Yes, I just scored the very last one of this fab Igigi dress in their final cut clearance section...in my size! I have been watching it for several months and I feel like I totally lucked out.

Hmmm...

Very interesting and not surprising study finding indications of weight loss surgery not extending life expectancy. (Don't read the comments, never read the comments, amazing the people who demand thinness no matter the costs and almost zero expectation of "success".)

Sweater from Igigi and "Most Fabulous Pants" from Avenue. Outside of the lack of pockets they are indeed a totally fabulous pant. They are super comfortable and don't pinch or bind me anywhere. I went back and bought several of them on sale. As usual I also love the Igigi sweater and should have likely ordered a size down. My hair is in an in process stage to get much of the layers grown out long enough to cut them out and I'm less than happy with it at the moment.

Sweater from Avenue, tank from Torrid, skinny jeans from Avenue, scarf from Coldwater Creek, rad knee-high stretch boots finally found off ebay after much frustration and many returns to several plus sized retailers that claimed they were wide calf boots (Yes, I mean you Woman Within and Roamans--standardize your freaking sizes to your charts or give individualized dimensions for each size for each item. Eventually fat woman will get of dealing with this shoddy treatment.).

Me and my little guy, he didn't want to actually touch my lips because I had lipstick on. Shirt from Avenue, ponte knit pants from Junonia, scarf from One Stop Plus. His little yellow rain boots are from Gymboree.




Yep, I actually fell on my ample behind after trying to straddle the little chair.

Making My Fat Fatty Fatness Visible

The last several months I've noticed a lot of buzz on several fat acceptance sites about making our fat selves more visible in an effort to normalize our bodies. I've decided to take on the challenge and will be making an effort to post more pictures of myself. Sometimes I might do some outfit blogging, maybe I won't. I see a lot of fantastic, fat, edgy, and mostly young outfit bloggers. I think I can bring a slightly different voice to the party.

I'm 42, a homemaker, mom of four, and a military spouse of one who is currently deployed overseas. I have a mostly casual Seattle lifestyle but I do attend a lot of theatre and artistic endeavors. I like to dress uniquely but at my age I find some things are just starting to look silly. I'm fairly shameless and difficult to embarrass. I've come a long way in my self and fat acceptance but I, of course, still struggle with moments of doubt and criticalness. I'm really not sure what I weigh and don't feel inclined to find out. I'm 5'4" and I generally wear a US size 26-28 (less if we're dealing with Igigi, higher even than that if we're dealing with "skinny" jeans as I like them less skinny).

I foresee this taking my blog in a bit of a new direction for me and some antics from my normal life weaving themselves in my normalizing body image. Since I cannot find the thingy that attaches a camera to my tripod there will undoubtedly be some odd angles until it turns up.

Today's outfit: red ponte knit dress and black ponte knit leggings from Avenue, both bought a size too big so they would be loose; scarf from Walgreens, where I had addiction buying their 2 for $10 scarves every time I went in there for milk.

Passionate, Head Over Heals, I'm Going to Marry You, Igigi Love

It seems my life is going to be heading in a bit of a new direction and I foresee a need for more formal and dressy wear than my normal life has required. I discovered Igigi's sale and 'final cut' sections. Even there the prices were still a bit steeper than I generally pay but after so much glowing reviews of the company from fat fashion bloggers I decided to take the plunge and even order some things that weren't returnable. I loved everything in my first order so much quickly placed a second order, and another one since. In total it's been two gowns, five dresses, a jacket, two shirts, a skirt, and two long sweaters. I can honestly say I'm in passionate love with all them but one dress, and that one is okay enough for me not to regret it asking it out.

I think why I feel so moved by this experience is I think this is the first time as a plus size woman I've actually had clothes designed, from their conception, to flatter me and not just cover me up in an pleasant enough wrapper. Along with the much higher than quality these clothes actually make me feel good, sexy, and beautiful. With all the negative feelings that most of us accepting our fatness have had to confront having that reaction to clothing is a powerful thing. At moments it almost brought me to tears--in a good way, when does that normally happen with fat women?

After doing a bit more research on the company and watching many of their youtube videos Yuliya has a loyal fan and customer with me, even if it's from stalking the final cut section. My only hope is at some point she will include at bit more casual wear in the collection as well.

What Lies Beneath The Biggest Loser

I know, I know it will come as a surprise to many but unsafe behaviors have occurred on The Biggest Loser. Gasp! Really?

Of course they have! I'm glad some this hidden, dark side is finally bubbling up to the surface. The show's shaming of fat people, totally unrealistic expectations, and fear mongering has to stop. If it was reality show focused on health as it claims to be it would be honest about it's "failures" and wouldn't perpetuate a system to encourage contestants to put their health at risk for the sake of numbers on a scale. No matter what anybody involved claims this show isn't about health, it's about ratings and money at the expense of health. It's sick.

Article on Doctors' Fatness

Like most articles on the subject of weight and health much of this one in the L.A. Times is mostly a bunch of unsubstantiated drivel even if it does mention the fatosphere. Ms. Deardorff, just throwing a sentence or two in there about fat activism doesn't make your piece well-balanced. Also the idea that seeing an "overweight" doctor is analogous to taking advice from a CPA who just file bankruptcy is way off-base. It's one of those things people say to make themselves sound clever and thoughtful but is just meaningless. Really, my biggest gripe with this piece is just what a lame note it ends on, "I am fat because I eat too much," she admitted. "I exercise plenty but I just eat too much. In fact, burp, I just did." Groan, really? Once again it lays all the "blame" on fat people being unrestrained gluttons.

I do have concerns with the overall premise of the article. Just like many pursuits, doctors and otherwise; fat people no matter how exceptional our accomplishments, experiences, education, qualifications, and gifts they can be all discredited just because of some extra fat. It's wrong, it's discrimination and it amazes me that so many people fail to recognize it as such.

Health Care Money Waste

The last paragraph of this article got me all hot and bothered. "Other areas of waste identified in the PricewaterhouseCoopers report included up to $493 billion related to risky behavior such as smoking, obesity and alcohol abuse." Hey, Mr. Kavilanz and PricewaterhouseCoopers maybe, just maybe, it's not that our behavior of being obese (I think I'm going to behave obesely today) is wasting money; it's the MASSIVE amount of money spent trying to cure obesity. Study after study has shown being fat alone is not the almighty evil risk it has been made out to be, far too much money (medical and otherwise) has spent in the pursuit of trying to make us thin. Especially when it has an over 95% failure rate. Aaargghhh my head is going to explode with the stupidity.