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Born2lbfat

My life with Lipedema & Lymphedema...destined to be fat.

The Burger King Pie Guy Was Wrong

August 10, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette Leave a Comment

Last week a story hit the internet about a man who bought every last pie at Burger King in order to ruin the day of a mother and her unruly child who wanted “some f***ing pie.” Most readers cheered the man for what he did, and for some people who know me and think I’m a kid hater this might come as a surprise but I think the man is an asshole. There are doubts as to the authenticity of the story, which in my opinion only makes him an even bigger asshole for making up the story.

Why does this man’s bad day take priority over the mother and child’s bad day? What gives this man the right to ruin someone else’s day (a child’s at that) simply because he’s unable to cope with his own bad day? Kudos to the mother for being stronger, this man couldn’t manage what 5-10 minutes of the child behavior, the mother lives with it 24/7. How do we know if the child is a spoiled brat, or has special needs? Or is just having a bad day? Does it really matter? And dammit if a simple piece of pie would make him feel better or calm him down. And some ADULT decides to be an asshole and buy all the pie. As adults do we not seek things to soothe ourselves, a pint of ice cream, an alcoholic beverage? Or yes even some Burger King pie! I myself prefer the  Hershey Pie from Burger King even better if it’s still frozen.

If true, all this man did was teach this kid it’s ok to be an asshole when you’re having a bad day. Imagine if a little empathy was shown and instead of telling the mother to control her child he attempted to engage the child in conversation.

“I want some pie too, what is your favorite pie?”

“What game are you playing? Oh, yeah that’s a tough one for me too.”

Imagine actually buying the kid a piece of pie and making his day verses ruining it?

Or even simply ignoring it…why go out of his way, spend $35 to purposing ruin a child’s day?

Filed Under: Blog Post

My WEGO Health Financial Tips #hachat

August 5, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette Leave a Comment

Keep an eye out for my upcoming Wego Health blog post recap of #YWM2014!

Filed Under: Health Insurance Tagged With: #hachat, financial management, flexible spending, health insurance, Wego Health

Shine With Me at OAC’s YWM2014

July 25, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette 1 Comment

YWM2014

Come S.H.I.N.E. with me this September at the OAC’s 3rd Annual Your Weight Matters National Convention. This year I have the pleasure of being a topic leader for Lunch with the Experts. I will be leading the Saturday Lunch Topic – You are Your Best Advocate: Leading Your Healthcare Team. Last year I wrote my Top 5 Reasons Why YOU Should Attend OAC’s #YWM2013, and not that you need more convincing but I wanted to write about the 5 elements of this year’s theme SHINE.

Support – Obesity Action Coalition offers support to everyone, no matter where you are in your journey or which path you are choosing, even if you have yet to choose a path. My favorite part of the OAC Vision Statement “All individuals are treated with respect and without discrimination or bias regardless of their size or weight”

Health – Health is not measured by the number on the scale, health is a combination of factors and clinical indicators.  Also being healthy is not just physical health, but emotional and mental health. The YWM2014 will be the opportunity to focus or refocus on your overall journey to health.

Inspiration – Often we seek or find inspiration in others, at YWM2014 I challenge you to find inspiration within yourself and your story, where you have been and where you are going. Our stories our powerful, and together with our stories and experiences we can make a difference. I encourage you to attend one of the Advocacy Training sessions on Thursday to learn more about how you can assist OAC in their mission.

Networking – At YWM2014 you will meet many other individuals working towards the same goal as you, and you’ll also meet many professional dedicated to improving the quality of treatment and life for those affected by obesity.  And those connections will continue even after you return home, the connections you make will provide many new outlets of support and information.

Education – I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Sharma speak last year at the ObesityHelp Conference, his message and perspective is one that is needed among both patients and practitioners in regards to weight and obesity. My favorite topic Dr. Sharma spoke on was the meaning of failure and success.

Filed Under: Blog Post Tagged With: advocacy, conference speaker, conferences, oac, obesity, obesity action coalition, YWM2014

Self Care in Managing Chronic Illness

July 14, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette 1 Comment

Massage

Must be nice to get a massage! – No, it would be nice to not have a chronic illness.

Yes, that’s me. Yes, I’m naked under there. Being naked doesn’t phase me after years of medical related appointments from doctors appointments to physical and occupation therapy for me legs. I’m so used to taking my clothes off that I once walked into a physical therapy appointment and starting taking my shoes and pants off while talking to my therapist, I then started to take my shirt off and she exclaimed “Sarah, what are you doing?”

Whoops my bad, guess I forgot where I was.

Through a decade of living with a chronic illness I’ve learned a lot of about how to manage my condition but more importantly my overall health and wellness. For years I had manual lymph massage two or three times a week, and while a massage sounds nice the application of layers padding and compression wraps really ruins any relaxation achieved through the gentle touch of massage.

Now every month I devote a day to self care and get a massage and pedicure. Both are important to maintaining my physical health and my emotional health. The massage helps my lymphatics and the pedicure keeps my feet in a healthy condition. Both help relieve stress. I know and trust both the massage therapist and the pedicurist, as it is important that proper techniques are used to avoid any complications.

I know many fellow Lipedema and Lymphedema patients fear the idea of anyone seeing their legs and fear the though of getting a pedicure. I’m sure they could never imagine getting naked for a massage. But I assure you, like doctors, these professionals have seen it all and are there to make you feel better not to judge.

So I encourage you to make self care a priority in your life. If you are not comfortable going to others for a day of pampering, take the time to do a little DIY spa treatment at home. Take a bubble bath, rub on some nice lotion, paint your nails a fun color.

How do you take care of YOU?

pedicure

Filed Under: Living with Lipedema & Lymphedema Tagged With: chronic illness, lipedema, lymphedema, massage, pedicure, self care

How I #LiveBold To Fight Weight Stigma

July 8, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette 7 Comments

I entered the HealthCentral #LiveBold anti-stigma photo contest.

(voting is open until August 8th! Click on the link and VOTE for me, vote daily!)

I share my story of how I #LiveBold with Lipedema and Lymphedema and overcome weight stigma.

Picture of me in the pool

The story behind this photo fits well into the anti-stigma theme, because I experienced weight stigma just before it was taken. The photo was taken during a trip to the gym to get pictures of me doing various water exercises for my FitBloggin’ Ignite Fitness presentation. As soon as I stepped into the pool this woman motioned to me and began talking to me in Spanish, I thought perhaps she recognized me from water aerobics class but when she realized I did not speak Spanish she quickly switched to English and her intentions were made clear.

“My daughter is as big as you are and she goes to this clinic and has lost fifty pounds. They don’t make her workout, they just speed up her heart to help her lose weight.”

Well that sounds safe…
Why the hell would you tell someone EXERCISING AT THE GYM about a clinic where they don’t make you exercise?
Wait…why the HELL would you approach a stranger about their weight…at the gym no less?
 

I’m not sure why I try to be nice in response to people who are so rude to me, but I tried to explain that I have Lipedema and Lymphedema and that I have a great medical team that monitors my overall health. No, she still continued. I explained that I no longer live in the area, that I was just visiting so going to a local clinic was not even an option for me. No, she still kept talking about it….I finally just walked away and continued my exercises and photo shoot.

She caught me again at the other end of the pool, she obviously noticed I was annoyed by the conversation so she attempted to suck up.

“You’re very beautiful and have a nice shape.”

Seriously? Yes, I know.

I know that I am fat AND that I am beautiful. I don’t need to be informed of either by a stranger.

I said “thank you”, but that’s not a compliment when it comes AFTER fat shaming. Her initial reaction to seeing me was to approach me about my weight, only after she saw that I was pissed off did she compliment me.

Back to the picture, my boyfriend said he wanted to get a creative picture half in and half out of the water. Upon reviewing the pictures I gave a sarcastic “thanks babe”. I joked about how “objects under the water may appear larger than actual size”, and I soon realized how very powerful the photo was and how it really captured the moment and my story. There is more to me and my story than what appears on the surface. The people who take the time to see past my surface appearance get the benefit of knowing me and my story, and in exchange I get to know them and their story.

We all have a story.

How do you #LiveBold? Share YOUR story of how you #LiveBold despite a health condition.

Filed Under: Obesity Tagged With: awareness, bbw, fat shaming, FitBloggin'14, HealthCentral, lipedema, lymphedema, obesity, sbbw, weight stigma

Mix ‘n Mingle – OH2014 ObesityHelp Conference

July 7, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette Leave a Comment

OH2014cardsI am excited to be attending my ninth ObesityHelp Conference on August 15-16 in Los Angeles, California. This year’s keynote speaker is MasterChef judge, Graham Elliot. I look forward to meeting him and hearing more about his post-op journey.

This year I have the pleasure of co-hosting the #OH2014 Friday Opener Mix ‘n Mingle with Diana Vogel, MS, MFT, Intern. I met Diana last year at #OH2013 and really enjoyed her sessions and her overall personality so I’m really looking forward to leading some activities to help attendees get to know each other.

In addition to the support and educational opportunities at #OH2014, there is the socializing and FUN. The Friday Night Meet & Greet is Hawaiian Themed and I have already bought supplies for my costume. Anyone who knows me knows I always take part in the costume parties at conferences!

luau

 

I look forward to seeing all my OH friends again, and making new friends at #OH2014!

Filed Under: Weight Loss Surgery Tagged With: conference speaker, conferences, gastric bypass, obesityhelp, ObesityHelp Conference, OH2014, weight loss surgery, wls

My First Impression of FitBloggin’ 2014

July 3, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette 14 Comments

I had this revelation on the final morning of FitBloggin’ ….

No one tried to save me, or sell themselves to me.

For those who just met me at FitBloggin’ that is a GOOD thing. A very good thing. And a rather refreshing feeling as compared to what I typically experience at least once at other conferences. This is not a negative reflection on the other conferences I attend. I very much enjoy attending and support the work of the organizations. Sadly, it’s the few attendees who are fellow weight loss surgery patients who have good intentions but cannot seem to accept that I accept myself and my weight that put a slight damper on the overall experience.

This being my first FitBloggin’ and not having interacted with many attendees prior to the weekend I wasn’t sure how I would “fit” in at FibBloggin’. I had met my roommate, Nikki from Bariatric Foodie, at a conference last year and communicated often online. This was her third FitBloggin’ so I knew I would make connections via her. I also easily made connections on my own and found a very warm and welcoming group of new friends.

There were people at various stages of their journey, various levels of fitness, and of various types of fitness and nutrition regiments. The refreshing part was the sense that despite the differences everyone was comfortable with themselves at where they were and supporting each other in making changes they wanted.

The focus was fitness and health, not weight. People were focused on achieving goals as a priority and for those who also had a goal to lose weight, they weren’t waiting for some magic number on the scale to appear in order to consider themselves successful, or to achieve what they set out to accomplish.

My Diet Mt. Dew was not referred to as contraband and I was never asked “oh can you eat that?” I never felt as if what I was doing (being myself) was “bad” and the only time I explained myself or my weight was during my Ignite Fitness presentation, which the purpose was to spread awareness about Lipedema and Lymphedema. When I got off the stage after my Ignite, my Twitter feed blew up with comments from fellow attendees, it was an awesome warm and fuzzy moment.

Even more awesome was Roni mentioning the possibility of me leading a water aerobics class next year in Denver! Of course, that requires me achieving my current goal of becoming a certified water fitness instructor, already confirmed the hotel has a pool, last but not least…I have to make sure my graduation from graduate school doesn’t occur that same weekend!

Roni Selfie

Roni Selfie

Filed Under: Advocacy Tagged With: awareness, conferences, FitBloggin, FitBloggin'14, Ignite Fitness, lipedema, lymphedema, support

Why I use the F-word

June 9, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette 1 Comment

I use the f-word for several reasons. Let me clarify, this is why I use the 3-letter f-word, FAT. (why I use the 4-letter f-word is a blog for another day, if that even needs an explanation)

I refer to myself as fat because I am fat. This is how I self-identify, so it’s not for others to tell me whether I am right or wrong for referring to myself as fat. However, I realize by doing so and by having the f-word in the name of my blog people make assumptions about me and my mental and emotional health. Also, as an advocate against weight bias I am sure it can be confusing that I advocate against stigma and bias yet refer to myself as fat.

Surprisingly, or not so much, people associate the word FAT with negativity. Some might think I use the f-word to reclaim control of its connotation, to put a positive face to the otherwise negative perception. There might be a bit of truth to that as I do not think being fat is a bad thing, there are far worse things to be in life than to be fat. But the real reason is because plain and simply, or beautiful and complicated…I am fat.

Why do I refer to myself as fat instead of obese, plus-size, fluffy, juicy, pleasantly plump?

I do not believe I am a person affected by the disease obesity. I have no metabolic co-morbid health issues related to my excess weight. The disease I am affected by is Lipedema, which  is a fat disorder. My body has too much fat, that causes my BMI to fall into the morbidly obese range and I disagree with the way BMI is used as an indicator of health, so once again I opt to use fat instead of obese.

Fat is a medical term, our bodies are comprised of bones, skin, muscles, and fat among other things.

Everyone has fat, I just have more of it.

Fat describes me, it does not define me.

Fat is a physical aspect of my body it is not an indicator of my intelligence, self-worth, abilities, or character.

Filed Under: Living with Lipedema & Lymphedema Tagged With: f-word, fat, fat disorders, lipedema, obesity

Baby Got Back – Anthem of Positive Body Image

June 7, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette 1 Comment

This weekend Sir Mix-a-Lot performed Baby Got Back with the Seattle Symphony. As I watched the video I saw the same thing occur that occurs every time the song plays…women race to the dance floor. I do the same, often Baby Got Back is the only song I’ve danced to at an event…as I consider it my theme song. I never miss the opportunity to shake my groove thing and I instantly recognize that introduction beat.

Watching the video above I realize how quickly women rushed on stage in front of a crowd of people to shake and celebrate their “big butts”….women of all shapes and sizes.  Is Baby Got Back an anthem for positive body image?

Filed Under: Blog Post Tagged With: big butts, body image, dancing, videos

Healthy Obesity Study Reveals You Will Never Be Good Enough

May 7, 2014 by Sarah Bramblette Leave a Comment

healthyobesity Another study was released attempting to debunk the idea that healthy obesity exists. I had lab work done in March and was boasting about my good health status as my normal lab results and other doctor appointments indicate all my vital statistics are well within normal range. I consider myself to be healthy, the medical test results are proof. I admit I slacked with exercise during the winter, but even after months of absence, upon my return to the gym I found my stamina and ability unchanged. However, according to these recent studies my accomplishment in achieving and maintaining good health is still not good enough. That despite normal cholesterol, blood sugar, and blood pressure, individuals affected by obesity are STILL at risk for future cardiac issues. Therefore the study recommends that doctors should emphasize healthy diet and exercise. *eyeroll* I do eat healthy and exercise, that is how I maintain my current “healthy” status. So a doctor lecturing me on diet and exercise will not help with my weight, which is due to Lipedema. Actually, the only “fault” most doctors find in my eating habits is that I drink diet soda. And the assumption is made that I might be consuming more calories by drinking diet soda, blah blah blah. Let’s be honest, 400lbs is not due to drinking diet soda. I do not understand the purpose of these studies to debunk the Healthy Obesity “myth”. Why not research the cause of the excess weight? It seems so unbelievable that people can be healthy while obese, then why attack the healthy status which are supported by medical tests, why not focus on the reason that despite having a healthy lifestyle some patients still have excess fat? Or why despite healthy diet and exercise, weight alone contributes to cardiac death? Or is the use of “cardiac event” just a scare tactic? I know many normal size, otherwise considered healthy people who died suddenly from a heart attack. Most coroners will tell you everyone dies of cardiac arrest, your hearts stops, you die. Patients affected by obesity already face weight bias in healthcare, and these studies seem like an extension of that bias into the research part of the medical world. There are known gaps in obesity research, perhaps it would be better to research the positive, the healthy so it can be replicated. Would I be better off if I weighed less? Of course I would. Is diet and exercise the answer for Lipedema? No, it’s not. We need more research of the cause of excess weight beyond the assumed poor lifestyle choices, and we need treatment options beyond those that control hunger or limit caloric consumption.

Filed Under: Advocacy, Lipedema and Lymphedema, Obesity Tagged With: healthy obesity, lipedema, weight bias in healthcare

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