So Lesley Kinzel was the keynote speaker for my school’s Eating Disorder Awareness Week, and let me tell you, she was fucking awesome.
First of all, she showed up wearing a purple coat, purple tights, aquamarine Doc Martens, and a yellow bag. Second of all, the woman calls herself a “radical fatass.” Am I weird if I want to be her new best friend?
Then, her talk was fantastic. It was more of a discussion, which was great because it was engaging. And she talked all about our cultural fear of fat, and fat-shaming, and why you can be fat and healthy, and set-point (which is essentially the natural weight at which your body is most comfortable, and which it will gravitate towards no matter how much weight you try to lose or gain), and why diets suck.
And I got to ask her about dealing with fat-shaming from family, and from health-care providers (because I’ve gone to an ENT doctor and wound up being given a forty-five minute live infomercial for the Zone diet and he is so lucky I didn’t have my Doc Martens yet because I had a clear shot at his balls the whole time that I still wish I would have taken). She said that with family, you just have to ask them if they would rather you were happy or miserable, and after you ask them that a few dozen times, they will eventually understand. My plan is also that I am going to buy her book, Two Whole Cakes, when it comes out in April, read it, and then strongly suggest that my mother read it. We’ll see how that goes. As far as health-care providers, you can honestly just say that you are unwilling to discuss that issue with them at that time, reassure them that you will come to them if you want help, and bring it back to the issue at hand. Unfortunately, she also said that doctors are being trained more and more to talk about weight with patients. But I guess I just have to keep in mind that I am the authority over my own body, and that I have the power to redirect the conversation towards what I went to the doctor about in the first place.
Overall, the event was fantastic, and she was great, and I do believe I’ve mentioned that I kind of want to be her new best friend, have I not?
