Born2lbfat

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

Find Me at FitBloggin’14

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I took the plunge and submitted a spark for the Fitbloggin’14 Ignite Fitness keynote event. The community voted for my spark so I’ll be sharing my story at Fitbloggin’14 in Savannah, GA in June.

Ignite Fitness is THE FitBloggin’ keynote event. Five minutes, 20 slides, a whole lot of fun…yes, I am limited to 5 mins. Think I can do it?

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Finding Sarah – Just keep splashing: My journey to health in the pool

Weighing more than 500 lbs, I began my journey to health by walking laps in a pool. I progressed to water aerobics and learned that water fitness was actually one of the best exercises for my lipedema and lymphedema. While my physical abilities may be limited, fitting on gym equipment and mobility, in the pool I have freedom with my movements (foot at shoulder level) and the ability to adjust the intensity of my workouts. I have taken classes at many gyms, my favorite being with “Coach” as we called her, thick accent and “more faster” commands. My first day in her class, at a new gym she advised “do your best.” She obviously noticed this was not my first class, and in the midst of an exercise as I was daydreamingly making “rolling” moves with my arms she dropped down into a push up on the pool’s edge so she was in face and yelled. “Faster, faster, faster.” Whoa? What happened to “do your best?” She obviously noticed I was not doing my best, which was appreciated, and funny as heck. My journey to health has definitely been full of waves, and even a rip current, but I keep on splashing. I am healthy, and my lymphedema has amazing improvement.

 

 

Lululemon cannot cover my @ss, and the sky is blue.

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This week another clothing retailer revealed they do not and will NOT make their clothes available in plus sizes and the media exploded in outrage. How is this new?

Did we all forget the 5-7-9 store? (I wonder what the vanity size equivalent would be.)

This is nothing new; no business can cater to everyone. It’s just not a smart business strategy.

I’m especially NOT upset that I will never be able to fit into a pair of Lululemon yoga pants, despite my affinity for yoga pants. It is obvious Lululemon is not capable of handling the quality needs of plus size women. In case you forgot they had to recall yoga pants due to sheerness. Uh, no thank you.

Making and designing Plus Size clothing is more than just taking a normal size item and making it bigger. Plus Size women have different body types, curves in different places, and different quality needs. Even among the clothing stores that do cater to Plus Sizes, there are different styles and different fits…Torrid, to Lane Bryant to Catherine’s.  All have a very different style of clothing, and I notice a different in “fit” among stores. Junonia is a company that specializes in active clothing for Plus Size women, more than just yoga pants, but swimwear and outdoors clothing.

Wait, what was that? There are stores that cater to ONLY plus size women?  How dare they not make their cute available to normal size women?  I am not being sarcastic. Years ago I worked at Lane Bryant, and we often had normal sized women walk in asking for the shirt in the window in their size, and we had to break the news that the smallest we carried was a 14. And remember that’s a Women’s size 14, not a Misses 14. The fit will be different.

What makes me angrier than retailers who refuse to offer Plus Size clothing, is the treatment often received from the retailers who proclaim to cater to our Plus Size needs. As a plus size woman I realize I am going to pay more for my clothing, I do not think it is too much to ask that those clothes meet the quality needs of plus size clientele. Underwear should withstand more than 1-2 wearing. T-shirts should have appropriate designs.  I opt to ask that Plus Size retailers do a better job at serving their clientele than demand all companies make ALL sizes. The latter is not a reasonable expectation. I’m quite sure the Tall and Petite women out there can echo this. Plus size is not the only specialty size left out by the mainstream designers.

Are we going to demand that Victoria’s Secret start selling men’s products? Oh wait.  Victoria Secret is another store that does not provide Plus Size items.

I mean really I could list an entire MALL DIRECTORY of places that do not offer plus sizes. Why is the outrage only over those who actually admit it?

I think we all need to take a deep breath.

Calm down.

And redirect our energy towards other worthier causes. I choose weight bias in healthcare and employment.