healthateverysizeblog

May 29, 2012

the HAES® files: “Eat Your Vegetables—News at Eleven”—Why Common Sense Health Advice Makes Bad Television

by healthateverysizeblog

by Jeanette DePatie (The Fat Chick), MA, ACE

Over the past few weeks, especially in the shadow of the Weight of the Nation series, I’ve heard the same question from a number of people:

“Since we know that the same common sense health advice works for people of all sizes, why don’t they share that advice?” they ask. “Why do they have to whip up such a fat panic? Why can’t they just tell people to exercise a little more and eat their fruits and vegetables and get a little more sleep?” they wonder.

I can’t blame them for asking. It seems like most of the studies that have come out over the last few years point to common sense solutions. Get 150 minutes of exercise per week. Eat 5 servings a day of fruits and vegetables. Get 7-9 hours of sleep each day. And so on. It seems like these common sense solutions should be shared in every newspaper and magazine and aired in every show on television. There’s just one problem. Common sense does not make good television.

Over the past ten years, I have worked in Hollywood in the entertainment industry. I’ve learned that television, at its core, is about story telling. But not just any old sort of storytelling will do. Television shows are very expensive to make and are thus created in very specific, tried and true ways designed to get the viewer to stop on a particular channel and stay on that channel over the commercial break. Television is not designed to be an ideal dispensary of rational, common sense health advice. Here are a few reasons:

Television stories need heroes and villains.

Plus-sized lizard menaces
small town way of life.

This is true whether you are talking about a reality show or a drama or a documentary. On TV, fat people are usually the bad people and the doctors, trainers and skinny people the good people. Stories imply that fat people are killing themselves, that fat people are making airline tickets more expensive, and that fat people are “crushing the American economy!” (Cue the old black and white Godzilla footage of the monster crushing school buses and buildings.) Ladies and gentlemen, we have a full-blown “fatocolypse” on our hands!

What’s particularly interesting in this good guy/bad guy scenario is that the “good guys”—the trainers and the doctors and the coaches—get to act like bad guys in order to protect the public welfare. Like Dirty Harry, trainers are allowed to be the menacing tough guys in order to make people exercise far beyond what is medically advisable and make them cry, “all for their own good.” Because seeing the bad guy punished makes for good TV. Seeing the bad guy break down and cry is the kind of high drama that will pull you over the next commercial break. (Ironically, those same commercials often depict high-calorie, low nutrition “food porn” encouraging you to run out and consume.) Seeing fat people repent and move closer to the thin party line makes for good “transformational” television.

Television transformations are not like real world transformations.

In order to make good television, transformations need to be far more dramatic and much faster than those in the real world. There are no home makeover shows where they just mow the yard and paint the kitchen. On TV, the whole house gets redone—from the painting to the landscaping to the furniture to the statues and flowers on the shelves—seemingly overnight. It should be no surprise that the same is true in health and body makeover shows. Although HAES® practitioners do not recommend intentional weight loss as a goal, even doctors who do recommend that patients drop no more than one to two pounds per week. But how many people do you think would tune into a prime time television show depicting characters that lost one or two pounds each week? At the end of a 13 week season, will people tune in to see characters who lost 16 pounds each on America’s Most Moderate Weight Losers? I don’t think so.

Television relies on stereotypes.

Most television shows are pretty short—sometimes just 22 minutes with commercial breaks. In that time, the show needs to hook you into the drama or comedy of the story. This leaves little time for explaining difficult or subtle concepts. Television relies on stereotypes as a sort of “shorthand” to help the viewer quickly sort the good guys from the bad guys and the problem from the solution. The Health At Every Size® approach to wellness is currently not all that familiar to most viewers. If a TV show were to include a HAES angle, it would have to spend an awful lot of time explaining. Whereas “unhealthy, lazy, sad, fatty who sits on the couch all day and eats junk food” is a stereotype that a TV show might convey in just a few words, a few seconds of footage or just one still image. This allows the creators of the show to get to the drama point faster and focus on pulling you into the show or bringing you past the commercial break.

Why it matters.

So what? Why worry about what sort of health advice people absorb from TV? It’s important because an awful lot of people turn to television for information on health. A recent survey shows over 50% of respondents rely on media/information service companies (e.g., Dr. Oz, The Doctors, iVillage, WebMD) for health information. So, when someone approaches you with a bit of medical information that “everyone knows” there’s a good chance he or she heard it on TV. This is particularly distressing since health is not the main goal of the medium. While television can provide information on health topics, the primary business of TV is driving ratings and improving advertising revenues. And while I don’t in any way wish to suggest that television shows deliberately misinform viewers on health issues, I feel the need to point out that TV is, after all, an entertainment business. I don’t have any magical solutions to offer here. It may always be somewhat challenging to convey the HAES approach on television. But perhaps a bit of awareness of the nature of television as a medium will help us brainstorm new ways to bring the Health At Every Size® approach to health to even more people.

Posted in Jeanette DePatie | 2 Comments »

Tags: Dr. Oz, health, Health At Every Size, health information on television, health information on TV, weight of the nation, weight stereotypes, weight stigma, WOTN

February 21, 2012

the HAES files: you gotta have heart!

by healthateverysizeblog

by Jeanette DePatie, ASDAH Vice President, in consultation with ASDAH member Sandy Dixon, RN, MS, Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation Manager

Valentine’s Day has just passed us by and February is American Heart Month. So it should come as no surprise that this blog post is going to talk about the Health at Every Size® approach to a healthy and happy heart.

Many of us have had our poor hearts broken by medical professionals who have railed on us to lose weight for the sake of our cardiac health. Fat and heart disease are associated–meaning that people who are fat may be somewhat more likely to experience heart disease. But does this mean being fat causes heart disease? Can you effectively prevent heart disease and maintain a healthy ticker using a Health At Every Size Approach?

There is a lot of new evidence indicating that healthy behaviors have a far greater impact on heart health than weight. In fact a significant study recently published in Circulation magazine (The Journal of the American Heart Association) indicated that healthy behavior—specifically exercise had a far greater impact on heart health and mortality from heart disease than body size. This was not a small or isolated study. It followed over 14,000 subjects for over 11 years. But the outcome was clear—fitness trumps fatness in terms of longevity and heart health.

So, there are a variety of Health At Every Size® behaviors that we can adopt to keep our tickers in tip top shape. Here are five good ones to get you started:

Exercise Joyfully: As indicated by the study referenced above, fitness is one of the most important factors in maintaining heart health. You don’t need to be a marathoner or a professional athlete. We’re looking for a total of 150 minutes per week or 30 minutes on most days of the week. Even as little as 75 minutes per week can have a positive impact on heart health. It doesn’t need to happen all at once, it doesn’t need to be hard core and it doesn’t need to happen at a gym. Work in the garden. Walk the dog. Park a little further away from your favorite outlet mall. Find pleasurable and manageable ways to work fitness into your life.
Manage your Mood: Some studies indicate that your emotional outlook on life can significantly impact your cardiac health. People with Type-A personalities, depression and unexpressed anger seem to be more prone to heart problems than those with a happy-go-lucky approach. Luckily there are positive steps you can take to cope with that stress. One step is mentioned above. Exercise enhances mood and helps cope with both depression and anger. Other techniques include relaxation techniques like breathing exercises and meditation. And if you’re having difficulty managing stress, anger or depression your own, seek the services of a qualified mental health professional.
Care for your Teeth: There is a lot of recent evidence linking dental health with heart health. Gum disease can lead directly to heart disease, infecting the inner lining of the heart (endocarditis). Some research also suggests that heart disease, clogged arteries and stroke may be linked to oral bacteria, possibly due to chronic inflammation. So do like your mom told you—brush, floss and see your dentist regularly.
Know your Numbers: It’s important to be aware of your key cardiac indicators including your cholesterol and blood pressure levels. That means seeing your doctor regularly. And since you’re seeing that doctor regularly, it’s smart to pick one that doesn’t raise your blood pressure through the roof. White coat hypertension is a well documented phenomenon which causes some people to exhibit significantly elevated blood pressure in their doctor’s office. So try to pick a doctor you can respect, who respects you and with whom you can communicate effectively.
Eat Colorfully Close to Nature: I’m not suggesting the dreaded “D-word” here, (You know, the one that starts with “die” and ends in agony and frustration.) But there is a lot to be said for eating a variety of delicious foods, from both land and sea, that are close to a natural state. Heavily processed foods tend to be very high in sodium and other chemicals. For some (but not all) people, high sodium levels lead to higher blood pressure. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and seafood can help maintain a healthy heart and can also be quite delicious. So make your heart happy while you pump up the variety in your diet with a colorful plate of fabulous foods.

A downloadable version of this Health At Every Size Tips for a Healthy Heart is available here.

Posted in ASDAH, Jeanette DePatie | 12 Comments »

February 7, 2012

the HAES files: a tale of two billboards

by healthateverysizeblog

by Jeanette DePatie, (the Fat Chick), MA, ACE

Lately the Strong4Life campaign in Georgia has received a lot of publicity and a LOT of pushback. For those of you who aren’t familiar, this is a group of ads that depict fat children in black and white photography and seeks to convey how miserable it is to be a fat child. They claim that this is a “wake up call” for parents who apparently don’t know that their kids are fat and have somehow missed the message in our culture that being fat is a “bad” thing. They insist their goal is not to make kids feel bad (even though the images look like shots of hardened criminals). But it’s hard to imagine that chubby children encounter these ads via magazines, the web, television and even giant billboards and feel GOOD about themselves.

But ASDAHonians should take heart. This week I’ve interviewed two amazing women who are involved in specific pieces of activism aimed at counteracting the negative effects of this ad campaign. Both of these activities are extremely easy to join and both have used new technology and social media to create a groundswell of publicity around and support for the Health At Every Size® approach to health.

ASDAH Member Marilyn Wann has initiated an amazing campaign called “I STAND against weight bullying.” In this campaign, Marilyn has created a design template that imitates the Strong4Life ads and invites people to submit pictures of themselves and positive statements to represent themselves. Marilyn’s amazing design team takes the photos, cuts out the images of the people and puts them as well as the positive statements into the I STAND design template. These photos are then shared via facebook, twitter, tumblr, flickr, and other social networking tools. You can see some of the images submitted by your very own ASDAH leadership team here in this blog post. So far well over 200 images have been created. I caught up with Marilyn in the midst of this extremely popular project and she agreed to an interview:

What gave you the idea for this project?

I’ve been aware of these awful billboards since they went up last year. I always thought they were a hateful blight on the Georgia landscape very much like the 1-800-GET-THIN billboards are a blight on the California landscape. I tend to think visually and so I was aware of how much damage these negative images can do. But I started to wonder about how I could take the negative charge of their images and turn it into a positive charge for people of all sizes. What if we could create and share positive images of people of all sizes who are comfortable and happy in their bodies? How powerful would that be?

How did the project start?

The project started with a single STANDard. (I call these images STANDards.) I just wanted to create one of me with a powerful image and statement. I had a friend snap a few quick cell phone pictures of myself, and then Nicole Peirce helped me create an image that looked very similar to the Strong4Life versions. But the image had large red letters on it. Those letters made me feel tense. I realized that the color red usually implies warning or danger or fear. This is the opposite of the feelings I was hoping to convey. So we changed the red to hot pink, which to me symbolize health and happiness and joy. Once we did that, we realized that we had a very powerful image and we posted it.

So then you invited others to join you?

Yes! The moment I posted the picture, I realized it was something other people could do too! Almost immediately people started asking if they could submit images too. So we just developed it as a “meme dream” and put out invitations. And I want to say something about those invitations. They are open to EVERYBODY. I have had people email or call and say they want to do an image, but they have a health issue or they are in a wheel chair or they have some other reservation. This is an open invitation. If you have a picture and something positive to say, you’re welcome. And the images have just been pouring in!

Why do you think this has been so popular?

There are plenty of us that are good and angry. But we want to express our anger while doing something good. This effort unites people in our movement. It’s hard to feel powerful when you feel like you are completely alone. But when you see hundreds of images of people of all sizes standing up and saying, “hey I love myself and I love my body and my life rocks!” well, how powerful is that? We take the finger pointing and finger wagging and blaming of Strong4Life and turn it on its head. Instead of spreading fear and prejudice, we stand AGAINST bullying and FOR joy and life and health.

How do you think the “I STAND against weight bullying campaign” represents the Health At Every Size® approach to wellness?

I think this represents the HAES^SM model mostly in terms of its positive approach. It takes the approach of the pleasure principle as opposed to the punishment principle. It’s the difference between motivation and eagerness. When we are asked to do something we may not really like (which for me might be to go to the gym and get on an exercise bike) then we have to be continually motivated. But when we do something healthful we like (which for me is going for a fabulous bike ride outside) we feel a sense of eagerness. When it comes down to it, people are eager to like their own bodies. They are eager to engage in pleasurable activities. They are eager to eat delicious and sustaining foods. A HAES approach is about connecting with this eagerness. These images from dozens and hundreds of people are coming from their own hearts and express the eagerness experienced in a Health At Every Size life. People end up avoiding exercise or nutrition when those goals are motivated by shame. Enjoying eating well and exercising can come from loving one’s body and not hoping to change one’s body–core values, I imagine, of these photos and of the HAES principles.

ASDAH Member, Blogger and Fat Activist Ragen Chastain has worked with several other members of the size acceptance community to create a campaign to raise money for billboards that feature a size-positive response to the Strong4Life ads. She spearheaded the Support All Kids Billboard Project and kicked off the fund raising last week. Since last week’s launch, she has raised over $12,000 for size-positive billboards in Georgia. She only needs about 250 more donors to make a contribution (at any size) to unlock a $5,000 matching grant from More of Me to Love. You can help by making a donation. I caught up with Ragen this past weekend and she graciously agreed to an interview.

How did you come up with the idea for the billboard campaign?

I had been thinking for a while about how powerful it would be to have positive images of fat people on billboards as a way to give people of size a chance to see ourselves positively represented in the media. I talked about my frustration about Strong4Life on my blog and someone from wellroundedmama.blogspot.com left a comment saying that she wished we had enough money for our own billboards. I felt that this would be an amazing response to the Strong4Life campaign. The next day did a poll of my blog readers and people were excited about it. The only negative comment I got was that I shouldn’t bother because there was no way we could raise the money (which the commenter estimated to be $3,000). I felt like our community was ready to do something big, and I didn’t want to be held back by the notion that we shouldn’t try something big because it’s difficult or because we might fail.

Who else is working on it with you?

This has been a massive team effort. Marilyn Wann from Fat!So?, Shannon Russell of Fierce Freethinking Fatties, and Rachel Adams who did our web design were absolutely instrumental in this effort. Jay Solomon (ASDAH member) and the folks from More of Me to Love also extremely generous in offering a $5,000 matching donation that was half of what we needed to raise to put our billboard up, as well as getting the word out.

Why is this important to you?

They are kids. They are kids and they are being shamed and stigmatized by an organization that purports to care about their health. All the while that organization is taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from corporations of which they claim to be critical (Pepsi, Coke, Golden Corral etc.). They are kids standing on the front lines while adults humiliate them and call it healthcare, and we need to get their backs.

What has surprised you the most about the campaign so far?

I was most surprised at the speed of the response. I believed we would hit our goal of raising $5,000 in the first day but I thought that it might be a mad dash at the end of the 24 hour Big Fat Money Bomb. Then, as I prepared to get everything posted at midnight people were e-mailing me asking for the link so that they could donate. Once we launched it the support literally poured in – we raised $1565 in the first hour, when I went to bed (at 4am!) we were at $3,290. By the end of the 24 hours we were just over $12,000.

If you had your dream come true, what would the outcome of this campaign be?

If my dream came true every kid who has ever been bullied or made to feel less than because of their weight would find this campaign and realize that they are worthy and valued and deserving of respect in the body they have now. Their new understanding would be supported when First Lady Michelle Obama stood at a microphone and said “I had the best of intentions when I focused on the weight of kids as a way to improve their health, but I now know that was a mistake, I was wrong and I’m sorry to all of the kids who were hurt when I confused their weight with their health. We are going to support developing healthy habits and high self-esteem in kids of all sizes using a Health At Every Size® approach. This is Dr. Linda Bacon, she’ll explain the research and talk about our new campaign…”

What one thing do you most want people to know about this campaign?

Right now I want people to know that we have raised enough money to put up our billboard and we are now raising what we need for other media including bus shelter signs, smaller billboard in downtown Atlanta etc. following the model created by Strong4Life to make sure that we get this message out. The More of Me to Love Matching grant is a challenge grant and to unlock it we need to get 1,000 individual donors. We are currently running a Solidarity Dollar campaign and if people want to support what we are doing. No donation is too small!

Do you think this is a good way to spread a Health At Every Size message?

I think that this is a great way to spread the message. Since CHOA’s controversial billboards have made it into National Media, our response is has the opportunity to earn National Media as well. In fact we’ve already been contacted by a major network news program, BBC News, and we’ve had an article in SF Weekly. We are getting the message out that shaming is bad for children’s health, and that we can be for developing healthy habits in kids of all sizes without stigmatizing any kids at all. The Health At Every Size paradigm is an evidence-based way to do just that.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Thank you. I’m reticent to start listing people lest I miss someone but thank you to Marilyn, Shannon, Jay, Rachel, everyone at More of Me to Love, NAAFA, ASDAH and everyone who is involved in this campaign. I’m so excited about what we can do for kids in Georgia and the reverberation it could have. We have accomplished something huge and we should be incredibly proud of ourselves.

This is a remarkable time in the Health At Every Size movement. Ragen, Marilyn and their amazing partners (and that includes many of you!) have created unique opportunities to create positive, HAES messages for kids, parents and other people of all shapes and sizes. I encourage you to take a moment to contribute just a little of your time, money, energy, voice, creativity, publicity or other resources to these amazing efforts!

ASDAH President Deb Lemire blogged about the Strong4Life website video campaign that accompanied the billboards.

ASDAH’s Leadership Team Supports the I STAND project!

Not pictured: Jennifer Copeland, Education Co-Chair; Paul Ernsberger, Research

Posted in ASDAH, Jeanette DePatie | 3 Comments »

January 17, 2012

the HAES files: weekend warrior syndrome and the national, annual B.S.

by healthateverysizeblog

by Jeanette DePatie (The Fat Chick), MA, ACE

Ahh January. After the champagne flutes and the ball drop and the confetti, it’s time for the annual Big Shift. What is the big shift you ask? Well the Big Shift (or the B.S.) is when the entire country moves from thoughts of spending time with family and spending money and eating big wonderful meals and fabulous homemade treats to thoughts of shame and guilt. Every ad on television features a guy holding out pants that are 10 sizes too big for him or babes in bikinis and high heels glibly promising to create a whole new you. It’s enough to fuel a full-on fat panic. And that fat panic can lead to injury.

Fueled by fat panic, many people try to do too much too quickly after the holidays. They jump right into an exercise program and end up limping right back out with a sports-related injury. According to the British Osteopathic Association, panic over holiday weight leads to a 20 per cent increase in the number of people visiting their osteopaths for treatment in January.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can significantly increase your fitness level and still stay safe. You just have to apply a modicum of common sense and a few simple rules:

1. Assess your current fitness level. Ah, the life of the weekend warrior. You haven’t played softball since you were 10, but how hard can it be, right? You got a new bike for Christmas and want to take that baby out for a 15-mile ride, except you haven’t done that before, EVER. Your personal trainer wants you to produce great “results” for his before/after bulletin board so he trains you so hard you can’t get out of bed the next day. And it’s a surprise that the sports medicine doctor is completely booked at the end of January? The answer here is just two words: start small. Think back to the last time you did any sort of exercise. Was it recent (less than a month ago?) Did you feel okay afterwards? If you recently exercised and felt okay afterwards, whatever you did that day was a reasonable starting place for that particular form of exercise. If you’re trying a new form of exercise, you need to back off even further. Just because you can walk for 20 minutes, doesn’t mean you can play 20 minutes of squash without getting hurt.

If you haven’t worked out in a long time (or ever) you need to start very small in a safe place and check in regularly with your body to determine your starting point. You can get some help from a personal trainer. Or you can check out my “Rock the Block” exercise as a great way to determine your starting level.

2. Ramp up Slowly. If you’re walking 3 miles per week this week, it doesn’t mean that next week you should do 6. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, people are more prone to injuries when they increase the intensity and duration of their workouts without building up slowly—something more common in people who want to make up for lost time.

One of the main reasons for gym injuries is trying to ramp up too quickly—especially in exercises on machines designed to strengthen abdominal and lateral (side) muscles. This can lead to injuries of the lower back and even cause respiratory problems by straining the muscles in the chest.

You should ramp your overall activity level by no more than 10% per week. This means you may increase ONE aspect of your workout by 10% per week. You can increase the distance or duration (distance traveled or number of minutes exercised) the intensity (walking pace, heart rate) OR the frequency (number of workouts per week) by 10% per week.

A 10% increase doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s cumulative and it adds up. After one New Year’s eve resolution, I started walking about 6 miles per week. By increasing my distance by just 10% per week, I was able to complete a marathon by the end of the year! Had I started out much more aggressively I probably would have gotten injured and never finished. It pays to be the tortoise and not the hare.

3. Listen to your body. Your body is a finely tuned instrument. When it’s not working at an optimal level, it will let you know. Aches, pains and other symptoms are like your body’s dashboard indicators. And these indicators are very important.

Most of us, treasure our cars. We wouldn’t think of ignoring a “check engine” light on the dashboard. We wouldn’t continue to try to drive on a flat tire. We wouldn’t drive blithely by with a loud thumping noise under the hood. But how many of us, ignore the signals our bodies give us as we’re trying to exercise? If you’ve ever stretched something too far, or popped something out of place, you’ve probably experienced either severe muscle tension or pain. This pain is the proverbial thumping noise under the hood. If you experience pain, you need to STOP, pull the car over and figure out what the heck is going on. Here are some warning signs you should never ignore as you work out.:

Feeling of dizziness or lightheadedness
Feeling of tightness or pain in chest, trunk, back or jaw
Extreme breathlessness
Unusual fatigue
Nausea
Loss of muscle control
Allergic reactions—hives or rash
Blurred vision

Let me summarize, it’s normal to feel fatigue or a slight ache after exercise. But generally speaking, if it hurts, don’t do it!

That’s it! Remember, you don’t have to succumb to the national, annual B.S. You don’t have to be a weekend warrior. Just follow those three simple rules and you will be exercising safely and happily through January, past Valentine’s Day and through the entire year.

Posted in Jeanette DePatie | 5 Comments »

December 6, 2011

the HAES files: there’s no place like home — unless you’re a fat kid

by healthateverysizeblog

interview by Jeanette DePatie (the Fat Chick), MA, ACE

An eight-year-old Cleveland Heights boy was removed from his family’s custody and placed in foster care. The boy weighs over 200 pounds, and county health workers apparently removed him from his family over concerns that his mother wasn’t doing enough to help him lose weight.

How does taking a fat kid away from his parents make him any healthier? Is there data that shows that when you are removed from your family, your home, you lose weight? Of course not.

Remember the 2001 case of Anamarie Regino, in Albuquerque, N.M.? She was removed from her home at age 4 because she was considered dangerously overweight. She was put on a medically-supervised, highly restrictive diet and still gained weight. After a month, they admitted they didn’t understand why she was gaining weight and sent her back home to her parents. It was later determined Anamarie had a genetic condition that explained her weight gain. So Sorry! Our bad! Other than traumatizing an entire family, what exactly was accomplished there?

I am sure authorities will say they are acting out of concern for the child’s wellbeing. But what about a concern about the emotional scars borne by fat children who are removed from their homes? Scars that leading size acceptance expert and author Cheri Erdman, Ed.D., remembers all too well. Erdman speaks eloquently about size acceptance in her two books: Nothing to Lose: A Guide to Sane Living in a Larger Body and Live Large: Affirmations for Living the Life You Want in the Body You Already Have.

When I was six years old, my kindergarten teacher knew two things about me—I had a high I.Q. and I was fat. The teacher and school social worker called in my parents and told them they thought I would be better off if I were thinner. They suggested I be sent to a Fresh Air camp to lose weight and my family agreed.

Erdman spent the next 13.5 months living away from her family at the camp. Her parents were allowed to visit on Friday nights. She was not allowed to see her brother or to go home—even for her birthday or for Christmas. Remember, it was for her own good.

I was only six, so I really didn’t understand the nuances of what had happened. I was convinced that I had done something very, very wrong to cause them to take me away from my family. I didn’t understand entirely what I had done wrong, but I knew that my body was bad and that I couldn’t go home until my body was good.

Having a good body meant losing about 30 pounds. Naturally she regained the 30 pounds and more shortly after returning home from the camp. This set the stage for an unhealthy mix of body hatred, yo-yo dieting, resentment, shame and regret in the years ahead.

Over the year and a half after I came home, I regained all the weight, and it really upset my Mom. She was upset with me for not keeping the weight off and I imagine she was upset with herself for sending me away, regretting her decision. And I was upset with her for constantly obsessing about my weight and what I ate. It was a hurtful and confusing time for me and it created this very negative dynamic with me, my mom and food.

Removing a fat kid from the home doesn’t just hurt the fat child, it damages the entire family.

After I came home, we didn’t talk about it for years. When I finally talked to my Dad, he told me that their Friday visits to Fresh Air camp was part of a weekly ritual of pain. My Mom would start crying on Wednesday and Thursday, and then cry all day Friday anticipating the visit. After the visit she’d cry all night Friday and into Saturday. By Sunday they would have a little peace at least until the whole thing started over the following Wednesday. My Mom and I never talk about it, even to this day. My brother was only four when this happened, and what did he learn? He learned that if you were fat they send you away.

Erdman willingly shares her story with us out of a hope that it will help people understand the deep trauma and ultimate futility that comes from taking kids out of their family environment simply because they are fat.

I went through all of that, and my family went through all of that, for no reason. I didn’t keep the weight off and decades later, I’m still fat. And it was so unnecessary! If we had known about HAES^SM and simply followed a common-sense, Health At Every Size® approach, we could have avoided the whole mess.

We don’t know all the details about this specific Cleveland Heights case, and we may never know. But this case has drawn national attention to a very important question. We aren’t removing kids from homes where family members smoke. We aren’t removing kids from families that don’t exercise. And there’s no evidence that fat kids removed from their homes become thinner or healthier in the long term. So is removing a fat child from her home about better health for that child? Or is it really about our own prejudices towards fat people?

For ASDAH recommended resources on working with children and weight visit ASDAH’s resources.

About Cheri Erdman, Ed.D.

Cheri K. Erdman, Ed.D. is Professor Emeritus at the College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. She is the author of “Nothing to Lose: A Guide to Sane Living in a Larger Body” and “Live Large!” and was an early activist for size-acceptance. Dr. Erdman currently lives in Florida with her husband where she practices as a Celebrant, officiating weddings and other life-cycle ceremonies. She is a mixed media artist and a volunteer for several non-profit organizations.

Posted in Jeanette DePatie | 16 Comments »

November 8, 2011

the HAES files: does the Health At Every Size® approach mean I’m giving up?

by healthateverysizeblog

by Jeanette DePatie (The Fat Chick), MA, ACE

In my work with ASDAH as well as my work as a fitness instructor, I have introduced the HAES™ approach to life to many people. And over the years, I’ve seen a pattern emerge. I’ve seen it on email lists, I’ve heard it in the locker room and all around me. When I start describing the benefits of the Health At Every Size® approach, people are initially excited. The idea of freeing themselves from the bondage of ineffective diets and the pain of body hatred is very appealing. But there comes a moment, somewhere down the line, where they quietly ask, “but doesn’t this mean I’m giving up?”

This is a critical moment, and I think it needs a carefully considered and gentle response. And at the risk of sounding wishy-washy in this moment, I usually answer along the lines of, “yes and no.”

Yes you are giving up the frustration that comes from banging your head, repeatedly, against the same “weight-loss-wall” and feeling like a failure. You are giving up the idea that your body should be conquered and controlled. You are giving up the notion that all other health and life goals mean nothing if they are not accompanied by weight loss. You are giving up the need to put your life on hold until you reach an arbitrary goal weight and fit into a certain pair of pants. And that is good. Most people like this.

But truly embracing the Health at Every Size approach tends to ultimately result in another kind of “giving up.” You have to sacrifice your skinny fantasy. This fantasy implies that when you reach your goal weight, or the “skinny jeans zip” (even if you have to lie on the bed to do it) other things in life will magically get better. You’ll land that fantastic new job. You’ll be the envy of everyone you know. A fantastically attractive and wealthy person (who also happens to be your soul-mate) will swoop in and “take you away from all this”. In our world, this fantasy is incredibly strong. You have to give up the “highs” of the diet roller coaster as well as the “lows”. Most people don’t like this too much.

But I think the area where people struggle the most is with their own idea that the Health At Every Size® approach means you are giving up your body altogether. They often believe that it means A) not exercising (because without weight loss, why bother?) and B) eating whatever you want, whenever you want.

But the HAES^SM approach does NOT mean giving up on your body. It means honoring your body in a uniquely effective manner. HAES does not mean giving up on exercise. It means finding a kind of movement that you enjoy and feels good to your body. It means recognizing the good feeling you get after moving your body and making opportunities to feel that way often. And HAES does not mean just eating cookies three times a day. It means honoring your hunger and satiety signals. It means caring for your body with a variety of nutritious foods. It means learning which foods fuel you and make you feel well and which foods leave you feeling less well. In short the HAES approach does not mean giving up on your body, but rather owning and inhabiting your body in a special way. In a certain thoughtful and unregimented way, the HAES approach is a lot of work. A lot of people find this idea very confusing.

And it’s no wonder. In a world of “get everything you ever wanted by following my ten easy steps, five point plan or three rules” the Health At Every Size approach offers subtlety and complexity. The HAES approach means that people have to honor their own bodies and seek to find their own rules. And the markers for success aren’t as clear-cut. There’s no “after” picture. There’s no goal weight victory party. And for a culture that is obsessed with winning at all costs, this is also a sacrifice. For many people, the HAES model means giving up the external validation offered by doctors, friends, families and even total strangers that can come with weight loss. It even means a sacrifice of the notion that health and mortality is under our control—as many of us secretly believe that if we lose weight and do everything “right” we’ll live forever. Most people find this incredibly hard.

When you’ve lived the Health at Every Size approach for a number of years and experienced the joy and inner peace that comes with accepting and honoring your own body, it can be hard to understand why others don’t seem to “get it”. You remember the pain of the diet roller coaster and constant self-hatred and don’t ever, ever want to go back there. But as we help others along the way, it’s important to remember the things you gave up on the road to self-acceptance, and honor the grieving process that goes along with that. And it’s important to help those new to the HAES way of living to understand that while the Health At Every Size approach means giving up certain things, it means the precise opposite of giving up on yourself.

Posted in Jeanette DePatie | 15 Comments »

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