Australia's 'obesity epidemic'
is about to get worse.
The country's Battle of the Bulge.
More than 60% of Aussies are obese.
Australia will be in the grip of
an obesity epidemic.
We are still putting on weight.
Hi my name is Catherine.
I'm a Fat activist in Brisbane.
I blog at fat Heffalump where I've been blogging
for about five years and it's my goal to change the way people think about
fatness I always thought I was fat one of my earliest memories I was called fat
I've always been called fat and I believe that the worst thing a person
could possibly be was fat through my teens and 20s and early 30s I just
battle it in every single way I could you name the diet I was on it
you name the weight-loss plan I was on it I believed that I couldn't do
anything in life that was good until I was the I couldn't have any form of
success could have a good job couldn't have a loving relationship couldn't be
happy in any way so I didn't try I
haven't always been fat I was actually a regular-sized little girl and when I was
17 I was actually diagnosed with type 1 diabetes since then taking insulin and
treating my diabetes regularly I slowly became fatter and fatter when I began to
gain weight I was a little worried my mother was a little worried but as time
went on I became okay with being fat that acceptance is a radical notion that
fat people human beings and deserve respect I
discovered fart acceptance probably about six years ago I think it was on
Twitter that I just somebody must have retweeted an article and it as per
anything on the Internet you read one and the vortex gets you and you read the
next thing in there it the next thing it was kind of like a light bulb went on
and I thought that was when I started to think that perhaps it could apply to me
I'm Jessica Simpson I lost over 50 pounds on Weight Watchers I'm gonna lose
15 kilos and you know what if you're sitting out there wanting to lose weight
too then come and join me we're changing the shape of one of Australia's most
obese towns there seems to be a cultural obsession here whether in Australia or
the United States with a thin body health at every size is a movement that
is basically just encouraging people to adopt good health behaviors and to
forget about weight as a goal or weight change as a goal and instead just
embrace the bodies that we're living in and make good health choices to support
them I'm Sarah Harry and I specialize in body image and I also teach Kobe Yoga
when I tell people that I'm a yoga teacher I usually get an interesting
reaction sometimes people think that I'm joking
which is funny and too big for food because I think they expect a yoga
teacher to be a sin way very small and life and flexible and I'm very flexible
but I'm not small a lot I think the problem with aligning
exercise and weight loss is that then we put a whole lot of pressure on the only
benefit for exercise as a way to lose weight whereas the benefits of exercise
are so enormous so I think we're doing exercise a great disservice in only
making it about weight loss looks great there are many reasons for why someone
might be living in a fat body for some people that's just genetics and they're
leading very healthy lifestyles eating good quantities that are appropriate to
nourish their bodies and to try to judge somebody by their weight will give you a
lot of misinformation one of the main things that I find is that I'm under
constant surveillance you can't go anywhere without being watched by
anything that happened before I dyed my hair pink it happened before I chose to
wear bright colors I used to be what I referred to as a brown tomorrow I would
wear dark colors not wear anything that was visible it was before I had tattoos
and people would kind of even then still sort of make a comment about fatty
you know people judge me for my way all the time I go out in public people will
give my husband and I looks we take up a lot of space and we walk down the road
holding hands on a footpath I remember when we were trying to jog once they
were cheering us on like we were in a marathon and you could tell it was quite
sarcastic yeah yeah you get that component on these people I think that
you know having a bit of fun but realistically it does hurt sometimes
don't ya we hear in the news all the time about an obesity epidemic and how
people are dying of obesity and what we see is that it's just not true what is
true is that people are heavier than they used to be but what's also true is
that we're living longer than ever before people ask me all the time if you
can be fat and healthy I'm not offended by that question I feel like it reflects
on me a little bit because I feel like I am a fat and healthy person I'm not
healthy I'm going to say that because I have two autoimmune diseases I can't say
that I'm fully healthy but I'm doing the best that I can to live a great life I'm
not the expert on societal health I am the expert on living in my body
I'm not a disease and I'm not diseased this is the body that I tell me if
someone offered me a way to instantly lose my weight guaranteed success
tomorrow I probably still wouldn't accept their offer we should not be the
same there's nothing wrong with go ahead there's nothing wrong with being a fat
person just like there's nothing wrong with being a nonfat person fat
acceptance led me to a place where I could be who I wanted to be and so I
started to ask myself how I wanted to be and that was positive and bright and
colorful and fun and it's a really good feeling it is a really good feeling to
not hate myself