Friday is Buy Nothing Day

The day after Thanksgiving is lovingly referred to as Black Friday. I know I have fond memories of spending turkey day at my sister and brother-in-laws browsing the paper ad flyers, with my sister and aunt hunting down the best bargains and making a game plan for which stores to hit in which order. They had kids to buy Christmas presents for, and I had none.

Now I do have a kid, but I refuse to inherit the madness that plagues a large majority of my family. Shopping and over consumption.

Not only do we have a tendency to over consume food, but we also have the same with tendency when it comes to bargains.

This Friday, we are staying at home, and I’m making a game plan to spend the day with my daughter and husband. We will not be hitting the stores. That includes shopping for food too.

I do however have plans to hit the road. I’ll be walking and working off some of the goodies I consumed on Thanksgiving.

For the holidays, my husband and I will not be buying gifts for one another, and I think my younger sister and I agreed not to purchase as well. I already have a few little things for my daughter, but we plan to spend Christmas morning enjoying one another’s company and food, instead of gifts we don’t need or use. I hope to teach her the lesson that spending time with family is more important than presents.

Check out the Buy Nothing Day campaign at Adbusters, and see how you can join the 24 hour moratorium on consumer spending. I especially like the credit card cut up, although they warn that carrying scissors in public could get you arrested as a “terrorist”. Or watch the North American Piggy ad on YouTube.

Next step for me, Buy Nothing Christmas.

Happy non-shopping holidays!

Turning walking into jogging

I watched the PBS special Marathon Challenge a few weeks ago, and it inspired me to try to run. Not a marathon mind you, but just start running. Vera was cool; she had lost over 85 pounds before starting the program. Betsy wanted to loose weight, so that’s why she started training.

I learned during the program that man could outrun his meals way back in the day, but if I had to outlast my next meal, I don’t think I’d be eating very much.

One of my friends, B, downloaded a spreadsheet and passed it along to me to begin a running program by alternating walking with running. It has a plan where you run for 2 minutes, walk for 4 minutes, and gradually increase your running over 9 weeks till you can run for 30 minutes straight.

I finished my master’s program, so need a new challenge. I bought a sport watch, a Timex, and bought a few pairs of running shorts on clearance. These are my first, and I found them interesting to try on. I ran in a pair yesterday, with no underwear, since they have ones built in. The little pocket inside for your key was cool too. 

I came home yesterday evening, and the temp on the local sign said 64 degrees. It was nice, so I decided to take a walk/jog! I put on my shorts, sports bra, t-shirt, pedometer, placed my keys in my underwear and hit the pavement before 5:30 p.m.

This was my second attempt at the walk/jog thing. My last one was over a week ago, last Monday, but then I got busy with my classes at the gym. I got home before 5pm, so it was still light out then, but yesterday it was already dark.

I started out with a walk down my street, heading towards the main road. When I reached our tennis courts, I started jogging. I did not bring my watch. I huffed and puffed till I got too tired and then walked. I alternated this walking and jogging thing for what seemed to take forever. I headed out of my sub division, on the main road, down another side road, turned around and heading back home.

I arrived home sweaty, at about 6 p.m.; imagine my surprise when I thought I had been gone for nearly an hour, and it was only 30 minutes. That’s after I had stretched too.

I logged about 4,000 steps on my pedometer, so about 2 miles. On my way home tonight, I drove and restarted my odometer to estimate how much I had done. It was exactly 2 miles.

The running shorts did not perform as good as I expected. The underwear part was nice, but I still had the riding up the fat thighs thing going on, but luckily it was dark so no one could see. My sports bra however, did perform very well.

So I did it again tonight, but this time in pants. It was much colder and windy out. My hips hurt, my shins hurt, but I’ll try to increase my running till I can run the whole two miles. Hopefully I’ll be able to do it by the end of January.

Thankfully my pants did not ride up. I much prefer running in them over shorts.

Maybe I’ll try a 5K in 2008?

I better wait and see if I can make it to January first.

Culture Jam book review

Culture Jam

I started this book, Culture Jam How to Reverse America’s Suicidal Consumer Binge – And Why We Must, towards the end of grad school, and just picked it up again and finished it this past week. I’ve wanted to read it for a few years now, and finally got around to it. It’s authored by the founder of Adbusters Magazine, Kalle Lasn.

A few points I found particularly interesting and relevant to food, fat and consumerism. In the chapter, The End of the American Dream, Lasn writes about postwar America and says “People gobbled takeout and started getting fat.” He concludes the chapter with a story of Elvis getting fat, and his death “Elvis devoured pills and fried-banana-and-peanut-butter sandwiches, suppressing the pain of being Elvis and seemingly trying to lose himself inside his own expanding girth.”

He likens the Elvis story to the old American Dream. “Our bodies, minds, families, communities, the environment – all are consumed.”

He also writes in the chapter Demarketing Loops about uncooling fast food, and uncooling the fashion industry. The book was published in 1999, and I had forgotten some of the advertising campaigns he mentions, but reading about them brought back memories.  He writes about the 1995 Calvin Klein campaign where young models were filmed in basements and were so offensive they were investigated by the U.S. Justice department.

Interspersed with the text are samples of his spoof ads and un-commercials including the Obsession Fetish 30 second TV spot.

I loved this paragraph,

“The first stage of demarketing our bodies involves realizing the true source of our self-esteem problems. It’s important to understand that we ourselves are not to blame. Body-image distortions, eating disorders, dieting and exercise addictions….They’re are responsibility, but they are not our fault. The issue is primarily a cultural and corporate one, and that’s the level on which it must be tackled. We must learn to direct our anger, not inwardly at ourselves, but outwardly at the beauty industry.”

The book is a little dated, but still very relevant. A lot has changed in 8 years, but we are still facing the environmental crisis that we were back then, including the assaults on our minds, bodies and the environment by corporate America. 

Shut down your computer, turn off your TV; pick up this book and read.

Love Your Body Day

It’s not always easy to love our bodies. Especially if you are overweight and the world tells you that you should lose weight.

I do not love my body when it steps on the scale and even though I’ve been working out hard and eating right, the numbers fail to go down.

But today is Love Your Body Day, so I’m going to tell you what I love about my body.

I love my womb which made and carried my daughter for over 9 months, and my breasts which fed her nearly 9 months after she entered the world. I love my arms to hold her and my hips which still carry her occasionally.

I love my long legs and feet; they took me for an 11,000 step 2 hour walk this morning, two 3 mile walks, plus three workouts at the gym this past week.

Go take the I love My Body Pledge, it’s good stuff:

I, (Name), pledge to speak kindly about my body.

I promise not to talk about how fat my thighs or stomach or butt are, or
about how I really have to lose 5 or 15 or 50 pounds. I promise not to call
myself a fat pig, gross, or any other self-loathing, trash-talking phrase.

I vow to be kind to myself and my body. I will learn to be grateful for its
strength and attractiveness, and be compassionate toward its failings.

I will remind myself that bodies come in all shapes and sizes, and that no
matter what shape and size my body is, it’s worthy of kindness, compassion, and love.

What do you love about your body?

Book review – Stiff

Just finished reading this book, Stiff  The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, this week, and learned if you are fat, no one will probably want your body even if you donate it to science after you die. I bought it used at a fundraiser, based on a friend’s recommendation. It was written by Mary Roach, published in 2003, and made the NY Times Bestseller list.

I’ve always marked “organ donor” on my driver’s license, and have thought I’d want cremation after I die. I also have thought it cool that some people donate their bodies to science, but after reading this book, it looks like the anatomy labs wouldn’t want me.

An anatomy lab is as choosy as a pedigreed woman seeking love: You can’t be too fat or too tall or have any communicable diseases.

Oh, well. There goes my donation to science.

But then reading along further in the book, it looks like are other options besides burial, cremation and donation, you can be recycled! Wow, how cool is that?

In Chapter 11 she writes about composting bodies and new methods that can help compost a body better than just burying it in soil and turning it occasionally (which would take about a month and a half to return it to the soil). The author visits Sweden where an entrepreneur and environmentalist came up with a way to freeze dry a body, break it up, and then bury it to turn into compost.

If an anatomy lab won’t take my body because I’m too fat, maybe I’ll be recycled, the environmentally friendly way to dispose of my body after I’m gone.

It’s a fascinating book, and I recommend you read it.

Nice cover Time Magazine

I saw this cover two weeks ago, but have been too busy to comment on it. I like it of course, since I am using the Rosie the Riveter image in my own way with my big boned blog logo and “Can We Do It?” phrase. I read Newsweek, Business Week, Wired and Weight Watchers magazine, but haven’t read this issue.

I am thinking of making a t-shirt and stamps out of my logo, if I can ever find the time to sit down and design (outside of work). I’m also hoping one day to have some nice looking arm muscles (instead of my flab) where I can have someone photograph me in the styling of this iconic poster from WWII.

I show off my little biceps and triceps to family members, but am not at the point where I can model my arms just yet. Lifting my 39 pound daughter does helps build up my muscles even if I can’t always exercise.

Anyway, nice cover Time.

There is no magic pill

As I was browsing through one of the monthly magazines I read on a regular basis, I came across a little piece of pharmaceutical news.

Xenical the prescription weight loss drug is now going over the counter on June 15th with the name alli. It was approved by the FDA and will hit shelves in just a few days. The myalli website has information about the product and its possible side effects with use. They include oily spotting, flatus with discharge, fecal urgency and fatty oily stools among others.

Anyone remember the old SNL commercial for Oops I crapped my pants?  I don’t know about you, but I’ve been changing my daughters diapers for over two years now, I don’t want to have to change my own.

Basically the material says you still have to watch what you eat with a low calorie low fat diet and exercise, but if you were to loose 10 pounds with just those, it would help you loose 15. It is a fat blocker that stops some absorption of fat during digestion, but all meals must be under 15 grams of fat. If you consume more than that, you could have some of the side effects.

Their message boards have price comparisons, but it’s about $50 for 60 pills. And the company’s marketing budget for the product? About $150 million for this year but it could potentially earn them $50 billion-a-year.

Yes, there is no magic pill for weight loss, it still takes hard work to watch what you eat and incorporate exercise into your life. It will help you loose more weight than doing it by yourself, but weigh (no pun intended) the side effects first before deciding to use it.

Joy Nash – Love your “Fat Rant”

I’m not really into YouTube, but I came across this video over the weekend called “Fat Rant” by Joy Nash. A little over 7 minutes long, it’s a great watch if you have the time. There was also a write up in the NYTimes about it.
 
To sum it up, she discusses how she navigates the world as a big boned girl. She is not afraid to say she weighs 224 pounds and wears a size 18 or 20, or a 3X. Her doctor told her she is moderately obese, but she refuses to diet and asks society to look at fat people beyond their excess weight. “When you see a fat person, look at them, in the face, and smile,” Nash says.
 
A favorite part of mine is when she goes into a clothing store to browse the racks and views size 0 to 12, but nothing in her size. She declares that if retailers don’t make clothes that fit her and her body she won’t shop there anymore. You go girl! She’s also scheduled to appear on Entertainment Tonight today, so check her out there or on YouTube.

Weight Watchers vs. Curves Magazine (diane)

I’ve been on Weight Watchers for awhile now and have been fairly successful. I’m not at goal and am not sure when I’ll finally (or if I) make it.

I also worked at Curves briefly after my daughter turned 1 (so I could get out of the house, work out and loose more weight). Curves is an excellent program although I am younger than their target demographic which is 40+ women.

Comparing their magazines though, WW is a paid subscription delivered six times per year and Diane, the Curves magazine, is free for their customers and is issued quarterly. The thing I like best about Curves magazine is that they feature women who are working the program and have lost weight, even though they may not be at their goal weight or even their “ideal” weight. Their stories are inspiring and inspirational for those of us working on our weight problems and issues. Now WW on the other hand only features people who have reached their goal weight. While I also admire them, it makes me feel like a loser or a failure that I haven’t reached my goal yet and I’ve been doing the program since 2003 (even though I was delayed by a pregnancy and birth).

If WW magazine and indeed all women’s magazines feature women of real sizes and all body shapes and types, I believe a lot more of us would stop (or reduce) the self loathing of our bodies. Perhaps if we changed our media to show real women, then advertisers and marketing would sell less of their diet and weight loss products. Feature more women, who are real, although less than “ideal.” We come in all shapes and sizes, yet all we see is one size fits all. Unfortunately for the majority of women’s magazines, that is not the case.