I was watching a nationally syndicated talk show a few mornings ago and became very frustrated with what I was watching. “What did you see Fat Chick? Please share.” I know that this is what all of you are saying to yourselves right now so I will share with you BUT ONLY YOU!!

I was watching and in the “sneak peek” they said that they would be talking so someone who lost a “tremendous” amount of weight. Well, this peaked my attention since I too want to loose a tremendous amount of weight. I sat, glued to the TV, anxiously awaiting the segment to begin and after 3 minutes of commercials about Fast Food restaurants, feminine hygiene products and Direct TV, it began. The host spoke of how this young woman had struggled with her weight all of her life and finally DID IT! As I heard this, I wanted to grab my pom-pom’s, leap into a spread eagle jump and give her a cheer. I was going to see a segment about someone like me and I really needed the encouragement to get my weight loss train a chuggin’ again. They showed a current picture and she was a young girl, maybe 25, wearing shorts and a T-shirt. As they talked, I couldn’t wait to see where she started and how much weight she had lost in total. As her “before” picture came onto my TV screen, all of my anticipation came to a screeching halt and I felt the need to scream at the top of my lungs! The picture on the screen was of the same girl with longer hair and about 40 lbs heavier than she currently was on the show. Since when is 40 llbs a TREMENDOUS amount of weight? I was expecting to see someone who had lost 150-200 lbs, maybe even 300 lbs but no, I see a woman who “waged a battle for 4 whole months” to loose 48 lbs! My right thigh probably weighs that much! Heck, 5 lbs of the weight was probably from getting her hair cut! And as she spoke about how she lost her WHOPPING 48 LB, I began to daydream about how awesome it would be to only have to loose 48 lbs. She cut her soda intake down to 2 cans a day, and drank diet soda instead of regular soda. She ate salads for lunch each day and had small meals for dinner so she didn’t have all that food in her stomach before going to bed. As she gave her tips and the host looked at her in awe, I began to get really frustrated - Don’t get me frustrated, you wouldn’t like me when I’m frustrated!! (Sorry, saw a trailer for the new hulk movie.) I watch these TV Talk shows and many of them do segments about weight loss but rarely do we see someone who has to loose more than 75-100 lbs. Now, that is a great thing but don’t my fellow fat chicks and I deserve to see someone who has really waged the BATTLE OF THE BULGE. Maybe 200-250 lbs lost? Let’s get nuts and make it 300 lbs! Then I start to wonder why we rarely see that and when we do, why is it normally a pre-recorded segment? Are they afraid that the overweight or formerly overweight person is going to eat everything in the Green Room and then go on a rampage thru the studio eating trinkets from people desks and rummaging thru purses and drawers for loose candy and snacks? Maybe they think the overweight or formerly overweight person will scare the studio audience. The children in the audience will scream for their parents to save them from the BIG FAT LADY who is sniffing their hair because they used Cotton Candy shampoo that morning. Could there be a fear that they will break the furniture and attack the host, grabbing them and climbing up into the rafters like King Kong did.
I guess I am also wondering why weight loss programs like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers use people who have lost 30-40 lbs in their commercials when using someone who has lost 210 lbs would really show the effectiveness of their programs but I guess they just wouldn’t be “pretty” enough. The only time that we see these people are when the talk shows want to talk about the dreaded weight loss surgeries – then they are more than happy to show the 400 lb woman who is having a majority of her stomach removed to loose 250 lbs along with the woman who now weighs 125 lbs but use to weigh 375 and had her stomach stapled or banded up so that her body wouldn’t and couldn’t absorb the nutrients needed so she could loose that 250 lbs. And do we often here about the problems that went along with the surgery? Nope!
I am a self proclaimed Fat Chick on a mission. What is my mission? To open the eyes of our Thincentric society to the fact that Fat People are not going to disappear just because you pick on them and call them names. We are flesh and blood, just like them. We have feelings, just like them. We too want to be happy and healthy, just like them. The difference is that we have to get there on a different road but our roads will cross sometimes and it would be so much easier to be able to just coexist without the boundaries of weight.
Come on people, can’t we all just get along!

In my journey in life to become a SHRINKING FAT CHICK, I have encountered so many obstacles that have made me either scream “I can’t take it anymore! Where is the pizza!” or “I don’t need the pizza. I’ll have a carrot instead.” I know, a carrot for a pizza is not realistic but I am trying to make the point that sometimes dieting is easy and sometimes dieting is the hardest thing to do in the world.
I sometimes wonder why some people are “graced” with being overweight and some are not. It can’t be all related to food and how much people eat because I know some heavy people that really don’t eat much at all and I know some Skinny Minnie’s who eat like horses! So, what is it? What is the determining factor? Are we put into a lottery at birth? Or maybe God (or whoever you believe in) sits with a big top hat with our names in it and draws names to determine who will be overweight and who will not? Does it have something to do with a past life? Maybe Karma? I just don’t understand at all and I really want to. I want to know WHY ME? Now, I have come to terms with my weight. I am what I am and if you don’t like it, screw you! But just because I have come to terms with it doesn’t mean that I like it, it just means that I have accepted that this is who I am right now. Can it change? Yes, but you can’t live your life looking to what could be, you have to live in the here and now and here and now, I’m FAT! (That’s right, I called myself fat!) What I want to know is why was it decided that I would have to be fat? Why couldn’t I be one of those girls that is 5ft 8in tall, perfect body and hair, and can eat any and everything she wants to without gaining an ounce? Why did it have to be me to have to deal with all of the crap that goes along with being overweight through my childhood, teen years and adulthood? There are times when I feel like there is this whole part of life that I have missed out on because of my weight, some by my choice and some not. How would my life had been different if I had been a size 8 rather than 24+? Who knows but sometimes I can’t help but wonder. One thing I do know is that I wouldn’t have so many purses and I would have a heck of a lot more clothes!
As weird as this may sound, sometimes the idea of really loosing weight scares me. I have been overweight as far back as I can remember, sometimes heavier than other times but always heavy. They say that the biggest fear that a person can have is the fear of the unknown – well, this is my unknown. I don’t know what it is like to be thin. I want to know, trust me, but it may make me a raging lunatic or a tramp or an idiot or who knows what. I’ve seen it happen in friends who have lost a lot of weight. They loose their mind and become a different person. They don’t see it but everyone around them does. I like the person that I am now so I don’t want to loose that but I want being thin to no longer be my unknown!
So, how do I make it happen? Where is the magic pill that I can take to make me not want to eat anymore? What is the magic workout that is easy and fun? Where is the magic elixir that I can drink to make all of the fat melt away? There is always surgery but do I really want to take that route. Heck, surgery is a whole other blog. How do I make it easier than it is now? I don’t know and I don’t think anyone else knows either. I have often heard that people loose the weight when they are ready to loose the weight. I feel like I am ready so why isn’t the weight coming off? What have I been doing wrong? I’ll probably never know but I do know this – I want to loose this weight and I will not given up on loosing it because when I give up, the weight has won and that is a defeat that I just can’t accept so I am putting on my armor and preparing for the battle of a lifetime or maybe I should say the battle for my life.