This is a new one for me! I read that the Bradford City football mascot was sacked after losing 7st; his bosses told him that his streamlined figure “no longer matched the original concept” of the mascot ‘City Gent’.
The accompanying photo is of a pie-eating man wearing a bowler hat and carrying an umbrella…not really resemblant of the city gent types that I have ever seen! 
After being diagnosed with diabetes the mascot decided to change his lifestyle and lost his excess weight. The club offered him a sumo suit to wear…but this kind of misses the point in my eyes. As a football club, who would ensure the health and fitness of their players, it seems a little strange to promote the image of a fat mascot. I know it is just a mascot, but I am not sure that I would be pleased if I shed my excess weight and my other half whipped out a sumo suit for me to put on! You would expect to be given a pat on the back, not a load of padding to strap on your back!
The strange thing for me was that this chap lost his weight six years ago…perhaps all is not as it seems! According to the article, Club director Roger Owens said the issue of club mascots had been discussed during a board meeting and it had agreed “action needed to be taken”. He said: “In the case of The City Gent, the main issue was his physical appearance, which was much changed from the original concept of the then-chairman, the late Stafford Heginbotham, who styled the City Gent on himself. It also seems that they have decided not to replace the ‘City Gent’…just a case of redundancy…why was size pointed out?
If club mascots are the subject of board meetings, I fear for the future of football…not that I care much…the game irritates me. It is a business, not a passion now. But that is another blog post; I don’t know enough about football to comment hugely on this, it just made me wonder what the world is coming to when someone loses their job because they have become healthy!
I also read another article yesterday regarding the issue of skinny-shaming. The article questioned if fat-shaming isn’t acceptable, then why should skinny-shaming be okay. A fair point. Yet for me – and I guess I would say this as I am a fatty – fat shaming is far more prevalent, and the disgust and awful judgement attached to it is far more damaging. I have heard people say that they don’t listen to the opinions of fat people as they obviously have no control, will-power, judgement…if they can’t stay at a steady weight then their opinion is not important as they obviously have ‘issues’.
In the case of people at the opposite end of the spectrum, I am not sure if views are quite so extreme. Although I have a friend who is at the opposite end of the spectrum to me and we do share war stories about how our size seems fair game for comment. Perhaps it is just that I would love to be targeted for being too slim for a change…it would be great to swap places for a day and see how we both felt afterwards…walking in each others shoes, literally!
I loved this paragraph in the article – which was written by Emma Woolf, a lovely lady that I follow on Twitter – “Well, I know the experience of feeling that one’s private pain is on display on one’s body, of being stared at, and feeling horribly conspicuous. I see clear parallels between fatness and thinness. I believe that out-of-control eating may work in the same way as out-of-control starving, as a defence mechanism against the world, a place to retreat when it all gets too much.”
Her words really resonated with me. What I was left with was a sense of despair. Why can we not just let people ‘be’…why do we have to comment on appearance in a negative way? Although some lovely women (by ‘lovely’ I actually mean ‘manipulative bitches’) can turn what sounds like a compliment into a dig…you know the type…you all know one! The women that your partner thinks is lovely, yet you know her words are barbed.
Anyway, I just get a bit frustrated when I read articles related to weight issues. I get even more frustrated when I read the comments of readers. Just focus on your own life – be kind, be understanding, be empathetic, and that will all come back to you…I am a bit of a believer in karma!
Today has been busy…
After a rather strange night of not much sleep, I was shattered this morning. I was woken in the early hours by the sound of banging outside, followed by a man shouting. I couldn’t work out if he was in pain, trapped, being beaten up, or just having some bedroom fun. After trying to rid my mind of the latter, I thought that I had best investigate and so went mooching in my pyjamas. I couldn’t hear which direction the noise was coming from, and didn’t think that the police would appreciate a call about a noise in the local area…I just hope that there isn’t a horror story soon in the local paper! Then the yampy dog next-door-but-one started barking at fresh air again, after only finishing his evening shift four hours beforehand…so it was about three hours of sleep last night. I got up, did some project work for my other half, headed to the horses, and then to the shops. We also popped to the local tip – which is my favourite place…I always wanted to work there when I was a kid…I wanted to be the crane operator! I had to get rid of some rubbish from the stables. Partly for my Jessie event, but mainly as I am having a stable yard inspection from the lady who owns the land…and she just happens to want to inspect as the weeds grow and the horses have pushed a fence over through their bum scratching activities! After this, I headed to see my sister and watch a couple of Jessie P shows. In the process of this I was made ‘pretty’ by my niece and nephew…which meant that they plastered my face in make-up. I had lipgloss on my forehead, along with a big stripe of blue eyeshadow, all sorts of stuff covering my cheeks, eyes, lips and even neck! It took seven wet wipes and lots of scrubbing to get it all off before I could go out in public. I then had some lunch, before heading over to see my aunt. I am using her huge summerhouse as my back-up plan for my Jessie event if the weather is awful and we can’t use the stables. I didn’t leave there until nearly 8pm and then headed home to prepare dinner. I also squeezed in my tiny treadmill session, before eating dinner, writing this and watching a Louis Theroux documentary. I hope that sleep is my friend tonight!
Breakfast: Porridge with chopped banana (6.5 syns).
Lunch: Tomato soup with two cheese, onion and spinach toasties (2 x HEA and 2 x HEB).
Dinner: Quorn chilli with roasties.
Snacks: Two packets of French Fries (8 syns).
A lovely food day! Breakfast was good – and my dreaded banana was actually really nice with the porridge. Lunch was the super speed tomato soup – a tin of carrot, two tins of chopped tomatoes, a tin of baked beans, a couple of pickled onions, and a bit of stock. Blend it all up and it is pretty damn close to a tin of Heinz soup. I fancied cheese toasties, so had them, but also snuck in some onion and spinach. Dinner was gorgeous…I could have eaten more, but didn’t really need it! I used a tin of mixed beans in tomato sauce, Quorn mince, onion, red pepper, courgette, mushrooms, spinach, chilli, garlic and herbs.
Exercise: Finally…10 minutes on the treadmill!
My foot seemed okay when I was walking; a little cracking noise but not much pain, so I think I will carry on. Although my treadmill was making a funny noise! I have emailed a service company to see if they can come and give it an MOT for me.
Thank you for reading; I hope that Hump Day was good to you!
Weight Loss Bitch xxx
WeightLossBitch
On a health and fitness driven journey to lose over 32st / 448lbs / 203kgs – yes, it is a considerable amount – I am committed to losing my excess weight without the aid of weight loss surgery, diet pills, or quick fixes…as there aren’t any! Changing my eating habits and building up my fitness levels, along with addressing the ‘head issues’ will be crucial in order for me to achieve my goal. Living in England as a 31 year old super morbidly obese woman can be challenging to say the least. I have been shouted at in the street and verbally abused far too many times to mention; hence the name ‘Weight Loss Bitch’…the day I am just called a ‘bitch’ instead of a ‘fat bitch’ will be the day that I know I have cracked my weight loss! With many reasons to lose this weight I am documenting my journey for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would like to keep a record of the ups and downs, the highs and lows, and the challenges I face with such an enormous task to tackle. Secondly, I would also like to inspire and encourage other people who are in a similar situation and to show them that significant amounts of weight can be lost naturally…with a bit of motivation, hard work, dedication and will power. Thirdly, all of the blogging, Facebook-ing, Tweet-ing, Pinterest-ing and YouTube-ing keeps me occupied and keeps my fingers out of the fridge!
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