Posted by: conchpearls1
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[–] Sarcastatron_9000 ago
How much money went into your healthy body?
A few thousand dollars in fitness gear and membership costs, spread out over the last decade. Also all the money I haven't spent on junk food.
How much time did you not have to work and were able to focus on and prioritize your health?
I've been a homemaker for 15 years...but for the first five or so years of that I didn't have a lot of time to focus on my health. I was having babies and chasing toddlers. Unsurprisingly, I ended up in shitty shape - I lost most of the baby weight but not as much as I wanted, and my muscles were weak as shit because I wasn't getting proper exercise. My diet wasn't great either. When I realized I was unhappy with my body, guess what - I did something about it. I took up running. Running is free; all you need is shoes. Then I took up belly dancing. Then weight lifting. Then yoga. You prioritize the things you care about most. If you want it you can find the time to make it happen.
How long have you gone without significant medical injury or change in access and ability status? How much money did that save you?
Four months, bitch. At the end of April a routine gynecology procedure nearly ended my life - I lost a third of my blood volume, enough that I lost consciousness and ended up in the OR to stitch me back up. It fucking sucked. It was two full months before I could exercise again, and even then I had to be careful because I was still weak. Before then, it was a few years - I destroyed my left foot in a barefoot running incident (my toes folded under my foot and I severely strained all my tendons) and it was a year and a half before it was healed. Not sure what she means by "how much money did that save you?" - how the fuck does getting hurt save me money?
Did your parents have time to exercise? Is that how you learned?
My mom never exercised. She still doesn't very often. My dad was an intermittent exerciser; he doesn't do as much now but his job is very physical. But they always insisted that we spend time playing outside every day. I grew up on a bike, or out in the backyard running around, or tobogganing at the hill around the corner in winter. As I got older I was the motivating factor behind my choice to exercise. What I now know about fitness is what I've learned either by trial and error or by asking other people with experience.
Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. I had to learn about my asthma by having an attack out of the blue and spending a day sure I was having a heart attack and was going to pass out and die. It fucking sucked. No warning there. So what? Being thin doesn't mean I have only ever had wonderful healthcare experiences.
Did you have health insurance?
Sometimes yes. Sometimes no.
Did they believe you when it hurt, or did they just tell you to lose weight?
I've never been fat enough to have a doctor tell me to lose weight. I have, however, been told to gain muscle because of how thin my arms are. And I have had doctors completely drop the ball with my healthcare. Being thin isn't a magic talisman that makes doctors give a shit about you. I have spent many years with some female health problems that have made an impact on my quality of life, and yet my family doctor has been mostly useless in treating it, as has the gynecologist he referred me to (she is the reason I almost bled to death too - pretty sure she nicked a blood vessel when she was in there!). I went repeatedly with serious and difficult symptoms only to be told to just take birth control. And yet I am thin. Go figure. It's almost like the problem is not whether a patient is fat or thin, but rather whether or not your doctor gives a damn about his/her patients, or whether they're actually good doctors in the first place - or even whether they're qualified to address your specific problems! Qualification is huge. When I went to the ER bleeding heavily they pissed around and didn't treat me fast enough. I should've been sent to a bigger hospital in an ambulance immediately. I was not. And the reason I was not is because our ER is mostly staffed by my town's family doctors, none of whom are thoroughly trained in emergency medicine. Fat or thin didn't make a difference. The problem was the doctors.
You know what though? At the end of the day, whether you are fat or thin has nothing to do with whether your parents exercised, or how much money you have to spend on your health (though you'd for sure have more if you ate less...the amount of food required to pack 70 extra pounds of fat onto a frame and maintain it is substantial and not at all cheap!). It's all down to how much and what you eat, and whether you move your body. It costs nothing to go for a walk or a run every day. It costs less to eat less food than it does to eat more - and it costs less to eat smaller amounts of healthy food than to eat large quantities of shitty food, too, especially if most of what you drink is water and tea.