Embrace the Chub!

Ah, sweet vindication...

I was delighted to read the front page article in the Bend Bulletin today titled "Health Nuts Give Chubby Another Look" while I was eating my Kashi GoLean crunchy Fiber Twigs cereal.

Apparently, being up to 25 pounds over weight isn't so bad for you after all. The writer, Gina Kolata of the New York Times, is my new best friend, I think.

She says "Chubby, it turns out, may be the new healthy. Is it the new beautiful, too?"

Yes, Gina, yes, yes, yes!

I named this blog The Chubby Mommy Running Club on purpose. In my own way, I'm embracing my softie self, and pointing out the reality of many 42 year old American moms. I'm not advocating obesity, and I'm not putting down thinness.

I'm saying I'm chubby, and I'm healthy, and it's okay.

Here are some quotes I found through links at Wired Magazine's Blog (http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/11/chubby-could-be.html?cid=89518476#comment-89518476 ) on this subject.

I think Wired is super cool, hip, and happenin' and of course I just pull out the quotes that I like, and which support my view. Duh, that goes without saying, right?

http://www.physorg.com/news113592452.html

...having a little extra weight actually seemed to help people survive some illnesses - results that baffled several leading health researchers.

"This is a very puzzling disconnect," said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital. "That is a conundrum."

Being merely overweight - having a BMI between 25 and 30 - did not increase the risk of dying from heart disease or any kind of cancer.

University of South Carolina obesity researcher Steven Blair, who says people can be fat and fit, is a believer. He called the report a careful and plausible analysis...

I think JoAnn Manson of Harvard needs to stop worrying about the puzzling disconnect conundrum, and I think Steven Blair is my other new best friend.

Here's the truth: some of my best friends are thin. It's not their fault, and I'm not mad at them.

In fact, I married a tall, skinny man. He's 6'6 and weighs 175 pounds. He can't really help it, he was born that way. Well, that's not true, actually. He was 23" long and weighed 7.5 pounds when he was born. He got taller and heavier as he got older.

I think I was born with the chubby gene. I've seen pictures of myself when I was five. I was chubby.

No one gives my husband diet tips, though. When he goes out for beer with his friends, they don't discuss eating and exercising strategies, and lament on how they want to lose at least 5 pounds before their birthday. They just accept him for who he is.

I wish my chubby girlfriends and I could accept ourselves. I wish America could. I wish, I wish...


I'm not advocating unhealthy lifestyle and obesity. I'm saying chub is not a dirty word. Unless your a Jr. high school boy who just discovered the phrase that means...well, you know what it means. And that's not really dirty, that's just nature.

Nature vs. Nurture? You be the judge, but if you're a bit pudgy, embrace the chub, and spread the word!