Revenge of the Curves

"Growing Your Own Food Is Like Printing Your Own Money" Guerilla Gardening in LA

 

Ron Finley, an artist who decided to grow a vegetable garden on the street in front of his South Central Los Angeles home, was once issued a citation and threatened with arrest for his efforts. Instead of backing down, he got the community - and the news media - on his side and suddenly, the citation disappeared. Finley's observations about living in a food desert where people die of curable diseases and drop-in dialysis centers "pop up like Starbucks" absolutely resonate with me. I am on a bus or a train in New Jersey and New York just about everyday and the differences couldn't be more stark. On the New Jersey Transit train or the PATH train, there are people of various economic circumstances who ride it every day. Most get on the train without assistance and either pull out their iPad or Kindle if they aren't reading a newspaper or listening to music with their earphones. When I'm on the bus in New Jersey riding through Newark, I often see relatively young people walking with the assistance of a cane or in a very basic wheelchair. When I say relatively young, I mean people as young as thirty or forty. Finley's observations - and his hilarious, matter-of-fact delivery, resonates with me on so many levels. Highly recommended.

Ron Finley in front of his garden.

Zulekha Haywood's journey from size 26 to size 6, happy all the way

Zulekha Haywood, the daughter of former NBA star Spencer Haywood and the legendary model Iman, has written an article for Glamour where she talks about her journey from a size 26 to a size 6, and how she was happy all along.

Even though she was satisfied with herself as a person, she was getting disturbing signals from her body that made her unhappy with her health. She writes in Glamour:

At 330 pounds, I had developed heel spurs and swollen knees that made it excruciatingly painful to stand up after lying down for eight hours, so getting out of bed was always an orchestrated event. I’d send any man who slept over off to shower, and once the coast was clear, I’d swing my legs out and put my feet on the ground gingerly, allowing the blood to return to my feet and legs. After a minute, I could stand. After another minute, I was comfortable enough to start walking. 

On the Today show, she mentioned that she "wasn't feeling vital anymore" and, along with having a hard time getting out of bed, she had started to develop osteoarthritis, which is the most common type of arthritis.  Zulekha said that she was worried. "If this is at 26, then what’s going to happen down the line? I tried everything, and gastric bypass was the last resort.”

I am glad that Zulekha is emphasizing her contentment and the full life that she lead before she lost the weight. I am also happy that she is not glossing over the very real, and preventable, health issues that she faced as such a young age. I am against "fat shaming" - especially for the sake of having everybody conform to one "acceptable" look.  However, I am also against de-emphasizing some of the health issues related to obesity.  Somewhere along the line, we have to find balance, that happy medium of what looks and feels good to us.  It's nice to see that Zulekha Haywood seems to have found it.

Michelle Obama's Fight Against Childhood Obesity

Michelle Obama recently wrote a cover story for Newsweek, "Why I'm Fighting Childhood Obesity," where she explained her intentions with her new Let's Move campaign:

And let's be honest with ourselves: our kids didn't do this to themselves. Our kids don't decide what's served in the school cafeteria or whether there's time for gym class or recess. Our kids don't choose to make food products with tons of sugar and sodium in supersize portions, and then have those products marketed to them everywhere they turn. And no matter how much they beg for fast food and candy, our kids shouldn't be the ones calling the shots at dinnertime. We're in charge. We make these decisions.

That's actually the good news—that we can decide to solve this problem. That's why we started Let's Move, a nationwide campaign with a single goal: to solve the problem of childhood obesity in a generation, so that children born today can reach adulthood at a healthy weight.

This sounds pretty reasonable to me, but I'm not surprised by the pushback she has received in some circles. In What Michelle Obama's childhood obesity project gets wrong, Kate Harding argues in Salon that the first lady's campaign is "90 percent terrific" but fears that the other 10 percent will end up "whipping up fear and disgust of the very fat children you're supposedly trying to help." I happen to think 90/10 is a pretty good ratio. No initiative will satisfy every person and every group with different agenda, but this campaign is a step in the right direction.

Meanwhile, what are food companies doing about childhood obesity? Noted nutritionist and author Marion Nestle finds that "companies are falling all over themselves – and with much fanfare – to tweak their products."

The Long Road Back, Take 2 [Reality Check]

I have been working out again and I am really feeling it.  I mean really - as in I am using the conditioning cap I use for my hair as a heating pad for my lower back.  I am not hurt, just achy. 

I am also on the long road back as far as this blog is concerned.  I find it challenging (to say the least) to write and manage three blogs, but I am determined to do it.  It's a really "high-class" problem to have these days if you know what I mean.

Initially, I had this ambitious plan to start a brand new workout DVD to get a fresh start and to begin reviewing fitness DVDs here.  However, I have been out of it so long that I find it is more realistic to just ease my way back into workout out (Novel, right?)  So, instead of buying the workout DVDs I have been auditioning via Netflix, I have been walking.  A lot. That is not usually a problem for me that requires bootleg heating pads, but that's what I get for putting it off so long.

As for returning to this blog yet again, there will only be slight changes.  There will still be "Links of the Day" but they will be under various headings. There will also be more interviews, fitness DVD reviews, occasional polls and quizzes (the picture above is taken from Prevention's
Will You Live to 100? quiz) and extensive beauty coverage, with health and fitness in mind of course. The beauty coverage will also include relevant content that I select that I think you will like from Total Beauty, the beauty blogging network I have recently partnered with for Revenge of the Curves.  I have recently explanded into video on RC's sister site 55 Secret Street and I hope to do that here as well.