BARBARA'S TCHATZKAHS

by Barbara It’s not a lot of fun to be big or overweight and female in our society. Especially when it isn’t your fault. I suffer from an endocrine problem called Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). I have had this scourge since I was 9 years old but it’s only in the past 11 years I have developed a problem with my weight. And I hate it and it’s not fun. In fact, I can’t stand looking in the mirror – clothes on or off. Doctors need to coax the gown off to examine me. Nowhere but the shower does anyone see much more of me. My friends tell me I am too hard on myself. My friend John made a great observation to me the other day, and I had to admit he was right. We met online in a health related chat about 14 years ago and have since met in person and become good friends. He told me, “You are one of the most compassionate and deepest people I have ever met. But when it comes to your own appearance – you are so shallow!” He went on to tell me that weight or not, I am still very at...

"Simply assuming overweight women are 'out of control' is inhumane and uneducated. Women with PCOS struggle valiantly against weight gain; often an uphill, losing battle. Malicious comments and ignorant physician assumptions that they just need to 'go on a diet' are monstrous and need to be eliminated." - PCOS Advocate Obesity or persistent weight gain is a common feature of polycystic ovarian syndrome. Many women find it almost impossible to lose weight, even when on a strict diet. It seems that every calorie that is eaten is stored as fat. There are many possible reasons why women with PCOS are overweight. A few of them are: A genetic predisposition toward "thrifty genes". A disordered biochemical signaling system affecting fat metabolism/storage, and appetite. Glandular disorders or diseases such as hypothyroidism. Chronic stress. Hidden food allergies. Medications. Sodium retention. Most women have some combination of the above factors that are...

Repost by permission from the Author by Connie Did you ever catch yourself looking at an overweight person riding on a scooter and think to yourself, “Gesh, if she’d get off that scooter and walk she wouldn’t be so fat!” Of if you see a man who’s overweight using the elevator think to yourself, “ Goodness, someone should be using the stairs!” Most people do. The thing is, you’re assuming that overweight person is that way because he/she is LAZY, when in fact he/she may have a chronic but invisible illness. How do I know? Because I’m one of those people who’s been labeled many times as fat and lazy and I’m far from it. My family is overweight, so I know that genetically I’m predisposed to it. Put my family and my husband’s family in a room, all with their backs facing you, and you can sort them by family. The only exception is our youngest son. He fits my husband’s family’s body type – short and thin. My oldest looks like my family – overweight. I’ve always fought my weight because of ...

From this great blog! Bookmark this one! by Paul Campos Even by the remarkably mendacious standards of the "obesity" racket some of the claims in this story are beyond belief. The most laughable is the idea that by 2048 everybody in the US will be "overweight" or "obese." This result was derived via statistical extrapolation, the crack cocaine of social science analysis (by similar methods one could prove that within a few generations Olympic sprinters will be running at speeds that will hurl them into low Earth orbit and everyone in America will have a plasma TV seventeen miles wide). In fact there has been no weight gain at all over the past 30 years in the thinnest quartile of the population -- whatever (poorly understood) factors have caused Americans to weigh more on average now than they did in the 1970s have had very different impacts across the weight spectrum: thin people have gained no weight, people in the middle weigh 10-15 pounds than they d...

No more so than with an 'invisible disability' like mine, that causes chronic, relentless, breathtaking pain every second I'm awake - do you find out how incredibly rude and downright stupid some people in the medical profession are. I am blessed but it took time and patience to find doctors willing to listen and help me. I was accused of doctor-shopping and put through the ringer by disability, but truth will out and I held my ground. I have a wonderful team now, though the loss of my therapist in February 2008 is irreplaceable. My PCOS has been very bad since I gave birth almost 11 years ago. It's not getting any better and now I am having surgery sometime soon - again. Unfortunately the surgeries, medications and PCOS caused me to gain weight as well as look distended. I have lost some but I am more interested in sticking to a healthy diet I can live with. But one thing I have always had a problem with: I don't do stupid. Stupidity really grates on me like ...

Yeah, I'm fat. Obese almost. And I don't like it. But the comments I get (some posted online) don't bother me as much the those expressing them hope I would. What bothers me is the willful stupidity & inability to engage their brains of these commentors. Before I moved to the house I'm in now, I lived in a luxury condo building. One of my neighbors, when I first lived there - was named Robert. He was younger than I and lived with his older mother. He was not well but often looked fine. I asked him once why he didn't date... his response, "I won't be around long enough to be a good partner for someone." He was right. Every few years Robert, who was tall and thin, would hobble around looking like he weighed over 300lbs. The condo gossips would talk about how "fat" he was and how he was "yo-yo dieting." I got tired of telling people it was his illnesses. You see Robert had numerous surgeries, medication as well as havin...

By DEBORAH YAO Derrie-Air has been exposed. Readers of The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News opened their papers Friday to see ads for a new airline called Derrie-Air, which purportedly charges passengers by the pound. But the new carrier will never get off the ground. It's a one-day advertising campaign about a fake airline by Philadelphia Media Holdings, the papers' owner, and Gyro ad agency. In light blue banners throughout the papers — as well as on their Web site, Philly.com — Derrie-Air cheerily trumpets its policy: The more you weigh, the more you pay. The ads direct readers to the Web site FLY DERRIE-AIR Philadelphia Media Holdings spokesman Jay Devine said the goal is to "demonstrate the power of our brands in generating awareness and generating traffic for our advertisers, and put a smile on people's faces." The company will track traffic to the Derrie-Air site. Devine said there's already buzz about the campaign on online blogs. Visi...