Those of you who attended the NAAFA 2010 convention had the privilege of experiencing the premier of "Gordita", a short film about a young Latina woman moving past her self-hatred and accepting herself and her body just the way it is now. 

Debby Wolfe, creator of "Gordita", wrote an article for our September newsletter and then in October we circulated a message asking you to vote for her short film in the NBC Short Cuts competition.

We've recently received the following from Debby, "I just wanted to write to let you know that 'Gordita' won the NBC Short Cuts People's Choice Award.  Thank you so much for voting and helping us spread the word!  We are so grateful for your continued support.  : )  We're excited to see what the future holds for our film.  If anyone is interested in following the progress of the movie, they can fan us at http://www.facebook.com/gorditamovie ."

Big congratulations go out to Debby for her win and big fat thanks for creating an award-winning short film that helps spread the word that people come in all sizes!  If you have a film to suggest for our 2011 NAAFA International Fat Film Fest, please drop us a line at http://www.naafaonline.com/dev2/global/index.html 

by Dr. Lenny Husen

1.  Love Thyself.  This is the answer to the question, "Why go to the doctor when I don't feel THAT bad?" and also the question, "Why take care of myself when it is just so hard and I have so much else to do?" I personally hate going to the doctor, which is why I became one.  I wanted to sit on the Roundy Stool.  I hate being a patient. I loathe the Waiting Room, I detest judgments about my weight or my smoking, abhor being told what embarrassing test I need to schedule next.  But one day I was sitting in the dentist chair, with the spit straw doing its thing, thinking about how much I hate getting my teeth cleaned, and I realized, "This is something I do because I love myself." And suddenly, I could stand it. 

2.  Understand the White Coat. I am trained to look at numbers. So if I see that someone's LDL Cholesterol is 174, or Creatinine is 3.2, or Hemoglobin is 7.1 or Blood Sugar is 192, my antenna goes up and I know that the person MIGHT be at risk of dying sooner rather than later.  I was trained to look at BMI and feel the same way about any number greater than 29.  We are brainwashed in Medical School that Fat is A Killer and Diets Are The Answer.

3.  The Scale is NOT your Enemy. It's not your Friend either.  It's never going to start singing, "I love you, you love me . . . ."  It will never have anything THAT interesting to say to you.  If you refuse to get on the stupid thing, no one will be mad at you.  In fact, some of the people whose job it is to weigh you will secretly admire your cojones.  If you do "step on the scale" to be "compliant", then be proud and unapologetic.  It is deplorable that in this culture we are taught to be ashamed of what we weigh or how old we are if the number is "high".  The way to fight this ignorance is to never lie about our weight or age.

4.  Teach Your Doctor the Facts of Fat. Dr. Bacon's book Health At Every Size has a section addressed to healthcare givers that you can use.  In Marilyn Wann's book, Fat!So?, there is a great story about how terrible some doctors are.  Wendy Shanker's book The Fat Girl's Guide to Life includes a splendid chapter about doctors who make an issue of weight.  Photocopy something that resonates with you and ask your new doctor to read it.  If you don't want your weight treated as a medical symptom, speak up assertively but politely and calmly.  This is your time, your body, and your money.  Patient Satisfaction matters.

5.  If the Doctor is a Stool, Flush Him! If he treats you with contempt or condescension, and you point it out, and there is no apology, hit the Eject Button.  You are there because you love yourself, remember?  If your doctor is not willing to be educated by each and every one of her patients, she isn't much of a doctor.

6.  Exercise is Better than a Gun In Your Hand. Be an example of a patient who is "compliant" in every way you possibly can.  If you are able to exercise every single day, for at least 20 minutes, you are doing better than most doctors.  Oh, we love to SAY, "Exercise!" but do we DO it?  Most of us are too busy and too full of tired excuses.  If you can honestly tell your doctor that you are exercising, this gives you a tremendous amount of psychological power.  "Hey, Doc, I'm exercising an hour a day.  I'm taking all my pills and shots on schedule.  I got my colonoscopy.  I'm eating as healthy as I can.  I go out dancing every week.  I love how I look.  Can you say the same?"

7.  Eat, Drink and Be Merry. Some Don'ts. DON'T listen to crappy music, DON'T watch television shows that are beneath your dignity, DON'T buy any magazine touting thinness as the ideal, DON'T drink any wine before its time, DON'T use harmful legal or illegal drugs and DON'T put anything in your mouth that isn't absolutely 100% delicious.

8.  Trial and Error. When I was 18, I had a psychiatrist who liked to flirt.  I then found one who was professional but cold.  Then I tried a psychologist who insisted I take medicine when I just needed someone to talk to.  I tried a series of mental health professionals.  Basically none of them were good listeners.  The thirteenth one responded to my defensiveness and acting out with gentleness but didn't let me get away with anything.  I stuck with Number 13.  He saved my life.  The message?  The right doctor for you is out there.  Don't give up.

9.  Fight Fire With Fire. The only way to fight someone who thinks in terms of numbers is to wield them yourself.  Arm yourself with Fat Stats.  Know the percentage of folks who die soon after having weight loss surgery (estimated at 0.5 to 5%), what percentage of fat people have diabetes (only 10 to 25%), what percentage of people who go on diets lose weight and keep it off.  Be ready to quote those numbers when your doctor advises you to lose weight.

10.   Don't Get Mad, Vent! Who can you vent to?  Post an on-line comment that the doctor is not "Fat Friendly" on an MD Rating site.  Leave emotion out of it.  You can also vent to me.  Send any stories about doctors who you loved or hated to me at fatlenster@gmail.com I'd love to hear from you.

Dr. Lenny Husen is a NAAFA member and frequent contributor to the NAAFA newsletter.  She conducted a workshop at the 2010 NAAFA Convention on this topic.  Her original workshop presentation slideshow is available upon request.  Dr. Husen is an Internal Medicine physician who is working as a Hospitalist in the East Bay. (A Hospitalist is a doctor who admits patients to the hospital and takes care of them while they are there.) She does not see patients outside the hospital at this time. 

by Bill and Terri Weitze

[Editor's Note:  The NAAFA News RSS Feed at http://naafa.org has the latest news.]

 

January 2011:  Urging further studies into the "obesity paradox" for chronically ill persons, especially as to heart failure patients, an editorial in the European Journal of Heart Failure discusses the fact that chronically ill patients tend to have better outcome results if they have a higher than average BMI (whether due to muscle mass or fat).  (The editorial includes links to two related studies in the same issue.)

http://eurjhf.oxfordjournals.org/content/13/2/130.full

 

January 12, 2011:  Canada holds a summit on weight discrimination.  Dr. Arya Sharma, Scientific Director of the Canadian Obesity Network, urges legal consequences to weight discrimination because there are numerous reasons a person is fat, weight loss is the exception not the rule, and weight discrimination is rampant. 

http://www.vancouversun.com/health/WEIGHT+BIAS/4099437/story.html

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2011/01/17/obesity-discrimination.html

 

January 13, 2011:  Assemblyman Tick Segerblom (Las Vegas) is reintroducing his bill outlawing bullying in the workplace and making height-weight a protected class in the State of Nevada.  The bill was initially introduced in 2009 and never made it out of committee.  Some argue that the bill will increase the cost of doing business in Nevada, but Assemblyman Segerblom believes that everybody has the right to a bully-free workplace and that size discrimination is wrong.  NAAFA agrees.

http://workplaceviolencenews.com/2011/01/13/bill-would-outlaw-bullying-protect-short-overweight-people

http://www.leg.state.nv.us/Session/76th2011/Bills/AB/AB90.pdf

 

January 14, 2011:  Looking at the results of the mandatory calorie labeling of fast food menus in King County, Washington shows no difference in the choices made by the patrons of one chain.  Eric Finkelstein, Ph.D. (Duke-National University of Singapore Graduate Medical School), who headed this study, suggests further study to see how consumers can be encouraged to switch to healthier options.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-01/dumc-mml011311.php

http://www.ajpm-online.net/article/S0749-3797(10)00612-4/abstract

 

January 19, 2011:  A blog post in Psychology Today by medical sociologist Pattie Thomas, Ph.D., provides a unique view on the issues of weight, health, insurance, dieting, and morality.  Dr. Thomas promises more blogs on fat issues in the future, and if they are as insightful as this first post, they should be on everyone's must-read list.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/i-take-space/201101/new-years-resolutions-who-is-failing-whom

 

January 20, 2011:  You may be surprised at how far-reaching NAAFA's influence can be.  An article in The Telegraph (Calcutta, India) was inspired by a video of a NAAFA fashion show.  While applauding fashionable clothing being more available to fat people, the author fears that this is a marketing ploy to capture the fat-community's spending dollars, rather than an actual appreciation of size diversity. 

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110120/jsp/opinion/story_13464085.jsp

 

January 20, 2011:  While it is nice that Walmart is collaborating with the US government's Let's Move campaign in an effort to lower the cost of healthy food choices, what isn't mentioned in this congratulatory blog post is the company's poor record of providing affordable health-care coverage to its employees, or the stigmatizing effect that Let's Move is having on fat children.

http://www.letsmove.gov/blog/2011/01/25/first-lady-michelle-obama-announces-collaboration-with-walmart-in-support-of-lets-move-campaign

 

January 26, 2011:  Looking at the roots of fat hatred as well as its effect on people, an article in the Toronto Globe and Mail concludes that shaming people into losing weight simply doesn't work.  The article encourages healthy behaviors, but (unfortunately) only so people will not be fat.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health/andre-picard/shaming-the-obese---with-photos-like-these---isnt-working/article1883947

 

January 29, 2011:  The Washington Post apparently is catching up on its reading.  An article covering the results of a study published in September 2010 (and covered in the October 2010 roundup, first 9/27 entry), discusses the negative impact of being fat on one's paycheck. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/29/AR2011012902553.html

 

February 2011:  Judith Matz's article in Psychotherapy Networker may be a long read (12 pages) but it is worth the time.  The article looks at why diets do not work, and why reconnecting with your body's natural messages of hunger is important.  While some people think of "intuitive eating" as a weight loss method, Ms. Matz presents it from a weight-neutral standpoint.

http://dietsurvivors.com/Matz_Diets_and_our_Demons.pdf

 

February 1, 2011:  The FDA declines approval for the diet drug Contrave because of concerns over serious side effects, including an increased risk of heart disease.  Not only that, it just barely meets the FDA's very low standards for weight loss efficacy.  It is uncertain whether Orexigen Therapeutics, Inc. will undertake new studies to address the FDA's concerns.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/checkup/2011/02/ fda_rejects_another_diet_pill.html

 

January 31, 2011:  A study of 1,003 sixth-graders from Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti finds that fat children tend to eat lunches from school instead of packed ones, fail to engage in regular physical activity, and spend two hours daily watching television or playing video games.  Authors conclude that lifestyle trumps genetics when it comes to fat kids.  What they don't say is that poorer children may be more likely to eat a school lunch and lack a safe place to play outdoors, and the real issue might be social inequality rather than fatness.

http://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=1913

http://www.ahjonline.com/article/S0002-8703(10)00888-4

 

February 3, 2011:  Human beings are becoming fatter - everywhere.  Looking at data from over 200 countries, researchers found that weight is going up across the board.  Of note, the data also shows slight drops in the prevalence of hypertension and cholesterol. 

http://www.medpagetoday.com/PrimaryCare/PreventiveCare/24686

http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2810%2962037-5

 

February 6, 2011:  We all know that bullying can be a real problem in the life of any fat person, especially fat children.  USA Weekend offers some excellent advice on how to deal with the situation of someone bullying your child, for whatever reason.

http://www.usaweekend.com/article/20110204/HOME03/ 110131001/1003/MDDAY/Help-is-out-there

 

February 9, 2011:  Several NAAFA members, including Co-Founder Bill Fabrey and Advisory Board member Dr. Deborah Burgard, PhD, have been invited to participate at the Endangered Species: Preserving the Female Body Summit on March 18-19 in New York City. This ground breaking international summit challenges the negative consequences of a society's distorted focus on the ideal female form that teaches women and young girls to hate their bodies.

http://www.endangeredspecieswomen.org

 

February 11, 2011:  Big and beautiful actress Ashley Fink of the TV show Glee talks to Entertainment Tonight about her character's romantic involvement with Glee's bad boy Puck, being bullied as a child, and representing for the big girls.  Delightful!

http://www.etonline.com/tv/107635_Glee_s_Ashley_Fink_People_ Fall_in_Love_with_People 

The focus of our February newsletter is Activism and Advocacy, which can take many forms.  Our video this month is "Fat Activism goes BIG" and features San Francisco Bay Area activists, from dance performers to academics.

You will recognize our very own Marilyn Wann and Sandra Solovay as they share their unique forms of activism and advocacy.  What special talents or ideas do you possess that could be used to express your brand of activism or advocacy?  Let us know by sharing your story with us at: http://www.naafaonline.com/ dev2/global

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