February 2018 NAAFA Newsletter
In Loving Memory of Cathy Grinels Harrell
by Tony Harrell

Whenever Cathy Grinels Harrell entered a room, she made her presence felt. With her striking red hair and charming wit, Cathy left a lasting impression on everyone she met.

Cathy was born in New Orleans on January 27, 1953. The first in her extended local family to earn a college degree, she went on to achieve a Master's in Education at Southwest Louisiana State University (now University of Louisiana-Lafayette). She decided to focus on Special Education, working in public school districts in St. John's Parish, Louisiana as well as New Kent and Fairfax Counties in Virginia. In the spirit of one of her "sheroes" Condoleeza Rice, Cathy felt she had to be "twice as good" as a fat woman educator and would go on to earn the respect of her colleagues and appreciation of many parents as she touched the lives of thousands of children.

By the late '90s, Cathy had discovered the fat acceptance community and, upon moving to Northern Virginia, got involved with the Capital (Washington DC) Chapter of NAAFA and would eventually become a long-serving officer. With her natural public speaking ability, she would not only become a resource for local media covering fat acceptance issues, she would also gain notoriety for appearing in the Discovery Channel documentary "Big As Life".
I met Cathy in, well, actually there's a running joke about when we met. Suffice it to say that when I went to a size acceptance event in the Philadelphia area in 2001, there was a well-meaning obstacle in the way of our directly connecting. But we did formally meet in 2002 at the same annual event. We became good friends until in 2004 when we decided to explore if there was something more. We decided that there was indeed romantic potential and in 2005, I moved down from Philadelphia to the Washington DC area to join her.

Our first major relationship test came in 2007 when Cathy received a cancer diagnosis. She endured a difficult series of treatments and by 2012 was declared cancer-free. Cathy had refused to consider marriage until she could confirm that the cancer was gone. When that news became official, I did what any romantic guy would do: I found my Green Lantern ring from a past Halloween party and proposed. Cathy and I were married on July 14, 2012.

As Cathy approached retirement, new symptoms arose that led to a different diagnosis. We moved to Dallas this past August with the hopes of maximizing her time with family. Sadly, that reunion was short-lived: Cathy passed away on January 12, 2018. She is preceded in passing by her son Thomas "Tommy" Grinels and is survived by her daughters Janie Oyakawa, Marie "Meg" Fowler, six extraordinary grandchildren, and yours truly.

To say that I am devastated by the loss of Cathy is the understatement of my lifetime. But I endeavor to comfort myself with the fact that she played a positive role in numerous lives, not the least of were those in the fat acceptance community.

Video of the Month

Out of the mouths of babes . . .

. . . often come the most profound truths. These youngsters know the importance of remembering those who came before us and brought us here today.

https://youtube.com/ watch?v=Lzt3gFgYVYk

Quick Links
Health At Every Size and HAES are registered trademarks of the Association for Size Diversity and Health, and are used with permission.
Be Your Own Valentine
by Peggy Howell

Before I retired, one of the toughest things for me on February 14th was watching the flowers and candy being delivered to my coworkers. Since I was rarely in a relationship, that just didn't happen for me. I felt left out, more acutely aware of my singleness and a bit sorry for myself. Some of my single girlfriends seemed to feel the same way so we decided to do something to change this.

We decided to meet before work on Valentine's Day to exchange cards and gifts. Off to work we would go with our arms full of fun to show off to all our coworkers. I'm not saying our competitive spirit wasn't petty, but it was our way of dealing with a situation created by marketing execs to boost sales of flowers, cards and candy without regard for the emotional pain they might be causing.
I'm older (and hopefully wiser) now and understand that self-love is first and foremost in our pursuit of happiness. Being in a relationship is not a measure of an individual's value. If you feel this way, there are things that you can do for yourself to boost your feelings of self-worth. When you love yourself first, you will treat yourself better. You become more lovable and become more capable of loving others.

You may not have a close group of friends to do what I did, and it's really not that healthy to compete with or compare yourself to others like we did, but there are simple, small things you can do to sooth your emotions and feed your soul. Here are some things to keep in mind:

  • Whether or not you have a partner, you have to learn to love yourself.
  • Be kind to yourself. Pamper yourself by doing something special that you love. Make your favorite meal, indulge in a bubble bath, listen to your favorite music or watch your favorite “chick flick”, just do something that brings a smile to your face.
  • Remind yourself of the things about you that are lovable.
  • Be happy with who you are right here, right now, scars and all.
  • Happiness with oneself leads to self-confidence, which is very attractive to others.
  • Express love to the people in your life that you love; call, send a card, an email, or tweet that expresses your love.
  • Be open to receiving love from others; don't brush off that complement; say thank you for the favor, acknowledge the love around you, and be open to receiving it.

One of the greatest gifts we can give this Valentine's Day is to be kind to one another!

Monthly Meme:
#BarbaraJordan #CelebrateDiversity #EqualityAtEverySize
The Famous Flop Over
by Cinder Ernst

The Flop Over stretch is a fun and comfortable way to stretch your back, butt, hamstrings (back of thigh) and calf (back of leg) muscles. You stand in front of your bed, desk or counter, then fold yourself at the waist and let your upper body rest on the surface. Essentially flop over and relax. I recommend this stretch because it soothes and prevents knee, back, hip and foot pain! Lots of bang for your buck.

Peggy H. emailed me with a question: How long should one hold the flop over position and how frequently should it be done? Is there an expected length of time the treatment requires for results? I've been doing it for a couple of weeks and am noticing improvement in my old sciatic nerve injury not flaring up on me, and my knee is feeling better.

My answer: I'm glad you're getting results from the Flop Over. It sounds like the frequency and duration you're doing are working well. How often are you doing them? And how long are you holding?

Peggy: I have been doing the flop over 4-6 times a day, or whenever I walk past my massage table or bed and feel like it. I've actually got three spots (all different heights) where I've tried it: on the kitchen counter while I wait for the microwave to go off (that level is about belly button high), on my bed which has a side board around the mattress at knee level but mattress height is mid-thigh, then my massage table which I have at just above knee height. I believe the massage table gives me the most stretch but the bed is the most comfortable and I followed your instructions to be gentle and not strain or hurt myself. I started with holding about 30 seconds and now am doing 45-60 seconds. I don't know why I chose that time. I just wasn't sure I was holding long enough. I'm seeing positive results but thought I might do better if I was doing it right . . .

Me: You are doing it perfectly right!

Isn't it good to know that Peggy actually had her own answer and you probably do too! I usually have people start with 10 seconds and build from there. It's such a comfortable stretch it's easy to do more often and hold longer. Relax and have fun with it. Let me know how it goes.

 Editor's Note

Do you have a "no diet talk" Facebook page, BBW/BHM (big beautiful women/big handsome men) gathering, email list, or other presence or event that is consistent with NAAFA's vision of Equality at Every Size and that you'd like people to know about? Email us at pr@naafa.org and we will mention it here. (Note: listing in the NAAFA Newsletter does not constitite endorsement.)

NAAFA Chronicles #25

Continuing our NAAFA Chronicles feature, enjoy NAAFA's 25th newsletter, May-June 1976:

https://www.naafaonline.com/newsletterstuff/oldnewsletterstuff/Chronicles/May-Jun_1976.pdf

The "Chronicles" tab in the newsletter section of the NAAFA website has more historic newsletters.

Media and Research Roundup
by Bill and Terri Weitze

October 18, 2017: Researchers found that extended periods of electrical stimulation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were associated with reduced hunger and snack food intake in "obese" study participants.
https://doi.org/10.3945/ajcn.117.158089

January 2018: A study of older adults finds an association with weight loss and a higher mortality risk, and concludes that weight loss prevention and weight stability would be a better public health recommendation for middle-aged and older adults than weight loss promotion.
https://doi.org/10.1038/ijo.2017.188

January 17, 2018: When weights are implanted in a rat's body, there is a decrease in the body weight via reduced food intake, which may be evidence of a secondary regulator of body weight, one dependent on osteocytes in the weight-bearing bones of the body.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/17/well/move/how-our-bones-might-help-keep-our-weight-stable.html
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1715687114

January 22, 2018: Participants in a 12 week online weight loss program immediately began regaining weight at the end of the program in this study. Despite the data, the article goes on to claim that weight loss management can be achieved.
https://consumer.healthday.com/vitamins-and-nutrition-information-27/misc-weight-news-704/you-ve-lost-the-weight-how-soon-before-it-comes-back-730353.html
https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.22083

January 24, 2018: Researchers find that type 2 diabetes patients who were prescribed pioglitazone had a lower risk of cardiovascular and other mortality than patients who never received the drug, despite the fact that weight gain is a common side effect (3rd link).
https://www.healio.com/endocrinology/diabetes/news/in-the-journals/%7B1e59eccb-09f5-4325-9d0f-791510ee81e4%7D/pioglitazone-lowers-cv-all-cause-mortality-risk-in-type-2-diabetes
https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjdrc-2017-000481
https://www.drugs.com/sfx/pioglitazone-side-effects.html

February 2018: The most recent issue of Fat Studies explores what fat reveals about time, and what fat studies offer to how temporality is conceived.
http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/ufts20/7/2?nav=tocList

February 8, 2018: Virgie Tovar lists the signs that your new lifestyle plan is actually a diet, and points out that denying the reality of dieting culture only adds to fatphobia.
https://ravishly.com/lifestyle-actually-diet

February 9, 2018: Weight Watchers plans to offer free six-week memberships to teenagers as young as 13 this summer. Weight Watchers hopes to increase revenue by getting kids "hooked" on dieting, ignoring the resulting lifetime of body issues and possible eating disorders.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/weight-watchers-is-targeting-teens-with-a-new-free-program-thats-a-problem/2018/02/09/ae277826-0d21-11e8-95a5-c396801049ef_story.html

Founded in 1969, NAAFA, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, is a non-profit human rights organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for fat people. NAAFA works to eliminate discrimination based on body size and provide fat people with the tools for self-empowerment through public education, advocacy, and member support.
Comments: pr@naafa.org

Any products or services mentioned in articles in this newsletter are for information only and should not be considered endorsements by NAAFA.
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