Tears have been falling

The Biggest Loser started this week. I honestly cried, a ton. The stories are so touching and they have so much weight to lose to become healthy. One female (yes, female) weighted just over 475 pounds! These contestants need to shed these pounds in order to become healthy.

It really makes me think about how every 8 months or so I have to get rid of a few pounds. A flat stomach is not a live or die kind of problem. Type 2 diabetes is.

I am hoping to become a little more tone, but really I should obsess too much. My body is in decent shape. Here's to the Biggest Loser reminding us all that we could in way worse shape.

Strong Words from a Witch.

I just finished "The Witch of Portobello" by Paulo Coelho - he also wrote "The Alchemist". It was good. Not as good as "The Alchemist" but I did enjoy it. There were two particular passages that I found particularly noteworthy.


The first goes along with what I have actually been thinking to myself these past few weeks:

"Changes only happen when we go totally against everything we're used to doing...One of the most aggressive things things a human being can do is to go against what he or she believes is nice or pretty..." (186)

Lately, I have been pushing myself even harder than before. Last spring I decided I needed to shake things up and so I joined the local kickball league. Really, one of the best decisions I have made in a long time. I now have a new set of friends who I have a great time with, and I have reached out and met their friends giving me a great network here. Any of my teammates can tell you I threw myself into the whole idea. I can swear that I never really wore pink or had any real feelings for the color...now, its kind of a trademark of mine, up there with my sunglasses.

The second passage goes along with something I have always had thoughts on, and that is our nations obsession with thinness. I completely agree that the US has a weight issue, childhood obesity is on the rise and that all needs to be addressed. What I don't like is that women and men now feel that they need to be so small and fit. There is nothing wrong with a woman wearing a size 8, 12, or 16.

"What is it that makes us, at forty years old, want to have the same body we had when we were young? Is it possible to stop time? Of course not. And why should we be thin? We don't need to be thin. We buy books, we go to gyms we spend a lot of brain power on trying to hold back time, when we whould be celebrating the miracle of being here in this world. Instead of thinking about how to live better, we're obsessed with weight. Forget all about that. You can read all the books you want, do all the exercise you want, punish yourself as much as you want, but you will still have only two choices --either stop living or get fat" (246-247)

If obsessing about weight and going to the gym every day is keeping you from seeing your friends, that is a problem. If your diet gets in the way of enjoying pastries from Mike's Pastry that is a bigger problem.

I wanted to share these passages with you all. Maybe they spoke to you too?

False Hopes Turned Amazing Find

For a brief moment I thought my boobs had grown a bit. It's not like I could have shrunk the shirt midday and the chest area was a bit snugger right around lunch - so I got a little excited. Now I'm guessing I wasn't emptying out my lungs and they were holding onto air longer because upon closer inspection there is no way my membership to the Itty Bitty Titty Committee has expired.

You may be thinking to yourself, why is she telling me this? This seems sad and pathetic. No. The closer inspection to my shape gave way to a fantastic find! My butt is back!

When I was home for the holidays my family and family friends all told me that I was getting skinny. I started to look at myself in the mirror and realized that while the number on the scale wasn't much smaller than before, my shape was definitely changing. I immediately saw that my butt was fading away. My butt and I get along great, especially on the dance floor. It shakes - a lot.

You can understand my concern. I considered lunges to get the glutes back into shape and at least bring the butt up a bit. But I never followed through with that.

However, it would appear that somehow the universe got back in order all on its own. I may even be able to take back the title of "big butt" from my sister - granted I tried to push it onto her and no one else took the bait but now I want it back. Yay!!! Can't wait to hear Apple Bottom Jeans to celebrate!

Nuvo Ring is for Size 2 Only

While watching the Biggest Loser and I started to think about how America, in general, hates fat people. A guy I was seeing a few months ago actually told me that as a child his mother told him being fat was the worst thing, ever. Because of this he is extremely anti-fat. He was also a bit of an idiot.

But really, larger people are not on tv - except if there needs to be a sassy/funny man. Great example of this is the Nuvo Ring commercia (which was playing during one of the commercial breaks). You know the "monday-tuesday-wednesday-thursday-friday-saturday-sunday-again" commercial. There are 28 ladies swimming together in a circle and not one of them is larger than a size 2. All of them look fantastic. There are no blemishes. I'm relatively certain that over-weight, blemish filled women also have sex and would need the pill. Let them be in the commercial!!!

I dunno...every so often I get on a kick like this, you know, have real women on tv, in magazines, etc. But eventually fashion week or something comes along and I go back to staring at the models in the pretty dresses and simply don't care that they are under nurished and need a doughnut.