This Human of Worth - Brittany Herself

I read a lot of blogs, probably less than other bloggers do, but none the less I have a list of my favourites.  I found Brittany maybe 18 months or so and I not only love the way she writes but also the topics that she choses to write about.  She is a much better blogger than I will ever be.  Her blog Brittany Herself can be found here.

Today I read Brittany's post and was so very touched by it.  Everything she said in it hit a nerve and it was like she was reading my mind.  She has written a blog post that should go viral because of it's importance and because it has the capacity to help others undertsand how overweight people feel.

This topic has always been important to be me because my weight has yo-yo'ed for years.  I have been super thin (though could not see that at the time - numpty), thin, overweight, and obese.  Now I would be categorised as morbidly obese.  I am the biggest I have ever been and I hate myself for it and yet I continue to eat.

Half of the problem is that I seem to be an all or nothing person when it comes to weight loss.  When I lose a lot it is because I have flipped a switch, a switch that determines that I will succeed at weight loss.  The first time I lost a lot of weight was after divorcing my first husband; I went from 14 stone 6 to 9 stone 2 and now I can look at the few photos I have and think that I looked amazing; such a pity I did not see it at the time.  I put that weight back on....and more.

I lost weight again and met my second husband but my weight ballooned again during our marriage; he controlled what he ate and drank and I used to sneak food and hide Coca Cola in the wardrobes as a way of defying him.

I lost weight again during the divorce and met my now husband.  He met me thin, he saw me thinner, he saw me gain weight and eventually I reached 16 stone 8 and I hated myself.  Hubby told me every day he loved me (and he still does) but I couldn't see why.  I flipped that switch and dropped 79 lbs and I felt amazing!  I knew I would look great for our wedding.  Yet by the time our wedding arrived i weighed near to 13 stone.  Now you can add over 5 stone on top of that; I hate myself and yet I still eat.

So yes, Brittany's post is important.  Because people only see the exterior and yet they form their opinion of that person on that exterior and they comment to others and make jokes and they do not see that an overweight person may well already hate themselves.  More jokes and comments hurt more and so we eat more and so the everlasting circle continues.

I urge any one reading this blog - please visit Brittany Herself!  I commented because I felt compelled to; in the hope that one person who has formed opinions on an overweight person without getting to know them should at least be able to read how it makes people feel.

Random facts of the day

Good morning Peeps.  More facts of the day to follow.  I sit here at the computer and see the buds and new leaves on my bushes in the garden and I am heartened.  Warmer weather, dryer weather all means that the fluff bags can go on walks with me without needing a bath every time we get back home.

Facts of the day this week are:

• A comet's tail always points away from the sun
• The Swine Flu vaccine is 1976 caused more death and illness than the disease it was intended to prevent
• Caffeine increases the power of aspirin and other painkillers, that is why it is found in some medicines
• The military salute is a motion that evolved from medieval times, when knights in armour raised their visors to reveal their identity
• If you get into the bottom of a well or a tall chimney and look up you can see stars, even in the middle of the day
• When a person dies, hearing is the last sense to go.  The first sense lost is sight.
• In ancient times strangers shook hands to show they were unarmed
• Strawberries are the only fruits where seeds grow on the outside
• Avocados have the highest calories of any fruit at 167 calories per hundred grams
• The moon moves about 2 inches away from the Earth every year
• The Earth gets 100 tons heavier every day due to falling space dust
• Due to Earth's gravity it is impossible for mountains to be higher than 15,000 meters
• Mickey Mouse is known as 'Topolino' in Italy
• Soldiers do not march in step when going across bridges becuase they could set up a vibration which could be sufficient to knock the bridge down
• Everything weighs 1% less at the equator
• For every extra kilogram carried on a space flight, 530kg of excess fuel is needed at lift-off
• The letter J does not appear anywhere on the periodic table of the elements

Honestly, I am not convinced about the soldiers marching over a bridge fact and I am confused by the equator fact but to be fair that doesn't take much!

Happy Monday everyone.

Random facts for today

If you read last weeks facts you will know they were on the more gruesome side but this week I have found some more light-heated ones for us:

• Glass takes 1million years to decompose, which means it never wears out and can be recycled an infinite amount of times 
• Gold is the only metal that doesn't rust, even if it is buried in the ground for thousands of years
• Your tongue is the only muscle in your body that is attached at only one end
• If you stop getting thirsty you need to drink more water.  When a human is dehydrated its thirst mechanism shuts off
• Zero is the only number that cannot be represented by Roman numerals
• Kites were used in the American Civil War to deliver letters and newspapers
• The song, Auld Lang Syne, is sung at the stroke of midnight in almost every English speaking country in the world to bring in the new year.
• Drinking water after eating reduces the acid in your mouth by 61%
• Peanut oil is used for cooking in submarines because it doesn't smoke unless it is heated above 450F
• The roar that we hear when we place a seashell next to our ear is not the ocean (surprisingly...duh) but rather the sound of blood surging through the veins in the ear
• Nine out of every ten living things lives in the ocean
• The banana cannot reproduce itself.  It can be propaged only by the hand of man (go on admit it you had a visual too)
• Airports at higher altitude require a longer airstrip due to lower air density
• The State of Alaska spands four time zones
• The tooth is the only part of the human body that cannot heal itself
• In Ancient Greece tossing an apple to a girl was a traditional proposal of marriage.  Catching it meant she accepted. (and I thought Gypsy courting rituals were strange)
• Warner Communications paid $28m for the copyright to the song Happy Birthday
• Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair

 So there you have it, interesting facts.....but some sound like fiction

Random facts of the day

As you know last week I shared some random facts from my daily calendar.  Here are this weeks selection:

• Though treatable today through medical advancements, impotence has been considered grounds for divorce in many different cultures for centuries
• Herman Mudgett, also known as Dr Henry Howard Holmes, was America's first serial killer.  He built a massive mansion in Chicago complete with trap doors, secret passageways, hidden staircases, fake walls, and rooms lined with asbestos that could be turned into gas chambers.  When caught in 1894 he confessed to 27 murders but researchers believed there could be more.
• In the US at least 7 fatalities and numerous severe injuries have been reported among bungee jumpers using a hot air balloon as a platform.  In 2 instances, no-one noticed the balloon lost altitute making the jump cord too long and the jumpers hit the ground.
• If you urinate when swimming in a South American river you might encouter the candiru, a tiny fish that will follow the stream of urine to its source, enter the body and flare its barbed fins requiring surgical removal.
• Bottled drinking water has been marketed as clearner and more pure than tap water but, in a recent study, a 1/3 of bottled water showed significant chemical or bacterial contamination.
• A 998 storm pelted Quebec in Canada with freezing rain and enveloped the city in a layer of cement-like ice, causing 30 deaths and weeks of electric power outages for millions of Canadians.

After reading these facts which, as you can see, are not light-hearted facts I have already decided to return to a funny daily calendar next year.

Spare a thought for New York and America today

Okay, it's rare I post twice a day...lets face it, rare I post regularly let alone daily but today I feel I have to put my feelings in writing.

I don't watch much news; all the bad news drives me mad and makes me sad about the state of the world.  So when Hubby showed me the footage of New York last night I sat in stunned silence.  Stunned silence thinking about the millions that would be affected and stunned silence at those that insisted on staying in their homes.  Stunned silence at those that insisted on staying in their home and then filming the ever rising water right outside their water side homes.

I couldn't help but wonder how those affected would fare; would their insurance cover the damage; how would they keep their families safe and how scared these must be as the weather worsened.

This morning Hubby and I sat safe in our beds watching the news as pictures of the devastation came in; of New York streets being underwater, of facades on buildings having been ripped away from peoples home (and thanking someone that they were safe), of a crane being bent completely in half.  The photos are still dark so I am sure there will be much more devastation yet to be assessed.

I watched in amazement at the differing weather conditions across America, at the snow that is piled up to 60 inches high in some areas.  One cannot help but be amazed at the power and the sheer size of the storm and one cannot help but feel for everyone involved and the repurcussions for America.

Which is why I was disgusted when people were tweeting Sky News this morning in disgust that the release of Assassins Creed 3 will be delayed as a result of the devastation to New York.  Really!  Really!?!  What about the 13 people who are known to have died in this storm and the many injured?  What about the financial repurcussions for New York, other areas, USA and above all the citizens of America.  

I am disgusted that people can be so selfish and a big part of me was sad that those thoughts are indications of what some of the world is coming to.

My heart goes out to all Americans today, for the devastation they face, the financial worries both personally and as a country and for the fear they must be facing.  I know that if nothing else Americans will band together to recover as they did after 9/11.