My Beef with Meghan Trainor

44 years-old and feeling fabulous!

When I heard "All About That Bass" for the first time, I admit I felt somewhat liberated. Here was this super cute young girl singing about embracing your body, no matter the size, and it's okay to flaunt that fine fat rump. I have a fat rump (whether it's fine is debatable), so clearly this song was written with gals like me in mind. My husband certainly doesn't mind a little meat on my bones, so why should I? All is right in the world.

Or is it?

Ms. Trainor is part of a growing movement that has me a little nervous - this so-called "healthy at any size movement." Don't worry if you're severely overweight, as long as you love yourself. You'll never hear me say don't love yourself. In fact, if you read my blog, you'll notice I say a lot of issues we have as women are directly related to our lack of self-esteem. But does that mean it's okay to love being morbidly obese? Some folks would say yes. I'm going to say no, and here's why.

Fat isn't about aesthetics. It's not about how cute you look. Obviously, you can be overweight and be beautiful. It's about health. I come from a long line of fine fat southern women. No, I'm not going to be politically correct and say "thick" or "meaty." They were morbidly obese, and most of them are dead now. Very few lived to a ripe old age, and before they died, their co-morbidities made their quality of life unpleasant with many trips to the doctor and hospital admissions. Diabetes, heart disease, cancer...you name it and they dealt with it. As we have gotten bigger as a nation, we've become more unhealthy.

We won't even discuss the lack of mobility. It's funny to joke about being lazy and not moving from the couch. It's less funny when you're barely sixty, and your body hurts too much from lack of use to even walk around the block. As I wrote this, I thought about my dear mother, and I realized something shocking. She never once took me for a walk, nor did she ever go for a walk.

I can't help but think how disrespectful it is to those who have no choice but to be immobile when we able bodied people fail to use the healthy bodies we're born with. Instead of protecting our healthy bodies, we spend our lives feeding it crap and not moving. Then we look to science to make us better or try to find good health in a bottle. When you think of it in those terms, it doesn't make sense.

At my highest weight, I weighed 262 pounds on this 5'2" body.  I was barely thirty-five years-old, and yet, I felt like a seventy year-old woman inside. I would put things at the bottom of the stairs until I had enough collected to justify a trip up. My knees ached all the time. I had GERD so badly that I ate TUMS like they were candy. The amount of food I consumed was unreal. I kept getting bigger and bigger and less and less healthy. It doesn't matter if I loved myself or not.  Obesity related diseases don't care if you have good body image. They don't discriminate between those who have good self-esteem and those who don't.  Diabetes and heart disease were in my future.

Struggling with obesity

My mobility was becoming compromised, as well, and I was getting to the point that walking was a struggle. Was I going to be that fat lady on the Jazzy at Target because I ate myself to such an unhealthy size that I couldn't move easily? At thirty-five?

No ma'am- no thanks. In 2005, I had gastric bypass surgery and got my life back. I lost down to 135 pounds, and I felt amazing. Never in my life have I felt so in control, healthy and beautiful. It was bliss. I became a runner and finally understood why people say exercising makes you feel great.  I've gained about twenty pounds since having Little Man, but never will I let myself become morbidly obese again. I owe it to my son to make sure he learns healthful eating so he doesn't have to deal with obesity. I want his quality of life to be wonderful, not filled with health issues. I'm working on taking off these last stubborn pounds, even as I write this.

Meghan Trainor is 21....she has no idea what's ahead of her if she doesn't get her weight under control. I know, and I want no part of it. She can gorge herself on junk food (which she's admitted she does) and not exercise regularly (which again, she admits), but it will catch up with her. I hope in forty years she's not writing a song called, "All about that heart disease." I wish her a long and healthy life, but first she has to realize she won't be young forever. Now is the time to start taking care of her health.

Amanda Z
Domesticology