Ban the F Site

You may start to notice a few changes here. For the past few years that I’ve been trying to turn Positively Healthy in to… something… I’ve also had another site geared specifically to my experiences as a gastric bypass patient and my efforts in obesity advocacy and fighting weight bias. While there are many reasons I was keeping them separated, I’ve decided to essentially carry forward under the banner of Positively Healthy.

While in some ways, yes, the decision is very much a statement of moving away from the use of the word “fat” in the title of the other site… but it’s also a shift in my own thinking that has taken place over the last few years. It’s not as simple as looking at weight… it’s about overall health, and while weight is very much a contributing factor it does go far beyond that. And those are the things I hope to continue to address through this site.

I hope you’ll continue to join me and continuing to educate, support, inspire and most importantly - live a Positively Healthy life.

Here’s what I posted over on FFD…

Six years, two months, ten days. That’s how long ago I posted my first posting on this site. And today marks what may be the last, and honestly, it’s something that’s been a long time coming.

 

If you read my post from earlier this month, you’ll know I’ve been having a bit of internal debate for awhile now about the use of the word “fat” in the title of this site. Honestly, when I was looking for a domain to use to move my bariatric surgery postings off of my original, personal site and to something more dedicated… I knew nothing about bias, stigma, advocacy. Well, not that I knew nothing of them, but I never really gave them much thought.

Over the last few years, as I’ve learned more, met others, and become more and more involved with the Obesity Action Coalition, I’ve come to wonder if I wasn’t continuing to be a part of the problem.

Let me back up a moment and reiterate, there are lots of use of the f-word that are fine. And the purpose of this site, even if I wasn’t fully aware of it at the time, are as much about it’s relationship with the word Former as it is with the word Dude. And the declaration, even if one is still physically classified as overweight or obese, is as much a statement of a change in mental attitude as any physical changes. But even with all that being said, far too many continue to associate the use of the word in a negative manner. Be it the person who is a target of that word, or those who would dare to try and use it against another person.

I’ve received feedback that they would rather “take back” the word, to use it as a means of empowerment. And while I’m all for that, as long as that continues to be the exception and not the rule, I can’t help but feel that my continued use of it only serves to further prop up or otherwise somehow continue to support the negative association in the use of the word. So rather than do so, I’ve decided to err on the side of support and advocacy, and discontinue the use of it as part of my personal sounding board.

Like I said, it’s an internal debate I’ve had more than once over the last few years, but I guess the current Ban The F Word campaign by the OAC had taken it off my back-burner, and put it back at the front of my thoughts again.

Now, it’s not like this site is just going to disappear. There’s over six years of material here, some if it actually pretty useful. Some of it.. eh. And I’m not disappearing or anything. If anything, I hope to be more visible. Ever since I started my exploration of the realm of health coaching, I’ve had the site Positively Healthy, and when I was looking at trying to build a career in that area, I felt it was best to keep these two worlds in separate orbits. But since my career path has gone in a different direction, I feel that maybe that’s the best place for me to try and continue to do the things I’ve been doing. Sharing support, education, and inspiration - and of course my advocacy efforts will continue to be a part of that. And really, the message of Positively Health does speak to so much more of what I hope to be, hope to share, hope to do.

I may, at some point, look at migrating some of the content here over to there. If I do, it will be a slow process, doing so it not a high priority. But maybe this lack of feeling I need to keep things separate will allow me to actually get back to some of the things I enjoy most about blogging. One can hope I suppose.

So yea, thank you. Thank you to those who have been coming to this site to see what I have to share. I hope you will continue to at Positively Healthy, both the site and on Facebook. And of course I’m still just me over on Twitter.