Get Out of the Norm

I can’t believe some women’s reaction to Sarah Palin and her nomination. It just shows what a ruse feminism has been. It isn’t about equality for women only a certain kind of women. Just like snow flakes all women are different. There are those that are dems and those that are republicans. There are those that are pro- life and those pro-choice. Did women on the left seriously think we all think and act like them? Talk about myopic, self serving thought.

Sarah Palin is much more like the women I know! She is real, spends her day multi tasking and keeps it all in check. She is a woman of substance, knows who she is and takes the bull by the horns. Out here in the real world, women are complicated and certainly have conflict with one another over our views. At the end of the day though, we are moms that love our family and our country. We all show up in different shape and size too. Nothing like the sameness we see in Hollywood. It has actually become a yawn! Shame Shame women on the left. You have shown yourselves to be the phonies we always knew you were!

Lenny

This is part of an article I copied. This just makes my point. We must finally admit we have been brainwashed by a society that can only tolerate one size and it must be small. Body Image is much more of an issue for women and Advertising and Hollywood have made sure that women grow up hating their bodies. The women in Hollywood are the one’s that are sick not the average American who works out, eats healthy and loves her curves. Let’s take our power back women. This study proves that being fat, I like to say curvey, or being thin is no guarantee of who will have risks to high blood pressure and the like!

Half of overweight adults may be heart-healthy

CHICAGO � You can look great in a swimsuit and still be a heart attack waiting to happen. And you can also be overweight and otherwise healthy. A new study suggests that a surprising number of overweight people � about half � have normal blood pressure and cholesterol levels, while an equally startling number of trim people suffer from some of the ills associated with obesity.

The first national estimate of its kind bolsters the argument that you can be hefty but still healthy, or at least healthier than has been believed.

The results also show that stereotypes about body size can be misleading, and that even “less voluptuous” people can have risk factors commonly associated with obesity, said study author MaryFran Sowers, a University of Michigan obesity researcher.

“We’re really talking about taking a look with a very different lens” at weight and health risks, Sowers said.

In the study, about 51 percent of overweight adults, or roughly 36 million people nationwide, had mostly normal levels of blood pressure, cholesterol, blood fats called triglycerides and blood sugar.

Almost one-third of obese adults, or nearly 20 million people, also were in this healthy range, meaning that none or only one of those measures was abnormal.

Yet about a fourth of adults in the recommended-weight range had unhealthy levels of at least two of these measures. That means some 16 million of them are at risk for heart problems.

It’s no secret that thin people can develop heart-related problems and that fat people often do not. But that millions defy the stereotypes will come as a surprise to many people, Sowers said.

Even so, there’s growing debate about the accuracy of the standard method of calculating whether someone is overweight. Health officials rely on the body mass index, a weight-height ratio that does not distinguish between fat and lean tissue.

This is from the Associated Press. Lenny

My life is changing as empty nest is knocking at my door. My daughter leaves for college in a month and my son is now a junior. He is driving, working and self reliant. I was lucky enough to stay home and raise them but now they are leaving the nest. This has been my identity. The children and my marriage. This is where my investment went and now I feel rebellious with some regret.

Whether we are working moms or stay at home moms we carry the emotional load. We nurture the kids and nurture the marriage. No matter how liberal we are, we still take care of our man. Maybe some less then others but it is hard to shake this patriarchal mind set. I am finding that as my children move on I am less interested in the matriarch role. This household has been quite traditional and now I am ready to leave the nest too. I miss my freedom of self.

Nothing really changes for the man. They continue to work and provide. Most men feel that is their job and don’t understand the identity crisis women face during this period. Of course, they are sad to see the kids go but it isn’t the Universal shift that it is for the mom.

During this period, women start to evaluate their lives, their choices and their relationships. I believe women comprimise more then men and once the nest is empty we no longer want to. We have clumped the men with the kids and maybe taken too good care of them. We have done the laundry, the cooking, the bills. During our children’s childhood this makes sense as we are in that mode. As they leave though, our sense of purpose changes. Taking care no longer feeds us and men are left scratching their heads. This is a rough period or I have found it to be. We hear talk about the physical manifestation of change in a woman but the relationship and emotional change is much harder to navigate.

I know this phase will pass but I am finding it difficult. To all the women who are in the same place at least know you are not alone. This is our time to come full circle of who we once were. I believe before the marriage and the kids we were on the track of authentic self and then we took a detour. Now it is time to get back on that journey. Change is in the air and some may not like it but it can only be for the better!

Peace, Lenny

Well, here we are back at the fat talk! Lately I have just been fascinated by how others are effected by someone more curvy then them. I have been experiencing this quite a bit lately and find myself scratching my head. Why does someone else care that I have a Buddha belly? The rejection of not only fat but a curvey woman in this country is out of control.

I am at peace with my body how come you aren’t? I am speaking for all of us who have struggled with weight for several years. I was actually quite thin as a child until my father continued to tell me I was fat. You know what they say, words create reality. By my sophmore year of high school, I had really packed on the pounds. This was also in relation to my home life and dysfunction out of control. I got as big as the problem. No one talks about the emotions related to over weight just that we are sloppy and have lack of will power.

Many years of diets, losing and gaining weight, brought me to a crisis. I could no longer diet. I then found overcoming overeating. Check out the website if you have an eating disorder. I love the philosophy. I am slowly healing of a food addiction not of being fat! The weight is coming off very slowly. It isn’t a quick fix like a diet but everyone around me is like why are you still curvey?

My question is why do you care? My stats are perfect, I work out 6 days a week and I am slowly healing of my eating disorder. This begs the question of our hatered for fat in this country. Anorexia probably costs us as much as obesity but we never hear about that. This is because we like skinny better then fat.

The more the government tries to get its hands on the fat the bigger the Nation becomes. We understand drug addiction, actually we don’t but we think we do, but the mind set is fat =’s lack of will power, being sloppy and lazy. This could not be further from the truth but that is the mind set.

Off the record I know plenty of people that can eat their weight in food and don’t gain a pound. There is also a metabolic issue here. So for those, should they be ostracized? Well, of course not, because they don’t wear their calories. Do not assume, “it makes an ass of you and me”, that because someone has a few extra pounds, they have health problems. Do we assume this about skinny people or those that eat too much? NO WE DON’T!

The next time you are bothered by the way someone looks, stop and figure out what is really going on. The Course says we can’t stand to see imperfection and we spend most of our time trying to hide it. The truth is we are all imperfect and usually we can hide our flaws. Fat can’t be hidden and it reminds us all of how flawed we are.

I mean this in the nicest way possible quit worrying about my percentage of fat. I am quite happy just the way I am. God doesn’t make crap! To the curvy girl keep on trucken!

Blessings, Lenny