The Pretty Pear

In case anyone's wondering...

Diets - I don't think they're a good idea. In fact, my own personal experiences and reading a lot of solid evidence has proven to me that dieting is a really bad idea. I'm just as fat, if not fatter, than I would've been had I never dieted at all and the only thing dieting ever gave me was a neurotic obsession with food and the calories therein. Actively trying to lose weight never made my life any happier or my body any healthier. In fact, dieting never made me anything but miserable after the initial optimism wore off.

Weight loss surgery - Another bad idea that could potentially lead to disaster. It sickens me that so many people elect to have their stomachs essentially amputated in an act of desperation. At the very least, I think it should be considered only in the most extreme situations, if at all. For clarification, being 40 pounds "over weight" is not an extreme situation. The fact that so many doctors are willing to perform the surgery on those who are not even medically "obese" is just a testament to how desperate people are to be thin. And it's true, we live in a society that values a dead fat person over a live fat person. At least the dead fat person tried to conform.

I know what it's like to live in a body that the world is telling me will ultimately break down and that my existence is worthless because of something as trivial as my weight. Someone left a comment and asked what size I wear - I'm a 22/24 in tops and a 26 in most jeans. My BMI (urgh) is 51%. Supposedly, HALF of my body is fat.

Declutterizing

I donated a ton of clothes and shoes to a local charity shop today and I feel GREAT. This stuff has been sitting in a big box on my bedroom floor for months and I was so happy to finally see it go. I considered trying to sell some of it but in the end, I knew it'd just sit there until I gave it away anyway.

Plus, the clothes went to a good cause. They'll sell the stuff and use the money to fund a community health care organization. Everyone wins!

I'm one step closer to my goal of having a more workable wardrobe. Most of what I gave away was stuff I liked when I bought it but then it got old within a few months. Trendy is awesome but you can't build an entire wardrobe with trends. It just doesn't work out well in the long run.

Got a minute?

You may have read on Big Fat Blog that Figure magazine is looking for a blogger. A few readers were nice enough to nominate me already (thank you, I love you) but I decided to take a chance and nominate myself, too. If you think I'd be a good blogger for Figure, please lend your voice in this thread. You have to register to post on their message board so I appreciate you taking the time to do so.

Eh, clothes smlothes.

I don't feel like talking about clothes today. What's your favorite snack? What puts you in a great mood? What's your favorite color?

I like those cheddar cheese Kashi crackers or that great FAGE yogurt with the syrupy fruit. Both are available at your local Whole Foods. Tonight, peace and quiet are putting me in a good mood. These horrible, awful men have been doing repair work on my building's brick facade and it's been nonstop noise during the day for, like, two weeks! Drill drill, hammer, hacksaw, drill, hammer... All day.

I like pink, teal and pear green.

I do kind of rock, huh?

Susan at Plum Texan was nice enough to pass the Rockin' Girl Blogger award on to me. I've seen this on other blogs but never thought it'd get passed to me, so this certainly made my day. Thank you, Susan!

The Rockin' Girl Blogger award was started by Roberta Ferguson and it's now my duty to pass it along to five other rockin' girl bloggers. Just five? There are so many! :)

First, Good with Cheese. This post pretty much sums up why I love reading this blog.

Elastic Waist for always maintaining a reasonable approach to health and fitness. There's pretty much no getting away from diet talk so it might as well be balanced and sane.

My friend Carla at Product Girl. You should see her makeup collection, it's insane. Plus, she's really sweet and smart and all that jazz.

The three rockin' chicks at Big Fat Deal. That's three rockin' girls all in one go! Start with their collection of greatest hits and then just read everything else.

And finally, Kate Harding, who we all know rocks and I don't need to explain why.

High fives all around!

How people get here

One of the really fun parts about maintaining this blog is seeing how people end up here. Most traffic comes from Google searches. Some of it is super basic, like "plus size clothes" but much of it is... well, let's look at some recent search hits.

"Instead of buying a second seat for larger people, just buy a first or business class seat."
First of all, this is a long ass search. Have you ever heard of a keyword? Second of all, NO. If I could afford to fly first class, do you really think I'd be shoved into Economy with your dumb ass? Anyway, this post at Big Fat Blog is the first result for that search so maybe this person learned something.

On a happier note...

I realize that my last few posts haven't been fun to read. They weren't super fun to write, either. But I've resolved to end my slump and post about some fun things. Coming up - a post about Hips & Curves, a review of QVC's Breezies brand of bras, and I'm working on an all new shopping directory.

And because people were curious, my flights to and from San Francisco were just fine. I was between two thin people on the way out and they didn't seem to care much. And to be fair to me, I don't ooze out of my own seat more than oh, like half an inch. So if anyone wants to try and make me feel guilty about taking up an entire row on an airplane with my huge ass, please consider that even thin people hate how narrow the seats are. The flight back was fine, I had the window seat and the middle seat was empty, so both I and my row mate could stretch out and take up lots of room.

On that note, I had a (very thin) women's studies teacher who always encouraged us to really stretch out and be comfy in class because "women should take up space." I think she meant that literally and metaphorically, so there you go.

Fat bitch

There was a discussion on fatshionista recently about being catcalled and hit on in public. I'd call that "positive" attention - where a guy just has to let you know that you're so beautiful he's about to die, whether you want to hear it or not (usually not). That kind of thing rarely happens to me, hardly ever. But I do get negative attention once in a while.. like just a few minutes ago!

Something I need to get off my chest

I have to confess something. Before I even write it all out, and before anyone can call me a hypocrite, I'm going to say - yes, what I'm about to say goes against everything I've written here. But please keep in mind that despite all the banter about clothes and shoes and all that, I'm human and sometimes, humans slip up.

Walk, walk, walk.

I'll just come right out and say that I'm pretty lazy. I never excelled at sports, I was generally apathetic towards gym class and you'll never hear me say "Hey guys, let's go for a jog!" It's just not happening.

However, there is one particular physical activity that I do actually enjoy and it's the very simplest activity of them all - walking. I really like a good, brisk walk around my neighborhood. Sometimes I have to literally drag my ass off the couch and into my walking shoes to do it, but once I'm out there in the sun, I'm quite happy.

A little update

I wrote a new and improved about page. It's mostly about me because hey, I like to talk about myself sometimes. Ta da.

Quality or Quantity?

I hate to admit this but I'm pretty cheap when it comes to clothes. I have a lot of clothes, but very little of it is of high quality. Actually, practically none of it is. This stems from a few things. One, we didn't have a lot of money when I was growing up and my mother taught me how to buy a ton of stuff without spending a lot of money. Two, up until about a year and a half ago, I didn't have a "real" job, so spending much on clothes wasn't an option. Three, I just have it in my head that it's better to have three inexpensive t-shirts versus one nice but kind of spendy top. Old habits die hard.

I think that a lot of you out there are in the same boat. We love clothes but it's also important to shop within a budget. I rarely buy anything if I don't have a coupon or the item is on sale. I'd have to really, really love something to pay full price for it if it isn't inexpensive to begin with.

Three years!

The three year anniversary of this blog came and went on July 17th but I still wanted to acknowledge it. You can read the very first post here. Thanks for all the kind comments, email, and links from your own blogs and websites. If I didn't know that people were out there reading this, I probably would've given up a long time ago. So thanks for your encouragement and here's to another three years of fabulous!

No she didn't.

I don't normally rush right home to blog something but I have to share this right now. I was on my way to the neighborhood grocery store. I walked past a girl gabbing away on her cell phone when I heard her say this:

"I know! He's a personal trainer! He's gorgeous! He should not be dating a chubby girl!"

I just about lost my shit.

Ok, first of all, she only said chubby because she saw me walking past and didn't want to be RUDE and say FAT. You know she wanted to say fat. I think I'd prefer that she say fat instead of making a pathetic attempt at being politically correct. Second of all, maybe the personal trainer likes nice girls who are "chubby" over skinny girls who are mean little bitches. And you know "chubby" means she's, like, a size 10.

So I spent my whole trip to the store thinking about what I would've said to the girl if I had the balls. There really is no good way to call a stranger on their bullshit, especially a random stranger you're walking past on the street.

Ugh!

Ah, family.

I love my grandmother. I really, really do. She can be the nicest lady in the whole world... until someone mentions dieting, weight or fat. Here is an example: My mother has a cough that's stuck around since she had a cold several weeks ago (months, probably). All three of us were in the kitchen...

Me: Mom, you really should see a doctor about that cough.
Gramma: Or she could just quit smoking.
Me: Well, or that.
Gramma: And you need to go on a diet.

She stares at me intently and a few moments pass.

Gramma: Lookit the beautiful complexion you've got.
Me: .... *waits*
Gramma: But you need to go on a diet!
Me: *sigh* Stop staring at me!
Mom: Are you done?

Then she mentioned that my cousin, who's a few years younger than I am and has always been chubby, is on a diet again "probably because she has a boyfriend now." Oh, that's nice. I'm glad she's found a guy who wants her to diet! That's fantastic! Where do I sign up?!