Unless you’ve been living under a lovely rock this week (and I would love to crawl under there with you), you’ve heard about the Congressional investigation into the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate spearheaded by Congressman Issa.

Here’s an image showing who was allowed to speak.

Congressman Issa's All Male Birth Control Panel

Here are a few words from a woman who originally was asked to speak and then denied that right by Issa:

The only people asked to speak at this conference were men. Not only were they men, but they were all religious leaders who are anti birth control.

So much for fact finding, huh?

As I looked at this panel, my thoughts went to an earlier panel, convened in 2003 to consider “Obesity And Dietary Guidelines.”

Here’s the first panel:

2003 Congressional Obesity Fact Finding Panel Part 1 (image courtesy of C-Span)

Hmmm, why is this so familiar?

And here’s the second panel:

2003 Congressional Obesity Fact Finding Panel Part 2 (image courtesy of C-Span)

So Congress looked into the question of obesity, and thought it completely reasonable to (a) not include any women and (b) not include any fat people!

Back in 2003, I was working as an attorney and happened to read about the hearing. This was before I had an inkling that there was such a thing as fat activism, but I remember remarking to a fellow lawyer (who was pretty slim) that I thought it was wrong to have a hearing about fat people without any fat people present. The response I got was something like, “Of course, there aren’t any fat people there. Fat people obviously don’t know what to do about the obesity epidemic!”

At the time, her response really hurt. Even if I wasn’t a fat activist, I didn’t like seeing my body as part of a societal problem. And I thought my colleague was wrong. Legislation is supposed to be well-thought out. Our representatives are supposed to see the intended and unintended effects of the legislation they write, and part of that process is hearing from experts. After a lifetime of being fat in our society, I was an expert on fatness. I knew what it felt like to lose and gain weight over and over, to have trouble finding clothes, to feel like a second-class citizen solely based on my body size. There were millions of us that could have shared our story, so why weren’t we asked?

And the decades-long, sad history of the war on fat is that it has been waged on women’s bodies especially. The message we get, again and again, is that we should take up as little space as possible. That our voices shouldn’t be heard too much, and that voice is only valid if reverberating from a slim, youthful-looking, fair-skinned body. The war on fat is part and parcel of the war on women and the war on people of color.  The message we get is that we should let men (and only men) figure out what’s best for us.

Congressman Issa’s panel wasn’t just a blip, a weird moment in political history.  Neither was that obesity panel.  It is all part and parcel of the war on women’s bodies, and on the right of privacy, and bodily autonomy.  We have to keep fighting for real representation.

Still True Today -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton (public domain image)

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/free to get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining! And, please join her and twenty of the biggest names in HAES(R) and Fat Acceptance at the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit.

No Legislation Without Fat And Female Representation originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on February 20, 2012.

If you haven’t checked out the live or recorded Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit yet, there’s still time to join us! Tonight we’re starting up again with our talk on fat blogging and social media with Marianne Kirby (author at xojane), Margitte Kristjansson (director of The Fat Body (In)Visible) and Brian Stuart (of the Red No. 3 Blog)!

 
What will you be saying about the Telesummit? Don’t miss out.  Register here and join us!

What People Are Saying . . . originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on February 16, 2012.

Last week, I had the honor of chatting about sex and dating with authors Hanne Blank and Virgie Tovar as part of the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit. They shared so much of their expertise on sex and dating*, that I just had to write about it this week.

I like to think of pleasure as a divine right bestowed upon all of us. Unfortunately, it’s a right that we don’t prioritize often enough.  We put all of our other responsibilities first, and forget that pleasure is our responsibility as well.  Pleasure is what makes living actually enjoyable.

Titian's Venus Of Urbino (image courtesy of wikipedia)

Pleasure, of course, can mean a lot of different things.  If it would make your day more pleasurable to take a break from work and meet a friend for coffee, to buy flowers for your office, to lie in bed for a bit listening to Chopin nocturnes, by all means, it’s time to start doing those things for yourself.  Little, pleasurable acts throughout the day can be completely life changing. (And I hope to address this again in a future blog post.)

But today, I want to address erotic/sensual/sexual pleasure.  The reason I want to address it is that I encounter a lot of clients who have given up on it or feel unduly stressed out just thinking about it.  And really, that makes sense.  If you’re struggling with body image issues, it’s hard to enjoy your body.  It’s hard to be naked.  You’re often waiting for that magical day when you lose x number of pounds, get a nose job, or basically have a different body. Perhaps you avoid dating or avoid sex altogether because of how you feel about your body. And these body image issues affect a wide range of people, even people who may be perceived as having an ideal body.

So, I have good news and bad news.  The bad news is, you’re probably never going to have that ideal body that you want to have.  Or if you have it or get it, it may not last as long as you want it to.

But here’s the really good news: it doesn’t actually matter.

Pleasure is your right, right now.  You don’t need a perfect body to have a great sex life, even if that sex life is, initially, with yourself.

It’s just time to stop looking.  Stop looking for what’s wrong with your body.  Stop looking at your body as a collection of flaws.  Stop looking, and start feeling.  Focus on pleasure, both as a guiding force in your life and as a feeling within your body.

Here are 3 tips to support you in re-prioritizing and getting comfortable with pleasure:

1) Touch Yourself With Pleasure — This is great to do in bed, in the shower, or whenever you have a free moment.  Just take a breath, and touch your body.  You can touch the top of your leg, your arms, your neck, etc.  Just touch your body and focus on the pleasure of it.  Focus on how good it feels to touch and be touched.  Vary the lightness of your strokes, and really focus on the feeling.  This will help you to lessen the focus on how your body looks, and allows you to understand and connect with how it feels.

2) Your Turn-on Is Sexy — Sexiness isn’t all about looks.  When you’re feeling turned on and connected to your sexiness, that’s a turn on for your partner (and potentially anyone else around).  Feeling connected to the sexiness of your pleasure may even support you in feeling better about how you look on a regular basis.

3) Be A Little Selfish — If you’re someone who worries a lot about what your partner thinks about how you look or what you’re doing, stop worrying (unless, of course, your partner communicates to you that they don’t like it).  Whenever you find yourself worrying over what your partner is thinking but they haven’t said anything about it, reconnect with how your body feels, focus on your own pleasure, and put the focus on yourself.  Focus on who you feel, how your body feels, what you’d like more of or less of.  By doing so, you’ll reconnect with your pleasure and allow yourself and your partner to have more fun.

*By the way, it’s not too late to hear what they and our other wonderful panelists had to say.  Just get an All-Access Pass here and you can hear it all!

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/free to get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining! And, please join her and twenty of the biggest names in HAES(R) and Fat Acceptance at the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit.

The Body Image Benefits Of Pleasure (Valentine’s Day Edition) originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on February 13, 2012.

OBSERVATION 1: I miss fat Jonah Hill.

I miss fat Jonah Hill (image courtesy of wikipedia)

I know it’s not cool to say it, and believe me, I believe in a person’s right to do what they will with their bodies, but I miss fat Jonah Hill.

I think it’s because I like seeing “one of us” in the movies.  His quirky humor was the only thing I enjoyed about Funny People.  I liked him as genius sabermetrics guy opposite Brad Pitt in Moneyball.  I could imagine a little, fat 10 year old who always gets picked last in gym class seeing him in a movie and saying, “Even if I don’t make the team, at least I can be the smart guy in the back office who gets to actually pick the team.”

Now he just looks like a thin guy who’s in movies, and it bums me out.

OBSERVATION 2: I won’t die if I see Melissa McCarthy‘s arms.

Melissa McCarthy (image courtesy of CNN)

I love Melissa McCarthy.  And apparently, she sometimes wears a 3/4 sleeve.  But every time I see her at some awards thing, she has super long sleeves on.

Seriously, I can only imagine the pressure and scrutiny she’s under.  I’m sure her size comes up in every stupid, useless interview for magazines that I refuse to read. But I’m just dying for her to pull a Gabby Sidibe and show some big fat arms!

OBSERVATION 3: All I want is to live in a world where Octavia Spencer doesn’t feel the need to “triple spanx.”

Octavia Spencer (image courtesy of Us Magazine)

Speaking of award-winning actresses constantly being asked inane questions about weight, Octavia Spencer is sick of it.  According to Jezebel, she posted about this on facebook, saying, “I am NOT WORRYING ABOUT MY WEIGHT! I AM NOT TRYING TO CONFORM TO an unrealistic model of beauty.”   Amen!

But she also told Ellen, “I triple-Spank. Which is not good. Spanx really, really work, but you don’t need to overdo it.” This woman is a freaking award winning freaking actress.  Can’t she be allowed to enjoy the moment without impinging on vital organs?  I’m all for an end to the havoc of chub rub, but I’m sick of this Spanx crap.

OBSERVATION 4: Paula Deen didn’t get diabetes from cooking with fat.

Paula Deen (image courtesy of The Food Network)

Just read this, guys.  Seriously.

OBSERVATION 5: Sometimes I miss the good ole days when Jennifer Hudson and Mariah Carey sang stuff, instead of just hawking weight loss b.s.

Remember stuff like this?

Now I only see her in this (real and awful) Weight Watchers ad:

I realize that all of these celebrities have incredible pressure put on them about their bodies.  Do a google search for any of these people and add the word fat and you will see page after page of horrible commentary.  That’s why it’s so important for each one of us to stand up to fat oppression.

In the meantime, at least we have Gabby Sidibe and Adele.

Some food for thought from Adele and Gabby (Image of Adele with quote from definatalie.tumblr.com, image of Gabby Sidibe from NBC, quote from Harper's Bazaar)

I think I need to go back on my media diet.

But seriously, what do you think?  Let’s chat over on my facebook page.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/free to get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining! And, please join her and twenty of the biggest names in HAES(R) and Fat Acceptance at the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit.

I Miss Fat Jonah Hill (And Other Mostly Pointless Celebrity Observations, In No Particular Order) originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on February 6, 2012.

Tonight, I’m going to be speaking with Ragen Chastain (of Dances With Fat) and Linda Bacon (who literally wrote the book on Health At Every Size®) as part of the 2nd Annual Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit!

As you may have heard, Ragen has organized a 1 day only money bomb to put up a billboard in a high-trafficked area of Atlanta with a positive message to counteract the negative Strong4Life campaign.

On top of that, the wonderful More Of Me To Love site is matching money bomb contributions up to $5,000!

I’ve already made a donation, but I want to do more. So, I’m donating 30% of the proceeds from Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit All-Access Passes purchased before 11PM Eastern today.

That means that when you purchase an All-Access Pass today, the proceeds will go:

• 30% to the Support All Kids Money Bomb
• 10% to NOLOSE
• 10% to NAAFA

(and the rest, as always, goes to supporting more free events like this from Body Love Wellness!)

Plus, you get live access to all the calls and access to the recordings through the end of March!

You can check out the Telesummit by clicking here and check out the money bomb by clicking here. You can even purchase your All-Access Pass right here!

Yes, Golda, please sign me up for an All Access Pass to the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit. Payment Options Great! $20.00 USD Yay! $30.00 USD Awesome! $40.00 USD Mindblowing! $50.00 USD

Thanks and I hope to “see” you tonight!

xo,

Golda

EDIT:  We raised $73 for the billboard project just from All Access Pass purchases!  Yay!

Buy A Pass, Get A Billboard originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on February 2, 2012.

We’re kicking off the Telesummit tonight with a big fat talk on fat activism!  We’ll be chatting with Marilyn Wann (author of Fat!So?), Amanda Levitt (Founder of Love Your Body Detroit) and Peggy Howell (PR Director for NAAFA).

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be talking health with Dr. Linda Bacon and Ragen Chastain, fatshion with Marie Denee, Rachel Kacenjar, and Yuliya Raquel, sex with Hanne Blank and Virgie Tovar, social media with Marianne Kirby, Margitte Leah Kristjannson and Brian Stuart, fitness with Jeanette DePatie and Anna Guest-Jelley, fat/queer intersections with Bevin Branlandingham, Charlotte Cooper, & Jessica Luxery, and politics with Paul Campos and Amy Erdman Farrell. You can see the full schedule here.

When you register, you’ll get free live access to all of the interviews, and you’ll have the opportunity to get yourquestions answered by our panel.

Click here to learn more and register!

I can’t wait to see you there!

Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit Starts Tonight! originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on January 31, 2012.

If you haven’t been privy to the awesome images coming from Marilyn Wann and the STANDards campaign, you need to check it out now. It’s okay, go ahead. I’ll wait!

Glad you’re back!

Me & Michelle Matthews (fatsocialworker.blogspot.com) Stand 4 Kids!

As you scrolled through the images, maybe you noticed that the people taking a stand for kids really represented a wide range of people. Some are very fat and some are a little fat and some are pretty thin. Some are small children and some are elderly and many are in between. Some are doing pretty athletic stuff and some are sitting happily.

It seemed that a really diverse group of people were submitting photos for the campaign, so I found it interesting when Marilyn posted this on Facebook last week:

“I notice that so many of us (and I can imagine myself having this feeling if I came across such an invite)…anticipate that we will be excluded for some reason. Confronted with this open invite to share a photo and a credo in these STANDards, people are telling me they must be too thin, not the right gender, not healthy enough. I am not going to exclude anyone for any reason.”

How interesting that people were assuming that they’d be excluded from this campaign because they’re too thin or not healthy enough.  I find this sad because I hear this a lot from people.   I’ve had clients tell me that they know it’s silly, but that they feel too fat for fat pride or too unhealthy for Health At Every Size®.  Like, other people can love their bodies because even though they’re fat, they’re not too fat.  Other people can practice Health At Every Size® because they’re already pretty healthy.  I also find that people toward the thinner end of the spectrum think they’ll be excluded from fat pride because they’re not fat enough.

So I want to deal with these objections in turn.  Check for the objection that applies to you and please take what I write to heart!

THE OBJECTIONS

I Can’t Be Part Of The Fat Pride Movement Because I’m Not Fat (Or Not Fat Enough) — Poppycock!  Well-meaning people of all sizes are welcome in the fat pride movement.  Those immersed in fat pride understand that discrimination against fat people is bad for society as a whole, negatively impacting thin people as well.  We want to live in a world where assumptions are no longer made about people’s bodies based on their relative fatness.  We want to live in a world where thin people don’t hurt their bodies out of a fear of being fat.  And we know that having allies is good for the movement.  Your voice and your presence is wanted and needed. So, welcome!

I Can’t Be Part Of The Fat Pride Movement Because I’m Too Fat – Hogwash!  There is absolutely no weight limit on loving and accepting your body.  Hating your body and trying to change it never got you anywhere before, right?  So why would anyone in the fat pride movement want you to continue that?  There is no separate set of rules that apply to you because you weigh a certain amount.  Your voice and your presence is wanted and needed. So, welcome!

I Can’t Be Part Of The Health At Every Size® Movement Because I’m Not Healthy Enough and/or Too Fat – Hooey!  Health At Every Size® is not Health At Certain Sizes And Only If You’re Healthy Enough.  It’s freakin’ Health At Every Size® and it’s not a misnomer!  HAES® recognizes that intentional weight loss isn’t a good idea and does more harm than good.  So the best thing for anyone’s health is, in a nutshell, eating well, getting appropriate exercise, and accepting their bodies.  Of course, you’re human, and sometimes humans get sick, but that doesn’t mean that  HAES® no longer applies to you.  In fact, accepting HAES® can help you clarify to the health professionals in your life that fixating on your weight will not help you heal.  Healthy or sick, you are an important part of this movement. Your voice and your presence is wanted and needed. So, welcome!

I hope I convinced you that Fat Pride and Health At Every Size® is for you.  And, I really hope you’ll join me for the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit which starts tomorrow night!  You don’t want to miss it.  Here’s just a sampling of what you’ll take away:

	Learn what to do when confronted with negativity about your weight.
	Find out how you can live your best life without the highs and lows of weight loss efforts.
	Connect with other people who are committed to being body positive.
	Get fashion tips from people who know and love exactly the body you have.
	Body positive exercise advice for all fitness levels, body types and abilities.
	Get historical and political perspectives on anti-fat efforts.
	Learn how queer activism can inform fat activism.
	Sex-positive and fat-positive advice for the awesome sex life you deserve.
	Hear the body love journeys of your favorite bloggers.
	Learn how to create fat-positive community locally.
	And so much more!

To join us, just register here.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight.

Fat Pride Is For Everyone, Even You (Yes, You!) originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on January 30, 2012.

Every once in a while, I meet someone in their 20′s who’s been part of the fat positive community since his/her young teens. Often, they found fat pride as a result of a late night Google search that led them to a blog or two. They often tell me they never(!) dieted and focused on approving of their body from a young age.  Sometimes, they even influenced their friends and spread body positivity in school, college, etc.

Fat Kid All Grown Up! Activist Marilyn Wann Parodies The Strong4Life Campaign

I get so excited when I hear these stories.  If fat positivity was reaching kids ten years ago, imagine who it’s reaching now!  We could be supporting a whole new generation of kids to practice Health At Every Size ®, to know that dieting is not the answer, to know that their bodies are perfect just as they are!

I think this is definitely happening (and if you’re a young’un who reads this blog, please feel free to comment and say hi!) but at the same time, I feel like there is even more pressure on fat kids nowadays to change their bodies.  This is nearly unfathomable to me, because as a kid growing up mostly in the 80′s, I felt so much shame and pressure around my fatness, and it’s hard to imagine it being worse.  But according to people who  ignore statistics, childhood obesity is on the rise.  And rather than look at the real issues, like child poverty, food deserts and the fact that our fat shaming society is actually bad for kids and their health, groups like Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta decide to put the onus on fat kids, shaming them for, well, eating, and eating at places that actually donate money to the campaign.  (By the way, fat activists have been doing some amazing work to take down the so-called “Strong4Life” campaign.  If you’re interested in getting involved, check out this site and this Facebook group. For a quick action you can take, sign the petition.)

As I wrote last week, I would really like to live in a society where fat shaming and discrimination are a thing of the past.  I hope to meet more and more young folks (and eventually, older folks) who found body acceptance and HAES® early, felt supported in approving of their bodies, and went on to do great things because body image was never an issue.

One way to support this Body Love Revolution is to support the adults in fat children’s lives. So I’d like to share some tips for the parents/guardians/grandparents/aunts/uncles etc. out there.  If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already aware of body positivity and want to instill it in the kids in your life.  If you have fat kids, you probably get pressure all the time to do something about their “weight problem.”  I can only imagine the pressure you feel.  And of course, you only have a limited amount of impact on your kids, since they live in this messed up, fat shaming society too.  But here are a few tips just to support you:

1) Demonstrate The Beauty Of Body Diversity — From the beauty industry to the medical industry, we’re bombarded with messages about the kind of bodies that are “good,” “healthy,” and “beautiful.”  These categories are often applied to only a tiny segment of the population, and the rest of us are expected to strive to achieve bodies that are more like this ideal.  As much as possible, try to show your children that a diversity of bodies is really beautiful.  Marilyn Wann’s Fat!So? book is particularly great for this — each chapter features a diversity of arms, bellies, legs etc. to show this beauty in diversity.  Whether you’re 7 or 70, it can feel great to have these reminders.

Dr. Linda Bacon Stands For Kids Too

2) Bring Resources With You When You Deal With Authority Figures — There are probably people in your life and your kid’s life who pressure you to get your kid to diet.  Diets don’t work for kids or adults, but that doesn’t stop doctors, teachers, etc. from pressuring you to put your kid on one.  Having a bit of research in front of you so that you can better advocate for your child can be really helpful.  Check out Linda Bacon’s incredibly helpful letters that you can bring with you to help explain why you’re using HAES® with your kids (and yourself).

3) Make Your Home A Body Positive Space — Think of your home as an oasis from fat shame.  What might need to change?  Maybe there are a few magazines that idealize thin bodies that you don’t want to buy anymore?  Maybe you want to tell your friends that you’re going to change the conversation if they start talking about how “bad” they are for eating something.  Maybe your bathroom scale needs to be replaced with something snazzier.  Getting intentional about creating a body positive home environment can be great for you and your kids.

4) Don’t Make Weight Loss The Answer — Despite the fact that fatness makes kids a target for bullying, protecting fat kids from bullying seems to be a low priority.  Since you hate to see your kids get picked on, you may think that dieting and weight loss are the answer.  But they aren’t the answer.  They just set your child up for more physical and mental health issues, including low self esteem and negative body image.  I’m no expert on bullying, but the more you remind your child that the bully is wrong and that his/her body is perfect the way it is, the better.

5) Get Body Positive Support For Yourself — I think it’s the rare person who escapes childhood and adolescence without body image issues, whether they’re fat or thin.  Fat positive community tends to be welcoming to lots of body types, because people understand that fat pride is about acknowledging that body shaming hurts all of us.  So look for blogs and groups (whether online or local) that feel supportive.  Also consider talking to a HAES therapist or coach (like me!) to support you in feeling great about your body.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/free to get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining! And, please join her and twenty of the biggest names in HAES(R) and Fat Acceptance at the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit (including Marilyn Wann and Linda Bacon, mentioned above)!

Is There Hope For Fat Kids? originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on January 23, 2012.

by Golda Poretsky, H.H.C.
www.bodylovewellness.com

Listen to the podcast of this post here:

Recently, one of my clients told me that one of the reasons why she was fighting for gay marriage rights in her state was that she wanted to be “on the right side of history.” She hopes that someday gay marriage will be so non-controversial that years from now she’ll have grandchildren that won’t be able to conceive of a time when the right to marry was dependent upon the sex of the participants. I really hope that her vision of the future comes true.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (Image courtesy of The Seattle Times)

Similarly, I like to envision a future where discrimination based on weight is not only illegal, but obviously nonsensical. I like to envision a world where all of the negative things that are ascribed to fatness are no longer so ascribed, where people really are judged for the “content of their character,” (to quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.), rather than the size of their bodies. My hope is that being on the right side of history means seeing weight oppression as the baseless, useless, horrifically detrimental thing that it is, and that future generations will see that more clearly.

I had always seen The Civil Rights Act and cases like Griswold v. Connecticut as settled. I thought that the hard fought battle for civil rights had resulted in legislation and court decisions that the vast majority of Americans now understood as a very obvious good idea. Even if implementation was messy at least the truths were self-evident. Now, actual, allegedly viable contenders (cough, Ron Paul, cough) for President are pro-repeal.  And as for gay rights, just please go ahead and google Santorum.

Despite all this angling on the Right to be the craziest extremist, I think the majority of people do support civil rights and they understand that discrimination is harmful and unfair.  So now if we can just pull the wool from their eyes and get them to see the harm in weight oppression, perhaps they’ll join us on the right side of history.

Happy Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/free to get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining! And, please join her and twenty of the biggest names in HAES(R) and Fat Acceptance at the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit!

Being On The Right Side Of History originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on January 16, 2012.

For years, liberals like me had lauded NPR for reporting on stories that you wouldn’t hear anywhere else.  They could be counted on for revealing a different perspective on societal and political issues.

But when it comes to weight, NPR has a big problem.  Recently, as part of NPR’s series on obesity in America, it’s been running sickeningly laudatory reports on weight loss high schools.  (Trigger Warning for talk of calorie restriction and the merits of weight loss.  Plus, if you formerly liked NPR you might start to think that defunding it is a good idea. )

The piece below offers a different perspective, and gives you a sense of what these schools really teach: obsessive behaviors, extreme calorie restriction, body hatred, and outright lies.
  by Sarah Yahm

And while we’re on the topic of fat kids, please click here to petition to end Georgia’s fat shame campaign against kids.

Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. Go to http://www.bodylovewellness.com/free to get your free download — Golda’s Top Ten Tips For Divine Dining! And, please join her and twenty of the biggest names in HAES(R) and Fat Acceptance at the Body Love Revolutionaries Telesummit!

NPR’s Weight Problem originally appeared on Body Love Wellness on January 11, 2012.