Living the Lifestyle Friday 20 September

Jimb376mfp

We meet here to explore, share, celebrate and (sometimes) agonize over how we do (or don't) incorporate weight loss guidelines into our daily lives. "It's a lifestyle, not a diet" is easily and often said, but sometimes not so simply put into practice.

This is a thread for everyone. If you're new to GoaD, or to weight loss, your questions and comments are always welcome. If you're maintaining, or a long-term loser, your thoughts on the topic may be just what someone else needs to hear. If you're reading this, join in the discussion!

Each weekday, a new topic is offered up for discussion. Thread starters for September are below:

Monday - imastar2 (Derrick)
Tuesday - 88olds (George)
Wednesday - gavinflynn1 (Gavin)
Thursday - misterhub (Greg)
Friday - Jimb376mfp (Jim)

Today's Topic: Fat Shaming as Discussed on TV

Recently there were two TV personalities (Bill Maher James Cordon) who said their piece on the subject.

Do you have experience or opinions on Fat Shaming?

Or opinion about regular size people commenting on GoaDs Living the Lifestyle.

Jimb376mfp

As most of my life from 30-65 I was obese or overweight. No one Fat Shamed me directly. My adult sons tried to help me with diet/exercise advice but I never took it.

At work I was a civilian employee employed by USAF. Many military were my supervisor, they never directly addressed my weight but a couple Colonels made a few snide remarks.

Now that I am below Obese BMI I notice that I do look at some Obese people differently. Not GoaDs or WW members but when I notice Law Enforcement or Fire Fighters that look in horrible shape. Why does that bother me? Maybe because I know they should be in better shape to do their job?

Our pool director is extremely overweight and is a manager but occasionally he does fill in as a Life Guard. That bothers me and know I shouldn’t care. I guess I just think about all the times that how I looked and others must have bothered them.

I don’t Fat Shame anyone trying to LTL knowing that the struggle is a personal journey with many reasons to blame why we got to where we began to try to LTL.

gadgetgirlIL

I was the fat kid when kids weren’t fat, so, yes, fat shaming or bullying happened a lot.

Were adults much kinder? Well, my aunts thought I should go to modeling school since I was tall. Their thinking was that it would help me have better self esteem. Based on what I know about that industry, it would have certainly been a path to an eating disorder. My mom struggled all her life with her weight and they didn’t want to see me go down that same path.

These two aunts were also the ones that commented that my mom had less wrinkles than they did (my mom was the oldest) because balloons are firmer. Ouch.

podkey

My son slightly shamed me once on a x.c. ski trip saying I didn't need to eat even though I was hungry at the time. I never shamed anyone myself nor would I. Many of us do get images in our heads when we see overweight folks loading up grocery carts with mega quantities of chips. I just try and let all that slip away as I don't know the folks or their stories. We are all different and have different stories to tell.