The War On Fat - Page 13

i have never encountered a nurse with a militant anti-fat view. however, maybe if we adopt this view on obesity there will be less obese patients. i am an rn who is 86 lbs overweight and i just lost 15 lbs over the past month or so because i'm tired of being unhealthy and i don't like the negative message its sending to my patients. how can we expect our patients to take us seriously when we look like the exact thing we are preaching against. i am happy that you love yourself and your body but you need to be honest with yourself. fact: obesity is unhealthy! fact: obesity increases your risk for disease! this is what we should be preaching to our patients. some nurses may have a more abrasive approach when discussing obesity. maybe that's what we need to hear. the truth! the way i see it, obese people (including myself) needs to stop whining when someone hurts our feeling about being fat and get off of our a$$es and lose weight.

When did it become part of the job description of a nurse that you must be an example to your patients? Like we don't have enough to stress ourselves out with already? Certainly, people notice if you are overweight while you explain all about healthy eating, etc., and someone may then think you are a hypocrit but to believe a person of average intelligence would forego the chance to live a longer, healthier life because the nurse is "fat" is not plausible and would be so flimsy a reason they probably don't have the motivation to stick with it anyway.

If both patients and the healthcare community find it acceptable to consider aspects of their appearance as a credible way to evaluate the nurse as a whole, we'll have a lot of people on chemo, high-dose steroids, certain psych drugs etc unfairly devalued when they really have enough on their plate trying to get/stay healthy and/or alive.

What about educating people about the risk factors of being at an unhealthy weight, teaching them ways to eat healthy that won't hit them in the pocketbook, guiding them on ways to exercise without spending time in the gym. Gym memberships are expensive and that's not an excuse but a fact. If I didn't get a discount at my gym, there's no way I would even be a member there. Having money for gas to get to work vs. spending three weeks worth of pay? I'd choose to pay for gas every time.

Really? Where were you planning on going to the gym? 3 weeks worth of pay? What? Are the treadmills laden in gold?

$45 (total) a month for both my wife and I. Over the past decade, living in multiple states, only those ritzy 'spa'-gym places cost over $50 a month. You don't need a gym membership to lose weight either, there are tons of things to do indoors, or outdoors, weather dependent.

I pay $73 a month for the YMCA. No diamond hand weights or supermodel trainers, but it does have a great kids program and some fun features!
I think a lot of people have a hard time getting motivated to work out at home and having a gym membership helps with that. Now that I have 3 little ones, I find it hard to get motivated to leave the house period, so I do much better at home with my own body weight, a pair of $10 hand weights, and a $10 Jillian Michael's DVD.