May 2011 News, updates, &
pronouncements from Pat Ballard,
the Queen of Rubenesque Romances
Nobody can make you feel inferior
without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt
Something to think
about....
Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming
cranks. Henri Bergson
I've recently been experiencing a situation that
reminds me of a joke I heard a long, long time ago. As the joke goes: One
night, while a drunk was out driving his car, he ran into a truck. The
truck driver insisted that the drunk pull over into a parking lot and get
out of the car.
The truck driver took a piece of chalk and drew a circle on the pavement.
He told the drunk to stand in the middle of the circle and not get out of
it. Furious, the trucker went over to the drunk's car and slashed the
tires. The drunk started laughing.
This made the trucker angrier, so he smashed the windshield.
This time the drunk laughed even harder.
Livid, the trucker broke out all of the windows of the drunk's car.
The drunk is now laughing hysterically, so the truck driver finally asks
the drunk what’s so funny.
The drunk replies, “When you weren’t looking, I stepped out of the circle
three times!
My husband, Joe, like many men (and some women) has to be in
control of the remote control to the television, or the world as he knows
it will come to an end. Usually I'm okay with this, but he has a really
annoying habit of just getting up from watching TV and wandering into the
kitchen while leaving the remote on the arm of his recliner. Again, I'm
usually okay with this if he's coming right back. But on a fairly regular
basis he'll think of something he wants to do somewhere else in the house,
and might take 5, 10 or 15 minutes to get back to the living room.
In the meantime I'm sitting in my recliner, waiting for him to come back.
The TV may or may not be muted, but at any rate, if I want to mute or
unmute it I have to get up and go get the remote. Now that may not sound
like a big deal, but it really annoys me. I mean, really annoys me,
because I think it's inconsiderate. We've had several lively discussions
about this, but he just can't seem to remember that this annoys me.
Recently he did his "absentminded professor thing," and I remembered the
old remote control that we had to replace because some of the buttons were
sticking and anything except instant gratification from his buttons
annoys Joe. So I got the old remote and, sure enough, it still worked
on the TV. YES!
For me, this has totally turned my state of being annoyed around.
Because now I know that when he leaves the room I can mute or unmute the
TV, and when he comes back, he never notices that it's not like it was
when he left. And just for pure delight (insert "deviousness" here), I'll
even change the channel sometimes, and he never notices that it's not on
the channel he left it on. He'll just sit down and start watching whatever
is on until he gets ready to go to another channel.. But I do make sure
it's on a channel that he likes to watch.
I've gone from being annoyed to having to hold a magazine in front
of my face as if I'm reading, so he can't see me laughing. I've even had
to leave the room on several occasions because I knew I was going to get
the giggles and give my "little secret" away.
So now when he leaves the room, I'm at total peace with the fact that I
can do whatever I need to do to the TV. And like the drunk, I'm laughing
my butt off, and my trucker doesn't know why, either.
Hi everyone!
I hope everyone
has had a good start to May, and that all the mothers had a good
Mother's Day. I requested a new bookshelf for Mother's Day and
Joe built me one. I would have been content with an inexpensive
store-bought one, but he chose to build one, and I'm totally
happy with it.
Ten-year-old grandson Shaun, who seems to be an
outstanding little baseball player, pitched a no-hitter game the
other night. Son Eric said it was a perfect game, in that
there were no foul balls or walking balls. No balls were hit.
Granddaughter Kayla has a chorus performance tonight that
I plan to go to, and a dance recital on Saturday that Joe and I
will attend.
Now available in PDF, Mobipocket & Kindle ebook
format as well as original trade paperback!
As a young woman Pat Ballard almost died trying to starve her body into a
societally approved size. In 10 Steps to Loving Your Body (No Matter
What Size You Are) she shares the steps she created―and took―to
heal the damage of years of dieting. Join her in celebrating size
diversity, self esteem, positive body image, and health at every size.
Your body is a unique work of art.
There never has been, nor will there ever be,
another body just like yours.
Learn to love it and it will love you back.
More info at the Pearlsong Press website.
(All copies of 10 Steps
purchased from the Pearlsong Press website are autographed by Pat.)
It seems that our lives are driven by one force these days. Our BMI (Body
Mass Index). Our doctors judge us by it. Our children are judged by it in
school. Every where we turn, we're coming face to face with something
pertaining to our BMI, and we're considered "less than" if our BMI isn't
"right."
Below is a wonderful article on the Body Mass Index craze by Keith
Devlin.
Top 10 Reasons why the BMI is Bogus.
1. The person who dreamed up the BMI said explicitly that it
could not and should not be used to indicate the level of fatness in an
individual.
The BMI was introduced in the early 19th century by a
Belgian named Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quetelet. He was a
mathematician, not a physician. He produced the formula to give a quick
and easy way to measure the degree of obesity of the general population to
assist the government in allocating resources. In other words, it is a
200-year-old hack.
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.
3. It is physiologically wrong.
It makes no allowance for the relative proportions of
bone, muscle and fat in the body. But bone is denser than muscle and twice
as dense as fat, so a person with strong bones, good muscle tone and low
fat will have a high BMI. Thus, athletes and fit, health-conscious movie
stars who work out a lot tend to find themselves classified as overweight
or even obese.
Editor's Note:
Post a review of one of Pat's books
at an online bookstore, magazine, or public website,
email us at proclamation @ pearlsong.com to let us know, and we'll
consider your review for inclusion in The QP.
The following note was sent to Pat via email from Beverly Bishop:
Thank you so much for saving my sanity, I have your list of Ten Steps
to Loving Your Body in my cube at work and in a frame hanging over my
dresser!
Finally someone who has made me realize I am awesome the way I am. A
weight has been lifted off of my shoulders and I have never felt better
about myself!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!
Listen to the mp3 recording of Pat, her fearless publisher, and
several other Pearlsong Press authors in a Pearlsong
Conversationabout
creating fat friendly fiction and fat
positive characters.
Listen to a Feb. 11, 2009 Conversation with Pat Ballard
(blog post with link to 50-min mp3 recording of Pat talking about her
journey to
self- and body-acceptance and -love, her writing process,
and why a truly Happy Valentine's Day and satisfying sex life
starts with loving
your body,
no matter what it looks like.
Calendar of Events
Now available from Pearlsong Press—Pat's
newest book, the nonfictionSomething to Think About: Reflections on
Life, Family, Body Image, & Other Weighty Matters by the Queen of
Rubenesque Romances. It's a
FREE PDF ebook that can be downloaded at
http://www.pearlsong.com/somethingtothinkabout.htm or via the link at
the beginning of this newsletter.
Pat is now co-hosting Radio Free Nashville's
Health At Every Size show, which airs every Monday morning.
The show is streamed live
over the Internet 10-11 a.m. CST Mondays. You can
also subscribe to the podcast of the show. Go to
http://www.healthateverysize.info for more info, including archived
recordings, or to subscribe.
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Something
To Think About: Reflections on Life, Family, Body Image &
Other Weighty Matters by the Queen of Rubenesque Romances
