What if Elvis Returned in the 21st Century?

This is a nice presentation, very visually striking.

However, note that their 77 year old Elvis looks like a 40 year old with prematurely gray hair.

Elvis was not a healthy man at the time of his death. I am not referring to his size, which is what people automatically focus on. There are plenty of large people who are perfectly healthy. He was on a myriad of medications, which I believe ultimately contributed to his untimely demise. They probably also contributed to his size.

Obesity is a multi-factoral issue, and we need to stop focusing on "calories in calories out" as the be all and end all. A person's size is primarily determined by genetics. Type and amount of food eaten do contribute to a degree, but not as much as might be imagined. Factors such as medications, environmental toxins, and food additives must also be considered.

In any case, I enjoyed this little movie, but if Elvis were to have made it to 77, even if he had been able to turn his health around, he would not look this youthful.

~DJ Sally~

Brave Sabrina

Please go here and show Sabrina your support. The comments on this video are so disgusting and cruel! This young woman is brave and deserves our support.

Not Young, Thin, or Pretty, but Beautiful Anyway

The Real Cie shared this picture and text on our Encouragement in a Discouraging World page. 

When I was a child, the animals I loved most were butterflies and cats. When I saw this picture I thought "that's me, the Butterfly Queen!" Then with sadness I realized, this couldn't be me. I don't look like that picture. I'm not pretty, thin, or young. But what if the Butterfly Queen wasn't pretty, thin, or young? What if she was middle-aged, fat, and plain? Does this detract from the beauty in her soul? This world focuses too much on external beauty. Sometimes people miss knowing lovely people who aren't particularly pretty outside but whose souls are amazing. ~Cie~

I'm not going to clutter up Cie's message by overanalyzing it. She's right.

Spectra

Cross-posted to:

Ghost Seeker Readings
KHEL 666

Undead in the Netherworld

Theme Thursday: Wonder

If you were wondering what Spectra wonders...
Spectra wonders a lot of things. The older Spectra gets, the less she knows.
But here is something that is on Spectra's mind a lot of the time.

Spectra wonders why there is so much hatred for people of larger body types.
You should be dancing, no matter what your body type. Without "losing weight" as a reason. Just dance to be dancing.
If your legs don't work, make your wheels dance!
If you're bed-bound, let your mind dance.

No one body type is better than any other.
Some body types allow people to do more things.
But there is zero significant difference in the abilities of healthy thin people and healthy fat people.

Spectra hated her body for years because it's a fat body. She punished it, trying to make it lose weight. The weight would go away for a while, then it would return, plus several pounds more.
Spectra stopped exercising because it wasn't making her lose weight.
It became apparent that attempting to enforce weight loss wasn't working.
Unfortunately, it took 35 years to realize this.

Now, I move. Now I eat healthier food but don't restrict calories.
I don't love my body, but at least now I'm not always berating it.

Regarding the above video:
Wasn't John Travolta great in Saturday Night Fever?
He was lithe and lean, and he could dance.
Now John is heavier.
Why should this make him the butt of jokes?
He's still a great actor.
And I bet he can still dance!

I wonder if we could all be a little nicer to each other, regardless of race, nationality, gender, religion, sexual preference, or size.
It really isn't as hard as we make it.

Spectra

Cross-posted to:
Ghostseeker Readings Blog
KHEL 666
Undead in the Netherworld

Subway Errs In Its Support of The Biggest Loser

How tight do your blinders have to be on if you can't see what a horrible program "The Biggest Loser" is, and that it is not teaching healthy habits in any way, shape, or form. I went to grab lunch at Subway, and found that they too have jumped on The Biggest Loser's bandwagon of bull.

This is what I said to Subway on their Facebook page.

Your sandwiches are great for a quick lunch, but I'm not keen on your support of "The Biggest Loser." This vile program purports to encourage "health," but the tactics utilized are anything but healthy. This program is a weight loss competition, period. They utilize tactics such as dehydration, extreme calorie limitation, and over-exercising to the point of injury and vomiting. None of this equates with healthy behavior. Equating weight loss and health is erroneous in the first place. Adapting healthy habits for better overall well being REGARDLESS OF WEIGHT LOSS is much more likely to result in long term adherence to said healthy habits. Please support Health at Every Size if you really want to promote health.

They'll likely delete my post, but perhaps a few people will see it and think about it before they do.

Read Atchka's recaps of The Biggest Loser on Fierce, Freethinking Fatties. It is really educational.

Read Lily's statement to Progresso Soup for their support of The Biggest Loser.

Lily and I are preaching from the same book when it comes to Health at Every Size. Health at every size is about HEALTH, not about hating yourself for not being a Size 0.

Songs to Edit (and Dream) by

Here are some songs that I'm listening to while giving Rose's manuscript a going-over. You may find that they also go nicely with some of the forthcoming posts on the Undead in the Netherworld blog. Yeah, I cheated and read ahead! That's a dirty little admin privilege. ;-)

You will find that the admins of the KHEL 666 and Undead in the Netherworld blogs are an eclectic lot. We're like Colorado weather. If you don't like one post, just wait a few minutes, and one you like will surely come along!

I have Rose, Cie, and Lily's permission to speak about this issue, so I am not breaking a confidence. I am also keeping things fairly superficial while expressing my feelings on the matter.

Rose is a fine writer. Lily is also a fine writer. Neither of them are very conventional in their approach.

Lily stopped writing because of personal attacks after she released her book, Eternal Death, Lost Beneath the Surface.

Rose revised the manuscript, but she found the process of writing a book for publication absolutely onerous. She also came under attack by some of the same individuals. She has said that she will not write another book.

I think it is a very sad and discouraging thing that this world often causes people to give up large parts of what makes them who they are. People believe that if they don't conform to a certain standard of beauty--both physically and personality-wise--that they should hide away. They come to believe this because if they do not conform to such standards, they tend to undergo bullying.

Counter to what many think, bullying does not end with school. It continues every day in magazines which tell girls and women that if they aren't less than a size 6, they are fat and ugly. To a lesser degree, young men get the idea that if they don't have washboard abs, no one will ever want them. As a counselor, I often work with people dealing with the backlash from these unhealthy messages. Eating disorders are a very common problem.

Fat and ugly are not the same thing, by the way. Yes, there are larger people who are attractive. I've never thought of myself as particularly attractive, but my fiance, a fellow who stands five foot nine and weighs 145 pounds, finds my six foot two, 325 pound red-haired self attractive, love handles and all. Who am I to argue with him?

On the personality end, people are told that if they don't conform to the 2.5 kids, white picket fence, heterosexual family unit where Mom and Dad work nine to five at an office, there is something wrong with them. And woe betide anyone who may be living with a mental illness. Anyone with a mental illness is made to feel so fatally flawed as to believe that they are not allowed to find happiness.

Sensitive people in this society are targeted for bullying. This is what happened to both Rose and Lily, both of whom are highly sensitive women with a history of mental illness. When they tried to break out and express themselves, they were shot down.

Cie Cheesemeister is much the same. She edits the posts that others create and she creates some of the graphics. Once a very prolific blogger, she rarely interacts any more.

Admissibly, I'm only a sometime participant in this little venture, but I hope that in some small way my support will help my more talented friends realize that their voices are worth sharing.

Just had to get that off my chest.

Never take away a person's hope. It may be all they have to live for.

Peace,

Adam

 

The Biggest Loser and Progresso Soup: An Unhealthy But Not Surprising Combination

I had this to say to Progresso Soups on their Facebook page when they were bragging about their collaboration with The Biggest Loser, a hate-filled show which is in no way about health. We'll see how long it stays up there and how much hate I get launched at me for telling it like it is.

The Biggest Loser is in no way about health. It is about winning a weight loss competition, pure and simple. Any health care professional worth their salt would tell you that techniques such as dehydration and forcing people to exercise while injured or until they vomit are in no way conducive to good health. Eating only 1000-1200 calories a day is a starvation diet, and is also in no way conducive to good health. People need to stop swallowing the pill forced down their throats by the multi-billion dollar diet industry which equates health and thinness. Those who really want to get and or stay healthy would be wise to check out the Health at Every Size approach. I am completely opposed to the extremely abusive and hateful tactics utilized by The Biggest Loser. If anyone thinks they give a flying crap about the contestants, you've been had. By the way, Progresso, when are you going to stop using monosodium glutamate in your products? Many people are extremely sensitive to this very unhealthy substance.

If only Fat People get Fat People Diseases, Why Did my Skinny MIL Die From a Stroke?

This image was found at this wonderful blog

I didn't really feel like it was appropriate to put this in the previous post, but my mother in law died a few months after suffering a stroke. You know how strokes are supposed to be things that happen to fat people? She was a tiny, skinny woman. She stood barely five feet tall and only weighed about 92 pounds. So by the logic of the anti-fat brigade, should she have not lived forever?

I'm five foot six and weigh closer to 292 pounds. I'm a nurse, so I know the importance of keeping an eye on certain basic readings. I'm doing fine. My doctor says I'm doing fine. He's a wise man. He says the only time weight is a concern to him is if there are sudden marked increases, which generally indicate fluid gain. Fluid gain comes on with issues such as kidney dysfunction. It's sad, but my doc is in the minority.

My cousin has lost about 30 pounds working out in the therapy pool at the facility where she works. Having worked in health care for many years, both of our bodies are pretty beat up. I'm going to ask the rehab center affiliated with our hospital if there's any chance I could work out in their pool after hours. If not, I think I'll take my cousin up on her suggestion that I could use the pool at the facility where she works. They allow the public to use it for a fee.

Here's something to note. My cousin was not TRYING to lose weight. I will not be TRYING to lose weight. The thing that sold me was not the weight loss, it's the increased flexibility and range of motion that she's been going on about. Flexibility is so important and so underrated. It's always the last quality addressed in exercise, but is as important as strength or stamina.

Certainly it's more important than "being skinny." As a nurse, I end up seeing people who become "skinny" for life and health threatening reasons all the time. Sudden weight fluctuations in either direction are always red flags. Weight measurement should be used for catching problems like endocrine dysfunction of other health concerns. It should not be used as a means of berating people.

Seeing as blaming and shaming always work so well, you'd think that other health care professionals would get a clue, right? So many times I find myself facepalming at the idiot remarks made by my own kind. They make them while I'm sitting right there, not intending to hurt me, but simply out of ignorance and brainwashing.

Maybe you can never be too rich, but you can sure be obsessed with being too thin! The poison of our thin-centric society is more than obvious. Eating disorders in young people, particularly young women, are more rampant than ever. Now that is a serious problem, but people are putting on their blinders. As long as these girls are skinny, they're healthy. Right?

It's time that we start berating the douchebags who think that insulting fat people is okay. Those who use mean humor are not funny. Let's quit stroking their limp egos.

My body happens to look a lot like the body of the larger woman. My husband, who stands about six foot two (took after his father in the height department) and weighs around 175 pounds, has no qualms about touching my body. He is not a "chubby chaser." The woman he was with before me was a model. She had a body that women in this society (myself included) envy.

We ended up together after he broke up with her. We worked together and had been friends for nearly three years. He asked me if I'd be his date to a fund raiser that he was involved with and I said "sure." That evening, we both realized how much we really enjoyed being together and decided to try another date, this time to the Museum of Natural History, which is something we both love. 

We were walking through the minerals exhibition and he took my hand. I hoped that he wouldn't let go. We bought tickets for a show at the planetarium, and partway through, he asked if he could kiss me. He didn't stick his tongue down my throat or try to grope me. But his lips stayed on mine for what was a good long time, and yet not nearly long enough.

When he dropped me off at home, he didn't try to get in my pants, but we held onto each other for quite a while. He asked me why we hadn't done this before.

"Because you were with someone and we work together," I said.

"Ja, there's that," was his answer. "But I don't think this shall be a problem. You want to do this again, I'd like that. You don't want to do it again like this, we are friends still."

I wanted to do it again.

Of course I worried that he was "settling" for the fat broad because he couldn't make things work with the gorgeous model, who happened to be trying to change him into something that was more cosmopolitan, more visually appealing in her eyes. I wondered how he could "downgrade" from her to me.

When I eventually confessed my fears to him, he was genuinely surprised. He said he never saw me as a downgrade. He said that we enjoyed each other's company and he never felt like I was trying to change him into something he wasn't. That was what was important to him. Not the number that came up when I stepped on a scale.

Nils and I had our ten year wedding anniversary this year. Because of his mother's health issues, we really didn't have much of a celebration. We decided to postpone our anniversary celebration proper to the anniversary of when we first started dating, back on December 15, 1999. Maybe we'll spend Christmas in the mountains, making out to Riding the Storm Out. 

Some might think the thought of a skinny, knobby-kneed, tow-headed fortyish Norwegian guy with a slightly receding hairline making out with a fat, fiftyish American brunette who looks far more like Rosie O'Donnell than Mila Kunis or whoever is the Hollywood flavor of the month these days, is "disgusting." Neither of us look like supermodel manikins. But I happen to think that two people in love is beautiful, no matter what they look like.

I get more turned on seeing my husband naked than I do seeing any Hollywood actor or G.Q. model, and his actions would indicate that he's far from disgusted with my body. He once said "If you could see yourself through my eyes, you would want to fuck yourself."

Perhaps I should do that--and let him watch, of course.

Yeah, it's disgusting, I know. At least to all the namby-pamby little wimps who want a blow-up doll who won't do annoying things like talk or demand to be treated like a human being. A fat woman having sex, and a partner who enjoys having sex with her. Ewwww....gross!

Know what? I don't care what they think. My amazing husband is on call at the hospital today, so I better get on this, just in case one of our colleagues happens to call in with Beer Fever, as is prone to happening on weekends. 

Wishing you love and peace, no matter what your size.

Aurora

Japanese Fashion Show

The styles here are mostly kimonos, and even those that aren't tend to be things that actual human beings might wear. However, I've always found fashion shows in general to be exceedingly dull. A bunch of stiffs sit around watching a group of stick-skinny androids parading across a stage with little variance in their facial expression. Oh, look! It's the new synthetics for this year!Am I talking about the people, or the fabrics? Yes.

Heart-Breaking

On one hand, I love this video.

On the other hand, it makes me sad.

They keep Ann Wilson in the background instead of showing her in action because she's a big girl. They put Nancy up front because she has a more slender physique.

They're both beautiful.

Big girls, we're beautiful too. Don't let the damn diet industry keep you in the background. Get out there and strut your stuff!

I know the pain, because I've fought with it too.

But I ended up married to a great guy, who happens to be thin, not that it matters. He loves me not for my size or in spite of my size. He just loves ME!

Love yourself, and maybe the right guy (or girl) will come along and fall in love with the beautiful person that is you.

And even if that doesn't happen, love yourself anyway!

It's the Size of her Voice that Matters

It disgusts me that people ripped on Ann Wilson about her weight to the point where she went and got her stomach cinched off to a small pouch (lap band surgery) because of the ignorant comments from shallow morons. 

Who the fuck cares what Ann (or anyone else) weighs? The current size bias is a product of the multi BILLION dollar diet industry, which makes its money off encouraging people to hate themselves. 

If diets worked, there wouldn't be so fucking many of them.

Ann is amazing. When I listen to Heart, I am hearing Ann's voice. I am not thinking about "wow, I wonder what number that fat bitch is tipping the scales at." You know why I'm not? Because that would make me a putz.

Here's Dreamboat Annie for you bitches. Because I'm cool like that.

Alternative Disney Princesses

This was made and shared by Nona Bau.

I think Disney should also make a spirited fat princess. Because it took me half my life to learn that fat does not mean ugly. I was an active little chubby girl, but all anyone ever noticed was the chubby part. I come from a chubby family. My mom didn't let us have candy except on Halloween, Christmas, and Easter. Our meals were meat, potatoes, and vegetables as well as a salad. The only snacks we were allowed were fruit or cheese and crackers. If we had dessert, it was something like apple cobbler. We hardly ever had fast food. Everything was made from scratch, and was good, healthy, basic food.

My parents really didn't give me and my siblings a hassle about being chubby. It was the kids at school. If I was seen eating anything--even a carrot--I could be sure that someone would moo or oink at me. I don't think it should come as any surprise that I became bulimic in my teens.

Fat does not mean lazy and it doesn't mean ugly. People come in different shapes and sizes. It's time we as a society stopped encouraging a good half of the population to hate themselves.

I'm Fat--So What?

So, there's an advertisement in the Facebook sidebar screaming "Tired of being FAT???" With Fat in capital letters, because it's so...LARGE!

Actually, I don't care that much about being fat. I'm tired of having to have dialysis because of my kidney problems. If I was fat and otherwise healthy, who really gives a rip?

Aren't there real problems in the world for us to worry about, rather than all trying to achieve some impossible idea.

Don't worry--be happy with your fat self!

Thanks for the Warning

Thanks for the warning, Sista! Now, just let me get upwind!

Anyone who has a problem with this person because of their body type--

CHECK YOUR DAMN PREJUDICES!

Examine the Food Industry, Stop the Hate

Read this article.

…..”The Skinny on Obesity”. In this episode, Dr. Robert Lustig illustrates the overabundance of sugar in today's processed convenience foods and explains how our bodies metabolize these sugars in the same way as alcohol or other toxins, causing damage to the liver and other organs.

I have thought the same thing myself. But over and beyond the reasons why people are heavier, I feel it is most important to stop the hatred and shaming of heavy people. Shame never did anything to cure any condition. If it did, there would be no heavy people, no smokers, no alcoholics, no drug users, and no-one would be mentally ill, because they would have been shamed into stopping their stinkin' thinkin'. Yes, it is important to examine the reasons why people are less healthy. Note that size does not necessarily correlate with health. There are large people who are healthy and thin people who are not.

Wildfires and Bullshit

1. 

This is going on close to home for me. It is the Waldo Canyon fire near Colorado Springs. I'm not close enough where I feel in danger of losing my home. There are currently five wildfires being fought here in Colorado, and I smelled the smoke last night. Our state is bone dry.

On one line of the MSNBC News, you get a link to this. This is important. It impacts people's lives.

On the second line you get a link to an article about Paula Deen's weight loss. And why is the reaction to that anything other than WHO GIVES A SHIT?

With all the dangerous fuckery that goes on in the world, you'd think we wouldn't have time to worry about the size of another person's ass. Yet people as a whole, at least in America, constantly think that it is our business to judge another person, not based on their actions but based on the size of their body.

Come the fuck on.

People are losing their homes to wildfires. In other parts of the world, people are losing their lives because of famine and war. In certain areas, people of certain ethnicities or women are not allowed to have education or opportunities.

I do not give a flying fuck about the size of Paula Deen's or anyone else's ass, and neither should you.

Amber Rose

The Daily Mail asks: Did girls dress like THIS at your high school?

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2163003/Amber-Rose-lets-hang-sexes-sporty-schoolgirl-look.html#ixzz1ycmmNY73

If anyone had dressed like that at my high school, they would have been sent home.

Of course she is obviously not a real high school student.  

I don't find her hair style flattering, but to each their own.

It's appalling how many people are calling a woman of average size (except for her breasts, which are rather well above average) "fat." And then we wonder why so many women have eating disorders.

Even if someone actually IS fat, what gives anyone the right to be nasty to them? There are all kinds of bodies in the world. We need to be kinder to each other.

How to Deal With a Douchebag Boyfriend

Every Size is a Good Size

People come in all sizes, and we need to be good to each other rather than making nasty comments about one another based on arbitrary attributes such as size. Life is too short for hate. This is a beautiful image depicting someone who looks like a fun person! --Spectra

Whatever You Have To Do To Survive

I get so pissed at people who get on their high horse and say "dissociative identity disorder doesn't exist, these people are just attention seekers."

These types also say things like "bipolar disorder is the diagnosis du jour" and "Asperger's syndrome is a copout for being antisocial."

They probably also believe that all fat people are lazy slobs who sit around shoveling bucket after bucket of KFC into their cavernous maws while watching reality TV.

Everybody is just trying to get by. Nasty, judgmental people do not make the hard life that most of lead any easier.