whoa, whoa, HANG ON

[fox]

okay, so, this story, blah blah blah, kids are overweight and unhealthy, not really news.

two things, though:

During a Wednesday after-school session at Matsunaga, [physical education teacher Cindy] Lins [who is preparing 200 kids for some event in Rockville] cheered every student who rounded the edge of the schoolyard to complete a lap.

"I know you're going to be running in college, I just know it," she told one student.

"How in the world can you be pooped? I don't understand that," she teased when another girl jogged by slowly.

*sound of buzzer*  maybe the reporter is just not so good at communicating the tone, but speaking as someone who used to be that kid?  no, the gym teacher shouldn't tease a student who's worn out from running.  "i don't understand how you can be tired" means "something must be wrong with you."  way to go, cindy.

At Forestville Elementary School in Great Falls, third-grade teacher Anne Collins developed her own wellness policy last year after she got engaged and decided to lose weight.

She began walking each day at recess and invited students to join her.  After stepping up her workout routine outside school as well, she has gone from a size 18 to a size 4.

*boggle*  from 18 to 4 in one year?!  i hope that's a typo and she's gone from 18 to 14, because am i crazy, or is that just like among the least healthy things i've ever heard?

Comments

[batagur.livejournal.com]

Size 18 to a size 4 is anorexia. O_o

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

well, let's not leap to conclusions.

it could be bulimia. :-/

seriously, though -- thinking about it more, i don't know how it can really be a typo where it should have been 14. i'm about a 16, and i feel like if i really turned things around, walked every day and started working out a lot, i'd be annoyed to only drop to a 12 after a solid year. but, down to a size 4? jesus. (i mean, i happen to think my frame is bigger than a size 4, and if i were starving to death and you could count my ribs i'd probably be in nothing smaller than a 6. but that's kind of beside the point. suppose size 4 is an appropriate size for this woman's bone structure, etc. -- what the hell was she doing up at size 18?!!?)

trying to work out how to phrase a letter to the editor that doesn't sound like i'm calling this third-grade teacher a package of eating disorders.

[misia.livejournal.com]

"Dear Editor,

Surely you are well aware of the substantial health risks associated with overly-rapid, overly-large weight loss, risks ranging from those as mild as temporary hair loss to those as severe as sudden acute cholecystitis requiring surgery or even death due to heart attacks caused by electrolyte imbalance. In your article, "Blahtitle" published on "Blahdate," your reporter [$name] documents [$person] as going from a size 18 to a size 4 in the span of a year. This represents a substantial and quite rapid weight loss of the sort that can in some cases trigger serious and lasting health consequences.

Given the current mania for weight loss and the tendency of younger women and girls particularly to resort to crash dieting and other attempts to lose large amounts of weight as rapidly as possible, it strikes me that an uncritical depiction of someone who has done just this is not in the public interest and may in fact be seen to endorse or promote a medically unsound practice. In the interest of promoting public health and representing modes of weight management that do not run a medically significant risk of harming your readership should readers choose to emulate the individuals whose weight-loss efforts you profile, I encourage you to consider, adopting a more fully contextualized and critical-thinking policy in regard to discussions of matters affecting the public health.

Love,
Darthfox

There you go. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Is the name of the teacher supposed to be a joke, or a coincidence, or...?

Google the name Anne Collins, and see what the first page they give you is.

You should just write to the author and ask if that was a mistake. Though once I wrote to an author of a piece on an alternative school that was being praised in the article, about a part where she wrote that students gathered together to decide if a particular couple who were exhibiting too much PDA ought to be whipped (and if the other students had the right to whip them). I was HOPING that was a typo, but the author told me that it was not, and did not seem to understand why I thought that was horrible, not "cool."

[fafou.livejournal.com]

In terms of weightloss it's not unhealthy to lose up to 2 lbs a week. Which would mean up to 104 lbs a year. I don't know what that translates into sizes, but that's a pretty substantial weight loss in a year, but not unhealthy.

In fact that's the measure of a "good" diet versus something that might kill you.

You usually don't see these types of weightloss without the help of various professionals (like a trainer, nutritionist and other health professionals) because keeping up that pace is hard. Especially during the holidays, but if someone is highly motivated for a specific event (like a wedding) then you'll see more success.

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

yeah, that's similar to what I was going to say--it's hard to keep UP a 2 lb/week weight loss (1 lb/week more likely/better, probably) but 50-100 pounds over a year is not crazy. Dunno that she'll be able to KEEP it off, but...

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

i could be mis-remembering (or telling tales out of school), but i'm pretty sure when darthrami was doing the best with her weight-loss efforts (or, at any rate, losing the most weight), she lost about 50 pounds (maybe a little less) and went from about a size 18 to about a size 12. possibly only 16 to 12. (i've gone shopping with her at both sizes, which is how i'm pretty sure that's right.) and the most size is lost at the beginning of the time losing weight, right, so the next 50 pounds would not have taken her down from 12 to 6 (or 8, even). i'm just sayin'. 18 to 4 is a lot. it's the difference between me and my sister-in-law. i'm not sure it can happen at all, still less a) safely b) in a year.

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree, it's a LOT, and it's pretty crazy. And she'll probably gain at least a chunk of it back.

OTOH...if I lost ~35 pounds, I'd be from a 14 to a 6 (I don't think I could EVER be a 4, but at the end of freshman year I weighed ~30 less than now, and was an 8, but I still wasn't in great shape, and muscle weighs more blahb lah blah).

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

you are not a size 14 now. shut up.

(are you really? you know, K is up to 16 now, but of course it looks totally different on her than it does on me because she's nine feet tall. or, okay, 5'10", but still, she's a different kind of 16 than i am. but even so, one time when we got together after a long time, L leaned over and said to me, "is it just me, or is there more of K than there used to be?") (and, you know, in college, or at least sophomore year, L was wearing size 14, but she totally should have gone up, because unless i'm very much mistaken, she's never been smaller than me.)

(this concludes the trip down college lane. [g])

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

hee. Am v. amused by trip down college lane.

Most of my clothes are still 12, but I'm only wearing the ones that are cut big. And more and more are 14. But damnit, as soon as the work craziness is over soon, I'm going on a diet/exercise plan....

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

(also, part of it is shape--L was always more shaped like darthrami, whereas I'm very pear-shaped, and don't so much wear a 14 on the top! It gives a different impression)

[darthhellokitty.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, is she channeling Christian Bale?

[merrycontrary.livejournal.com]

I have been a size 4 and a size 18. In fact, I've been a size 22. Yes, what the hell was I doing at that size.

The point is, there was about 80 pounds between 4 and 18. 7lbs a month, not anorexic, or bulimic. What it is, in my experience, is making losing weight the primary focus of your life. Which is a crappy way to live, but not life threatening.