Students at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania aren’t very happy. And you probably wouldn’t be either if your school told you that you were too fat to graduate.

Sound rude? Yeah.
Are they right? Maybe.

But the real question is: does a university have the right to tell students that they have to lose weight?

As of now, Lincoln University is requiring all students with a BMI of 30 or more (which is considered obese) to enroll in a physical education course that meets three hours a week. Receiving a diploma will be contingent on them completing this course.

In other words, you may ace every course you take, but if you can’t walk up a flight of stairs to get to the classroom, you won’t be receiving a diploma come graduation time.

Some students find it unfair that they are being targeted because of their weight, claiming they came to college to get an education, which has absolutely nothing to do with their body mass index. On the flip side, the University claims that they are committed to aiding students in “achieving and maximizing students life goals” and that obesity is a factor that hinders this process.

On one hand the school is helping students adopt a healthy lifestyle (and who wouldn’t want to get credit for working out? Goodbye, gym membership!), but at the same time, is it the university’s job to force students to adopt a certain lifestyle or yank their degree?

What do you think?

What are the qualities of a best fat loss diet? First, it must not be the cause for someone to go into starvation. Second, it must be a personalized diet meal. And third, it must tell the client upfront how long its effect will last.

Certainly, everyone has already encountered the basics of Fad Diets where people are instructed to reduce their high calorie intake and strictly eat foods no more than what could fill a regular cup. But if this claim will be taken into a more logical perspective, starving for the sake of losing weight isn’t reasonable at all. Probably, an improved version of these diets can be summed up in one word: moderation.

There’s no other way to reduce weight but to be in total control of one’s food intake. Unfortunately, with fad diets, it seems that the food consumption becomes overdone that the dieting process gradually becomes dreadful and simply unbearable.

The good news is that personalized diet meals are already widely accessible online. This works by providing individuals with lists of healthy foods where anyone is given the opportunity to create a meal plan based on an individual’s weight, metabolism, and food preference. In this kind of diet plan, calorie counting is not given much prominence simply because the components of the foods found in the meal plan can either complement or counter other micronutrients. By careful choice of a combination of meal for the day, anyone can be assured of a balanced, healthy and best fat loss diet.

DietingGuideReviews.com is the reliable online source of articles on losing weight through fat loss diets. Information found on this website is no diet myths, only true and result-oriented diet plans. More about this topic at -Best Fat Loss Diet

BBC News reports that two-thirds of men and more than half of women in Scotland are now overweight. Well that’s a great shame and much of that increase could have been avoided. It is about eight years since I contacted Bill Gray, who was at the time National Project Officer of the Scottish Community Diet Project, Scottish Consumer Council, and also others working in the same field. We wrote and we spoke on the phone. I sent him lots of material and evidence making clear that to reduce obesity/overweight it is necessary to reduce salt intake and that it is not necessary to diet or to try to lose weight by exercising.

See Sodium in Foods

My bad! Thank you to Lindsey for reminding me to update.

Wow, time has flown – I went on vacation to Palm Springs last weekend and things were a whirlwind before and a whirlwind after, lol.  But I’m back!

Week Forty-Five Results:
Starting stats:
Weight: 247 lbs.
BMI: 36.5

Today’s stats:
Weight: 175 lbs.
BMI: 25.8

Week Forty-Six Results:
Starting stats:
Weight: 247 lbs.
BMI: 36.5

Today’s stats:
Weight: 174 lbs.
BMI: 25.7

Week Forty-Seven Results:
Starting stats:
Weight: 247 lbs.
BMI: 36.5

Today’s stats:
Weight: 175 lbs.
BMI: 25.8

So what’s the story there? Basically, I screwed up on vacation.  Big time.  I ate whatever I wanted – a whole bunch of it.  But, I learned my lesson (a bunch of lessons, actually), and I only gained one pound, for which I’m exceedingly grateful.

Back on this WW wagon with a vengeance!

Here’s some pics from the lovely Palm Springs, CA – and yes, that’s me in a two-piece suit! Crazy, right?

I spend most of my life hearing that I *have to* exercise if I want to lose weight, which made me feel really bad because I don’t – or didn’t used to – enjoy it. I mean, I was off the gym and other exercise-y activities for years before now. I actually let myself go because I thought, I can’t change my body weight since I can’t bring myself to exercise.

Now, I am in a different place. I look forward to going to the gym and can quite easily knock-out a 30-40 minute cardio routine or a gruelling 50-min class.

But everywhere I look now, the messages are all about calorie intake. Control your food intake and maybe exercise will help a little. Why, why, why?!!

Maybe the world hasn’t changed much, and I’m just seeing all the negative stuff. I am controlling my calorie intake but I can’t believe I’m not losing more weight as a result of exercising most days of the week!

Stats:

Weight – 97.1 kg

Yes, I’ve actually gained. It’s been a bad food week. I intend on pushing myself during tomorrow evening’s Bums, Tums and Thighs class.

The weighing scale is your worst enemy.

Okay…that was strong, but still, it isn’t your best friend either!

I have seen SO MANY friends complain about being overweight. They REFUSE to climb on the scale, climb on a scale in private, never tell anyone the result…

If you’re doing the same, please let me break this to you: It’s pointless.

Body weight is NOT the ideal way to measure a person’s fitness levels.

Your body weight essentially is the weight of everything in your body. Fat, Muscle, bones, blood, the diet soda you had an hour ago, the air in your lungs etc. Using body weight to determine your health is like reading someones academic report card to figure if they’re gonna be good in bed!

Then off course, someone will tell you to check your BMI.

BMI is Body Mass Index. BMI assumes a specific weight ideal for a specific height. For instance if you are a 5 Feet 7 inches tall male, your ideal weight is supposed to be 135 pounds.

Using BMI as a fitness indicator a person who has 35% fat and a person who has 15% fat content in their body are on the same level provided they both weigh the same!

Does that make any sense to you?

The only indicator which can tell if you are ‘fat’ (I despise using that term, but then since the whole idea is to figure out the concept, I will) is a body fat percentage.

Your total body fat percentage is the total weight of the fat content in your body divided by your weight.

So then you know what percentage of your weight is fat weight.

Which brings us to another very very interesting point.

You will in most probability, love this.

A LOT of visually ’slim’ people are fat!

HUH?

Read on after the visual

Could this one be fat? Its Possible!

Yes. There are a lot of people who eat very little, and that too irregularly, don’t exercise, eat all the wrong food, additionally could also have high alcohol consumption coupled with a smoking habit and are visibly thin. Whats happened here is that they have very little muscle and lots of fat instead!

These people in most cases have a very high body fat percentage.

Go ahead….you can call them fat!

(My suggestion, don’t do so in a party, cuz most people will have NO idea what you’re talking about and it is VERY difficult to explain this concept to a bunch of intoxicated people. Conversely, on a sober Sunday brunch…go all guns blazing )

Okay now on to a little more information on this.

The total fat in your body can be divided into two parts. The fat that your body NEEDS to function normally (yes, it does…various physiological functions need fat to carry on) and the extra fat that you could possibly do without.

So here we come to the standards by which one can ACTUALLY tell if one is ‘fat’ or not. Have a look:

Body Fat Categories for Women

• 10-12% – Essential Fat
• 14-20% – Athletic Fat Levels
• 21-24% – Fitness Fat Levels
• 25-31% – Acceptable Fat Levels
• >32% – Obese

Body Fat Categories for Men

• 2-4% – Essential Fat
• 6-13% – Athletic Fat Levels
• 14-17% – Fitness Fat Levels
• 18-25% – Acceptable Fat levels
• >26% – Obese

Source: http://exercise.about.com/cs/weightloss/a/bodyfat.htm

How to figure out where you stand?

Two ways which are the most convenient (among a host which I don’t think most of you will be able to access in the first place!):

1. Caliper Test

   Here they measure the thickness of a skin fold at various point on your body and then apply a formula to the numbers and arrive at a solution.

2. Bioelectrical impedance

   Here they usually make you stand on a weighing scale like machine and A small current is passed through your body (don’t worry, you feel nothing). Electricity moves faster through water; muscles contain water and fat hardly does, so the faster the current reaches from point A to B (usually its the two feet) the lesser fat you have.

   This test has a margin of error, since it depends on the levels of hydration in your body. So you should get it carried out first thing in the morning post drinking some water.

You should go to a nice gym/medical facility to get your body fat percentage checked out. I would suggest the second test since the first one has a LOT of variables and more often than not might NOT be accurate.

It could be a very nice surprise to find out that even though you look bigger…you are a LOT healthier than you thought!

Hope this helped.

As always, questions at aaditya@fitfunda.com

Cheers!

I have been heavy all my life….ok I have been obese for most of my life.  There I said it.  It is in black and white print for all to see.  I started on diets at age 12.  I took thyroid pills that made me sick when I was very active…not a good way to live, but I lost 30 pounds and that was good.  But I put them back on plus a few more in 4 years and thus started an up/down cycle that would go on for 45 years.

Jan M.

I have been on the grapefruit diet, apple cider/lecithin, Nutri System, Atkins, South Beach, 500 calorie a day liquid diet(like Oprah back in the 80s), 6 week makeover , LA Weightloss, just to name a few.  I signed up for the “Biggest Loser online program” but then didn’t follow it because it seemed so impersonal.  I was getting ready to try Jenny Craig but I really didn’t want another packaged food program. I knew I needed to lose weight but I also wanted to just get healthy.  I have a little problem with atrial fibrillation, my lower back hurts and my feet are killing me with plantar fasciitis.  I know I am getting old but I don’t like “feeling” old.  I knew I needed to change my lifestyle but didn’t know how to start.

My husband and I live in Arizona and travel in our RV each summer around the US and we were in Kalispell in August.  We stopped at the brewery in Lakeside and they had Montana Women’s Magazine.  So while eating a delicious lunch, I leafed through the magazine and saw the ad for Genesis Transformation COD Retreat.  It sounded interesting and I went on the website.  I was really intrigued now and I wrote Sheri.  She wrote back and I signed up for the Retreat at COD Ranch.

I feel very fortunate that I could start my transformation with a total immersion into the program.  I got educated.  I found out why that old theory of calories in and calories out doesn’t work.  I found out why my cycle of dieting didn’t work.  I found out why my metabolism was “dead”. Being a process-oriented person, I needed an explanation of why I had such a problem.  Why could my brother eat everything in sight and never gain weight?  Sheri explained everything.  And she had a step-by-step proven process on how to get healthy.  She made sense!  And her passion was infectious! The Yoga every day with Samantha was great!  And the food!  I couldn’t believe how much food everyone was eating!  I remarked to everyone that I had never been in a room with 9 women with so much food on everyone’s plates…and they even went back for seconds!  This was amazing!   It was also very helpful to meet other women and hear their stories that were similar to mine.  And meeting Lisa, who lost 100 pounds, made it all real for me.   Maybe I could do this!  Maybe if I treated my body right for a change, it would react the way I wanted and drop the pounds.  Maybe at the age of 59 I could finally get healthy!

So one month has passed since I arrived at the COD Ranch.  I have dropped over 11 pounds.  My blood pressure has dropped from 140/85 (last spring) to 101/68.  Isn’t that amazing?  I realized I was addicted to salt and I have dropped my sodium intake from over 3000 mg a day to 300-600 mg a day.  I think that is why my blood pressure has dropped.  I feel great and I am eating all the time.  My husband says the food I am cooking now has so much more flavor than my old style of cooking.  That is because we are eating real healthy food with natural spices and NO added salt! (how I love salsa!) I take a Yoga/Pilates class 3 times a week and I find that I can do more and more of the exercises each day.

I feel blessed to have found Genesis Transformation.  I feel blessed that I have Samantha as my coach.  I feel like I am finally on my way to getting healthy and leading a more active life.  This time I plan to get rid of the “fat” clothes that I have always kept in reserve when I have gone on a diet, knowing in the back of my mind that I will probably need them again.  This time I am doing it right, thanks to Sheri and Genesis Transformation!

It was a small Thanksgiving this year. Only around 50 people showed up in total. While this may blow some minds of my friends, its pretty rare in the Gastelum/Serrano circle.

It was bittersweet though. Since it was officially announced that it was the last Thanksgiving at our infamous house before the move.
More about that later.

I will also post pictures of that night later.
For now, the song that reminds me the most of gatherings at our house.

Now, time for adventures in Phoenix.

In my list of 10 simple food rules to live by, rule #2 is

“Always have a good breakfast every day.”

So is your breakfast a good or bad one?

I just stumbled across this Which? report on the top 100 Breakfast cereals (click here to download the PDF report) and it makes interesting reading.  It shows if the cereal is high or low in:

• Sugar
• Fat
• Saturates
• Salt

The most interesting thing was that only 1 of them were low in all four.

See how your breakfast cereal does on the list and decide if it is the best choice you can make…

On dit de moi que je suis GROSSE.
Qu’à la cantine qu’il faut que je laisse tomber les salades… “forcément” enceinte / je dois nourrir le gosse…
Tout le monde dévisage l’OBÈSE…Que la balance ne supporterait pas / qu’il ne faut surtout pas que je me pèse… Car mon poids se calculerait en TONNES.. Trop de gras dans mon corps / plus de place pour ma cervelle / que je suis forcément CONNE…

On se moque même de mon petit frère…

Mais…
ce qui me fait le plus de mal c’est lorsqu’ils disent que je suis bête…
alors que je perds…
déjà…
aussi….
un peu…
la vue…
à cause du Diabète.

Elie KHOURY.

by Kristin Blank

At my first Weight Watchers meeting in January 2001, my sister Jennifer and I waited to step on the electronic scale.  I observed the other women waiting:  some looked too skinny to be there; others looked just like me, massive, with flabby skin sweaty with the exhaustion of hauling ourselves around.

I’d been overweight my whole life, and at 21 years old, I was done being the “Fat Girl.”  That day, I was racked with anxiety.  It embarrassed me when even my doctor read the scale, but I closed my eyes and stepped up.  The woman behind the counter filled in my “Starting Weight” box.  238 lbs.  My throat closed.  Oh God, I thought.  Don’t cry, don’t cry.

I knew my body was larger than others.  But seeing that number innocently staring up at me cemented it in my mind—I was fat, huge, massive.  I can’t do this, I thought, this is too much. I pushed down these thoughts that I knew would make me fail before I even began.  I glanced at Jenn’s paper and saw 220 lbs., then showed her mine, clenching my jaw to ward off the still-threatening tears.  Neither of us could believe I weighed that much.

*

Later, I logged on to the Weight Watchers website and tried out the tools.  I checked the charts that told what my healthy weight was:  at 5’5”, I should weigh about 135 pounds—at least a hundred pounds had to go.

I clicked to find out my Body Mass Index.  I needed to face the truth, just like I needed to face that Starting Weight box.  I entered my height and current weight and waited for the computer to process.  Your BMI is 39.7.  According to the explanatory paragraph, a BMI of 20–25 is healthy and a BMI over 30 is considered “very overweight (obese).”

I scored nearly ten points above “obese,” which meant I was unbelievably obese, send-in-the-clowns obese, morbidly obese.  I’d never defined myself by that term—who wanted to call themselves morbidly anything?  Morbid means rotten, near death, overwhelmingly odorous, gruesome, or somehow psychologically depraved.  The woman thought the man morbid because he pinned live insects to cardboard and watched them writhe.  To be morbidly obese meant to be hopeless, disgusting, fit to be examined beneath glass but never touched with bare hands.

*

And then, I was thin.  In hindsight, the transformation feels instantaneous.  In reality, it took about a year until I was satisfied with my body.  In hindsight, it seems effortless.  I followed the program and weight fell off me in little bunches and that was that—the Fat Girl was gone.  At least from the naked eye.

Once, I ran into someone who hadn’t seen me throughout my entire weight loss.  He didn’t even recognize me until I spoke.  Totally new person to him.

And yet, my grandmother said, “You look so much better than you used to.”  Totally repaired person to her.

I never owned my fatness.  I never celebrated it the way some people seem able to do.  I never stood nude before a mirror and said, “Yes, this is me.  I am the bounteous rolls of flesh, I am the thickness of supple thighs, the curves of soft shoulders, the roundness of these hips, the woman of these DD-cup breasts.”

Instead, I didn’t look at my body except in shame and told myself that I was just like all my thin friends.  I was awkward in my fatness, because I didn’t wield it like the weapon it can be in the hands of a girl who doesn’t let the body she has stand in the way of the person she is.  By getting thin, I felt I was excavating from the caverns of fat the girl I really was.  With each pound gone, I felt I was getting closer to her, getting closer to me.

*

At size eight, one could say, I have arrived.  I am at ease in public.  I can concentrate on the book in my hands or the sidewalk beneath my feet because I don’t worry if someone is wondering why that Fat Girl can’t get control of herself.

In many ways, I have become invisible.

Yet, I am seen.  I am seen for my dark brown eyes and shiny auburn hair.  For my slender pianist’s fingers and rosy cheeks.  For my easy smile and sense of humor.

For these things that were there all along.

Kristin Blank earned her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from American University in Washington, DC.  Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, the Vermillion Literary Project, and on BettyConfidential.com.  She currently lives in Maryland.

It’s not a gang sign… it stands for Waffle House.

(Jonah Hill)

You should get down with Jabba

Picture by: dunno source Caption by: mmfhl via Our LOL Builder

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by sylvia

A while ago, I wrote a post about my neuroses regarding how I look and feeling bad because I wasn’t “beautiful” but was ok with being cute, because I like cute things better than beautiful things.  The post was called “Are You Beautiful“, and it was, like a lot of the stuff I write, cathartic and cleansing for me to get out there.

But the other day, someone commented on this semi-old post, and as I read it, I thought “Wow, I feel bad for that girl.  She is really down on herself and I hope she is able to pull out of it.  I totally feel for her.”

Until I got to the end:

P/S: I DONT MEAN TO LOWER YOUR CONFIDENCE OR ANYTHING BUT UNNATRACTIVE PEOPLE ONLY GET THE ‘CUTE’ REMARK. WANT TO KNOW WHY?

CUTE MEANS……….

ugly but adorable…. SORRY.

OUCH.

Really?  You’re telling me that I’m ugly?  Sure, I’ve heard that one before.  And worse things, too.  But here I was feeling bad for you because you felt so bad about yourself, and I quote:

I like this post a lot especially because I feel the same way as the writer. I have been self-loathing myself ever since I realised people NEED to look some way to be ACCEPTED. In high school, the pretty girls get all the advantage and ever since I’ve been trying to improve my looks. I am not fat, not thin either…somewhere in the middle. But if you would ask me what I would change about myself, I will give you a million answers. I feel embarassed everytime I am out with my friends because they look like top models. Sometimes I feel I look okay but the feeling is so delicate. It doesnt help that people around me are sO hypocritical. Everything from my hair to my feet had received numerous harsh comments. I hated mirrors ever since. I hated taking photographs too. Everything that remind me of myself would only make me feel worse. Sometimes I feel like going out with a brown bag over my head. Only then, I would feel safe. I would do anything to be beautiful.

I sense some projection, some self-hate, and there is also a possibility of trolliness in that comment. 

And I’m trying not to take it personally, because this person doesn’t know me, but I would be lying if I said it didn’t bother me.  Not because some random commenter might think I’m ugly, but more because this random commenter has probably been called “cute” on more than one occasion, and probably hates herself for it.  Which is wrong.  I don’t know what this girl looks like, but based on her comment, it’s obvious her self-esteem is in the toilet.  And as someone who knows what that is like, I know it can affect how others see you and what you “look” like.

But seriously – do you think CUTE = UGLY but ADORABLE? 

And no, Bianca – I’m not fishing for compliments….I’m curious how y’all feel about it…

Now I’ve got something else to obsess over….sheesh

Seating Comfort Fail

Picture by: dunno source Submitted by: dunno source via Fail Uploader

78.1 Kg.  So much for losing a couple Kgs before the Nagoya trip, but at least I’m still under 80Kg.

Gain a new body shape. Why weight any longer?

By 2050 nine out of ten people are expected to be overweight or obese. (YouGov study on behalf of the British Society of Gastroenterology 23.11.09).

Diets such as Atkins have proliferated – as have weight reduction services such as Weight Watchers and Lighter Life – and yet the numbers of people concerned with weight issues has risen exponentially.

Perhaps the problem has less to do with the physical action of eating food and more to do with the psychology of wanting to eat, that lies beneath food issues.

Does being overweight contribute to low self-esteem – or is the opposite the case?

Professor Chris Hawkey, President of the British Society of Gastroenterology made a key speech on Monday 23^rd November that the “problem facing our society is not the content of our diet but the quantity we are consuming and the consequential impact on obesity. We need to do away with quirky diets and get people to realise what will keep them healthy in the long run.”

He believes that the obsession with extreme diets has led to mass undermining of well balanced nutrition. This will lead to dramatically shortened life expectancy caused by obesity and an upsurge in obesity-caused liver disease.

Extreme diets and slimming aids can lead to short term weight loss but rarely work in the long term. Each year globally £30 billion is spent on the diet and slimming industry.

The Study by YouGov found that 62% of those questioned think that obesity will continue to grow for the next ten years. It found that 49% of Britons classify themselves as overweight.

But what if the problem is about self-perception rather than actual weight?

We at Powerchange are developing a psychologically-based programme for people who want to lose weight (or to put it more accurately) regain control over their weight but don’t know how to motivate themselves. It will not be a diet or nutrition-based plan.

Possible psychological causes for both obesity and other weight-related conditions such Bulimia and Anorexia can include: 

• Low self-esteem
• Victim syndrome
• Family learned behaviour
• Unhappiness
• Feeling trapped in other areas of life
• Low motivation and lack of life goals

I am about to empirically test whether people can recapture control over their bodies by first re-wiring certain limiting beliefs. The initial one-day pilot programme will ask the participants to work through a series of psychological tools to enable them to restore self-esteem and control over their thinking before exploring new methods of motivating willpower. The aim will not be to simply lose weight but to gain a new body shape through taking back responsibility for the body and what goes into it.

If you are interested in this new pilot study please respond by emailing roy@powerchange.com or by phoning 01903  744399.  What have you got to lose?

“According to cbs3.com, Lincoln University, an HBCU in Pennsylvania, has mandated a fitness course for overweight students in an effort to impact the soaring rates of obesity and diabetes in the African-American community. The mandate requires students to get tested for their BMI. Those in the obese range will be required to take the course that involves walking, weight training, aerobics and other physical activities.”  Is this good news? Is overweight the only problem on campus? What about the drug users are they too going to be outed? Obesity is definately not the only problem on campus, but it is one of the most visible. Will the fitness teachers identify the students that should have their BMI tested? Is this an invasion of privacy. What if the overweight condition has an emotional component? Will there be any therapy involved or will this just be boot camp? Lose weight or else? This is dangerous territory. Will they have the overweight teachers exercising too? There might be good intentions here, but there is something wrong with this approach.

I find it strange to be obese, have health issues due to the weight, poor diet, and lack of physical activity THEN read people from fatshionista say being obese is healthy. I think that view point is nuts and you can have a hundred blogs dedicated to opinions people toting that being obese is healthy and I still think it is WRONG.

It bothers me that just recently they had a post asking the community if they thought their lifestyle made them unhealthy. No one wanted to answer the questions till it was member locked. Only then would they agree their lifestyle was unhealthy but they still like to publicly say it is healthy to be obese. How exactly does that work out? What is wrong to just be honest with YOURSELF and say “hey what I do is unhealthy but that is none of your business and I am happy just the way I am!” I wouldn’t have a problem with that. But a lot of people frown about that view point @ fatshionista.

I do not like the politics involved in the community. There is a lot of ignorance and the wafe of eating disordered through out the community. Peoples rude comments how some people will always be FAT and there is no way to stay thin unless you eat broccoli all day is irresponsible. And the rules state no talk about weight and health yet they make exceptions if the topic suggests obesity as healthy.

Fatshionista is perfectly fine if you like fashion but anything beyond that is pure shit. And even with fashion they are selective who can post pictures. Unless you are DEATHFAT in size or you are a mods friend they will decline your posts saying you are too small.

Recently I wanted to ask a question about dealing with my family regarding my weight. The post was declined and they wanted me to remove any mention of working towards being healthier. I thought that was just plain wrong on their part. Nothing I said was unhealthy or would make others feel less about their own situation. But just saying that I am working towards being healthier I was shot down.

My personal thought is that fatshionista should keep it to fashion and never allow any post be about weight. I feel the MODS are imposing an idea on the community instead of letting people make their own opinions about health and what is plus size.

It will be the last time I will communicate my views in that community.  I dislike policed communities.  People really should be allowed to speak their mind.  That is the whole point of communities is to talk about different view points and let people pick and choose for THEMSELVES what they agree on. 

Below is my original post that was decline. Did I say something wrong?  I ended up asking the question in another community and got great feedback: 

I live states away from my parents.  So they did not know how much I had physically changed (I use to be a size 12 and now a size 24).  A few months ago I came for a visit after almost an eight year hiatus.  The first thing my Mom had to say was that I got FAT.   Didn’t surprise me since my family motto is there is always room for improvement and going from a size 12 to 24 isn’t improvement.  Which is great and yeah I have been working on being healthier.  But I do not want to talk about my body with my Mom.

I told her I am aware of my size difference OBVIOUSLY and that I am working on taking care of it.  But my Mom wants to talk about my weight and suggested that maybe I need to move back in their house so I can sort out my issues.  I have been living on my own for seven years and the idea of moving back with my parents is a NO.  And since I can take care of my own responsibilities it seems stupid and just controlling on her part.

Even before she knew I got fat she wanted me to move back.  I guess she feels someone needs to watch over me.  It is crazy since I am fairly adjusted person, I haven’t gotten into any legal trouble and financially I am stable.

I declined her offer to move back in and she got pissed off saying that she couldn’t talk to me about anything.  And I should move back so I could lose weight.  I told her my weight is stress related and if I move back to lose weight I will eventually gain it back because when I move out I still had not faced my issues with stress.  Of course I just sound ungrateful and ‘difficult’.

My Mom is controlling and she is not very accepting of any size difference.  I spent most of my teen years having her ‘compete’ regarding my weight and she always said inappropriate things about people overweight.  Such as making reference when I was age six how both my thighs put together equal the size of my aunt who is a very curvaceous woman.  I know what she says is nuts and well should just be ignored but it is my Mom and that shit hurts regardless if you know the person is nuts or not.

My question is I have to visit my parents in two weeks.  I already have the plane tickets and I really cannot avoid the trip.  How should I communicate with this woman?  Part of me wants to ask how I can satisfy her needs without destroying myself.  I have been working really hard to grasp a healthy image and love myself.  And when I visit she tears me down within seconds. 

“Lose weight to graduate” is the mantra that administrators at Lincoln University are shouting to undergraduate students that are on the cusp of receiving their degrees.

Designed to combat the health devouring monster known as obesity, which is especially prevalent within the Black community, faculty and staff at the Philadelphia Historically Black College have instituted a program on campus  aimed to force students to shed pounds at the risk of not being able to graduate when the time comes to do so.

“We know we’re in the midst of an obesity epidemic,” explained chairman of Lincoln’s department of health, physical education and recreation, James L. DeBoy. “We have an obligation to address this head on, knowing full well there’s going to be some fallout.”

Though obviously created in good spirit, the move comes as a rude awakening for many clinically obese students at the campus, of which, many are in the midst of their senior year.

Most argue that the mandate only singles out bigger students, whereas, if it were actually meant to increase the health awareness of students on campus by promoting physical fitness and a healthy lifestyle, all students would be involved, not just the ones that appear to be fat or in need of a “change.”

According to clinical standards, a normal body mass index ranges from 18.5 to 24.9 with anyone ranging above those figures considered medically obese. Lincoln Students that reside among that range are required to successfully take “Fitness for Life,” which can be classified as a glorified gym class that meets for three hours a week.

As of the start of Fall semester, 16% of Lincoln’s senior class has not had their BMI taken or attempted to complete the course.

Have you noticed that wild animals don’t suffer from obesity? It’s just something that doesn’t “naturally” occur in nature.

So why is that 2/3 of westerners have big time weight loss issues?

Well, what if I told you that the simple act of cooking our foods is making us fat and unhealthy! That’s right…cooking. Have you ever seen an animal cooking their food? Of course not…because it doesn’t happen.

For whatever reason, we are the only species on planet earth that feels it necessary to cook our food. The reason that cooking food makes us fat and unhealthy is that heating a food above 118 F destroys its precious enzymes.

Enzymes and Weight Loss

Enzymes are required for every single reaction in the body. For instance, the breakdown of fat requires enzymes such as lipase. If lipase (and other fat burning enzymes) is not present then you cannot readily use your fat reserves for energy. As a result, more fat is stored and you pack on the pounds.

Eating foods (especially fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds) in their living or raw state ensures that all of their respective enzymes are in tact. The result – less energy needed to breakdown your meals, more enzymes to breakdown fat and rev up your metabolism, and greater energy and vitality.

Unfortunately, we are seeing more and more overweight and obese domesticated pets. What do you think the reason might be? If you said because we’re feeding them cooked, processed, and mechanized food, then you’re right!

I mean where on earth do you see an overweight dog or cat in the wild? You don’t – until humans domesticate it!

Here are two ways to get more enzymes into your diet for better fat loss results:

1. Eat more raw fruits and vegetables

2. If eating cooked foods, then use digestive enzymes before your meal to alleviate the stress on your digestive system and provide some much needed fat-burning catalysts.

At the end of the day, dieting will not help you lose weight unless you can provide your body with life-giving and fat-burning food enzymes. The key is to eat more of what nature intended for you to eat – a natural raw foods diet! When you do so you’ll see the fat melt off your body!

Yesterday, I received a call from my local sports centre (where I’ve been doing most of my workouts and gym classes). I’ve been on a 2 week-trial with them, which runs out today.

I really love this sports centre. I find the classes numerous, varied and effective, and I just love the fact that it is always busy. Makes me feel like I’m part of something bigger and not just trying to get fit/lose weight by myself (my husband is also on a mission – he goes to a different sports centre because it has a pool).

Anyway, the phonecall I got yesterday was about encouraging me to take up a membership. I errm-ed and aah-ed about the price (£42 a month plus £40 one-off joining fee).

It’s steep for me (particularly since my work gym costs £20 a month) but gives me access to all the centres in my local area (3 close by and three others a short drive away). I’ll never run out of classes to go to AND membership includes access to all the swimming pools in our area.

The caller made me an offer – if I sign up by the end of the month, I get 12 months for the price of 9 and they’ll forgo the £40 joining fee.

Averaged out, my monthly fee comes down to £31.50.

That’s a considerable saving of £166 over the year.

I have never taken out an annual membership. It makes me nervous to fork out so much money for something I might give up on in a few months (and I have fallen off the wagon - badly, before).

But I find myself saying:

- I can easily spend £31.50 a month on all kinds of fleeting things, so why not gym?
- I have to make my newfound love for exercise permanent. It has to be a change for life. There is no going back for being obese.
- my Christmas bonus is usually about £350, roughly the cost of this membership

So I’m going to go for it I feel good Please pray I keep it up.