by an artfully stacked mound of whipped
cream, topped with a cherry.
The photograph is meant to entice readers to sample
"Let Them Eat Fat: The Heavy Truths About American
Obesity," by Greg Critser. This particular essay
is in many ways a typical representative of the
sort of reportage regarding fat and fat-related
issues that appears on an almost daily basis in
the nation's major newspapers and large-circulation
magazines. The basic thesis of such stories is almost
always the same: Americans are eating themselves
to death. Yet readers of these stories who remain
willing to look just below their surface of alarmist
claims and distorted statistics will often find
evidence of things a good deal more disturbing than
the number of calories in a double Whopper with
cheese.
The text itself opens with what the author clearly
intends to be a shocking and horrifying tableaux:
In the intensive care unit of the University of
Southern California's medical center in downtown
Los Angeles, a 22-year-old man whom Critser names
"Carl" is being intubated, while surgeons "labor
to save his life." Critser informs us that Carl
weighs 500 pounds. The author then quotes the patient's
mother: "'Second time in three months,' [she] blurted
out to me as she stood apart watching in horror.
'He had two stomach staplings, and they both came
apart. Oh my God, my boy . . .' Her boy was suffocating
in his own fat."
Critser's readers are never told what medical condition
has occasioned this emergency, and it turns out
that"suffocating in your own fat" does not constitute
a recognized medical diagnosis. There are, in fact,
thousands of people of roughly similar size in America
today (I've met some of them), and very few are
in any sort of life-threatening condition.
Critser goes on to cite the usual scare statistics
about an "obesity epidemic" in America, before offering
up choice quotes from former Surgeon General David
Satcher and William Dietz, the director of nutrition
at the Centers for Disease Control. Up to this point,
Critser's essay has been pretty standard stuff.
Typical newspaper and magazine articles on fat are
generally worse than worthless: Such stories accept
without question the gross distortions and outright
lies from the medical and pharmaceutical establishment,
who profit directly from the constant escalation
of the war on fat.
In the face of so much spurious anti-fat propaganda,
the following facts tend to elicit among even the
best-informed audiences: Most fat people are not,
on the whole, less healthy or more prone to premature
death than non-fat persons. Even very fat people
have better health, on average, than fashionably
thin people. Fat active people have half the mortality
rate of thin sedentary people. Levels of physical
activity are vastly better predictors than body
mass of both mortality and overall health. Many
of the nation's leading experts on diet and health
issues consider underweight to be a more serious
health problem in America than overweight. In the
words of the New England Journal of Medicine, the
case for the claim that fat is a significant health
risk is "limited, fragmentary and often ambiguous."
Anyway, back to "Let Them Eat Fat." Critser thinks
he has found, on the streets of Los Angeles, the
answer to his question regarding how Americans can
be so health-conscious and so fat at the same time.
In what Critser describes as "the heart of the San
Fernando valley's burgeoning Latino population,"
Critser attends the opening of a new Krispy Kreme
doughnut store, and witnesses scenes that he describes
in something akin to the tone of a Victorian missionary
confronting the savage rituals of the natives, somewhere
deep within the heart of darkness.
Critser interviews the manager of the store, who
touches on the elaborate marketing strategies that
go into choosing the location of a new Krispy Kreme
outlet: "'The idea is simple - accessible but not
convenient . . . We want them intent to get at least
a dozen before they even think of coming in.'" Critser
asks the manager who these prospective marketing
targets might be. "He gestured to the stout Mayan
donas queuing around the building. 'We're looking
for all the bigger families.'" "Bigger in size?"
Critser asks with what appears to be an almost pornographic
air of fascination. "'Yeah.' [The manager's] eyes
rolled, like little glazed crullers. 'Bigger in
size.'"
The full flavor of what follows cannot be appreciated
without extensive quotation.
"At my local McDonald's, located in a lower-middle-
income area of Pasadena, California, the supersize
bacchanal goes into high gear at about 5 P.M., when
the various urban caballeros, drywalleros, and jardineros
get off from work and head for a quick bite. Mixed
in is a sizeable element of young black kids traveling
between school and home, their economic status apparent
by the fact that they've walked instead of driven.
Customers are cheerfully encouraged to 'supersize
your meal!' by signs saying, 'If we don't recommend
a supersize, the supersize is free!' For an extra
seventy-nine cents, a kid ordering a cheeseburger,
small fries and a small coke will get said cheeseburger
plus a supersize Coke (42 fluid ounces versus 16,
with free refills) and a supersize order of french
fries (more than double the weight of a regular
order). Suffice it to say that consumption of said
meals is fast and, in almost every instance I observed,
very complete."
You would think the author had been watching teenagers
exchange sexual favors for crack cocaine, given
the text's mixture of salacious detail and horrified
sanctimoniousness. Critser goes on to agonize over
the contents of the "jumbo dietetic horror" he has
witnessed, and to describe the "endocrine warfare"
he believes is sure to erupt in the bodies of the
wretched refuse of our teeming shores who engage
in such flagrant self-abuse. Then he really lets
us know what he thinks:
If childhood obesity truly is 'an epidemic in the
U.S. the likes of which we have not had before in
chronic disease,' then places like McDonald's and
Winchell's Donut stores, with their endless racks
of glazed and creamy goodies, are the San Francisco
bathhouses of said epidemic, the places where the
high-risk population indulges in high-risk behavior.
Although open around the clock, the Winchell's near
my house doesn't get rolling until seven in the
morning, the Spanish-language talk shows frothing
in the background while an ambulance light whirls
atop the Coke dispenser. Inside, Mami placates Miguelito
with a giant apple fritter. Papi tells a joke and
pours ounce upon ounce of sugar and cream into his
20-ounce coffee. Viewed through the lens of obesity,
as I am inclined to do, the scene is not so feliz.
"The obesity rate for Mexican-American children,"
Critser continues, "is shocking." He returns to
the scene of the ongoing doughnut crime: "The lovely
but very chubby little girl tending to her schoolbooks
. . . will begin puberty before the age of ten,
launching her into a lifetime of endocrine bizarreness
that will not only be costly to treat but will be
emotionally devastating as well." Critser doesn't
need to add that all this "bizarreness" will also
give her a big head start over all those anorexic
(and therefore infertile) white girls in the nicer
parts of Pasadena, in the Darwinian struggle to
produce the next generations of (respectively) Krispy
Kreme junkies and Diet Coke addicts.
To be fair, Critser doesn't really want to focus
on what he calls "the inevitable divisiveness of
race and gender." He wants to talk about the relationship
between fat and social class. On this topic, he
actually makes a certain degree of sense. He notes
that, in American today, the poor are fat and the
rich are not - and he even considers the possibility
that the rich would like to keep things that way.
"In upscale corporate America," he notes, "being
fat is taboo, a sure-fire career-killer. If you
can't control your own contours, goes the logic,
how can you control a budget and staff? Look at
the glossy business and money magazines with their
cooing profiles of the latest genius entrepreneurs:
to the man, and the occasional woman, no one, I
mean no one, is fat."
One would hope that a journalist confronting a
situation such as this - in which a physical characteristic
was being used to systematically disenfranchise
a significant portion of the citizenry from the
upper echelons of money and power - would display
a modicum of curiosity about whether the things
the people with the money and power were saying
about the supposed awfulness of that physical characteristic
were actually true. But, at this moment in America,
when it is no longer possible to observe that a
glossy brochure contains no pictures of women, or
non- whites, without being expected to wonder if
there's a legitimate reason for that absence, it
is still possible - no, it is almost obligatory
- to assume there is a good reason for excluding
fat people.
It would be difficult to come up with a better
illustration of the distorting power of the war
on fat than Critser's explanation for why Americans
- specifically poor and working class Americans
- are getting fatter, when being fat has so clearly
become an enormous social disadvantage. According
to Critser, it's because America's elites have been
afraid to say or do anything to signal social disapproval
of fat. Cowed by, among others, "a very vocal minority
of super-obese female activists . . . the media,
the academy, public health workers, and the government
do almost nothing" to let Americans know that being
fat is undesirable. This hypothesis, of course,
is simply insane on its face.
In America today, it is impossible for anyone above
the age of about five -- recent news reports indicate
that fat anxiety is becoming common among six to
eight-year-olds -- to somehow miss the fact that
power and privilege in all of its forms are associated
with thinness, and, especially in the case of women,
unhealthy extremes of thinness. Go into any supermarket,
look at any magazine rack, glance at any television
screen, visit any movie theater, enter any office
building, peruse any glossy entrepreneurial profile
-- indeed, walk down a city street with your eyes
open, and you will get the message. What's amazing
is that, as we have seen, Critser gets the message
loud and clear when he recognizes that thinness
and economic privilege are closely connected in
our culture - and yet he instantly forgets this
fact when he attempts to explain why the have-nots
are getting so much fatter.
His thesis that "those with true cultural power,
those in the academy and the publishing industry
who have the ability to shape public opinion" have
been so cowed by feminists and the like that they
display a systematic "reluctance to face [the] facts"
about fat is, under the circumstances, nothing less
than bizarre. After all, Critser's essay itself
manages to remain almost fact-free in regard to
the obesity debate (indeed, he seems unaware that
there is a debate) precisely because it is a product
of a cultural atmosphere in which investigative
journalists writing for high-profile magazines have
been so thoroughly brainwashed about the supposed
health risks of fat that they don't even bother
to engage in the most cursory investigation of their
topic.
Critser concludes on an apocalyptic note:
What do the fat, darker, exploited poor, with their
unbridled primal appetites, have to offer us but
a chance for we diet-and-shape-conscious folk to
live vicariously? Call it boundary envy. Or, rather,
boundary- free envy . . . Meanwhile, in the City
of Fat Angels, we lounge through a slow-motion epidemic.
Mami buys another apple fritter. Papi slams his
second sugar and cream. Another young Carl supersizes
and double supersizes, then supersizes again. Wastelines
surge. Any minute now, the belt will run out of
holes.
If one were forced to come up with a six-word explanation
for the otherwise inexplicable ferocity of America's
war on fat, it would be this: thin people find fat
people disgusting. Critser's article is merely an
unusually clear example of the commonplace social
process by which a visceral reaction is transmuted
into an aesthetic judgment, which in turn becomes
a series of (imaginary) facts about the relationship
weight and health.
Fifty years ago, America was full of people that
someone like Critser could consider with open disgust:
blacks in particular, of course, but also other
ethnic minorities, the poor, women, Jews, homosexuals,
and so on. Yet over the last half-century, the classes
of candidates available for open pariah status have
gradually shrunk. This has become a problem on at
least two levels. As many a vulgar social psychologist
has (correctly) observed, societies need pariahs.
In most cultures, some class of people is more or
less required to play the role of those who make
everybody else feel better, for no better reason
that we can comfort ourselves with the knowledge
that we are not they. Furthermore, the feelings
of disgust elicited in others by traditional pariah-class
individuals do not simply disappear as soon as it
becomes no longer acceptable to express those feelings
openly.
As The Handbook of Obesity notes (Critser himself
cites this precise quote): "In heterogeneous and
affluent societies such as the United States, there
is a strong inverse correlation of social class
and obesity, particularly for females." In other
words, on average, poor people in America are fat,
and rich people are thin. A strong correlation also
exists between obesity and ethnic minority status
-- one that goes beyond the class correlation itself.
Particularly among African American women, changing
class status does not appear to strongly influence
obesity rates (in America, the demographic group
with the highest obesity rate is that comprised
of black women in their 50s). Critser notes this,
as well, and muses that some observers might claim
"black women find affirmation for being heavy from
black men, or believe themselves to be 'naturally'
heavy." He then adds prissily that "such assertions
do not change mortality statistics."
But Critser gives no evidence of having looked
at - or at any rate understood - any mortality statistics
whatsoever. If he had, he might have discovered
that, in regard to African American women in particular,
those studies that have looked into just this question
have been unable to determine that body mass has
any predictable effect on the health and longevity
of such women- even up to a BMI of 59 (A 5' 8" woman
with a BMI of 59 weighs almost 400 pounds).
Yet the disgust the thin upper classes feel for
the fat lower classes has nothing to do with mortality
statistics, and everything to do with feelings of
moral superiority engendered in thin people by the
sight of fat people. Precisely because Americans
are so repressed about class issues, this disgust
must be projected onto some other distinguishing
characteristic. In 1852, an upper class Englishman
could be quite unselfconscious about the fact that
the mere sight of the urban proletariat disgusted
him. In 2002, any upper class white American liberal
would be horrified to imagine that the sight of
say, a lower class Mexican-American woman going
into a Wal-Mart might somehow elicit feelings of
disgust in his otherwise properly sensitized soul.
But the sight of a fat woman going into Wal- Mart
. . . ah, that is something else again.
Seen in this light, the almost pornographic quality
of Critser's descriptions of fat people eating fast
food begins to make sense. For what Critser calls
"diet-and- shape-conscious folk," a Krispy Kreme
doughnut is not just a doughnut: it is a fetishistic,
almost magical object, with the power to contaminate
and transform those who allow themselves to be seduced
by its quasi- erotic charms. Each bite of that doughnut,
each moment of weakness that tempts us to supersize
those fries, or to surrender to the orgiastic frenzy
in which we imagine little Miguelito and the millions
like him greedily rip apart their enormous apple
fritters, pushes us closer toward death - and toward
something even worse.
Jared Diamond has noted that as societies become
more complex, they almost always become more sedentary,
bureaucratic and hierarchical. In America today,
we are generally quite sensitive to the reality
of the first two phenomena, while ignoring or denying
the presence of the third. But who can deny that,
in a nation where, as Critser himself puts it, "no
one, and I mean no one" in the pages of the glossy
magazines within which the elite project their image
of themselves is anything like fat, the hierarchy
of acceptable body types has become more rigid,
exclusive and well- defined than ever before?
The image on the cover of Harper's is not merely,
in one sense, pornographic: it is fraught with implications
of death. A woman to whom I showed the image to
illustrate the concept of "food porn" commented
that it was also, as she put it, an image of "death
by sundae." And indeed, when seen through the lens
of the anxieties of the upper classes in America
today - when seen through the eyes of we who are
afraid of being enveloped, smothered, crushed and
most of all contaminated by the rippling mountains
of fat cascading down the bodies of our social inferiors
- the message of Sundae I becomes quite clear: Eat
fat and die. Or worse yet: become one of them.
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The State of NAAFA
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 by
Frances M. White, NAAFA Secretary
Delivered at the 2003 NAAFA Convention, August
9, 2003.
Good evening. This is the 33rd annual NAAFA convention.
This is the time we give the State of NAAFA address.
Frankly, the state of NAAFA is not as good as it
has been in previous years.
Like many other non-profit groups, our donations
went down after 9-11. But ours have gone down over
70%. It has become obvious that in order to survive,
NAAFA will have to change the way it operates. We
have a wonderful web site, thanks to our chair,
Conrad Blickenstorfer. We need to expand our web
presence to continue our mission of providing education,
support and advocacy to people all sizes of large.
We have a wonderfully cohesive Board of Directors,
including Conrad, David and Kara Allen and me. We've
even received an application to join the Board from
someone full of energy and ideas, Steven Everett.
Steven was responsible for getting the items for
"The Not So Silent Auction" on which we made over
$10,000 this afternoon! And we have the greatest
Executive Administrator in Maryanne Bodolay, who
was responsible for putting together this wonderful
convention.
How will NAAFA change? While we are going to close
the office in Sacramento, many people will not notice
much of a change. We will keep our regular phone
number, our 800 number, our box number and our e-mail
address. NAAFA is in the rolodexes of media representatives
all over the U.S. and overseas. In fact, when the
press releases hit about the size- positive resort
in Cancun, everyone called NAAFA to find out if
the resort was legitimate and what NAAFA thought
about the resort.
But most important of all is that there will be
a convention next year. Maryanne Bodolay has received
nibbles from hotels in the New York area and elsewhere
on the East Coast. It may not be on the scale of
previous Conventions. But you must remember that
the first Convention NAAFA held was a two-hour deli
lunch in midtown Manhattan.
To do the work of NAAFA, we will have to rely on
a network of key volunteers to run specific tasks
and act as regional referral agents for the people
who contact NAAFA about different issues. Friday
afternoon, at the Think Tank meeting, many stepped
up to the plate to offer their services. These included
Bill Weitze, who wants to continue editing the Newsletter
that you'll be able to read on the web site; Lenë
Whitney-Putz, who plans to do a workshop at next
year's convention about how to target college students
with our message; and Mary Ray Worley, who has ideas
about starting a size- positive reading club and
getting NAAFA flyers out to community events like
Farmer's Markets and Jazz festivals. We also expect
to receive offers from independent contractors to
do specific projects relating to advocacy issues.
These are only a few of the talented people we
have in NAAFA. Don't be afraid to contact us with
some of your ideas. Continue to participate in the
Discussion Board on NAAFA's web site. Change, consistent
with NAAFA's mission statement, will come slowly
as in most non-profit organizations. But it is important
that you communicate your ideas.
We need to make more effective use of our scarce
resources. Change can be difficult but without change,
we whither rather than thrive. Rather than thinking
of the NAAFA, as you knew it, as ending, think of
NAAFA as evolving.
- - - - - - - - Update, December 2003
What is happening now? There have been some changes
since I made this speech at the Convention.
The office officially closed on November 30, 2003.
The homes and offices of those who helped with the
closure now look like libraries, or office supply
stores or storage warehouses when places needed
to be found for the supplies and archives of NAAFA.
Stephen Everett decided not to accept a position
on the Board. However, we've added two people to
the Board you may remember from the Convention -
Laura Wills, who worked on Registration, and Carole
Cullum, who spoke at the Farewell Breakfast and
with whom several of us were priviledged to work
on establishing the anti-size discrimination resolution
added to the Charter of the City and County of San
Francisco. And we hope to add more people to carry
our message of support and advocacy for people all
sizes of large farther afield.
My heart swells every time the mainstream world
picks up on a message NAAFA has promoted over the
years. Check out our web site for the FTC press
conference on 12-09-03 about the fraudulent ads
for diet products. I'm glad the FTC is paying attention,
but where was it 20 years ago? Next, we have to
work against the idea that there is a surgical solution
to the "obesity epidemic." With your help, we will
make the world a safer place for fat people.
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Walking Fat and Proud
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 Putting
Pizzazz into Your Walking Program
by Mary Ray Worley (pictured, right)
1. Be safe. Don't walk alone at night or in unsafe
or unfamiliar neighborhoods. Always carry a personal
I.D. with you and enough change for a phone call.
2. Wear shoes that fit you well and have plenty
of cushioning and support. Go to a shoe store where
the salespeople really know about athletic shoes
and will measure your feet each time you buy shoes
so that you always get a good fit. Try to buy your
shoes toward the end of the day, because your feet
may swell over the course of the day. Consider buying
two pairs of athletic shoes at a time. Alternating
days so that each pair has a chance to rest between
walks may increase the durability of the shoes.
Buy a brand (like New Balance) whose shoes come
in varying widths, not just "regular" and "wide,"
and make sure you get the right width for you. For
women this will sometimes mean wearing men's shoes.
If they fit well, so what if they're men's? Wear
those shoes only for your walking routine. Walking
shoes lose their cushioning and support in a big
hurry, so plan to buy new ones every four to six
months, even when you're buying two pair at a time.
3. Wear comfortable clothing. Don't be afraid to
wear shorts and a sleeveless tee-shirt (I get mine
at MakingItBigOnLine.com). You'll be amazed at how
wonderful it feels not to be overheated in long
pants and sleeves. Wear sunscreen and insect repellant
if you need them. Wear a hat with a brim and sunglasses
if it's sunny out.
4. Hydrate! Drink plenty of water before, during,
and after your walks. It will help you feel more
energetic and keep your system functioning well.
If anything, large people need more water than their
average-size counterparts, so shoot for drinking
more than 8 glasses (64 ounces) a day.
5. Don't be afraid to sweat. Many of us were taught
when we were growing up that "women do not sweat-they
perspire." Horse feathers! Real women are strong
and powerful-and you can bet that they sweat. Wear
a sweatband or bandana around your head so the sweat
doesn't get in your eyes, and carry an extra bandana
so you can wipe your face when you need to. Your
body manufactures muscles-and power-out of sweat
(well, indirectly anyway).
6. Walk proud. Walk with your head up and look
about 10 to 15 feet ahead of you, and throw your
shoulders back-just as if you were proud of your
body and, if you're a woman, proud of your breasts.
Habitually looking down when you're walking can
put strain on your upper body. Walking tall and
holding your head up will enhance your posture and
your self- confidence. Be proud of yourself and
the relationship you're forging with your body.
7. Start out small and slow, and then begin adding
to your walk. Shoot for 3 to 5 times per week to
begin with. Start out with whatever you can manage.
Starting with 5 minutes is just fine. FIT-Frequency,
Intensity, and Time. All three are important, but
frequency is the most important. Notice that speed
and distance are not part of the acronym. They are
a byproduct of the first three. Begin by focusing
on frequency and gradually increase your frequency,
the intensity of your walks (how hard you are working),
and the time you spend walking. Be very, very patient
with yourself.
8. If you are having trouble working in 30 minutes
of walking a day, walk for 10 minutes 3 times a
day. You'll get the same benefit.
9. Set realistic goals for yourself. Start out
doing what you can for two weeks. Don't push yourself
too hard at first. Even just 5 or 10 minutes a day
is fine. Then increase your time, say, in 5-minute
increments, for two or three of your walks during
the third week. When you feel ready, increase your
time again. You will undoubtedly have days when
you feel more energetic, and days when you have
more time than others. Shoot to walk for longer
periods of time on the days when you're feeling
more energetic and when you have more time. Keep
setting goals for yourself based on what you are
doing and how much you've been able to improve in
the past.
10. Alternate hard days and easy days. And eventually
you may want to walk longer on your easy days and
shorter on your hard days. For example, for two
days a week I walk as fast as I can for 30 minutes,
and for two days a week I walk at a less strenuous
pace for 1 hour.
11. Consider keeping records. Write down not only
what you've done but also how you feel about your
walking. Put dots on your calendar to keep track
of frequency. It's fun and encouraging to see the
progress you're making. You may also want to keep
track of how far you walk over the course of a year.
Written records provide objective feedback about
how you're doing. Always be very patient with yourself.
12. It is unlikely that you will always be able
to avoid discouragement, but try not to give in
to it. Remember that the learning curve is never
a straight line. You will have good days and bad,
and even good weeks and bad, and sometimes your
good months and bad. Consider obstacles and setbacks
part of the journey. Don't judge yourself harshly.
Pat yourself on the back for trying again and again.
The only failure is giving up. Be very, very patient
with yourself.
13. If you find that things aren't going very well
for a while, do something different to liven up
your routine. Walk in a different place, ask a supportive
friend or family member to walk with you, buy new
athletic shoes, enlist the help of a personal trainer
for a while to get you jumpstarted again, journal
about how walking makes you feel. This list more
or less assumes that walking is a great activity
for just about everyone, but maybe you'll have more
success if you add other activities to the mix,
like water aerobics or line dancing. Experiment
and find out what activities delight you. You may
find that walking enhances your other activities
and vice versa.
14. Write down the reasons why you are walking
and put them up somewhere so you can see them every
day.
15. Find a buddy (or buddies) to walk with one
or more times a week. Enlist social and emotional
support from your friends and family. Our culture
doesn't support large people in their efforts to
get moving, so work to find yourself the support
you need.
16. If you're adventurous, get yourself clothing
that is appropriate for walking in the rain or snow
(you can get rain pants from Junonia.com). If you're
not so adventurous, come up with alternative places
to walk when it's raining or snowing (like the mall
or a health club). Try not to let minor things like
weather interfere with your momentum.
17. During the summer, avoid walking during the
hottest part of the day. Instead, walk during the
early morning or late afternoon. Walking when it's
too hot and humid can sometimes result in heat exhaustion.
Especially when you're sweating, be sure to drink
plenty of water.
18. Walk on dirt paths if your feet get sore. Also
be sure to wear shoes that fit you well and that
have plenty of cushioning and support.
19. Turn off the headset. Use your walking time
to work on your relationship with your body. Tune
in to how the different parts of your body feel
while you're walking. Cultivate gratitude for all
the things your body does for you. Repeat body-positive
affirmations as you walk. "I'm strong, I'm brave,
I'm beautiful, I'm powerful!" "I have a great luscious
voluptuous body!"
20. Or turn on the headset, if you find that listening
to music makes your walk more enjoyable. Just don't
tune out your body. Pay attention to how everything
feels. Reinforce your mind-body connections.
21. Get some variety in your scenery: Become familiar
with all the parks and trails in your area. Pick
some that are especially good for hard days and
some that are better for easy days.
22. Consider getting a heart rate monitor to track
your cardiovascular fitness. Polar heart rate monitors
(www.polarheartratemonitors.com) can be ordered
with a large-size elastic band.
23. Consider getting walking poles (www.exerstrider.com)
to get your upper-body muscles involved in your
walking, to take pressure off of your lower body
(especially your knees), to help improve your posture.
24. Consider getting a pedometer so you always
know how far you've walked. Attach the pedometer
to your shoes so you can track how much you walk
every day. Then you can gradually increase the number
of steps you take every day.
25. If you're keeping track of how many miles you
walk, keep a running tally so that at the end of
a year you know how many miles you walked that year.
It will give you a great sense of accomplishment.
26. Warm up for about 5 minutes at the beginning
of your walk, cool down for about 5 minutes at the
end, and then stretch for 5 to 15 minutes. Stretching
is a special time to listen to and pay attention
to your body. It's a lot like giving yourself a
massage, and baby, don't you deserve it! Luxuriate
in your stretching, as if you were a cat. Stretching
helps you to avoid injury and to avoid tightness
in muscles that may be waking up after long disuse.
Never stretch muscles that aren't warmed up. Stretch
your calves to avoid plantar fasciitis. If you've
ever had it, you know it's worth avoiding!
27. Make walking fun! If it's a chore, if it's
torture, you won't do it. If it's fun, you're much
more likely to do it regularly.
28. Don't avoid hills! When you first start taking
on hills, pick relatively small ones and don't be
afraid to go very slowly. Be very patient with yourself.
Walking uphill has tremendous payoffs in cardiovascular
fitness. It also helps to stretch out your calves,
ankles, and feet and therefore helps you avoid plantar
fasciitis. And besides, the view from the top will
be worth it!
29. Talk with people about your walking program.
Don't be afraid to brag. Talking reinforces the
changes you're making in your life and generates
social support. If people assume you're walking
to lose weight, set them straight right away. You're
doing it because it's fun, because it feels good,
because it's empowering and energizing, because
it helps you feel good about yourself.
30. Don't just walk, be a walker (just like people
who run are runners). It's not just what you do,
it's who you are. If you've never thought of yourself
as an athlete before, change your mind about who
you are. Who says you can't be an athlete?
31. Read inspiring books: Great Shape: The First
Fitness Guide for Large Women, by Pat Lyons and
Debby Burgard; Real Fitness for Real Women by Rochelle
Rice; The Complete Guide to Walking by Mark Fenton;
The Spirited Walker by Carolyn Scott Kortge
32. Be very, very patient with yourself. Progress
may be slow in coming, but it will come if you are
dedicated and persistent. Enjoy the journey!
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Protesting the "Walk from Obesity"
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 As
we've seen in this issue, walking is a wonderful exercise,
with great benefits to health and well being. What's
not so wonderful is when the weight loss industry
co-opts this activity to sell weight loss surgery.
Sponsored by the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons,
the "Walk from Obesity" event was held on September
20 in 38 cities throughout the United States. Bariatric
surgeons are those who perform weight loss surgery,
a set of elective procedures that kills anywhere from
1 to 5% of patients, counting only deaths immediately
during and after the operation.
In several cities, NAAFA members protested the
Walks to show that there's a better way: self- acceptance
and a healthy lifestyle at any size. Here's what
they did in three cities.
San Francisco, Crissy Field
by Marilyn Wann
It was a ton of fat fun in a big green field. John
the Ranger welcomed us to the First Amendment zone
of the park. Lisa Tealer led people in fun aerobics.
The Bod Squad did cheers in full costume and full
voice. ("Staples are for paper, not for people!
Rah! Rah!") Sally Pugh's yoga class looked totally
blissful. (She's starting an SF claass soon!) Marina
Wolf and the Phat Fly Girls busted some moves. And
all sorts of flabulous people of all sizes and ages
(including 6-month-old Gwinna) showed up for beachball
bouncing and ribbon twirling and attempts at kite
flying. (Note to self: Hot days mean no wind.)
I didn't do an exact count, but we could easily
have outnumbered the "Walk from Obesity" participants.
We handed out information to a bunch of people.
Plus, several people had extended conversations
with "Walk from Obesity" participants. All in all,
it was a gorgeous day and a great event!
San Diego
by Cathy Miller
About a dozen NAAFA members and allies held a rally
at the "Walk From Obesity" in San Diego. We had
a huge banner, about 20 feet long, that proclaimed
in huge letters: "Bypass the bypass, say NO to WLS."
Many of us carried signs, such as "Revise Your Mind,
NOT Your Body", "Safe Surgery? FAT CHANCE!", etc.
There was one 13 year old girl with us who was ready
to take on the entire WLS community all by herself!
She was wonderful, I wish we could clone her!When
us older folks' voices wore out, she was out there
doing cheers all by herself.
Sandie Sabo made up a terrific 12 page packet of
information, great stuff, we handed out at least
20. It amazed us how many average sized folks (not
connected with the walk, just visiting the park)
came up to us, congratulated us for being there,
lent their vigorous support against WLS, and took
our informational packet. We may not have been huge
in numbers, but were overflowing with spirit and
conviction.
New York City, Riverside Park
by Sandy Schaffer
Roughly 20 happy fat folk from The National Organization
for Lesbians of Size (NOLOSE) and NAAFA rallied
in Riverside Park to offer an alternative to the
Walk from Obesity and WLS - we showed the walkers
(and curious bystanders) how to love your body instead!
Becca Widom from NOLOSE organized a Yay Station
with a scale that read "glorious", "beautiful",
"delightful" instead of displaying a weight, and
we invited everyone who walked by to get "yay-ed".
It was amazing how many people didn't want to step
on the scale even without a number; it was even
more gratifying to see the smiles on peoples faces
when they got a compliment instead of a judgment.
Some of us passed out flyers with Scary Surgery
Stats, while others held signs that read "I love
my fat body!" or performed cheers of "2, 4, 6, 8,
we do not regurgitate!" While some of the walkers
seemed put off by our presence, we were never anything
less than completely respectful of the walkers themselves
and engaged them in dialogue. Many of the park visitors
who happened to come by offered unexpected - and
wonderful! - support and encouragement for our message
of loving our bodies healthy and whole. One man
riding his bicycle stopped in front of the Yay Station,
looked at us for a moment and turned to say, "just
remember - thin may be in, but fat is where its
at!"
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A Positive Body Image for Fat Children
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 by
Joanne P. Ikeda, MA, RD
Co-Director; Center for Weight and Health; University
of California, Berkeley
At our Center for Weight and Health, we have adopted
a philosophical basis for our programs. By developing
tenets for this philosophical basis, we are attempting
to do much good and no harm in terms of the broad
definition of health as physical, social and psychological
well-being. I would like to share these tenets with
you and explain why we think they are important.
"We celebrate differences in body size and shape
among children and adults."
This tenet recognizes that human beings come in
a variety of sizes and shapes, and acknowledges
the uniqueness of each human body. It helps children
and adolescents reject the pressures they feel to
be thin and have the "perfect body." It is important
for adults to point out that there is no such thing
as a "perfect body." Teen magazines often promote
thin, anorexic bodies as "perfect bodies" for girls
and women, while boys and men are supposed to have
broad shoulders and "6-pack abs." These images promote
body dissatisfaction in the vast majority of youngsters
whose bodies don't look like the air brushed pictures.
Overweight kids are especially at risk for body
dissatisfaction because their bodies deviate so
greatly from these "perfect bodies." Adults need
to point out that many of the bodies featured in
both adult and teen fashion and body builder magazines
are not real bodies. They are often composites of
different bodies put together with the use of a
computer!
"We promote body satisfaction, high self- esteem,
and a positive body image for children and adults."
This tenet focuses on psychological well-being,
an important aspect of health. Children worry about
their bodies. They worry that their bodies might
not turn out "okay" and there might be something
wrong with their bodies. This concern is amplified
when youngsters are going through puberty and their
bodies are changing rapidly. Kids need to know that
these changes are natural, healthy, and are happening
as a result of normal growth and development. They
need to be assured that their bodies are going to
turn out just fine.
By the end of adolescence, teenagers should feel
positive about their bodies and believe that they
have "good" bodies. We also want teenagers to enter
young adulthood with high self-esteem and a positive
body image. We know that low self-esteem is related
to an entire host of problems from substance abuse
to school drop out rates and that body dissatisfaction
is the most consistent predictor of eating disorders.
Unfortunately, recent research has found that many
children are not happy with their bodies. A study
conducted at Stanford looked at body image and body
satisfaction among third grade children. The children
they studied attended elementary school in Northern
California. The sample was multi-racial representing
California's diverse population. The results were
quite disconcerting:
35% of all girls wanted to lose weight
26% of all boys wanted to lose weight
"We view all bodies as good bodies. There is
no such thing as a bad body."
Sadly, many overweight children think of their
bodies in negative terms and may even describe
their bodies as "bad bodies." They believe that
there is something inherently wrong with their
bodies that can't be fixed. Promising a large
child that if s/he changes eating and activity
patterns, then s/he will achieve the "ideal" or
"perfect" body is a denial of the possibility
that this child is meant to be large and may end
up being a large adult. It also reinforces the
notion that having a big body is a bad thing.
As stated in our first tenet, human beings come
in a wide range of sizes - there will always be
those who fall at the extremes of the size spectrum.
Discriminating against these individuals is inherently
unfair since no one chooses their body size.
Overweight children need to be assured that their
bodies are "good" bodies. They need to be told
that sometimes bad things happen to our bodies.
We may become ill; we may have an accident, or
we may fail to take care of our bodies. Luckily
our bodies are very resilient and can usually
be healed.
"We respect the bodies of others even though
they might be different from our own. We encourage
children to demonstrate respect for the bodies
of others."
A teacher once asked me, "If I demonstrate respect
for a fat child, then I am saying it is okay for
this child to be fat. Shouldn't I let overweight
parents and their children know that I don't think
it is okay for them to be fat?" Somehow this teacher
had gotten the notion that she was motivating
or helping parents and children change their eating
and exercising behaviors by letting them know
that she didn't approve of their body size or
shape. It was obvious to me that this teacher
had never realized that treating children or adults
disrespectfully does not empower them to adopt
healthier lifestyles. In fact, it does just the
opposite. It lowers their self-esteem so the individual
feels helpless and hopeless about their potential
to change.
Parents of overweight children need to speak
up when a child is discriminated against based
on body size. Children should not be teased, harassed
or treated like social outcasts because they are
fat. If this happens at school, it is up to the
school administration and the teachers to put
a stop to it. If it happens at home, then parents
need to state that it is disrespectful behavior
and will not be tolerated. If it happens in a
social setting, the offender needs to be taken
aside and warned that you and your child will
leave unless this behavior stops immediately.
"We believe that approaches to decreasing pediatric
overweight must be based on sound scientific research."
I have had an academic appointment at the University
of California, Berkeley, for over 33 years. In
that time I have witnessed tremendous changes
in nutrition recommendations. For many years we
believed that fat adults could not be healthy
unless they lost weight. Newer research focusing
on physical fitness has challenged that notion.
There are a number of studies that show that fat
people who are physically fit have reduced their
chronic disease risk by staying physically active.
Older studies looking at chronic disease risk
in obese populations, rarely examined how physical
fitness mitigated those risks. Newer studies have
shown that fitness is a critical factor in the
health of both fat and thin people. Although there
are few studies with overweight children, we know
that improving their fitness improves their health
and reduces the health risks associated with their
being overweight.
"We believe that the best way to decrease overweight
is to create environments that promote healthy
lifestyles."
Think about the current environment - how has
it changed since you were a child? Did you walk
to school or did someone drive you? Were you allowed
to play outside your home without being watched
over by an adult? Did you have a VCR, VD player,
or computer at home? How much time did you spend
watching TV? Playing handheld computer games?
Searching the world wide web? How often did your
family eat at fast food restaurants? How many
fast food restaurants were within short driving
distance of your house? Did you have daily physical
education in school? Was it fun or was if awful?
Was it taught by a teacher whose specialty was
physical education? Were there vending machines
in your school so you could buy soda, candy, and
chips anytime you felt hungry?
It is important to recognize that the environment
we live in influences our eating and activity
patterns. Over the past 20 to 30 years, there
have been tremendous changes in this country,
and many of them are fostering the increasing
prevalence of pediatric overweight. If we wish
to reverse this trend, we are going to have to
make changes in the environment that foster healthy
lifestyles.
It is a myth that it is only fat kids who have
unhealthy lifestyles, the truth of the matter
is that the vast majority of children today -
fat, thin, and in- between - have unhealthy lifestyles.
The difference is that the fat kids are more genetically
vulnerable to weight gain in the current environment.
"We recognize each child as a unique individual,
and each family as a unique group of individuals."
I have made a number of generalizations about
large children and their families. Needless to
say, all of these things are not true about every
family or every family member. It is important
not to stereotype large children or their parents.
At the same time, it is important to believe that...
"...the vast majority of parents love their
children and are committed to fostering their
health and welfare."
The parents of fat children are often held responsible
for the way their child's body has turned out.
This is very unfair. No one can mold or alter
the size and shape of another human being. What
parents are responsible for is modeling and promoting
healthy lifestyles in their children. Making parents
feel guilty about the fact that their child is
fat is not empowering. Empowerment is having friends
and relatives who believe that you do love your
child and are committed to fostering good health
habits in that child.
"We know that our children are our future; we
are strongly committed to caring for them and
creating a world in which they can thrive."
We need to change the world. In an ideal world
there would be:
parks in every neighborhood that are safe places
for children to play
quality physical education provided daily in schools
taught by a teacher who has expertise helping children
enjoy movement
nutrition education at every grade level in schools
tasty, appetizing, and nutritious breakfasts and
lunches available to all students in every school
at no cost to parents.
abolition of soft drink contracts and vending
machines loaded with junk food in schools.
baskets of fruit in classrooms for snacking
after-school programs that improve academic achievement
and offer opportunities for active play
programs for new parents on how to establish good
food habits in children right from the start
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