Jacob Riis Beach hosts the day of body positivity and fun, in the city at the heart of the fat acceptance movement
Fat Beach Day events are springing up across the US in an effort to fight back against fat-phobia, reclaim safe spaces for the community and honor plus-size culture. Today, one of these celebrations is being held to coincide with Pride month at Jacob Riis Beach in New York, a location deeply ensconced in the city’s activism space.
Why does it necessarily have to be a celebration? Are quiet hours at shopping centers celebrating sensory disorders?
It’s not about celebrating, even if some people will use it as such. It’s about allowing different people the comfort to experience a thing that most of our society takes for granted.
I’ve never met a fat person who doesn’t want to change their lifestyle. Sure, there are a few who claim that, but in my experience, that’s a defense mechanism from all of the people who look down on them daily. Something like this is only a good thing, offering encouragement at no significant cost.
I’m a larger person. I definitely want to lose weight and get in shape, but it’s that hurdle of getting over your own self that’s the hardest part for me.
I know that once I get into a rhythm and habit, it’ll be fine and I’ll even like it at some point, but I can’t really get myself to start, even though I know I need to.
Also, I actually like that Walmart has the “sensitive” shopping hours.
It’s like giving up smoking. A huge amount of smokers wish they didn’t, but they don’t stop until they say “enough is enough”, draw a line under it and commit to quitting instead of making 101 excuses about how hard it is.
I hope you get to your “enough is enough” point soon.
One of my close friends from college went deep down the fat acceptance rabbit hole shortly after college. I had to unfollow her on social media. She went from being a slightly overweight girl to a morbidly obese woman. She had a podcast she’d promote saying things like it’s ok to eat cake for breakfast if you want it; weight is just a number and all kinds of asinine things.
My weight has fluctuated over the years, but any time I’m putting on weight, I know it’s unhealthy and I need to start going to the gym and eating better. Seeing her posts would drive me up the wall. She had one where she said something about how the gym is toxic, and you’re just fine the way you are, and you can be healthy without exercising. She also was selling some plus size clothing pyramid scheme and claimed to be a model for the company. I don’t think it was a defense mechanism, just another ridiculously bad side effect of echo chambers on social media.
I mean, it is. I don’t think eating cake for breakfast is so much worse than eating it after dinner.
I lost a lot of weight with basically calorie counting. I ate whatever I wanted until I hit my limit. If I wanted more, I’d do some exercise to burn off the extra calories.
It taught me a lot about portion sizes and nutrition though (entered everything into a nutrition app, not just calories).
But I’m pretty sure there were some occasions where I had some cake for breakfast, lol
(Also…a muffin, waffles, or pancakes and syrup for breakfast are probably no better than cake)