A couple of AWESOME links

I was reading Already Pretty (which is in itself a pretty darn good blog, even if you aren't all that into fashion), and must pass along some of the awesome links in today's post.

The power of saying "no" to all the voices that tell you to conform, especially with regards to body acceptance.

"It’s not simply a matter of fat people having a rough time of it, even though they do, and even though it is wrong that fat people are often harassed, humiliated, and ostracized, and that this ill treatment is socially encouraged. Our cultural expectations of normative bodies, and our stringent beauty standards, and our compulsory and universalizing ideas about health—these forces hurt everyone, no matter their size, no matter if they are slender, or average, or very very fat." (emphasis mine). from Two Whole Cakes

Another blogger (who happens to also be a librarian) writes about how she has come to love her thighs, even though they don't fit the "norm." Yes! As someone with rugby player thighs (she calls hers peasant thighs) who is learning to love them for all they allow me to do, I love hearing someone else say the things I have been thinking.

As I said earlier this week, the journey never ends, and it is so good to read other people going through the same things I am.

I knew it!

I knew it! Body Mass Index (BMI) is bad science, bad statistics, and a completely unreliable way to "diagnose" obesity. Now I have actual arguments, thanks to NPR and math guy Keith Devlin.
My favorite point in his list of 10:

2. It is scientifically nonsensical.
There is no physiological reason to square a person's height (Quetelet had to square the height to get a formula that matched the overall data. If you can't fix the data, rig the formula!). Moreover, it ignores waist size, which is a clear indicator of obesity level.

Ha! I knew that formula seemed strange. And it doesn't work for people who are fit and athletic, especially not those who do any sort of weight training. If you calculate my BMI, for example, I am overweight, almost obese. If you take my body fat measurements with  calipers, I have a low body fat percentage for a woman, almost that of an actual athlete.

Apart from insurance companies who use BMI to charge healthy people more money, measurements like the BMI are tools used by lazy women's magazines and diet companies to shame women and their bodies, instead of teaching them how to love their bodies - as they are at that very moment - eat healthy meals, how to get exercise and learn to love it. And in my (not so) humble opinion, the world would be a much better place without such bogus, demeaning, and harmful pseudo-science.