that canadian girl

Well, I’m only about 2 weeks late, but better late than never, right?

If you, like me, took two weeks to get with the programme, it isn’t too late to join a walk, a run, or simply support via a donation or the purchase of pink merchandise!

They say cancer affects everyone, either through a relative, a close friend or personally. While it may make the boys giggle, all I can say is girls, women, be informed about what’s involved in breast self-examination and how you can reduce the risks. It could save your life.

I watched the “F*** Off, I’m Fat” show on BBC Three this evening, and I’m seething at the thought that the Beebs has produced such a pile of tosh.

Now, as a disclaimer before I start, I’m not a wee little girl. Well, I’m only 5′2″, but I AM a UK size 14, so while I don’t need to be quite as concerned as some in terms of which shops will stock my size, I do know where they come from.

Ricky Grover, that’s the tosser who wasted an hour of my life talking about fat people as poor victims of society, made some statements that were just mind boggling. I didn’t want to post about this when I first started watching the show, since I know it’s an awfully dangerous can of worms to open, but now I just can’t help it.

First, Ricky sends two teenage girls – UK size 20 and 22 – shopping on the high street for clothes they liked. As expected, they can’t find anything in the trendy shops, which either stop at sizes 16 or 18. Knowing absolutely nothing of fashion, he asks the two girls to choose an item of clothing they liked (which both girls pick in size 10) and he gets the items scaled up and recreated for them. Big no-no – the two girls look like they’re wearing potato sacks!

While he does make a point that losing weight isn’t just about cutting a bit on how much you eat and doing a little bit of exercise, he talks about weight loss as a total impossibility. Yes, it is a lifestyle change. But it’s a lifestyle change that will add YEARS onto your life.

So while it’s funny for him to build a fat people’s toilet in the middle of Basildon, his questions to designers of trains, planes and toilets on why trains/planes/toilets aren’t made to suit fat people’s needs, he entirely ignores the fact that the owners of said trains/planes/toilets are looking to cram as many t/p/t in a limited space to make as much revenue as possible. “Why don’t they make all plane seats bigger?” Well, darling, if you’re willing to pay for two seats every time you travel, I’m sure they can accomodate you. But fat people are like the rest of us, they’re cheap! And until it’s an absolute necessity, airlines, train companies and toilet fitters will try to fit as many butts as possible within a given space to make more money from us.

And as for going to a theme park and complaining that as a group of adults between 20 and 30 stone (that’s 280lbs to 420lbs to non-Brits), they’re unable to go on more than 10% of the rides? Please, think of your argument first, Ricky. I’m no amusement ride designer (unless playing Rollercoaster Tycoon 2), but it’s only common sense that no one wants to be responsible for putting extremely overweight people in high-speed, high-heart-rate, high-G-force situations. While fitting seats of a size that can suit bigger people may be possible, it still sounds like a bad idea to me and a huge insurance risk. Plus, the “more butts in any given space means more money” argument applies again.

So are larger people disabled? I would say yes. I’m sure I’ll have tomatoes chucked at my head for saying this, but it’s the bare truth. Struggling to get in and out of a car, being unable to go up into the loft, having difficulties keeping up with your 3 y/o child? Yes, it’s a disability.

While I don’t support employers choosing not to hire a fat person over a slimmer one, I understand their reasons. Slimmer, healthier employees take less sick days, are less exhausted by physical labour and generally are in a more positive frame of mind. (The first two have been heavily researched, the last statement is my personal observation)

I won’t get into arguments for weight loss, because I, along with everyone else, have heard them often enough. We know there is a basic math in more energy spent than ingested, as well as a personal lifestyle decision.

All in all, a terribly biased and lazily researched show, incredibly frustrating to see someone take the “We can’t help being fat! We’re victims” attitude.

As if I wasn’t paranoid enough about using other people’s pens because I know I always end up chewing them, touching doorknobs because I don’t know what’s been on them before, and just generally hating shared bathrooms, this Korean research confirms that cyber cafes are dirty ming-holes too.

(Found via Digg, quality reading for the entire family!)

The Beebs reports: “Health campaigners have welcomed a vote paving the way for a ban on smoking in all pubs, clubs and restaurants in England from the summer of 2007.

MPs voted on Tuesday by a margin of 200 votes to impose a ban on smoking in all enclosed spaces, despite months of wrangling over the issue.”

So… this means we’ll smell even more of curry at the end of the night, since smoke won’t cover the stench?

Nah, joking aside, that’s great news. Never thought a country like Britain would see the smoky haze of its pubs clear up, but it seems to be heading in that direction! Pub landlords, get your carpet washers and scrubbers out, because smoke won’t hide the fact that your beer-drenched carpet stinks now!

Google’s office’s daily grub menu – I could do with some of that!

As if Brits weren’t drinking enough as it is…

The government has decided to relax drinking laws in England and Wales, allowing pubs to apply for a license to stay open later than 11pm, with 24hr licenses available.

Somehow, it seems a bit mad the government would make a decision with potentially very dangerous consequences with so little backing. “Continental drinking” sounds like a great idea, I’d love to share a bottle of red with friends while sitting in a social environment, but British people drink like they’re competing to finish their pint first. It seems to be the wrong way around, change the behaviour and the mentality THEN give more lenient drinking laws.

If this goes through, prepare for mayhem.

Screw pubs, I’ve got Sainsburys’ endless supply of Belgian beers and lovely wines, and a garden more beautiful than any pub. And I cook better than any pub chef. There, that’s happiness!

Reading that *finally* people may have vaguely come to their senses and dumped the Atkins low-carb damage-your-budy diet on Seth’s blog today has ab-so-lu-te-ly made my day.

Although I’m not holding much hope as to what fad diets the world will clutch to while our collective ass gets fatter, but I’ll cross my fingers for the healthy low-fat high-nutrition foods to return in the supermarket rather than the low-carb empty ready meals.

I’m taking bets on what the next ridiculous fad diet will be. Please let it be “7th level vegan – eat nothing that casts a shadow”, we may be able to get rid of a few more idiots in the process.

Peace, Love and Twinkies,
Vero

So you remember when I said I’d do a fitness challenge and turn things around and lose a good chunk of weight and be fit and blahblahblah?

Yeah you guessed it, after the trip to Belgium, I gave up totally and completely. I was so tired from the stress of buying a house, of going to job interviews and of juggling plans to see everyone while in Canada, I wasn’t eating very well.

So officially, I can say I failed at the goals I’d set but this week has reminded me how losing weight and feeling better can be easy. I just need to start walking more, like I do when I’m in Ottawa. Granted my legs hurt like crap from the past three days of being on my feet all day long, but I bought new trainers with special soles yesterday so that should help me feel better about walking longer distances. I enjoy walking, it’s relaxing and it’s fresh air, so without setting myself specific goals, because holidays and house moving and other crap always comes in the way of me achieving them, but with the new Cambridge job, I’ll have no choice to walk more everyday. And I’ll do my inevitable walking, but I’ll enjoy it too!

And as far as being in Ottawa goes, so far it’s been lovely, seen lots of friends, got some precious time with my sisters… Now I just want to spend more time with my mommy before I leave!

Morning weight Day 6: 146.2lbs
Morning weight Day 7: 146.6lbs (goddamn curry!)
Morning weight Day 8 (Monday): 146.6lbs (kept up by three course meal!)

This week is going to have to be a real exercise and eating well challenge, since this weekend has really stalled any vague progress… :S

I hope you guys are progressing better than I am…

[UPDATE: Kelly's weekly update on her Fitness Challenge is up too]

[UPDATE: Here's Jo's update!! dated Wednesday April 20th.

First Week :
Let's say starting weight was 133.5 pounds (but I don't have a scale… I base myself on the last time I was at my parents' place). My goal is to be at 130 pounds by the 15th of May.

So far: I ate healthy meals and brought leftovers for lunch and snacks at work. I haven't been snacking much while studying, and if so, it was on fruits or yogurt. I'm trying to serve myself reasonable portions instead of copying those of my boyfriend (6'4, 190 pounds…).

I haven't done much exercising though… L But one of the reasons was, I just moved and didn't bring my bike or inline skates here yet! On Wednesday, I went for a 20 minutes walk during lunchtime at work.

I'll do that again for sure, the bikepath besides the Ottawa River is soooooo nice! On Thursday I went jogging (oh how I missed my bike and skates!). I hate jogging! There's also the fact that I live in a new area so instead of doing a 10 minutes loop of jogging, I did more like 20 minutes. I was suffocating by the end. Rather stupid on my part… Then on the weekend, I ate: chips (a.k.a. crisps), hot-dogs, lots of cheesecake, a few drinks… Not too good! I finally got my inline skates and went twice for 15-20 minutes. I tried to walk during my lunch hour but got caught in the rain so ended up jogging back to the building. I guess that's one way to force myself to do more… So after a week, results are… Unknown! I don't have a scale as I mentioned so I don't know if there has been a difference in terms of weight, but I doubt so. At least what I ate was generally healthy, except for what I mentioned above. I give myself 7.5/10 so far! ]