Monday:
Family health news has been horrible this week. I found out that my Uncle Greg had a stroke, not sure how long ago, without my mum to pass on news I don’t hear a lot from her family and only see them weddings, funerals and Christmas. But as a child we had family dinners at my grandparents every Sunday. He’s being looked after full time by his wife at home right now. He’s 67, I think. My mum, who was overweight and unhealthy all her life with asthma and allergies, died at 73 of cancer. Her sister, thin and fit and healthy all her life, died at 66 of cancer. Now Greg, also very fit and slender, who was still playing competitive tennis, has had a stroke. It’s rather depressing. I guess you can only mitigate risks, you can’t guarantee a long life.
I learned about Uncle Greg from a cousin, who actually contacted me about our Poppa who at 102 looks like he’s going to outlive all his children. He’s still living (alone for 20 years) in his own home, looking after himself, but has had a couple of falls recently and has trouble getting up from the floor, and is in bed since the most recent fall. My Uncle Greg, his youngest son, lives just across the road, but obviously right now he is in no condition to keep an eye on him. Various grandkids are helping, but it’s tricky. So the family, including Poppa himself, feel it might be time for him to go into a nursing home. But.... Covid. Nursing homes are terrible places to be right now. Lots of deaths. It’s hard to know what to do.
Then today, my father-in-law had some chest pains. They are keeping him in hospital overnight to monitor. We’re not allowed to visit. He’s very overweight, and has prostate cancer. Very worrying. I feel quite helpless.
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health. Show all posts
Monday, August 17, 2020
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
Update
Thursday:
You may have guessed from my lack of communication on the subject lately that my weight loss isn't going so well. I refuse to stop blogging, I am not going to disappear just because I'm eating way too much of all the wrong things, but I tend to avoid that particular subject when I'm not doing well. Time for an update.
I am walking a little bit most days. Not anywhere near what I should be doing at my fitness level. I was really concentrating on writing, and very excited about that, so I don't actually regret taking that time to write instead of exercise. But I need to increase now (while still working on reviewing my book as well). My health is important.
Another reason I've been staying inside with the doors closed during some lovely spring weather is that a particular weed is flowering profusely all over the area and giving me bad hay fever. I don't get hay fever often, but this Capeweed stuff seems to get right up my nose, as it were. A friend of mine has had to keep her son home from school he is so badly affected, so it's not just me. Headaches, sore throat, foggy head, runny nose. And I'd just got over my cold! But I'm better as long as I don't go outside, and hopefully the flowering season won't be too long or people will mow down the flowers or something (it's a daisy-like weed that infiltrates lawns and the school is blanketed in it, the oval is a sea of yellow). Today is raining anyway, and I plan to dance inside the house.
My food has been bad. And the scales are reflecting that. Up a bit more each week. It's a nasty shock each time I weigh myself. Or see a photo. And I look terrible in the face, although that is more hay fever than fat. I am not liking how I look or feel at the moment.
As usual at this stage, I am torn between the two extremes of an unsustainable punishing regime to lose weight quickly and a more gentle small-changes approach that won't work fast enough to motivate me.
We are in the last week of school term before two weeks of holidays. In the first week we already have planned a visit to Sydney for a party and to see my mother, my dad and his partner staying here for a few days, and my father-in-law and his partner staying here for a different few days. The whole week will be filled with offering and being offered excessive food. I do plan to make healthy desserts, or some of them at least, and I am responsible for what goes in my mouth, but I'm just saying it will be an additional challenge.
And yet, all this is just one part of my life. I need to make my health more of a priority, but I am very happy about other things. I have written a novel, people!!
You may have guessed from my lack of communication on the subject lately that my weight loss isn't going so well. I refuse to stop blogging, I am not going to disappear just because I'm eating way too much of all the wrong things, but I tend to avoid that particular subject when I'm not doing well. Time for an update.
I am walking a little bit most days. Not anywhere near what I should be doing at my fitness level. I was really concentrating on writing, and very excited about that, so I don't actually regret taking that time to write instead of exercise. But I need to increase now (while still working on reviewing my book as well). My health is important.
Another reason I've been staying inside with the doors closed during some lovely spring weather is that a particular weed is flowering profusely all over the area and giving me bad hay fever. I don't get hay fever often, but this Capeweed stuff seems to get right up my nose, as it were. A friend of mine has had to keep her son home from school he is so badly affected, so it's not just me. Headaches, sore throat, foggy head, runny nose. And I'd just got over my cold! But I'm better as long as I don't go outside, and hopefully the flowering season won't be too long or people will mow down the flowers or something (it's a daisy-like weed that infiltrates lawns and the school is blanketed in it, the oval is a sea of yellow). Today is raining anyway, and I plan to dance inside the house.
My food has been bad. And the scales are reflecting that. Up a bit more each week. It's a nasty shock each time I weigh myself. Or see a photo. And I look terrible in the face, although that is more hay fever than fat. I am not liking how I look or feel at the moment.
As usual at this stage, I am torn between the two extremes of an unsustainable punishing regime to lose weight quickly and a more gentle small-changes approach that won't work fast enough to motivate me.
We are in the last week of school term before two weeks of holidays. In the first week we already have planned a visit to Sydney for a party and to see my mother, my dad and his partner staying here for a few days, and my father-in-law and his partner staying here for a different few days. The whole week will be filled with offering and being offered excessive food. I do plan to make healthy desserts, or some of them at least, and I am responsible for what goes in my mouth, but I'm just saying it will be an additional challenge.
And yet, all this is just one part of my life. I need to make my health more of a priority, but I am very happy about other things. I have written a novel, people!!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
The fat acceptance movement
Thursday:
A couple of days ago I was doing some blog-hopping -- where one blog you follow recommends another and that leads you to another etc -- and I ended up reading some posts (and lots of follow-up comments) about fat acceptance. It started with one woman's experience of being discriminated against because she was too big to fit in the airplane seat.
I will say first of all that at my heaviest weight I was about 25 kg (50 pounds or so) overweight so I have never been big enough to have an issue like this. The only seat I have failed to fit into is the swing at the local park. I have bought things in specialty clothing stores a couple of times because they seemed to fit better (always the smallest size they had) but generally I shop in normal stores. I have certainly felt unattractive at times but I have never felt discriminated against in any way due to being overweight.
What I got from the fat acceptance posts were these points.
1. People shouldn't be discriminated against due to their weight.
2. Don't assume overweight people are unhealthy, you can be healthy at any weight.
3. You should love yourself no matter your size.
4. Dieting doesn't work, so don't even try.
Points 1 and 3 are fine, but I found point 2 a bit dubious and assertion 4 really depressing. It made me want to go and eat a whole packet of chocolate biscuits. Many commenters said that 95% of people regain all the weight they have lost within 5 years (plus extra) so well-meaning doctors, friends, and complete strangers in the street who tell you to diet and exercise are completely misinformed and stupid and counter-productive. They said that being obese does not cause diabetes, cancer or heart disease (and quoted studies) and seemed to be strongly suggesting that we just all stay fat and anyone who tries to lose weight is the product of society's brain-washing and is a moron. And doomed to failure anyway.
It has honestly taken me a couple of days to recover from this onslaught. Of course I have heard lots of times that most people who lose weight put it all back on again, so should I just give up and resign myself to being pudgy for the rest of my life? Today I started tackling this logically.
Regarding point 2; even if it is true that being overweight does not have serious health risks (which goes against everything authorities are saying, I don't claim that "authorities" aren't often proved wrong but that also puts the fat-acceptance scientific studies into just as much doubt as the other ones) -- even if it is true, I personally feel much healthier when I am less fat. When I was thinner I had much more energy, less joint pain, less illness. At my heaviest, a year ago, I was always tired and bloated and uncomfortable. I am currently somewhere in between; but I still often feel lethargic, my thighs rub together if I wear a skirt, and my feet get tired quickly. I get a pain in the muscles under my breasts when I bend over. Even when not taking into account emotional pain (which would presumably be removed by my learning to love myself at any size), I feel much better when thinner.
And of course I don't actually believe this assertion that obesity doesn't contribute to various medical conditions. There is heart disease in my family and I had gestational diabeties, I need to take action to reduce my risk. Not everyone who is overweight is unhealthy, but I believe it is a major contributing factor.
Point 4 was the one that really got to me as I found it more believable based on a lot of anectodal evidence. Lots of peole do put the weight back on. But:
a) "Diets" are restrictive and unsustainable and may indeed cause rebound weight gain; but making changes towards a healthy lifestyle including improved food choices and more exercise is a viable way to gradually lose weight and improve fitness. You have to do it in a way you can live with long term.
b) If I gave up and stopped trying to control my weight; I wouldn't just stay pudgy, I would rapidly expand. "Not dieting" would end up with me much bigger even than a restrictive diet that rebounded on me. So I need to make some changes even if I just want to stay the weight I currently am.
c) I read lots of blogs where people have kept the weight off, or at least most of it; and have gone from morbidly obese to merely overweight. I call that a win.
So I am not telling healthy happy obese people that they have to lose weight if they don't want to. That is entirely up to them. But I don't agree that it isn't possible for them to. I will try not to judge them as lazy and uncooperative as the common perception goes (I know that isn't true -- being overweight does not make you a bad person). I will most likely still see them as fairly unattractive. And I am not healthy or happy when overweight, so I am going to slowly and sustainably lose weight and get fit.
And please don't tell me I can't.
A couple of days ago I was doing some blog-hopping -- where one blog you follow recommends another and that leads you to another etc -- and I ended up reading some posts (and lots of follow-up comments) about fat acceptance. It started with one woman's experience of being discriminated against because she was too big to fit in the airplane seat.
I will say first of all that at my heaviest weight I was about 25 kg (50 pounds or so) overweight so I have never been big enough to have an issue like this. The only seat I have failed to fit into is the swing at the local park. I have bought things in specialty clothing stores a couple of times because they seemed to fit better (always the smallest size they had) but generally I shop in normal stores. I have certainly felt unattractive at times but I have never felt discriminated against in any way due to being overweight.
What I got from the fat acceptance posts were these points.
1. People shouldn't be discriminated against due to their weight.
2. Don't assume overweight people are unhealthy, you can be healthy at any weight.
3. You should love yourself no matter your size.
4. Dieting doesn't work, so don't even try.
Points 1 and 3 are fine, but I found point 2 a bit dubious and assertion 4 really depressing. It made me want to go and eat a whole packet of chocolate biscuits. Many commenters said that 95% of people regain all the weight they have lost within 5 years (plus extra) so well-meaning doctors, friends, and complete strangers in the street who tell you to diet and exercise are completely misinformed and stupid and counter-productive. They said that being obese does not cause diabetes, cancer or heart disease (and quoted studies) and seemed to be strongly suggesting that we just all stay fat and anyone who tries to lose weight is the product of society's brain-washing and is a moron. And doomed to failure anyway.
It has honestly taken me a couple of days to recover from this onslaught. Of course I have heard lots of times that most people who lose weight put it all back on again, so should I just give up and resign myself to being pudgy for the rest of my life? Today I started tackling this logically.
Regarding point 2; even if it is true that being overweight does not have serious health risks (which goes against everything authorities are saying, I don't claim that "authorities" aren't often proved wrong but that also puts the fat-acceptance scientific studies into just as much doubt as the other ones) -- even if it is true, I personally feel much healthier when I am less fat. When I was thinner I had much more energy, less joint pain, less illness. At my heaviest, a year ago, I was always tired and bloated and uncomfortable. I am currently somewhere in between; but I still often feel lethargic, my thighs rub together if I wear a skirt, and my feet get tired quickly. I get a pain in the muscles under my breasts when I bend over. Even when not taking into account emotional pain (which would presumably be removed by my learning to love myself at any size), I feel much better when thinner.
And of course I don't actually believe this assertion that obesity doesn't contribute to various medical conditions. There is heart disease in my family and I had gestational diabeties, I need to take action to reduce my risk. Not everyone who is overweight is unhealthy, but I believe it is a major contributing factor.
Point 4 was the one that really got to me as I found it more believable based on a lot of anectodal evidence. Lots of peole do put the weight back on. But:
a) "Diets" are restrictive and unsustainable and may indeed cause rebound weight gain; but making changes towards a healthy lifestyle including improved food choices and more exercise is a viable way to gradually lose weight and improve fitness. You have to do it in a way you can live with long term.
b) If I gave up and stopped trying to control my weight; I wouldn't just stay pudgy, I would rapidly expand. "Not dieting" would end up with me much bigger even than a restrictive diet that rebounded on me. So I need to make some changes even if I just want to stay the weight I currently am.
c) I read lots of blogs where people have kept the weight off, or at least most of it; and have gone from morbidly obese to merely overweight. I call that a win.
So I am not telling healthy happy obese people that they have to lose weight if they don't want to. That is entirely up to them. But I don't agree that it isn't possible for them to. I will try not to judge them as lazy and uncooperative as the common perception goes (I know that isn't true -- being overweight does not make you a bad person). I will most likely still see them as fairly unattractive. And I am not healthy or happy when overweight, so I am going to slowly and sustainably lose weight and get fit.
And please don't tell me I can't.
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