Dear Runners and Walkers

When I first started walking half marathons back in 2007, I was pretty clueless about everything except how long I was going to have to walk. I didn’t know that there are people who feel that distance events are for runners, and that walking is something you do only when …

These Arms of Mine

Last week, something really amazing happened: I got an email telling me that I had won the Charles McCorkle Hauser Prize for Prose from the Chautauqua Institution! This was a super big deal, because I’d never won a literary prize before, nor had I ever won money for my fiction. …

From the Mixed-Up Files of Big Fit Deal

What’s going on in the world, you guys? Today I saw two headlines, back to back. First, this: And then this: What a perfect example of how our feelings about food are so mixed up! In the lunch bullying article, we learn that kids (even in elementary school) are forgoing …

The Fat Girl’s Shopping Survival Guide

“I love clothes shopping, said no fat girl ever.” I saw this statement the other day, and I had to disagree. Now, don’t get me wrong, clothes shopping can be an exercise in frustration for sure. Not a lot of stores want a piece of the multi-billion-dollar plus-size clothing market, …

Food Is Not A Four-Letter Word

I feel like everywhere I go, I hear people talking about food in ways that, frankly, drive me bananas. It seems like everyone is obsessed with talking about how bad they were because they ate this, or how good they were because they ate that. We love to assign morality to …

Unlikely Allies

Let’s talk about three things: Hollywood is notorious for lack of body diversity, because somewhere along the way, the men in charge decided that pretty much one female body type (thin) is good/worth looking at/worth being. Finding body-positivity allies is the best. There aren’t a lot of body-positive allies to …

Ending the Struggle

Someone said to me the other day, “I’ve struggled with my body my whole life, too.” I felt sad for this person, but it was the “too” that got me. It’s true that I spent many, many years fighting my body. Sometimes just mentally – hating it for its size …

This Is My Fight Song

Come back with me in time for a minute. Imagine being 14 years old, getting ready to enter high school. You really like a sport – say, volleyball. And you start asking questions about the junior varsity team, when try-outs are, how you can sign up. Now imagine getting a letter at …

All Fired Up

Hi, everybody! I’m back from my hiatus, and hope you’re still around and ready to talk about some body positive stuff. Let’s get some housekeeping out of the way first, and then I’ll tell you what got me so fired up that I had to start blogging again. The project …

Burnout

I’m suffering from a pretty big case of burnout, y’all. I’m gonna tell you why, and then I’m gonna tell you what I’m doing about it. Hopefully, you’ll stick with me through this rough patch and be here when I get back. So, the reasons for my burnout are two-fold. …

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