When Someone Says “I Just Want to Get Back to the Weight I Was When I Felt Best”

Image Text:
Fat patients shouldn’t have to accept “maybe if you were in a different body you wouldn’t be in pain” as a treatment plan or prescription. They should be given the same options for dealing with aches, pains, injuries etc. that thin people get.

I often hear from people who say something like “I just want to get back to the weight I was when I felt the best.” or “I know that when I’m a size x I’m healthier, my body is happiest at a size x.” When I ask them how they know that they will typically point to a time in their life when they were that size as proof.

Often in a conversation like this:

Me: When were you that weight?

Them: When I was 18

Me: How old are you now?

Them: 57

People don’t come to these conclusions out of nowhere. In truth, this idea is often driven by subconscious internalized fatphobia driven by the diet industry, and even if it were true the chance of succeeding at significant long-term weight loss is still miniscule. Luckily there are other, much more evidence-based ethical solutions to this dilemma.

There’s a lot to unpack here, so I wrote a piece about it for the Weight and Healthcare newsletter,.

You can read the full piece here!

UPCOMING ONLINE WORKSHOP:

Understanding the Research About Weight and Health

SPECIAL DATE: Thursday, February 24, 2022 5:30pm Pacific Time
Plus a video in case you can’t make it live (or want to watch again!)
Pay-what-you-can option available

The research around weight and health can be daunting, dense, confusing, and downright misleading. A mix of diet industry involvement and weight bias (from methodology to media reporting) has created a world where what “everybody knows” about weight and health is often not supported by the actual research. In this workshop we’ll talk about the existing research around weight and health, learn techniques to evaluate media articles and studies to see past the weight bias and diet industry smoke screen and get to the truth. This workshop will deal with concepts in plain language and is for research nerds and non-research nerds alike, including those with no experience at all in research methods.

Full details and Registration: https://danceswithfat.org/monthly-online-workshops/
*This workshop is free for DancesWithFat members – login info is on the member page
Become a member here!

Missed one of my monthly workshops? You can still get the video here!

Like This Blog? If you appreciate the work that I do, you can support my ability to do more of it with a one-time tip or by becoming a member. (Members get free registration to the monthly workshops, a free (paid-level) subscription to my Weight and Healthcare newsletter, special deals on fat-positive stuff, and a monthly e-mail keeping them up to date on the work their membership supports.

Book Me!  I’d love to speak to your organization (and I can do it remotely!) I speak to healthcare, college, corporate, and general audiences about topics including weight science, weight stigma, and the Health at Every Size paradigm. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org

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Talking About Fatphobia and Healthism on ‘Full and Thriving’

Image description: A fat, white woman with long brown hair and pink glasses smiling in a red dress.
Text: Full and Thriving – An Eating Disorder Recovery Podcast “Let’s be honest. Health is not a barometer of worthiness. That’s just healthism.” – Ragen Chastain
Picture by Lindley Ashline

I got to join Meg McCabe on her podcast and discuss my personal body acceptance journey and experiences with weight stigma, as well as medical fat phobia and the impact it has.

As a cool side note, Meg shared with me that I was the first person to introduce her to the concept of HAES (at a conference I spoke at several years ago), she dove in and now she is a HAES-based certified eating disorder coach. If I’m honest it always blows my mind when someone tells me that I was the first person they heard this stuff from – it’s really humbling and I’m honored to be part of this community and this movement and to have the chance to pass on the things that I learned (including from those who have been doing this work since before I was born) to people like Meg who is using them in her work and finding ways to pass the information to others!

You can listen to our interview here!

UPCOMING ONLINE WORKSHOP:

Understanding the Research About Weight and Health

SPECIAL DATE: Thursday, February 24, 2022 5:30pm Pacific Time
Plus a video in case you can’t make it live (or want to watch again!)
Pay-what-you-can option available

The research around weight and health can be daunting, dense, confusing, and downright misleading. A mix of diet industry involvement and weight bias (from methodology to media reporting) has created a world where what “everybody knows” about weight and health is often not supported by the actual research. In this workshop we’ll talk about the existing research around weight and health, learn techniques to evaluate media articles and studies to see past the weight bias and diet industry smoke screen and get to the truth. This workshop will deal with concepts in plain language and is for research nerds and non-research nerds alike, including those with no experience at all in research methods.

Full details and Registration: https://danceswithfat.org/monthly-online-workshops/
*This workshop is free for DancesWithFat members – login info is on the member page
Become a member here!

Missed one of my monthly workshops? You can still get the video here!

Like This Blog? If you appreciate the work that I do, you can support my ability to do more of it with a one-time tip or by becoming a member. (Members get free registration to the monthly workshops, a free (paid-level) subscription to my Weight and Healthcare newsletter, special deals on fat-positive stuff, and a monthly e-mail keeping them up to date on the work their membership supports.

Book Me!  I’d love to speak to your organization (and I can do it remotely!) I speak to healthcare, college, corporate, and general audiences about topics including weight science, weight stigma, and the Health at Every Size paradigm. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org

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Exercise & Such

When I last posted about this, I had switched from trying to do 10+ minutes on the treadmill 3 times a week to 2 or 3 5-minute sessions. That was in July. Since then

• I have changed to 6, 7, and now 8 minute sessions.
• Continue to do 2 or 3 sessions, 3 days a week.
• Slowed my treadmill down to the absurdly slow 0.5 miles per hour. My back and thighs do not like walking this slow; OTOH, my cardiovascular system likes it since I’m down in the aerobic range.
• I’m stretching my back and quads between treadmill sessions.

And…I am almost afraid to jinx things…but I am now finding it easier to move around in general? I don’t walk so slowly if I’m just (for example) going to the laundry room, but it’s still easier.

It’s progress. I am very pleased by this.

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All Fired Up About Bad Weight Loss Research with Louise Adams

Picture of a white woman with curly brown hair and red lipstick smiling. Text: 5-10% Weight Loss is Good for Your health and other BS with Ragen Chastain All Fired Up Ep #75

If you don’t know about Louise Adam’s Untrapped, then you are missing out on incredible activism and commentary. As part of her seriously impressive body of work, Louise has a podcast called All Fired Up and I got to be a guest to talk about the issues with weight loss research.

You can listen to my episode (and all the other incredible episodes!) here: |
https://untrapped.libsyn.com/5-10-weight-loss-is-good-for-your-health-other-bs-with-ragen-chastain

UPCOMING ONLINE WORKSHOP:

Creating A Weight-Neutral, Body Affirming Health Journey

The weight loss industry works hard to conflate weight loss with the concept of health, so even when we realize that diets don’t work and we get off the diet roller coaster, it can be difficult to separate our diet culture past from our desire to support our body moving forward. Health is an amorphous, multifactorial concept and it’s not an obligation, barometer of worthiness, or entirely within our control. Understanding that, in this workshop we’ll discuss how we can come to our personal health journey entirely on our own terms and leave diet culture behind for good.

Full details and Registration: https://danceswithfat.org/monthly-online-workshops/
*This workshop is free for DancesWithFat members – login info is on the member page
Become a member here!

Missed one of my monthly workshops? You can still get the video here!

Workshop: Dealing With New Year’s Diet BS

I am honored to join Marcy of Plus Bus, Marina of Peridot Robes, Deb Malkin – Somatic Pain Coach, and Tigress Osborn, Chair of NAAFA.org and iOfTheTigress.com to speak at this event created by Chrystal Bougon for “educating us and most likely sometimes entertaining us at my FAT COMMUNITY Watch Party on January 8th.”It’s just $5 and you can join live or get the video the next day. Like Chrystal says, “Let’s ACTIVATE and lift each other up through this hideous DIET b.s. that comes at us every January.”I hope to see you there!

Register here: https://fatcommunity.square.site/

Like This Blog? If you appreciate the work that I do, you can support my ability to do more of it with a one-time tip or by becoming a member. (Members get special deals on fat-positive stuff, a monthly e-mail keeping them up to date on the work their membership supports, and the ability to ask me questions that I answer in a members-only monthly Q&A Video!)

Book Me!  I’d love to speak to your organization (and I can do it remotely!) I speak to healthcare, college, corporate, and general audiences about topics including weight science, weight stigma, and the Health at Every Size paradigm. You can get more information here or just e-mail me at ragen at danceswithfat dot org

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Getting Flannel Blanket Cozy with Atlinia

Disclosure: I received product in exchange for an honest review. Hi friends! Today, I want to introduce you to ATLINIA – a brand that sells linen and hemp home goods. ATLINIA focuses on...

Read more here!

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Fatshion: Hemp Undies with WAMA Underwear

Disclosure: I received free product in exchange for this honest review. Hi friends! Have you ever worn any hemp clothing before? I haven’t. WAMA Underwear reached out to me to try out their...

Read more here!

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Check the manufacturer’s info

When I got my compression stockings I thought I did a good job learning about them. We went over measuring for them, finding ones that would stay up (silicone “beads” on the tops help) and hand wash only.

Then I read the manufacturer’s Frequently Asked Questions and found they ARE machine-washable! D’oh….

I will be experimenting on some of my older stockings first, but yes, this may make life simpler.

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