BLOG.KIMWRITES.COM: Recent Comments

Comment on Dear Mrs. Obama: On Your Campaign to Fight Childhood Obesity

2010-07-19T14:22:39Z

I have to agree. I'm a weight loss coach who has achieved permanent weight loss and my practice is filled with clients who were demonized as children for their size, shape, weight, appearance. It's sad.

When people lose weight permanently, they come to their true body size and shape, and they often aren't happy with it because it doesn't match the covers of magazines.

On the other hand, if the govt wants to really emphasize health, I recommend subsidizing healthy food and making it truly available for all; helping poorer neighborhoods establish their own gardens; taxing the processed crap food so it is not as attractive; mandating physical education for all children (I was shocked when I realized my young son would go to phy-ed class only 2x a week!); and educating every child at an appropriate age about positive self-image, body image and the danger of diets.

Pat Barone, CPCC, PCC
"America's Weight Loss Catalyst"

Comment on Dear Mrs. Obama: On Your Campaign to Fight Childhood Obesity

2010-07-19T12:40:05Z

I don't disagree that promoting healthful eating and activity is worthwhile. What I have a problem with is pinning "FIGHT OBESITY" onto the whole campaign.

If you promote healthful eating and physical activity, then you're naturally promoting a lifestyle that will reduce the weight of SOME children.

So why bring OBESITY into the equation at all, Fab Kate?

See, what happens is, the kids whose bodies DON'T shrink in response to carrot sticks and playing tag will be left feeling stigmatized. "What I am is WRONG. I'm a FREAK. What I am is something everyone -- including the First Lady -- wants to wipe out. What I am is SO incredibly wrong, that the First Lady chose to launch a nationwide CAMPAIGN against what I am."

Fab Kate, your argument assumes that all fat children are fat because they don't exercise or eat right. It's the same assumption so many people erroneously make about fat adults.

I've known kids who were just plain chubby, NOT because they overate, NOT because they weren't active. They were just chubby. Their bodies weren't FINISHED yet. They were CHILDREN. And when they got older, they slimmed down -- naturally.

I've also known children who appeared "fat" by our societal standards, who were only reflecting their family's genetic code to be stocky. Not necessarily obese, but short and solid. As children, they "appeared" fat. They, like the rest of their family, were healthy as a horse.

But bring in an entire society, conducted by a misguided First Lady, who wants to FIGHT what they are.

The kid who didn't have an eating disorder before might develop one now. Or develop another harmful way to cope with his or her anxiety. They're guaranteed to develop poor self-esteem. Because the ENTIRE COUNTRY is telling them that what they are is WRONG, and must be FOUGHT.

And WOW, no worse time to fill somebody's mind and soul with those messages than CHILDHOOD if you want them to stick.

Michelle Obama needs to take "fighting obesity" out of the equation. She is obviously lacking in vision; otherwise, she would understand that focusing on the positive -- eating well and exercising -- is ENOUGH. Children who are perhaps fat because of how they eat will learn to eat better. PERIOD. Mission accomplished, without doing harm. But "fighting obesity" is DOING HARM.

Admittedly, it takes some extra-credit thinking to get it -- a willingness to think beyond the media messages we get spoon-fed every day. (Fat ALWAYS causes DISEASE -- so you have total carte blanche to DEMONIZE it to your heart's content. And thanks for towing the line, because it helps sell our products. Love, the multi-billion dollar weight loss industry.)

Nothing wrong with good nutrition. Nothing wrong with getting active.

But making children feel bad for what they are? Reinforcing for other children (and adults) that fat children are FLAWED creatures?

It's short-sighted and cruel.

Comment on Dear Mrs. Obama: On Your Campaign to Fight Childhood Obesity

2010-07-19T12:18:35Z

I respectfully disagree. We know that obesity is related to several health issues, not just heart attack and stroke, but cancer and other chronic or terminal conditions. I don't feel showing concern over preventive medicine constitutes stigma. Not for adults... not for children.

I think that if we are to profess that we love our children, that we would want to feed them the healthiest foods we can afford, and have them in the best physical condition... and that proposing actions that will make it easier for mothers to care for their children in this way is admirable.

I absolutely support Michelle Obama in the Let's Move Campaign.

Comment on After the Fire, a False Alarm for Jumpy Ocean Grove, NJ

2010-07-16T14:23:15Z

I am really sorry to hear that several beloved 19th century buildings were destroyed in historic Ocean Grove, New Jersey, including the Manchester Inn. In fact I can never forget Manchester Inn because we had spent our honeymoon there. It was my wife’s choice. In the beginning I was skeptical but soon I realized that we had made the right decision by deciding to stay there. I really wonder who is behind this cowardly act. I seriously feel that the authorities should wake up from their sleep otherwise such incidents will be happening again.

Comment on Of Fatness and False Benevolence: The Nightline Debate

2010-05-17T04:56:22Z

Cat, do NOT let crazy people decide how you should feel!

God is not crazy, and He made you out of love and joy. It's only when we start to reflect that in our own selves that the crazy people have to look around for a different target, because we are clearly not buying it.

The "what? are you nuts?" look of complete incredulity can be very effective. Seriously.

xox,
Carol

Comment on Of Fatness and False Benevolence: The Nightline Debate

2010-05-16T23:43:29Z

that meme woman is off her rocker. UMM set point, hello. I find her perspective to be incredibly disturbing. I do agree with her on one thing, that the ingredients in processed food may not be great for us, but she totally targets the wrong place.

Fat is not bad! Fat is not a direct measure of health. Weight is not a direct measure of health. Things like cholesterol on the other hand are. So if we know that soda pop= higher cholesterol, FINE. But why do we have to target body size???

We can't help the way we are born:(

I'm really sad right now.

Comment on Blatant Ageism at Barnard College: No Liver Spots on These Freshmen

2010-05-13T16:57:02Z

you my friend are misinformed and the statistics will bare it out, as of 1997 non-traditional students were in excess of 40% of the total students on campus and since then it has been increasing. the face of today's' college student is no longer a 17-21 year old but a 30-50 year old student. it is time for college campuses to begin gearing their recruitment strategies towards older students.
the person writing this blog has a legitimate gripe here.

Comment on Sexuality, Self-Identification, and Simon LeBon.

2010-05-12T19:23:14Z

Very well said.

Comment on Blatant Ageism at Barnard College: No Liver Spots on These Freshmen

2010-05-11T20:52:08Z

i am an older student/non-traditional and have been one for many years but i never felt the discrimination quite like i have recently when i came back to school to IUPUI in fall of 2008. it started right at the beginning with a student giving me the run-around when i was trying to go to orientation. i asked to sign up for orientation and he apparently thought that my being older made me not capable of knowing what i wanted and sent me off someplace else and by the time i figured out what he had done it was too late for me to attend an orientation, as not only were orientations closed for that day but i missed the last one that semester. i found out later what i may have missed out on---how to find my way around the library, finding things i would need to know about later (where they were on campus), how the shuttles and buses work on campus (which one goes where) and many more and thing only got worse.

most of the younger students only see me as faculty or staff and cannot imagine that i am a fellow student. also, when most younger students encounter me, they cannot understand why i am there (shouldn't i retire?--i have been asked this question many times.) they will talk over me in class and even in an office where i am waiting in-line just like they are to see someone and also in the hallways between classes when i am trying to get someone to help me find my way they often pretend they do not see me or hear me when i am trying to ask for help. they will often pretend to be sorry when they find that i am not so easily dismissed by them. when i speak up for myself, i have been told that i am cute---like i am some pet or animal in a zoo. my group this past semester even tried to get me to leave the library so they could work on OUR group paper without any of my input or help. i refused to leave and was not included for most of our paper but nonetheless i was not going to leave until we all left. they succeeded in getting me to leave without them anyway. i am a member of Student Council and the other Senate Members are probably the worst for being ageists---they treated my friend and i terrible when we presented our resolutions, which we worked on by ourselves because none of them were willing to help us, and our Committee Leader opposed or abstained from every one of them.

i want a degree perhaps worse than most of these younger students (most of the students i go to class with are there because mommy and/or daddy is paying for it) and even though my grades aren't perfect, i usually study way harder than most of them do.
what ever they dish out i ma willing to take because i am 56 years old and this is the last time i will go back to school and i am going all the way. i get my GS BA this coming December and then i will get into a graduate program to become an Art Therapist and from there i will get my PhD in Psychology. i am a serious student and i think that i should be respected by all of my fellow students.

Comment on Read My Hips: The "Fat Photo"

2010-05-03T09:36:53Z

Why didn’t I find this post earlier? I can't wait for your book to come out. You're one writer I can read for hours and that's saying something because I'm not a big reader. You also make me cry and that never happens when I read. Most writings aren';t powerful enough to do that. Keep up the good work!