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Created: September 23, 2003
Latest Update: September 23, 2003
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

Millie's Title???

Site Copyright: Jeanne Curran and Susan R. Takata and Individual Authors, September 2003.
"Fair use" encouraged.

Significance of the Project

This paper will hopefully have an aesthetic value in helping to provide unbiased information on what we are told by the media is a growing trend of obesity in the United States and worldwide. Obesity has often been associated with third world countries but current trends would appear to indicate that they do not corner the market on obesity It would be most gratifying if this paper served as an everlasting beacon to the importance of respecting the rights of individuals regardless of their physical appearance. The fact that people are being discriminated against gives significance to this issue.

My Personal Journey:

When I was growing up I never had a weight problem until the age of 15 when I was in the eleventh grade. It was at this time that I had to begin to deal with excess weight on my body. Weight I didn't need and couldn't handle. The mother of a female classmate of mine use to bake German Chocolate cakes from stratch, homemade salads, and homemade sausages. Before lunch at school, for our mid-morning break we would eat all of these things and this is how I began to pick up weight. We did this on a daily basis. This extra eating caused me to go from a size 9 to a size 14. When I graduated from high school I weighed a whopping 160 pounds and was wearing a size 16.

One day I was in a store and saw this book on foods to help you lose weight. I purchased the book and after reading it I went on this program. The results were Outstanding and I lost 30 pounds in three months. I went from a size 16 to a size 9-10, which overjoyed me.

In the past thirty years I have seen myself gain over 150 pounds, of course this followed a broken marriage and several pregnancies. As many dieters have experienced my weight gain has yo yo'd up and down over this period of time. I believe that my experiences with overweight pretty much exemplify that of millions of people across this country. The emotional upheavals and stresses of divorce and raising two children on my own have all contributed to my weight problems One of my greatest successes in maintaining lesser weight occurred when I attended Weight Watchers. I decided to go to Weight Watchers following pressure from my husband and was able to lose 40 pounds. From my readings I find that many people go on these yo-yo diets based on the pressure that they receive from significant others to be slimmer.

I decided to do this project to help myself and other obese individuals realize that there is hope for each of us, to introduce the different options we have, to help us regain control and understand our eating habits and to find out what are the safest way for us to lose weight and become healthy and happy with our bodies. There are numerous diets and programs but which are the safest and most effective ones?

In this project we will discuss and present information on various programs which can be incorporated into a way of life. One of the main questions that I had to look at was, what has to happen to obese people to motivate them to realistically look at the health hazards of their weight? I also want to look at the issue of workplace discrimination against obese people. On a personal level I have experienced being turned down for a job that I had all the qualifications for because of my weight.

As a person experiencing obesity, I have had to look at issues such as;

• hating the extra fat on my body and putting on clothes,
• working extra hard on my self-esteem,
• making myself look at myself in the mirror,
• as a woman spending hours trying to determine which item of clothing would slenderize me,
• wanting others to like you so much and not use your your weight as a determinant of your worthiness as a friend,
• responding back to others in a negative way because something they said or how they looked at you made you feel ugly and uncomfortable,

Discrimination against obese people: