Week 3: The Price Of Fat

Being Good

After last weeks issue with the swimming pool and Gym, I chose to only go once this week. I will be looking for a new place to go, because it really annoyed me. When I did go, I did the normal trick of 50 widths (4 breast/1 crawl) and 30 mins on the cycle that doesn't work (2 mins fast rate, 30 secs going like the clappers). I also went on the stepper for 10 minutes (OMG). Other than that, not to good I'm afraid.

Now I say chose to go only once. The choice was sorta forced on me because for some reason this time I felt like someone had taken my knees and replaced them with wooden ones. And not only that, but because I wasn't very good at using my new wooden legs I constantly felt like I would fall face first and have my knee buckle backwards under me.

Being Bad

I have done really well this week. I have avoided chocolate completely, and sandwiches.  I only had food after 11pm once, and on that occasion I had cereal. With no sugar. How good is that!!!

Unfortunately, it has made absolutely no difference to my weight, or my body shape. My clothes are exactly the same on me as they were last week. I am extremely disappointed.

The Price Of Fat

I have so much to say on this that my tongue (or fingers) is tripping over itself. I have actually had to cut down my comments for fear that this would turn into my first book. The rest I shall save for another day, but for now, Why is it that a clothes design is one price when served to skinny sticks that spend half their time throwing up their soup in the bathroom, and a completely different price to a fat person.

I appreciate there may be a little more material, but in my experience we are talking two or three times the amount. As if it's not hard enough to find a high street store that stocks plus sizes as it is, when you do find one you end up having to get a mortgage to afford them.

Now, I am a guy, and so only have a certain amount of this abuse, but I have been out with many plus size women, and each and every one has had to suffer the indignation of being told by some tarty-dressed, stuck-up sales assistant with a serious coat hanger up her arse, that their shop doesn't do that size. They have looked my partners up and down with the kind of disgust that a preening toucan would look at a nightingale. For one, what the hell is their problem.

Do they think they are better just because they are thinner? Seriously? I have known many women and in my humble experience, thinner women are not better. There have been some very polite, very charming thin women I have known, but I have known a lot more chubby women with those characteristics. As far as I am concerned, these women are the worst of the worst. They make you feel bad just by being around them. Why would anyone want that in their life? Why would anyone want to be friends with them, knowing they will just feel dirty and spoiled afterwards?

Even if you do find the right store, that sells plus sizes, and even if you get a sales assistant that doesn't treat you like you are diseased and they are there for your personal assistance,

"Weeeell, you need a bit if help, don't you, you need someone to tell you what doesn't work on you don't you"

when you finally get to the cash desk you realise that the belt you picked out costs £40 alone.

As I have said, I am a guy and have rarely experienced this, until recently when I happened to go into a "Big and Tall" store. I swear the place is designed to kill off fatties like myself once and for all, because when I saw that just one Hawaiian shirt would have cost me £120, I nearly had a heart attack. I have an idea they have a trapdoor and a dungeon for all the bodies like Sweeney Todd.



"Is that another one Gone, Frank?"

"Yes, he said he wanted to buy a tie!"

There is seriously is no need for it . We all need clothes, and they don't have to cost the earth. And for God's sake. Look, in case I havent said it enough, I am a GUY and generally we aren't so worried about our clothes as women are. Also guys tend to have a specific kind of wardrobe, we all wear suits for funerals, weddings etc, so if there's an event, like a job interview, we get the suit out, but women don't have that simplicity. They like colours and styles and dresses and pants and blouses and tops, and jackets and shoes and loads of stuff. They like clothes.

I am not saying that's a bad thing. Women in clothes is good I say, I support the idea. I admit my personal preference is women spilling out of clothes, but that's just me, and somehow they need to stay warm. Now, just because I don't engage in the rigmarole of changing "outfits" every two hours, doesn't mean I don't appreciate it when they do. If however, the only thing you can find to wear is a tent, because no store supplies any style choice. then they will get frustrated rightly so. And then as a rule they will take it out on me, (which would be a little unfair as for one I agree with them whole-heartedly, and for two there are an awful lot of them)

Why does it seem impossible to have any variation on style. Why do designers think that all trousers should second up as a flag! It's all very well saying, yes but this skirt is in green, but it's still a skirt, just like every other knee-length skirt in the damned shop!

And then when she finally does go to the counter to purchase yet another elasticized neck blouse, it turns out the garment is on special offer and today will only cost me £85 !!!

Clothes should be cheaper, they should have more variation and they should be staffed by shop assistants who are a little more humble. Women don't expect the earth, but they do hope to gain a little respect, a little confidence and a little excitement when they go shopping. And it appears to me that the only women who are continually overlooked in this are fat women. It's wrong in so many ways.

There is an alternative, we could all go online. Now I like buying online. I enjoy it, because it suits my sense of fairness. When there is a store doing something that I consider unethical, I simply don't buy from them, there are always plenty to choose from, which makes life easier. It may well be that they are all one and the same, but until they are specifically pointed out to me, then I can be pleased.

The one thing that really gets my goat more than anything else, though is the way a plus size specialist models their clothes with a skinny person.Why would you do that. Here I am, about to invest my money to someone I have never met before, to buy an item that may be totally the wrong style, fit or colour for me, and you present me with the items on a guy that looks like Brad Pitt. How will I know how that looks on me? Clearly Brad looks great, BUT I AIN'T BRAD. It is my first and foremost rule, if they don't have pictures of a plus size model modelling the clothes I will not buy from them. I am trying to encourage my fiancée to do the same, but I feel it will take a while. She keeps saying to me, thats a good store, but it doesn't have the clothe I want.

This is the beaultiful Chloe Marshall. Miss Surray 2008. Eventually I will write about her, but heres a quick link to another blogger.

http://www.thicksational.com/category/pageants/