#like I know. I know I’m in the obese BMI category and I normally don’t care because I think it’s bullshit

[sloppysequinz]

Just opened an insurance claim summary and discovered that some medical professional decided that they needed to put “MORBID (SEVERE) OBESITY DUE TO EXCESS CALORIES” front and center as a diagnosis and now I feel like shit 🙃✌🏻

#that was NOT what the claim was about it was for a surgery to remove a skin growth #but somebody decided I also needed to be marked down as FAT GROSS FUCK FROM EATING TOO MUCH #right next to the problem I was ACTUALLY getting treated for #at no point did I talk to my doctor or anyone on my surgery team about my weight #like I know. I know I’m in the obese BMI category and I normally don’t care because I think it’s bullshit #but to have them so clinically there seems cruel and hurtful #ALSO FUCK YOU YOU DONT KNOW WHAT MY OBESITY IS DUE TO #I’ve been in that category pretty much my whole life no matter what I ate #this is what gives women like me eating disorders #delete later

[haha-skinny-go-brrr]

nobody in my life understands what it feels like to be me and i hate it. my bmi is so high i’m almost in the obesity category and i want to km$. everybody tells me i’m “so skinny!!” but they don’t fuckung get it. i feel like i’m gonna relapse and i don’t know whether to be happy or sad. on one hand i just wanna get skinny and on the other ive been so happy recently. i’ve been able to live normally and just exist happily but now??? fucj man. none of my friends get it. they are all skinny. everybody is skinny but me. if i was skinny i swear i’d be the happiest person on earth. nobody would call me ugly, nobody would think i was weird, and i’d be left alone. if i was skinny people might actually want to be my friend. during the school year i need to stop eating. i could use it as an excuse si people don’t notice the restricting. “oh why haven’t you eaten?” “i was studying oops!”. i need it. i will start today. i hâte this so much but it needs to be done. i need to get skinny.

[lucysweatslove]

I really don’t mean to do so many readmores but trying to be respectful/considerate when something could be significantly triggering, especially if I’m talking about triggering topics in a “negative” view of myself. Talk about weight, calories, exercise, etc. Touches on fatphobia and how fat people are judged.

So a couple weeks ago, right before my 29th birthday, I decided I wanted to try to just get more of my life in routine and attempt to establish some better habits (eg a bedtime routine, keeping skincare up, going back to the gym regularly, cooking more meals instead of snacking on pre-packaged foods, etc). I had 14 weeks until the start of school so it just felt like a good time to start working on these things. Part of this is also that I want to be able to feel good about myself in business casual clothing around other people, since I’m going to be around a lot of people and need to wear business casual a lot of times.

I also thought I might just see if I lose weight during this time since I was focusing so much on “healthier habits” and you know, curious. Even if I “only” lost a few lbs or whatever, I guess I just wanted to know? Also my sister has kept talking about her weight loss despite me saying I’m uninterested (she says she has lost like 25 lbs, and was barely in the “obese” weight category btw, eating like 2000 calories- I know, numbers talk, but this is why it’s under a readmore). So I was just thinking like, i might not lose weight like her since I’m me, but maybe I could a little bit too? I am actually in the “obese” category, I store my fat in the dreaded mid-section so like, and I’m not muscular, so while we all know BMI is shit, even my body fat percent IS considered obese. (FWIW, I’m a small fat I guess).

We all know, I’m recovered from atypical ana, so primarily weight loss focused efforts are usually not safe for me as I can get super restrictive again and in that mindset. So anyway weight loss has nothing to do directly with my goals for the next 14 weeks, but I think I had it in my head that since I came off of like several months of essentially existing on the frozen chicken melts from costco and skittles and other candy from winco, healthy habits would likely lead to some reduction, yeah?

I initially didn’t weigh myself but did on my birthday. After that, I decided to only weigh myself on Mondays (new week starts). Anyway I’m not expecting huge results or anything, but since my birthday I have basically stayed the same, actually going up a little bit.

Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t really care, but… I also didn’t lose any weight last week so I decided to kinda see if my eating habits were actually conducive to weight loss. For my birthday, I celebrated two days, and I had gone out to lunch one day and to a movie and dinner the other day, so I just assumed like, water weight, took in more calories those days, etc, not a big deal. But I guess I had challenged myself for last week to just really do my best to stick with it without being too hard on myself. I went back to weighing my food to track it during the week (less rigidly so, I suppose, since its not like I’m upset if I can’t finish a meal, or if my husband takes a blueberry off my plate, etc). For the five weekdays, I averaged 1450 calories in (uncertain how that ended up such a nice round number lol) and, according to my watch, 2710 calories out. I don’t always trust the watch because it logs my weight lifting through my app which always says I burn more calories than I think I really do (if I was lifting closer to my max and/or doing less resting, maybe, but I’m resting like 75% of the session). So I kinda suspect actual burn to be like 2400-2500.

I know over the weekend I eat a little more, less protein, more “eating out,” as I refuse to sacrifice enjoyment with my husband. Like I won’t refuse to go get a Mac and cheese bowl with him just because I can’t track it. Saturday, I’m not really sure. He brought home lunch and I ended up eating several tortilla chips, barely had any ice cream he brought home because our favorite is discontinued so he bought another brand that I didn’t like, and I had a few handfuls of cashews but like didn’t actually eat a MEAL. Yesterday while I didn’t track, we went out for Mac and cheese bowls for lunch, and I ate half of mine then and half for dinner. I also did eat grapes, veggies with a Greek yogurt dip I made, and a smallish bagel (package says 230 calories) at bedtime because I hadn’t had a lot of fruits and veg especially that day and wanted more.

I just can’t see where literally 5k calories could come from over my weekend to offset my week. Which makes me wonder if my thyroid is doing okay. Like over the last couple of weeks I expected to see some decline in weight, even just a lb or two. I keep seeing people thinner than me lose even more weight and it’s… yeah it’s discouraging, not because of the weight loss exactly, but more because it makes me really curious WHY my body seems to suck.

The thing is, it’s so hard for a fat person to be taken seriously when they are concerned about their thyroid. “If you aren’t losing weight, you aren’t doing it right.” We are told we can’t REALLY be tracking correctly- clearly we are eating more than we think, we aren’t tracking every bite, we NEED to be obsessive and THEN we will see results and if you don’t see results, you aren’t obsessive enough. I’ve had a fucking eating disorder; I know how to be “obsessive enough.” I don’t want to be tracking calories like this at all, but I especially don’t want to have to spend like a month avoiding all fun foods and declining things I enjoy with people I enjoy JUST to get good enough data for people to take me seriously when I say I’m concerned for my thyroid health?

Ofc there may be other reasons that I just can’t think of. I don’t think it’s GI tract stuff given how my bathroom habits have been. I guess maybe it could be that, in response to going to the gym again, my body is storing more glycogen, and I’m giving it appropriate carbs so it’s doing do. I don’t feel particularly sore or water-retention-y so I don’t really think it’s that. I can’t remember when I’m actually supposed to take my ring out for a “period.” The “right” thing to do here is just keep doing what I’m doing for another couple of weeks, let a month go before I get really worried.

Really what it all boils down to: how other people perceive me. I don’t really care what I look like to myself. I’m perfectly content to just be in my pajamas at home all the time and eat how I want to eat and what fuels me best etc. But after years of rejection and being teased for how I look, and now starting a new professional path in which I will 10000% be judged by how I look, I have to think about how I look to others and I expect “the worst” because that’s the data I have. Telling me to shift my thinking and expect people won’t care or whatever doesn’t honor my actual experience. Yes there are people who don’t care and will be kind no matter what, and yes there will always be people who judge you harshly no matter what too, but my actual loved experience and the actual data I have says that more people judge me harsher on my body’s appearance than they do with straight-sized individuals, and more people judge me harshly for traits related to my neurodivergence/ autism than they do for neurotypicals.

And ofc when people like me try tl share why it might be harder for us to fit into the box of “socially acceptable enough to not be so harshly judged,” we are, again, judged for THAT.

Idk I have other thoughts but I’m just disappointed with what I can’t do lately. And it’s depressing and nobody wants to really listen to depressing shit so this is my little outlet of frustration.

#personal #rant #depressing shit

[prielebrie]

Sun Feb 28 2021

Today is the fourth day since I started calorie counting. 

Like a lot of people, I gained weight during covid since I barely left the house and the decline of my mental health led to pretty bad depression and anxiety. I tried to cope by drinking excessively and eating whatever the hell I wanted. I stopped drinking about six months ago and replaced that vice with insane amounts of online shopping. I guess it’s better than drinking?

Anyway my best friend D started doing intermittent fasting the same day I started CICO and I am so glad to have the support. I seem to do better when I have someone to hold me accountable. I don’t like the feeling of letting someone down. 

My lowest weight (which is my ugw) was 141 lbs. I think the last time I was at that weight was 2016? Over four years I gained 30 pounds to my pre-covid weight of 170 lbs. Guess how much weight I gained over quarantine....40 freaking pounds. Yeah. For the first time in my life I crossed into 200 territory. I was always scared to check my weight during my alcohol and food binging days but I know I must have been around 210 lbs at some point. On Wednesday when I did my official first weight-in I was 203.5 lbs. I can’t believe I was in the obese category of the BMI scale (I’m 5′8.9″/175cm). I mean it was just barely and I’m in the overweight category now (201 lbs as of this morning) but it’s so upsetting to think that I’ve let myself get this big. Not only that, but I get stretch marks pretty easily so I’m sure I’ve got a bunch of new ones now (I’m not 100% sure because I don’t want to look at my body rn).    

SO. My first goal is going to be 168 lbs cause that would be a BMI of 24.9 (normal category) and then I’ll go for my ugw. 

I’ve been eating around 1000-1200 calories a day. I set my goal as 1600 cause I don’t want to upset myself if I eat extra one day and I will still lose 1 lb a week if I eat 1600 calories.

I’m gonna go compile a bunch of photos to encourage myself.  

#cico #depression #anxiety #mental health #weight loss

[bigolegay]

i just feel like because i was never thin, was never even anything more than a toe under the “obese” bmi category (and i KNOW that bmi is shit and not a measurement of worth), that i just... failed. like i did all of that, lost everything, and for what? lost my job, lost my time, lost my gallbladder, lost my sense of self, my identity, my sense of self-worth, my health, and for what? i didn’t even get close to even looking normal, let alone even looking good. i still have all those thinspo pictures saved on my pc and phone and i look at them and then me and it’s like we’re a different species.i fucking failed! and now here i am, putting myself through the hell of recovery, gaining weight because i’m making up for two years of resctriction and my set point is higher and i’m using constant over-eating as a form of self harm and self sabotage because i really want to relapse.... and for fucking what??

it just kills me, i want to be acceptable so fucking bad but i still see myself in the mirror and like... i hate it! i hate myself!! i think i look horrific! i still don’t know who or what i am, and now i just pressed a fucking key on my keyboard and something happened and i can’t undo it, because my fucking hands are so FAT right now, they look like i’ve got overstuffed sausages for fingers, and i just want someone to tell me “it’s okay, i give you permission to relapse” but no one is going to do that and no one should because i’ll fucking end up killing myself with this shit! i want to fuckign scream!!!

all i’ve eaten today is an iced coffee and an ice cream and i feel like such a fucking horrific piece of shit for eating them because they were sugary and that is BAD but also good because hey, that’s all i’ve eaten. and maybe i’m going for a 6 mile hike this afternoon, but honestly i probably shouldn’ because i feel this way and i still haven’t eateng jhsdfkjhsdfkjdsh i want to fucking stop everything, i want to just sleep for 50 yearsd and wake up in my 70s and then die the next day of natural fucking causes. i HATEa this

#我说得 #another rant sorry #eating disorder tw

[theperksofbeingageekygirl]

I can't anymore

I don't get it. I exercise, I count my calories, I use black coffee as a supplement. And I don't seem to lose weight. It's been going for at least a year and I hate myself for that. I hate that I have this food related problem whereas actually I handle it quite healthy my shrink diagnosed me with atypical anorexia. Atypical that's not so bad. Why do I weight this much, I BARLEY EVEN HAVE BODY FAT. What is wrong with me. I get that Im never gonna be the fragile kind but wtf man. I fucking have ballet class every day up to three hours class, I exercise myself to death with regularly fainting because I don't stop. I drink water, only water. I haven't touched fast food in a year. I don't eat anything I really enjoy and If I do I hate myself so much. I mentally torture myself and I know its wrong but I also know that I don't want to loose to myself. Where is that f ing weight coming from. Sometimes I think maybe I would be happier if I was fat, you know no more stress cause maintaining my figure is hard af. But the I think I’m already really struggling with my body image so, if I was fat I could never be happy again. But somehow I am also not happy. But I am happy when I wake up and I haven't eaten for a long time and I look in the mirror and I’m cute. I wear cute dresses and I can pull it off, but why can't it be like that everyday. Why do I have to eat. And why doesn't it make a difference if I don't. Actually sometimes I imagine what it would be like if I ate like 1500 calories a day or if I didnt exercise. I would probably be obese in five days. Cause now I do all that shite and my bmi is still in that friggin normal category. I just hate everything.

#ana #i hate my body #i hate myself #why #hate #anorexia #atypical #fatass #eating disoder things #thinspo #eating desorders #mental health

[missmentelle]

what makes atypical anorexia atypical? how is it different from regular anorexia?

When the official criteria for anorexia were decided, psychologists still had a very black-and-white view of what anorexia was and what it should look like. As a result, one of the mandatory criteria of “typical” anorexia is that the patient must be medically underweight. This is not optional for typical anorexia; if your weight is within the average range for your height - or higher - you technically cannot be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa. In fact, the diagnosis is so closely tied to the patient’s weight that we decide whether cases of anorexia are “mild”, “moderate” or “severe” based on BMI alone - factors like “how long you’ve been restricting”, “how many calories you eat per day” and “how many relapses you’ve had” are not taken into account. Just weight. 

Of course, life is a lot more complicated than that, and doctors quickly realized that they were seeing a lot of eating disorder patients who fit all the criteria for anorexia, except for the fact that they were of average weight or higher. And so the diagnosis of “atypical anorexia” - also known as “Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified (EDNOS)” - was created. Atypical anorexia is actually a misnomer; calling it “atypical anorexia” makes it sound like a rare occurrence that is not nearly as common  as the “typical” type. In reality, however, somewhere between 40 - 75% of patients treated for anorexia fall into the “atypical” or “not otherwise specified” category. For the vast majority of “atypical” patients, the only thing keeping them from being diagnosed with anorexia nervosa is their weight. Otherwise, they have the same symptoms, require the same treatments, and suffer the same medical complications.

The other big difference between “typical” and “atypical” anorexia, of course, comes in the way that people treat those struggling with either disorder. People with typical anorexia are often regarded with alarm and concern; family and friends may beg them to seek help, closely monitor their symptoms, and go to great lengths to ensure that they get the help they need. People with atypical anorexia, however, are often praised for their restrictive diets, admired for their “willpower”, and encouraged to keep going. Our society is so deeply, deeply fatphobic that many people see all weight-loss efforts by heavier people as “healthy”, even if those efforts are absolutely destroying the person’s body and causing devastating, irreversible damage to their internal organs. 

People are so misinformed about health and weight and food that we tend to assume weight loss only becomes a problem when you move from “average” to “underweight”; there’s an underlying assumption that weight loss always makes a person healthier until you reach your “ideal” weight, after which your health begins to decline. This is absolutely not true. Experiencing a long period of starvation and malnutrition has devastating consequences for your health, even if you don’t visibly lose a lot of weight. Many people’s bodies like to hang on to as much fat as possible, for as long as possible, in order to survive the famine that you are clearly experiencing; they will break down your muscle and organ tissue in order to preserve those precious fat stores. My ancestors survived the Irish Potato Famine - my body takes any reduction in calorie intake as a sign that the crop has failed and the English have taken our livestock. A person can be deeply entrenched in anorexia and still be obese, but experience the same medical complications that a “typical anorexic” would experience - including hair loss, “brain fog”, fatigue, irritability, sleep disruptions, osteoporosis, constipation, painful bloating, changes to your sense of taste, and permanent damage to the heart muscles. 

One of the other big distinctions between typical and atypical anorexia is that people with atypical anorexia may have greater difficulty accessing treatment. They often feel like they cannot possibility require - or deserve - treatment for an eating disorder if they are still overweight. When mainstream media points out the dangers and warning signs of anorexia, they go right to thin, skeletal bodies - visible ribcages, hipbones and collarbones. Those things can feel like “requirements” for getting treatment - as if jutting shoulder blades are a “you must be this sick to get treatment” line. But they are not. Most doctors who specialize in eating disorders will have up to three-quarters of their patients present within a “normal” or “above-normal” weight range, and people who engage in extreme, compulsive restrictions with their eating belong in treatment, regardless of what the scale says. 

I’m not a member of the American Psychological Association and I’m not an all-knowing wizard, but I have my suspicions that we will see the weight requirement dropped from the DSM criteria for “anorexia” in the future; it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to hang on to a diagnostic criteria that only fits 25 - 60% of your patients, and excludes the rest. As our understanding of eating disorders grows more complex, our labels and categories need to change to reflect our new knowledge. 

Hope this answers your question!

[mysteriousdarksideofthemoo-blog2]

Heavy heavy

It’s half past 2 as I’m writing this, but let’s do some math here: Height: 168 centimeters

Weight: 100 kilograms

Your BMI is 35.4, indicating your weight is in the Obese category for adults of your height. For your height, a normal weight range would be from 52.2 to 70.3 kilograms.

So basically, I’m fat. Which, looking down at my belly being visible underneath my cup E boobs, isn’t an overestimation.

All my life I’ve felt heavier. I don’t remember feeling skinny. Ever. Not even slim. I remember feeling plump. Being made to feel plump. By people and by the lacking clothing sizes in popular stores for teens. 

Every year summer clothes would fit tighter, but 6 years ago things went real sour. The boy I loved to the moon and back committed suicide. My world fell apart, I fell into one hell of a depression and at first I nearly stopped eating. If you can call 2 cups of coffee and a bowl of vegetable soup food anyway. 

After 4 months or so I started eating again. Actually, not eating, but stuffing myself. I would walk into the supermarket 5-10 min before closing time, getting 3 to 5 chocolate bars, some more candy and maybe something salty. Maybe even another pizza. The first winter I still fit into my red winter jacket and I remember feeling the looks and stares of the employees around me. The girl in red is coming for chocolate again, just like yesterday, and the day before yesterday...

And I would actually try to eat everything I could find, anything my mind would tell me to eat, even a dry slice of bread. I vaguely remember watching some documentaries, but I was mostly eating. Or sleeping. Sleeping and eating my sorrow away until either the sun was up (or the birds were chirping) or I had been eating so much that I was about to throw up and sleeping was the only way to stop myself from taking it that far. 

In about 1,5 years I had fattened myself up with a kilo or 25. I had literally burst out of my own skin, with stretchmarks everywhere. My arms, my thighs and worst of all, my belly. Stretchmarks that make me look like I’d given birth to a child, which, of course, I hadn’t. A potbelly with mummy stretchmarks.

I’ve tried losing weight. Dancing 2 hours per week and watching my food consumption. I went down 1 clothing size (in my pants) and that was it. I wanted to join a special healthy lifestyle program for people with eating disorders. I got rejected, twice. I went to see a ditician. I started eating healthier, but not as healthy as a regular person. I’m too fat for a breast reduction and I’m too “skinny” (really trying not to laugh here) for a ventral belt or a gastric bypass.

Last week another doctor basically told me to just suck it up and get off my ass. I immediately threw out a question on my FB, asking who’d be interested in swimming with me 2-3 times a week. Instead, a friend told me about her gym. I was determined to pick it up once again, but there seemed to be no haste. Until now.

Because of the depression I had isolated myself for years. People had forgotten me, people didn’t ask. They just didn’t care. But for the past few weeks I tried to go back into the pool of socialising. Going out. Mind you, I’ve very much aware of the fact that I’m fat and I try to dress appropriately (which I’ve only receive compliments about, people don’t believe I’m as fat as I actually am), but I’m not ugly. And I sure as hell have some decent girlfriend-material qualities. 

But in the past few weeks I encountered 2 guys I felt into and both of them looked at me with looks of utter disgust when they found out about it. And I don’t feel they were out of my league, so one can only blame my fatness. One of them is a bartender in a local pub, so avoiding him is practically impossible. And the humiliation I feel every time I even have to walk past that pub knowing he’ll most likely be there, hoping he won’t be sitting outside for a smoke... 

It has caused me to feel hideous. An abomination. Not worth anything. I don’t even want to go out anymore, because I feel like an eyesore. And mind you, I do NOT want to be a size 0. I want to go back before the depression, when I was actually curvy and still confident to wear skirts and dresses and heels. Back when I had a body I was happy with and most importantly, I myself was happy.

It’s not going to be easy, nor fun, but I will make it work. I’ll have to fight to keep moving, exercising, not eating too much and unhealthy. But I have to make it work. My hips, knees, ankles and back are aching from the excessive weight. I don’t want to live like this anymore, I just can’t. I need to put myself and my happiness first. 

I need to heal.

#obesetobeast #obese #lose weight #weight struggles #chubby to curvy

[heavyweightheart]

Is it normal to recover to obesity after a restrictive eating disorder? I started out bigger & my non-ED doctors were thrilled when my BMI dipped to underweight, but now that I'm in recovery, I'm morbidly obese & my doctors/clinicians treat me like I did something wrong. I feel like a dirty secret to be kept from other ED patients in case they don't want to try recovery because they're afraid to become me.

there isn’t really a “normal” in weight restoration bc we all naturally sit at different places across the BMI spectrum, but it certainly is fine if you fall into the “obese” category! 

i mean, you know BMI is bullshit and determines nothing about individuals’ health, so there’s no need to pathologize your body by thinking of it as “morbidly obese”. it’d be more accurate to say that you were morbidly underweight previously and are now at a healing weight. i’m sorry doctors are SO incompetent in this area.

there can be an overshoot phenomenon in weight restoration, where the body increases its fat mass past its original proportion, in order to restore the fat free to fat mass ratio that your body prefers. eventually your weight would taper down in that case, but you might still be on the higher end of the weight spectrum and be metabolically healthy there.i hear you on the dirty secret feeling, and i’m so sorry you have to deal with that on top of your own ED. but you don’t have to internalize other ED sufferers’ fatphobia – you can see it for what it is (not about you or even about body size). as i’ve said before, those of us who are thinner are perfectly capable of not treating your body as a thing to be feared, and you deserve that basic decency. if you don’t get it, you might consider surrounding yourself with different people as far as it’s in your power. xx

#Anonymous

[dxmedstudent]

Hi, is it possible for people who are considered 'slim/thin/average' to develop type 2 diabetes? Because my knowledge was that the onset of type 2 diabetes was due to being categorised as obese. Apparently saying 'obesity is a risk factor' is 'fatphobic' (according to some articles I have read. What's your take on this?

Oh boy. What a topic. Perhaps it’s not the right thing to discuss after a long shift, but you’re caught my attention, and I feel like answering it. I hope this makes sense. Yes, it is. You can be diabetic and within the BMI range classed as ‘normal’. It’s more likely if you’re South Asian, because they are at particular risk of diabetes, and they can become diabetic even if relatively trim. I’ve certainly met patients like this. I want to say that being skinny or ‘normal’ weight is not a guarantee of good health. It doesn’t mean you can’t have high cholesterol. It doesn’t mean you can’t have a heart attack, like my uncle. Society often forgets this, because we’re very set on the message that fat = bad (which is not 100% true).  You can be overweight and not be suffering from high cholesterol or diabetes or other health problems. But it’s not correct to say that obesity is a risk factor’ is ‘fatphobic’, in my opinion. And  think framing it as such is in itself problematic, because it frames any discussion about any possible risk associated with increased body fat as inherently harmful or phobic. 1) Saying something is ‘a risk factor’ is not saying ‘you will develop diabetes if you are fat’. It just means that it is more likely. 2) Current evidence suggests that people who are ‘overweight’ are at increased risk, that is to say, more likely to develop diabetes than those who are not. This is not something that is controversial; it’s something most of us working in medicine have seen. There’s a correlation. That is not to say that it is 100%; you will get skinny diabetics and fat people with no health problems. People are diverse, so on an individual level you need to treat people as individuals. 3) Fat is not just padding. It is metabolically active tissue, and having fat in particular distributions can affect your metabolic system more than others. We are only just beginining to understand what fat does, and it’s pretty fascinating. But I believe that treating it just as ‘stuff that happens to be there but has no effect’ does not go along with what science is telling us. We need to research what fat is doing, because current science tells us it is probably doing much more than what we first thought.

4)Discouraging research of fat will not help fat people; it could put them at risk for longer, because we will remain in ignorance of what is going on in their bodies. They deserve to have research that reflects their needs. Fat is just tissue; the value we place on it says more about us than about the science.

5) Even if being overweigt increases your risk of diabetes, that is not a value judgement on the person. It does not make you a bad person, or a weak person, or a person less deserving of respect or having your health needs fully addressed, than if you are not fat. Any more than someone who smokes, or drinks etc. I hold no truck with the idea that people are less deserving of respect or help if their condition is ‘self inflicted’, and in fact the framing as such genuinely makes me quite mad. So I think we need to get beyond reflexively saying “but I can be fat and healthy!”. Yes. it’s true. You can be. Though many are not. And I think we get hugely hung up on this detail, and most discourse seems to surround it when it’s not actually what the main focus should be. Focusing on the healthy does not help those who are suffering.  I’m also here for the fat person who isn’t the “model healthy fat person who is therefore morally acceptable”. I’m here for the fat person who is unhealthy. The fat person whose weight is ‘self inflicted’. The fat person who is vilified and who doesn’t diet or eat healthily or do exercise etc.  I don’t think we need to defend fat as healthy and therefore morally acceptable, we need to abolish the need to attach morality to someone’s weight at all. And by defending that fat can be healthy and beautiful and good (which is all done with the best of intentions) what we’re really doing is separating fat people into deserving and undeserving. And that’s not on. How can we address the health problems many people struggle with, if we get to a point where even saying there’s an increased risk of something if you are very ‘morbidly obese’ (which is a horrible, horrible term), is brushed aside as fatphobic? How can we help anyone if any commentary, even from a pure health perspective, is lumped in the same category with frank abuse?

The difficulty with this conversation is it’s incredibly frought, and emotive on all sides.  I’d argue that the difficulty sometimes lies not with the statement, but who is saying it, and how it is said. Because discussion about health is frequently co-opted by people who really aren’t worrying about health. The fact that people are incredibly patronising and rude to overweight people, and go out of their way to make their lives miserable by fat shaming them, actually has a huge negative impact on how we approach being overweight and health. I’ve seen some commentary which I feel is well meaning and heartfelt, but sometimes scientifically inaccurate from the body positivity side, but I can completely understand the place they are coming from. To spend your entire life fighting fat shaming in a society that values being thin and beautiful above all else is brutal. Society has a lot to answer for.  And the defensiveness is understandable. Though I believe in being honest where there are risks, I don’t believe in the current conversation we are having at all.  I feel that we need to put lots of research into what fat as a metabolic tissue is doing. And into our metabolic process in general. And itno the effects that modern sedentary lifestyles are having on our health, and what we can do to reverse it. I feel that we need to be able to have frank conversations about the health risks of fat, just like we should be able to discuss the risks of smoking, or drinking, or living on a diet of mars bars etc. In short, I feel that we, as medical professionals, and as a society, need to be able to discuss fat without any reference to aesthetics, without value judgements, and without losing sight of people as individuals. And I think we owe it to fat people to not neglect the health implications of fat just because the topic has been hijacked. I’ve seen a lot of truly horrible fat-shaming commentary from ignorant individuals bent on making others miserable. I don’t think any of these people care one jot about the health of fat people, and I wish they left well enough alone. It’s really not their business to bully people for their weight, and I don’t for one minute genuinely believe they care about fat people’s health. I say this because the same people (and society as a whole) are much quieter about say, smoking, or drinking. Alcohol excess is a huge problem, but people largely ignore it. Why? Because smoking or drinking are socially acceptable because they don’t change how you look. I don’t think people who fatshame are concerned about fat people’s health, I think the vast majority are belittling and bullying people based on how they look, and then trying to cover their backs by sneeringly pretending that they care about that person’s health. And that is cowardly and unacceptable.I have no love for people like this hijacking the discourse surrounding the health effects of obesty. Because their bullying makes things worse. And because their trolling makes it hard for us as a society to speak honestly about the risks and benefits. and because they and the fatshaming culture they reinforce make life hell for people I know and love. And I personally cannot forgive that. So, what I’d like to say is that if people, in general, cannot have a polite, value-neutral discussion about fat as metabolic tissue, and about complex health problems, without fat-shaming or abuse, then they should should leave fat people alone to discuss their health with their healthcare team. My patient’s weight is between me and my patient. If all someone is  going to do is upset my patient, then they can jog right on.

#askdx #ask dx

[healthyworthyofficial]

What Is Skinny Fat? The Signs And Dangers Of Being Thin Fat

The term “skinny fat” gets thrown around a lot these days, but it sounds a little backwards and confusing…right? And let’s face it: The term itself is loaded, contradictory, and shame-y. But metabolism and weight-management experts admit that it does describe a very real health issue. People who might be described as “skinny fat” are often at risk of developing the same health issues as if they were medically grouped in the overweight or obese categories — they just don’t necessarily look like it from the outside. (Friendly reminder: You can’t tell what’s going on with someone’s health — physical or mental — just by looking at them.) Here’s what you need to know about the whole skinny-fat concept.

What does the term “skinny fat” even mean?

“Skinny fat” (or “thin fat,” as some people refer to it) isn’t a medical term. It’s a colloquial phrase usually used to describe people who appear to be thin but are actually carrying more fat than is healthful for their body type. So, while their body mass index (BMI) — which is based on height and weight only and does not isolate body fat percentage — may be in the healthy range, their percentage of body fat is higher than what has been deemed healthy for their body. READ MORE: Can You Really Target Fat Loss To A Specific Area Or Is That Total B.S.?

Wait, so do experts generally think skinny fat is a real thing?

Many do. “There are quite a few people that may appear to be lean visibly but, when you actually do an exam on them, carry quite a bit of fat,” says Dr Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Normal body fat is between 21 percent and 33 percent for women,” adds Dr Vijaya Surampudi, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of human nutrition at UCLA Health. “If someone has a higher percent body fat of 36, 38, or even higher, that is concerning.” Unfortunately, body fat percentage is taken into account far less than BMI. BMI isn’t a great measure of your overall health — despite the fact that you probably still hear about it at your doctor’s office. Because BMI only factors in your height and weight and doesn’t break down your weight according to what is bone, or fat, or muscle mass, it doesn’t give an accurate picture, says Dr Avigdor Arad, director of Mount Sinai’s PhysioLab and an endocrinologist at Mount Sinai St. Luke’s. So, you can be in a healthy BMI group but be metabolically obese, and you can be in the obese group but actually be healthy metabolically. Confusing, yes. READ MORE: Your Weight Loss Struggles Might Be Genetic, According To Experts

What are the potential health complications associated with having a high body fat percentage, regardless of your body type?

Having a body fat percentage that exceeds what is deemed healthy for your body type “is associated with a high risk of disease,” says Dr Arad. But it’s not exactly having any fat that’s the issue. Experts believe that visceral fat (which deposits deep in the body around your organs, and commonly in the midsection) is particularly worrisome because it’s been connected to a slew of health problems, as Harvard Health reports. The other kind, subcutaneous fat, which sits just below the surface of the skin and you can pinch on your body with your fingers, isn’t thought to have the same health implications as visceral fat. (This might be due to how visceral fat causes an inflammatory response in the body in a way that subcutaneous fat does not.) To that point: One study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found that normal-weight people who carried excess weight around their midsections had the highest risk of dying early, even when compared to people who had overweight or obese BMIs. People who have higher amounts of belly fat and visceral fat in general may be at a higher risk of developing insulin resistance, which can cause high blood sugar to develop, Dr Stanford explains. Having excess body fat regardless of your body type may also up your risk of developing other serious health issues like type 2 diabetes, cancer, liver disease, heart disease, and a decline in brain health, Dr Arad adds.

How can I gauge whether my body fat percentage is in a healthy range or not?

There are a few tip-offs that you might be carrying excess body fat that could be impacting your health — even if you are considered a normal weight at the doctor. These are just very general guidelines, though, to help get you thinking about your lifestyle habits that could be contributing to fat gain in particular.  You don’t exercise much. Take an honest look at your exercise routine: Are you striving for 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week? Are you exercising at all? People are more likely to be skinny fat when they skimp on exercise, says Dr Stanford, who assesses a person’s muscle mass, too. Your diet isn’t nutritious. While you’re thinking of your exercise habits, mull over what you tend to eat on the regular. “If you don’t exercise much and don’t have a great diet, you’re at risk, even if you appear lean,” Dr Surampudi says. Your waist circumference is high. You can also measure your waist circumference, Dr Stanford says. If it’s greater than or equal to 35 inches, there’s a chance you have excess fat, as visceral fat tends to deposit in the midsection. You’ve been relying on your BMI to tell you that you’re healthy. Keep in mind that your BMI won’t help with determining whether or not you have excess fat regardless of your body type. “BMI just takes into account height and weight — it doesn’t tell me about fat,” Dr Stanford reminds. You’ll need a workup from your doc that can measure your body fat percentage to really confirm whether you could be metabolically at risk of the health issues mentioned that may be associated with having a high percentage of fat. And only a doctor you know and trust can really help put your health markers and body fat percentage into context for you. Not every person develops the same health risks or sees the same health improvements when they gain or lose fat — and that’s important to keep in mind. So talk to your doc! READ MORE: Here’s Why It’s Important To Lose That Belly Fat

If I’m unsure whether my body fat percentage is in a healthy range or not, what do I do?

If you do want more info about your body fat percentage, your doctor may be able to run a few tests to see what your body fat percentage is, and they’ll help you go from there. A bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) can help, Dr Surampudi says; it uses a weak electric current to calculate the resistance in your body (and your fat storage). Underwater weighing, where the amount of water you displace is calculated to determine your body fat percentage, is also a good method, Dr Surampudi says.

How can I improve my health if I want to reduce my body fat percentage?

Please know: You’re *not* automatically doomed to develop scary diseases down the road just because of your body fat percentage. But Dr Arad says it’s a good idea to make some changes now to lower your potential risks for the future. Sure, most of these are pretty common-sense methods to live a little healthier, but it doesn’t hurt to hear them again. Eat plenty of fruits and veggies. Plant-based diets are proven to help people not only improve their overall health, but also maintain a healthy weight, Dr Stanford says. Opt for lean proteins. If you eat fatty meats most of the time as your source of protein, consider swapping out steak and burgers for leaner varieties like chicken and fish. If fatty meats are a staple for you, this dietary adjustment may help reduce your body fat, Dr Stanford says. Don’t forget whole grains. Reminder: Carbs aren’t bad or off-limits, but refined carbs like white bread and regular pasta are more likely to contribute to body fat gain than complex carbs like brown rice and corn, Dr Stanford notes. Fuel up with whole grains more often than simple, refined carbs. Move more. If you don’t work out now, it’s a great time to start. That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go HAM in the gym if that’s not your style, but regular exercise (e.g., 150 minutes of moderate exercise a week), will go a long way toward reducing body fat, Dr Surampudi says. While you’re at it, try resistance training. Lifting weights or doing body-weight exercises is a great way to build up your muscle mass — and that can lower your body fat percentage, Dr Surampudi says. The more muscle mass you have, the more energy you expend (and fat you burn) even at rest. Get plenty of sleep. When you don’t get enough sleep, you’re more likely to snack on crummier foods and may not have enough energy to work out, Dr Surampudi points out. Try to reduce your stress levels. “Stress levels can contribute to excess weight storage,” Dr Surampudi says. While you can only do so much about your daily stress, try adding routine de-stressing techniques throughout your day, like using a meditation app or trying a few yoga poses when you wake up. If you’re concerned about your body fat percentage, talk to your doctor. They should be able to do diagnostic work and offer up personalised guidance regarding whether your health might benefit from losing body fat, plus how to actually do that in a safe and sustainable way that makes sense for you. This article was originally published on www.womenshealthmag.com  READ MORE ON: Health Health Advice Weight Loss !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=;t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e);s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script','https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js');fbq('init','2162521310492989');fbq('track','PageView'); Source link Read the full article

[chooserecovery]

I'm overweight, like, bmi that's at the borderline of overweight and obese. I don't want to develop an eating disorder on top of anxiety and depression but I need to lose weight and so I started counting calories. I'm still eating at least 1800 a day but I don't know how to be healthy long term and how to like myself

There’s nothing inherently wrong in counting calories or trying to change your weight. The problem only comes in if it starts becoming a burden in your life. As long as you are making sure that you are eating enough, that the goal is to be healthier rather than skinnier, and that this isn’t causing you more distress, then you’re probably doing fine.

There are a few reasons that I want to emphasize the difference between healthier and skinnier up there. The main one is that one of the things that seems to make it more likely that someone will develop an ED is if they start to tie their self-worth to their ability to lose weight. And it’s much easier to feel like you’re being successful when you lose/failing when you don’t if your aim is skinny. It is not possible to keep losing weight indefinitely--there has to be an end-point, and it’s easier for that end point to keep sliding further back into unhealthy territory if you have feelings tied up in the process.

Another major issue with aiming for skinny is that...bodies are not designed to let go of fat. They’re designed to hold onto it as future fuel storage, just in case. So, plateaus and regaining some of anything lost are both very normal, and also don’t tend to make people happy when their goal is skinny, because they feel like they’re moving in the wrong direction, and it will often make them double down on their efforts. 

Neither of those things is exactly helpful in building a good relationship with your body. (If you would like to read a more comprehensive thing about EDs and self-image, try checkout out this page. And there are also some things about factors that contribute to EDs here, if you want to check those out.) So, rather than aiming for skinny, aim for making healthy changes in your life: if you tend to eat a lot of very greasy food, for example, then start to cut back on that and replace it with healthier alternatives.

Keep in mind, though, that you can still have the other stuff in moderation. When changing eating habits, people often seem to run into an issue where they’ll start restricting what types of food they can have, completely removing some categories. Unless there’s a specific medical reason for this, it’s probably not a great idea. Partly this is because it contributes to ED-style avoidance. Partly it’s because completely banning any type of food is likely to make you feel like crap--it’s probably something you enjoy, or you wouldn’t feel the need to be banning it in the first place, so it leads to feeling deprived when you don’t have it and guilty when you do.  Don’t do that to yourself. You can have treats and things you enjoy. You just want to balance it out so that you’re getting a good mix of things in your diet. This is both better for you mentally than restricting foods, and also more sustainable throughout your life because the goal is just to find the right balance for you.

Also, a major factor that seems to play into learning to like one’s self better is to start developing a feeling of mastery. Basically, you want to find a skill that you can work on and improve at, that will let you feel like you are good at something or able to improve on it. For some people instruments are a great option, others like things such as various sports or martial arts, painting, whatever works for you. If it’s a skill you can build and that you enjoy practicing, then it should fit this.

So, basically, my suggestion is to try to focus on things outside of the weight specifically. You could tie this into the mastery thing above by picking some sort of physical activity that you enjoy (again, diff people like diff activities, so it could be running, martial arts, yoga, dance, parkour, literally anything that gets you moving and that you enjoy doing) and then picking a specific area of that activity that you want to improve. For example, if you went with some sort of solo dance, then you could set progressive goals like

I want to be able to do this specific move more smoothly

I want to be able to transition between these two moves more easily

I want to be able to do the moves for the chorus of this song from memory

I want to know the choreography to this whole song

And then apply those to different moves/songs as you master one.

By choosing goals more like those, you’re putting the focus less on how your body looks and more on what you are able to do with it, and your control over your body is focused more on specific actions and skills that you can build rather than over weight itself. Changing the focus like this can help in side-stepping some of the risks of developing ED behaviors.

But aside from the usefulness for specifically ED-related concerns, it’s helpful for just general mental states, as well. If you have specific skill-related goals that you can meet, it’s hard not feel pretty accomplished when you reach them, which is always a good way to fight against the Depression Brain. And if your brain starts to say that you aren’t good at anything, etc. then you can argue against it more easily by having a specific thing that you can point at and say “no, look, I did this, I’m awesome.”

Also, if you aren’t currently seeing anyone about the depression and anxiety, then it may be a good idea to try to find someone. They can help you come up with plans and tools to help you deal with your brain when it’s acting up and to try to improve your feelings towards yourself as you work with them. If you aren’t seeing anyone and it also isn’t possible for you to see anyone, it may be a good idea to try googling CBT worksheets, as they’ll generally have the skills that a lot of therapists will teach, and you can try to work through them as you like. It’s helpful to have an objective 3rd party involved, but this can still generally help on its own.

TL;DR: 

My recommendation is to find a skill that you can work on and improve it to help with learning to like yourself better. It takes time, but having something that you can feel good at can make a world of difference in being able to argue back against your depression. Make sure that you don’t tie your feelings towards yourself up in how you look or how much weight you can lose; that way there be dragons. Also make sure that you aren’t restricting the food you eat, not just in amount, but in type. You do not want to ban categories or types of food; you can have anything you want, so long as you have it in moderation and balance things out in the long run. It’s both more sustainable in the long-run and also doesn’t lead to a super fun deprivation/guilt cycle surrounding food that you like.

--Luke

#eating disorder cw #weight loss cw #asks #Luke #Anonymous

[doingmyselfafavour]

Time for an update

Whoops, long time no post!

Bunch of stuff has happened, so here’s a highlights reel:

Keto I started Keto on the 28th December, at 89.7kg. On March 24th I weighed in at  77.0kg, for a total loss of 12.7kg in 12 weeks. Keto has been pretty easy to stick to - I went through keto flu (although I took a week to recognise it) and went through the normal loss of appetite period, but then it came back.

I have fallen off the wagon once or twice (all in the March 24th to April 16th (today) period). Tim Tams and easter eggs. But considering I normally spend the entire 3-4 months between Christmas and Easter consuming multiple bags of easter eggs per day, this is still a vast improvement on the old me. (And really, that behaviour wasn’t isolated to that part of the year. I just swapped out the eggs for more Tim Tams and family-size blocks of chocolate the rest of the time. And swapped the Malteser bunnies for the Malteser reindeer... man I love those soft malt fillings.)

Anyhow. The setbacks have been small, but as a result I will be pleased if I can finish April still at 77kg. I can knuckle down again in May.

Victories from my new diet:

The 12kg+ of weight loss

Hips have lost 16cm and waist 13cm

My clothes just sit so. much. better. on me.

Heartburn is considerably reduced. Sad that it’s not gone, but I’m down to 1-2 antacids a week, instead of up to 5 a day.

Dandruff is gone! That was a surprise!

I’ve gone down from bras sized 18G to 14F - that’s two band sizes and three cup sizes! If I wear my old bras I can fit my whole hand into the cup on top of my boob.

I get tired at night and go to bed on time. I never felt ‘wired’ in the past, but I did feel like I was at my most awake right before bedtime, which invariably led to going to bed late, and struggling in the morning. Not anymore.

Feeling more clear-headed when I wake. I haven’t felt the other mental benefits that people doing keto talk about, but this is a big win for me. I wake up and I’m... awake. I can just get up, instead of fighting through a drowsy fog for 30 mins or more.

No afternoon slump after lunch. Used to struggle to stay awake after lunch (leading to the consumption of more chocolate as a pick-me-up). Now I just feel normal all day.

My food is delicious!! I even get regular comments at work on how good it looks/smells.

Comments on my weight loss from people at work, and some at home. Pa asked where the rest of me had gone. Dad congratulated me as he helped me put new holes in my belt. Krich has started calling me “skinny Kris”. Bronte won’t let a single day go by without a comment (could probably stand for her to tone that down a bit, actually). I’m still in the obese category according to BMI, but it’s super nice to know other people can see the loss so clearly!

Exercise

Started with a goal of 4000 steps/day in January. Planned to increase this by 250 steps/month, but actually found it too easy. So I ended up maintaining 4500 steps/day for February and 5000 steps/day in March. At that point it started to feel a bit harder though, so have backed off a little. Currently maintaining 5250 steps/day in April. Have only missed my step goal twice in the 3.5 months: this was two days in a row immediately after doing over 17,000 steps at the State Election in March. I decided they were well-deserved rest days.

Started out skating twice a week and maintaining off ice workouts & stretching regularly. The off-ice/stretching sessions wobbled and became less regular at the end of Feb, and was definitely intermittent in March & April. I’m tending to do easier stretching videos and skipping my off-ice or core workouts.

Started running again!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Truly doubted the day would ever come, but here we are. I’m doing a modified C25K program - I took the original 9 week program, and made a double-length 18 week version, and then a triple length 26 week version. At the moment I’m doing the triple length program, and just finished W3D3 (aka, W1D3 of the original program). The idea is that the baby steps needed to be even smaller to prevent a CFS flare up, and I think I got it right - so far, the runs have been tough but not impossible.  I do suspect I’ll reach a point where I can drop down to the double-length program, and from there maybe even go back to the original program (I’m thinking this last one might happen when I get to the point of being able to run 25 mins straight - the difference between that and 30 minutes should be small enough that I don’t need the extra weeks of building up in between). But for now, I’m super pleased with myself. Running! 

Current program: Running every other day, except where that day falls on a Monday or Thursday, I go skating instead. This works out to 1 day skating every week, and alternates between 2 and 3 runs per week. Also trying to get back into the habit of doing off-ice and core workouts as well as stretching.

Learnings/new things

Electrolytes are super important. I think I’ve finally got a handle on them. If I don’t, it triggers my fatigue, and/or headaches. Good news is, both symptoms clear up quickly as soon as I get some electrolytes into me.

Intermittent fasting has got me curious. I’ve just started experimenting with a 16:8 IF, and so far I like it. I tend to feel plenty full from drinking 1.5L of water + electrolytes in the morning, so sticking with it hasn’t been too much hassle. It saves me time in the mornings, not needing to make or find something for breakfast. And long term, will save me money on food too.

The second I started running, I started dreaming of long distances again. 10kms, half marathons... sigh. But I can’t do both long distance running and skating, and at the moment I’m keen to do some singles skating. So the plan is to only get up to running 5-6kms, then start cutting back the running days in favour of skating days.

I’m only halfway to goal weight, but my priorities are shifting already. I feel confident that my weight loss will continue, albeit slower than the first 3 months were. But my focus now is going to be on improving fitness and skating ability, and the weight loss will be a secondary goal.

No plans to give up keto any time soon! I think this way of eating is for life.

#weight loss #keto #goals #exercise #running #c25k

[pagingdoctordoesntgiveafuck]

It’s New Year’s Eve, 2018!!! 🎉

Oh my fucking god a new year is about to begin!

Today is more than an arbitrary date to add some excitement, joy, and/or excelerant to the general let-down after the holidays depending on your mental state.

Figuring all that out is your deal, however, if you’re like me and you can’t wait to put your body to the test of champions this new year, or you’re just telling everyone that’s what you’ll be doing so they go mind their own business so you can carry about yours, below are some completely unverifiable and unsolicited medical, dietary, fitness, relationship, and mental health tips that you can definitely read and use but that’s totally your decision!

P. S. Recommended age of audience for this blog is 35+

Tip #1

I Gotta Lose Weight This Year For Real

That’s admirable as fuck. There’s a lot that goes into that, 78% of which being white, hot, blinding frustration, however you are actually not alone.

The secret to losing weight over time and keeping it off lies buried within the following blog:

https://quadcitycrossfitter.tumblr.com

You’re going to have to hunt for it.

“Honestly, better or worse than just getting a self help book. Like just as useless or???”

It depends on your patience level for creative grammar and your grasp on the use of sarcasm, however actual real, tested, proven (at least once), verifiable weight loss tips for gradual metabolic reset (What is that? Keep reading!) and maintaining a healthier BMI after overcoming morbid obesity is all up in those virtual pages so good luck to you.

Tip #2

I lost a ton of weight in 2018 and I’m saving up for plastic surgery this new year but it’s expensive, I’m just, like, really on the fence. How can I solve this debilitating preoccupation?!

Drink more water, get more restful sleep, be able to quickly identify anyone in your life that is exacerbating your preoccupation so you can limit their privilege of the use of your time, and learn the importance of stretching and body weight exercises.

“That’s seems like a lot of things.”

It’s 4-5 things.

“Also what are body weight exercises?”

Here’s some:

Tip #3

I’m single and I’m losing hope

Hey! Buck up, friend. You’re definitely not alone, depending on your personality. I totally get it! Dating is a little bit the worst, especially the older you get.

It seems like as people age they generally fall into one of two categories (of course there are exceptions):

A. The Lonely

and

B. The Annoyed

Do you know which one you are?

“Hahahahaha a little bit of A and a little bit of B. Just kidding A all the way hahahahaha, *sobbing*!!!!”

Guess what? Congratulations on being a normal human being with feelings. Also, maybe you’re more like 5% A and 95% B. Also cool, and wonderful, and what makes everyone so unique. Also, maybe you’re 150% B, which is totally cool also, just try not to be too much of a

C. The Asshole

ALSO: This is important. Maybe you think you are a B/C when you’re truly an A but you are concerned because you associate A with the most fucking annoying people on the planet and you kind of like a B or C and you don’t want to drive them away and blah, blah, blah. Who doesn’t relate to that? The only thing you can do is to be

D. Yourself

If people don’t like what you’ve got going on with your bad self, that’s their issue. Also, maybe you actually are the most fucking annoying person on the planet, that’s definitely your issue, however all you can be is yourself and then people can either deal or not and then, again, the issues ball is back in someone else’s hands where you don’t have to deal with it.

Some people would very much rather be single than in a garbage can of an abusive relationship. They understand life is too short and that life is meant to be lived to the fullest and all that hippy-dippy bullshit for real. That is a completely foreign concept in some areas of the country, however, that’s something you have to do some soul searching about to figure out and then you get to have whatever fun you can conjur up once you know that about yourself. You might actually someday meet someone who feels the same way and actually be in a happy and stable relationship.

If you are someone who must always be in a relationship or has a propensity for abusive relationships do not fuck with the type of person I’ve mentioned in the paragraph directly above this one.

You’re wasting everyone’s time, especially the person I’ve described in the paragraph directly above this one which might push the person you’re pursuing into 3,000% B (as described a little further up) territory which I don’t care how bad-ass you are, people that are too annoyed find pretty creative ways to not have to deal with whatever it is that is annoying/being too mean to them when it comes to actually being in a relationship with someone and there’s no need to start your 2019 off on a stupid note.

This is your year for love!

Why don’t you go take a basket weaving course or something?

Tip #4

You mentioned ‘Metabolic Reset’ earlier and I gotta tell you, my metabolism, like, HATES ME, tell me what’s up with that?

Honestly it’s strategic anorexia BUT only effective if you have a metabolic issue that you either created yourself from poor habits or maybe from a medication issue or maybe some sort of traumatic event or some hardly-plausible fucked up combonation of the three. This is getting into dangerous territory and they key lies within the power of your Google searching skills, whatever the cool mental illness is to tell everyone you have ends up being in 2019, and your ability to actually commit to forming and sticking to habits that you feel are important to you.

Also, maybe your metabolism should go fuck itself and you should find something else to fixate on because metabolic slowing is part of the normal aging process and you can definitely tamper with that if you want, but it’s a lot of effort and hello it’s cold outside. Consider going back to review ‘Tip #3’ and then keep your eyes peeled for someone who doesn’t give a shit about your metabolism and who you can cuddle (tee hee) and get drunk with you so you can watch your metabolisms crash and burn together.

I’m just kidding, ideally shoot for a balance between the two (in refrence to the paragraphs above).

But for real you can reset your metabolism but it’s pretty dangerous so go annoy a medical professional about all that.

If you talk to one that wants to fight me because of this please send them my way with just a courtesy head’s up on what kind of doctor they are so I know to what degree I will need to dumb down my defense.

Tip #5

I really feel like this new year will be my year, creatively. I’m ready to really embrace my expressive intuition and align my inner most...

Please do not hold back on sharing your Etsy page with friends and family in 2019. This very well could be your year!

Tip #6

I have a friend in need, I know I can make 2019 the year they accept Jesus as thier Lord and Savior

Hey, good for you for spreading the good word or whatever it is that you are doing but I’m just suggesting that maybe the lordiest thing you could do in this instance would be to maybe give that friend of yours some space. Maybe they already have a religion they both quasi-revere and ridicule mercilessly and your insistence on their need for whatever yours is exactly will just open up some sort of portal to anchient Vatican hell that no one wants to deal with. Also, sometimes people seem like they are in need depending on your inability to focus on yourself. There are totally plenty of people that need jesus though. Why don’t you consider taking a mission trip somewhere and see if you can find some people that way. If you get some sort of fucked up disease, parasite, or injury I unfortunately don’t have any unsolicited medical advice for any of that but may Jesus guide you quickly and comfortably into the light.

Tip #7

I have got to get control of my mental health this year!

Hey welcome to the club. It’s not that exclusive of a club because literally everyone is a member but you’re still totally unique and special. Maybe you need an emotional support. Have you considered a pet of some kind? Maybe you could look into your mind’s eye and materialize a spirit guide. People also make wonderful companions however if your mental health is truly that complex please make sure you widen your social network because catching and trapping just one emotional support actual person that you only need for your comfort and absolutely nothing else, especially if they are a B from ‘Tip 3’, is just a real waste of everyone’s time and resources. My real unsolicited advice is to go find a combo of an appropriate coping mechanism, counseling and/or therapy, and medication, however you gotta go figure all that out for yourself. Godspeed to you!

Anyway, have a wonderful 2019!!!

[weightloss18-blog1]

3 Week Diet Program 2018 - How to Lose Weight Fast For Women

New Post has been published on https://designweightloss.com/3-week-diet-program-2018-how-to-lose-weight-fast-for-women/

3 Week Diet Program 2018 - How to Lose Weight Fast For Women

3 Week Diet Program 2018 – How to Lose Weight Fast For Women You're about to learn the underground fat burning secrets of elite bodybuilders celebrities at fitness gurus who use a little-known Extreme diet system that literally forces your body to melt away one to two pounds of stubborn body fat every single day for the first seven days and Then another three quarter to one full pound of fat every day in the two weeks that follow And yes, these results are typical hi there My name's Brian, and I want to tell you a secret It's a secret

That's taken me over seven years to fully understand it's also a secret that the diet and fitness industry does not want you to know about and As much as I hate to say it? It's a secret that your very own doctor won't even share with you even though deep down inside They know it to be true The secret I'm talking about has to do with weight loss But not the same old eat less and exercise more type of weight loss that results in losing weight at a snail's pace I'm talking about making jaw-dropping rapid body Transformation where after just 21 days you've lost up to 23 pounds or more of pure Body fat trimmed 2 to 4 inches off your waistline went down to 2 3 dress sizes Developed a flatter stomach Increased your metabolism Skyrocketed your energy levels lost significant inches of fat from your hips thighs belly and butt and have taken complete control Over your body weight for the rest of your life I'm talking about the body's ability to effectively do all of this and more in just 21 days Now I can understand if you're skeptical, but let me explain I've been involved in the diet and fitness industry since 1999 I'm a certified personal trainer a certified sports nutritionist and author speaker and creator of the three-week diet a Science-based system that has literally helped thousands of people worldwide to lose weight faster than they ever Imagined was possible and in the next few minutes I'm going to share a ton of free weight loss information with you So let's get started the first thing you should know is that the extra weight you are carrying around is probably not your fault the fact is there are probably several Reasons that you've struggled to lose weight in the past and my guess is that you fall into one or more of these categories One you are getting bad information with regards to how we really gain and lose weight, too You're suffering from cellular inflammation 3 you're counting calories or focusing on the eat less exercise more mantra that the medical community has been brainwashing us with for decades for You don't have an easy to follow step-by-step plan of action laid out for you 5 you're not seeing real results for the effort You are putting out and you're jumping from one diet to the next hoping something will eventually work now Let's break these reasons down to get to the specifics number one you're getting bad information Let's face it There's not a single industry out there That's filled with more Hype and empty promises than that of the diet industry I mean really doesn't it seem like there's a new faster and better Diet product to come along almost every single day The fact is the diet industry spends millions and millions of dollars every year Trying to convince us that they have the answer to our weight-loss Problems the problem is they don't actually want you to know the real secrets to weight loss because if word were to get out it Would surely put a dent in their? multibillion-dollar profits Now I've been in the fitness industry since 1999 and in that time I've read just about every diet book weight-loss guide Clinical trial and medical study in existence that has to do with weight loss And I'm here to tell you that there is an absolute ton of bad information floating around out there number two you're suffering from cellular inflammation Cellular inflammation is not only the culprit of weight gain it's also responsible for increasing the onset of disease which results in a shorter life span Most diets that I know of ignore the fact that if we can take control of cellular inflammation We can effectively increase your ability to lose weight burn fat increase metabolism and keep body fat from ever coming back in Addition to this by taking control of cellular inflammation you can live a healthier and longer life Here's the thing about inflammation about two-thirds of the body's defenses resides in your GI tract Now when you're eating the wrong foods including those bad foods that are passed off as being healthy for you those foods Eventually wreak havoc on those defenses when your defenses are broken down inflammation gains the upper hand once inflammation takes over your body stores fat more easily, and it also can't burn fat as fast as it normally should Now if you've had trouble losing weight in the past It's very likely that you're suffering from chronic cellular inflammation that you're not even aware of one of the key components of my 3 week diet system is that it helps you take control of that inflammation and it produces a noticeable effect on your body almost immediately Number three you're counting calories or focusing on eating less and exercising more Mainstream medicine wants us to believe that the key to weight loss is simply a matter of eating less and exercising more This is just plain bad science and deep down inside every doctor knows this This is just a simplistic answer to a very complex question and it fails to take into account your body's hormones Which have a major impact on whether you are fat or thin the fact is your body does not treat all calories the same if There are certain calories that make us fat other calories that prevent us from burning fat And there's a few really good calories that actually force your body to burn fat, so The key to weight loss is not counting calories This should be evident by the obesity problem We have here in the u

s Losing weight has much more to do with eliminating the bad calories while increasing the good calories Using a strategic system that takes into account How your body processes certain nutrients more on this in a bit number four you're not seeing results for all the effort you're putting forth if You've ever done a week or two on any diet and didn't see Significant results you are probably good and ready to throw in the towel so that you could find something else that works no one can blame you for that you see most diets fail because there simply aren't enough rewards to keep up with all the Sacrifices that need to be made And this is a key component of the three-week diet as my system is the only diet that I know of that focuses solely on producing extremely rapid results from my experience I found that for a diet to be ultra successful there must be a Significant amount of rewards to go along with the effort you put forth You see when you wake up in the morning to find yourself one to two pounds lighter than you were just 24 hours ago It tends to provide you with some serious motivation to keep on doing what you're doing this is one of the reasons that the three-week diet has been so successful for so many people and Believe me when you see yourself drop just one pound of body fat in just one day You can visualize that in just 9 more days You'll be carrying around 10 pounds less of ugly fat around your body Number 5 you don't have an easy to follow step by step plan of action for losing weight This is a big one that plagued many of my clients until they finally came to me for help There is so much contradictory and misguided information out there It's no wonder Why so many people struggle with their weight if you ask 10 different fitness? Experts what the best way to lose weight is you're bound to get 10 completely different answers who's right who's wrong How do we know you see the true secrets of losing a lot of body fat really fast are out there? it's just that most of the information is fragmented and incomplete and it's because of this that I set out to put together a diet system that doesn't leave you guessing if You're struggling to lose weight what you really need is to be taken by the hand and shown Exactly what to do each and every day while you're on that diet and that's exactly what I've done in the three week diet system now before I go into the Specifics of the three week diet and why I am so certain that it can help you lose up to 23 pounds of pure Stubborn body fat in just 21 days

I want to first address a common question that I'm asked on a regular basis and that Question is this Isn't it dangerous to lose this much weight this fast to answer this question let me first defer to dr Michael Danza the medical doctor and weight loss consultant to NBC's hit TV show The Biggest Loser Here's what he said about losing weight fast In theory one could drop as much as 20 pounds in a week the truth Is that nothing is wrong with losing weight rapidly as long as you do it the right way? in my own research I found that the majority of the safety data out there Regarding weight loss has to deal with the methods used for losing weight rather than how fast the weight is lost So I'm not really certain where the notion came from that says the safest or best way to lose weight is at a rate of one to two pounds per week and Consider this according to the Center for Disease Control if you are overweight, which is defined as having a BMI of 25 or higher You're significantly more susceptible to developing coronary heart disease type 2 diabetes Into a material cancer breast cancer colon cancer hypertension dyslipidemia stroke liver disease gallbladder disease sleep apnea respiratory problems osteoarthritis and gynecological problems Considering all the dreadful diseases and complications associated with being overweight Doesn't it make perfect sense that you should be doing everything possible to get rid of all that extra weight you're carrying around as Fast as you can so you're probably wondering How is the three-week diet so different than all those other diet plans out there? Well first of all most of the diet plans out there approach weight-loss with a slow and sensible approach Yes, it's true that if you eat certain foods and work out really hard for an hour or so every day You will lose weight the problem however Is that the weight comes off way too slowly because these types of diet plans don't attack the stubborn stored body fat Let me explain Contrary to popular belief most of us actually do burn fat for a couple of hours each day When we eat a meal we typically get a bit fatter Once that meal has been digested and those calories have provided us a bit of energy for a few hours We then start to burn off fat and as a result we get a little thinner when we eat the fat We consume is broken down into fatty acids these fatty acids are very small and they're able to travel in and out of cell walls to make themselves available as energy for the body But when those fatty acids can't be used and we get ready to eat our next meal The remaining fatty acids are stored away in our fat cells and that's where the problems begin You see once those fatty acids head back to the fat cells to be stored away for later They combined with two other fatty acids and a glycerol molecule to create what's known as a triglyceride in? relative terms Triglycerides are very big and because of their size They aren't able to exit the fat cells like those free-flowing fatty acids can Because of this these triglycerides get stuck inside the fat cells and can't be used by the body for energy as a result these triglycerides become that stubborn body fat That is so incredibly difficult to get rid of but here's the thing those Triglycerides can be targeted and they can be broken back down into those fatty acids that can be burned by the body for energy When we break down those glycerides it's kind of like dumping rocket fuel into your vehicle's gas tank those broken-down Triglycerides flood the body with a great source of energy that it actually loves to burn But only when the body has been primed to burn that fat as it is when you're following the three-week diet Now again the problem with most diets out there Is that they don't address or target that stored body fat Instead they are designed to burn up only the fatty acids from the foods We eat and preventing them from turning into triglycerides in the first place So without adding additional fat to the body and by forcing you to participate in a very strenuous Exercise program you can effectively still lose weight the problem Is that the weight just comes off very very slowly? And this is what makes the three-week diet so unique the three-week diet not only stops your body from forming new Triglycerides it also directly targets the stubborn body fat that you already have While forcing your body to burn that fat for all of its daily energy needs Quite simply what takes most diets two to three months to accomplish the three-week diet gets done in just 21 days Now I probably don't need to tell you that the key to weight loss is Maximizing the number of hours each day that your body is burning fat With the three-week diet you will no longer be burning fat for just one to two hours each day instead you'll effectively turn your body into a 24/7 fat-burning machine for that three-week period now keep in mind that your body needs energy on a 24-hour basis while most of us think we just need energy when we're engaged in some type of physical activity the fact is our bodies are working diligently behind the scenes to keep us alive and functioning on a 24/7 basis yes your body is at work whether you're out for a jog or fast asleep So let me tell you about the three week diet system that I've created and why I am 100% certain that it will work for you first the 3 week diet Focuses on providing you with only the essential nutrients that your body needs for good health and proper functioning While eliminating all those nutrients that slow and even stop you from burning fat By combining those foods that work together to burn fat the three-week diet works like nothing else you've ever tried before It does this by addressing your body's hormones and how those hormones affect your ability to burn fat and lose weight in other words the three-week diet provides you with a specially tailored Step-by-step blueprint that tells you what to eat how much to eat and when to eat it Now the three-week diet is not another one of those 300 page diet novels that bores you with statistics Studies and journal excerpts if you're like most people I know you just want a straightforward Step-by-step plan of action that doesn't require any special abilities or superpowers to be successful The 3 week diet system is actually broken down into four separate manuals each Providing you with a quick reference to everything you need for ultra fast body transforming weight loss Here's a quick summary of each manual the introduction manual is a lot more than just an introduction to the system in This manual I explain in easy terms

How we get fat and exactly what it takes to lose weight fast Additionally the introduction manual gives you the skinny on what types of foods are needed to guarantee your wild success over the next 21 days This manual provides a wealth of knowledge that most people in the diet and fitness industry still don't even understand The diet manual is where the rubber meets the road In the diet manual you'll learn how to calculate your lean body mass and your current body fat percentages With that calculation you'll be able to strategically set up the three-week diet to work specifically for your own body type You'll then get a breakdown of what to eat how much to eat and when to eat it besides setting your body up to burn tons of fat the diet manual also gives you my ultimate secret weapon for maintaining your weight for a lifetime While the diet manual alone will provide you a simple method to follow for losing all the weight you desire Adding a quality extra sighs program can nearly double your results The workout manual provides you with a straightforward guide that forces your body to release stubborn stored body fat so it can be broken down into fatty acids and burned for fuel and Don't worry if you hate to exercise these quick and easy routines will be over before you know it the fact is short intense full body exercises pack a fat burning punch that just can't be beat and Because the 3 week diet workouts are only about 15 minutes long and can be done in your own living room There's no more excuses for not working out Also included in the workout manual is my top-secret Ultimate abs exercise that is everything you'll ever need if you want to flatten your stomach and create a set of sexy six-pack ABS Many of my customers have said that this exercise alone is worth the entire price of the 3 week diet system Mindset and motivation manual The 3 week diet mindset and motivation manual is chock-full of tips tricks tools and secrets for losing weight Staying motivated and reaching your weight loss goals not only for now but for maintaining your new body for life The proper mindset is crucial to your success and I don't think any other diet on the planet packs so many tips to help you stay on track as the motivation and mindset manual does Ok I could go on and on talking about all the tremendous rapid weight loss benefits You'll find in the 3 week diet But the bottom line is this the 3 week diet works and not only does it really work It works really really fast So if you're just looking for a way to get rid of that dangerous body fat quickly Or maybe just trying to drop 12 to 20 pounds or so to get ready for a wedding high school reunion Beach vacation or some other special event the 3 week diet is guaranteed to work for you Look you really have two options at this point You can click away from this page and look for something else that may or may not help you lose all the weight you want You can go on being preoccupied with wanting to lose weight and struggling to lose weight or you can take action right now and be 100% assured that you will lose a tremendous amount of body fat over the next 21 days and Listen I've been active in the diet and fitness industry for well over a decade and in that time I've developed a stellar reputation of which I'm extremely proud of what? I'm trying to say is this I've spent the better part of a year Tweaking and testing the three-week diet before I finally made it available to the public in doing so I made sure that everything was covered and that nothing was left out and To put it bluntly I would never put my name on an inferior product that didn't work Now because I don't want price to stand in the way of you being able to shed up to 23 pounds of body fat over the next 21 days I've priced the three-week diet as low as I possibly could so that anyone who is serious about losing weight Can finally do so without fail I? currently charge my personal clients $100 per hour for one-on-one attention, and I'm booked up for 6 hours every day, but I'm not going to charge you $100 for the 3 week diet system in fact I'm not even going to charge half of that even though I am certain You'll agree that it would be well worth it Instead when you invest in the 3 week diet today You're going to get the entire system the introduction manual the diet manual The workout manual and the mindset and motivation manual which together make up a $97 value all for just forty seven dollars And the best part is that you don't have to pay for shipping or wait around for the diet to arrive at your doorstep Because I've made it available by instant download This way you can have the entire fat burning system in your hands in less than 2 minutes from right now and when you place your order today, you're going to get my 100% no nonsense guarantee to go with it now I know the diet works And so do thousands of others around the world who have experienced ultra effective fat loss in record time But I totally understand that you might be skeptical and because of that I want to make sure that you are 100% Comfortable with your decision to order the three week diet system today Simply put if you follow the 3 week diet as outlined and for some reason you don't experience significant and rapid weight loss to the tune of 12 to 23 pounds a two to four inch reduction from your waistline a drop of two to three dress sizes significant fat loss from your hips thighs belly and butt an Increase in your metabolism and more energy than you have right now Or if you're just not satisfied with a three week diet for any reason whatsoever Just let me know anytime within the next 60 days, and I'll issue you a fast and courteous refund with no questions Asked as well as a great big Thank you just for giving my system and honest try I don't think I can be any fairer than that All you need to do is click the Add to Cart button right now and you'll have the entire 3 week diet system in your hands in less than two minutes and Don't forget all the risk is on me Not you Thank you for taking the time to watch this video, and I look forward to hearing about your weight loss success

#- #2018 #3 #DIET #fast #FOR #How #lose #LOSS #Program #programs #To #Week #weight #Women

[cover2covermom]

  Goodbye July & hello August!

It is so crazy to think that summer is almost over.  My kids will be returning to school in T-minus 2 weeks!  As much as I dread the crazy schedule, I am ready to get back into the swing of things… well that and my children are driving me crazy, so it’s time to go back lol

Let’s see what I had going on in July shall we?

At the beginning of the month, I committed to making my blog a priority again.  I am slowly starting to get back into the blogging groove and be active in the community again.  I must say it feels great to be more consistent again.

    » Sisi: Empress on Her Own by Allison Pataki

Feelings in a few thoughts:

I’m very conflicted with my feelings with this one.  I am not sure my rating is fair either.  When I requested this on NetGalley, I didn’t realize that it was actually the SECOND book in the series.  I read this one without reading the first book, so this may have impacted my reading experience.  Take my thoughts/rating with a grain of salt.

Before reading this, I knew nothing about Empress Elisabeth of Austria-Hungary (Sisi).  I really like how the author took a controversial figure in history and tried to shed some light on her motivations in life.

The time hops throughout the book felt a little jarring at times.  The transitions felt a little off.

Sisi wasn’t exactly a likeable character, at least for me.  Despite the author’s attempts to show Sisi’s point of view, I still couldn’t help but cringe at Sisi’s selfishness throughout the novel.

» Cleopatra’s Daughter by Michelle Moran

Feelings in a few thoughts:

I really enjoyed this fictionalized account of the early years of Cleopatra Selene after she is taken in by Emperor Augustus after he defeated her parents, Mark Antony & Cleopatra.

This is my second novel about Cleopatra Selene, the first being The Daughter’s of Palatine Hill, I really liked both versions despite the fact that the authors’ portrayed the characters very differently.  Both books are good for different reasons: In Cleopatra’s Daughter, Moran really did a fantastic job with the setting and time period.  In Daughter’s of Palatine Hill, Smith did a great job with the political intrigue and cut-throat drama of the era.

The biggest strength of this novel was how well Moran set the scene.  You could really picture what it was like to live in Ancient Rome – at least how the ruling class lived.  When I read historical fiction, I want the author to take me to another time and place, and Moran did just that.

I wasn’t a fan of the audiobook narrator in the early parts of the book.  She went too overboard with her “whiney child voice” for portraying the characters as young children.

» The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan

Feelings in a few thoughts:

This was a very sweet & charming story.

TKoLT felt more like a novella – coming in at just under 300 pages.  Since this was such a short book, Hogan may have been a little too ambitious with everything she included.

My biggest complaint would be that Laura’s romance in the novel took too much of a central role.

I really liked how the author gave us back stories for the lost things.  It almost felt like we were getting short stories throughout the novel.

I wanted more about the Keeper of Lost Things.  I also felt like the reuniting of the lost things was anti-climatic.  I was expecting the lost things to have made a bigger impact in the novel.

I could see how the format of the novel could be confusing, especially if you were listening to this audiobook format.  I would recommend reading this book instead of listening to it.

Overall I did enjoy this book, but the story had potential to be so much more.

» Dumplin’ (Dumplin’ #1) by Julie Murphy

Feelings in a few thoughts:

Wonderful YA book that tackles themes like friendship, mother-daughter relationships, body shaming, self-acceptance, first love, etc.

I feel like Murphy did a wonderful job creating a character whom those of us who have struggled with our weight and/or other body issues can all relate to.  I was really able to see my high school self in Willowdean.

I know many critics of this book cite that Willowdean (Dumplin’) wasn’t exactly a likable character and treated people badly, which is absolutely true.  HOWEVER she felt like a very real character.  I don’t know if you remember being a teenager, but I was an asshole at times.  You know, teen angst and all that.  Does this excuse her actions? No.  I could just understand the frustrations Willowdean was experiencing and why she had a chip on her shoulder.  By the end of the book, Willowdean does show a tremendous amount of growth & development.

There was a love triangle, however it did not feel like the love triangle trope.

I was not a fan of the audiobook narrator.  She did wonderfully for the female parts, but once we got to characters like Bo and Mitch, it was hard to listen to.  If you listened to the audiobook, I’m sure you know what I am talking about.

» The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronical #1) by Patrick Rothfuss

Feelings in a few thoughts

When I saw that the mass market paperback edition I received from the library was 722 pages, I may have freaked out a bit.  I am NOT a fan of tomes.  It did take me just over a week to read, which is probably normal for me since I typically read about 2 books a week.

The Name of the Wind is not at all what I was expecting.  For some reason, I was anticipating a high fantasy story, but in reality I would consider it more of an epic fantasy.  Sure, there are fantasy elements here, but the story felt very grounded in reality.

I really enjoyed the story, but is so hard to describe it.  The book had action, but would I consider it action packed? No.  It had “magic,” but was the book full of it?  No.  The book includes a hero in the making, but did it feel like a hero story? No.  Was this book compelling?  YES!  Why?  I don’t know!!!

I know this is odd to say, but I got Harry Potter vibes from this book.  This isn’t to say the plots were similar (there are a few similar elements), but rather I got the same feelings I remember having as a kid reading Harry Potter.

Kvothe is my new book boyfriend.  Definitely one of my new favorite characters.  He is clever, smart, stubborn, witty, mischievous, kind, determined, etc.

» Hunger: A Memior of (My) Body by Roxane Gay

*4.5 Stars*

Feelings in a few thoughts:

I love how real Roxane is.  I don’t always agree with her beliefs, but I never get that “my views are right and others’ are wrong” vibe from her.  I respect that she’s not afraid to talk about the hard things.  Her books always make me think.

Despite the fact that I was classified as morbidly obese at one point in my life (my BMI was 40, so I was on the borderline of this category), I gained new insights to the struggles of those who are placed in this category.  I never had to worry about things like fitting into an airplane seat, seat belt extenders, stepping up onto a stage, seats with armrests, etc.  Reading this book can really shed light on the challenges those who are morbidly obese must face every day.  Definitely a perspective that I wish more people would read.

Loved that Roxane narrated this audiobook herself.  It was very well done.

There are so many powerful moments in this book…

“This is a memoir of (my) body because, more often than not, stories of bodies like mine are ignored or dismissed or derided. People see bodies like mine and make their assumptions. They think they know the why of my body. They do not.”

“The bigger you are, the smaller your world becomes.”

“As a woman, as a fat woman, I am not supposed to take up space. And yet, as a feminist, I am encouraged to believe I can take up space. I live in a contradictory space where I should try to take up space but not too much of it, and not in the wrong way, where the wrong way is any way where my body is concerned.”

» Smoke in the Sun (Flame in the Mist #2) by Renée Ahdieh

*3.5 Stars*

Feelings in a few thoughts:

Many of the questions I had throughout the Flame in the Mist were finally answered in this book.  My biggest complaint with the first book was that I was confused about the fantasy elements, but things were cleared up in Smoke in the Sun.

I loved Mariko’s character in this series.  She is confident, intelligent, clever, brave, strong, etc.  A great lead character in a YA book.  I respected her for always sticking to her convictions and not letting anyone, even the boy she loves, sway her from her goals.

The villain in this book was not developed enough.  The best villains, in my opinion, have motivations behind their actions, but I didn’t see any reasoning behind any motivations here.

While I appreciate that this was the conclusion to this series and not a series that drags on unnecessarily like so many YA series out there, I wasn’t exactly satisfied when I finished it.  Unfortunately this book felt rushed & abruptly ended.   The book either needed to be longer, or this needed to be a trilogy.

I debated between the 3.5 star rating and a 4 star rating.  I really did enjoy this series, but I feel like it had the potential to be more.

» Bright We Burn (The Conqueror’s Saga #3) by Kiersten White

Feelings in a few thoughts:

Fantastic finish to a GREAT YA historical fiction series.  Actually, I feel like the books progressively got better with each installment.  Favorite book of the series!

Lada is a very complex main character.  If you are a fan of anti-hero stories, and would fancy one with a badass female anti-hero, here is the series for you!  While Lada does have some good qualities – loyalty, strength, drive, etc – she does whatever is necessary to obtain her goals, regardless of the cost.  Despite her bloodthirsty ways, I couldn’t help but like and admire Lada.

Radu!  I loved him more with each passing book.  His progression over the series was very satisfying to watch.  Whereas the other main characters, Lada & Mehmed, stayed constant throughout the series (Lada is vicious and Mehmed is an asshat) Radu goes through a tremendous amount of personal growth.

  June 2018 Bookish Wrap-Up + Book Haul

Ohioana Book Festival 2018 + Book Haul

Book Review: The Daughters of Palatine Hill by Phyllis T. Smith

Book Event: Sabaa Tahir’s Book Tour for A Reaper at the Gates

Book Review: Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

Favorite Books of 2018 (1st Half)

Physical Books:

» The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicles #1) by Patrick Rothfuss

*Signed by the author*

» Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë

*I have two other copies of this book, but I picked up a lovely edition at my local Costco.  It is a pink leather cover with quotes from the book all over the front.  It is gorgeous!  I wish they had one for Jane Eyre 😦

Which books did you read in July?

Have you read any of the books I read or hauled this month?  If so, what did you think?

Did you buy any books?  If so, which ones?

Comment below & let me know 🙂

Today I share which #books I read in July + my #bookhaul. What did you #read in July? #BookBlogger #Bookworm #AmReading Goodbye July & hello August! It is so crazy to think that summer is almost over.  My kids will be returning to school in T-minus 2 weeks! 

#Am Reading #Bibliophile #book blog #book blogger #Book Nerd #Book Worm #Bookish #Books #Bookworm #Reading #TBR #Wrap Up