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Sunday, July 29, 2007

I am just speechless
Posted by Jill | 9:18 PM
Yes, I'm a size 16. But I can walk 2.2 miles in 43 minutes (with my short little legs on my 4'10" body), I do yoga 3-4 times a week, and at least one cardio and one sculpt workout every week. I don't eat fast food, I limit myself to one square of dark chocolate every day, I have banished as much high fructose corn syrup and white flour from my life as is practical. I don't have high blood pressure.

I have been at my current job for six years and seven months and have taken exactly five sick days.

But a growing number of employers (thankfully, not my current one) think they have a right to decide that I am not healthy simply because of the size I wear.

Perhaps employers might be more effective in improving workers' healthy by reducing stress, increasing vacation time, not putting people on guilt trips for taking that vacation time, and not expecting them to work 70 hour weeks to show how dedicated they are. And they can also alleviate the kind of stress that causes weight gain by not cutting jobs the minute the stock price drops and making employees train their H-1B replacements.

But of course it's much easier to pick on the fat chicks, isn't it?

I don't think UnitedHealth, which is my insurer, has spent more than about $800/year on me in the last five years, except last year when I had my first colonoscopy. Most of the time they don't even pay anything for my gynecology visits, because my doctor (or at least she was until she went on a crash diet and started driving everyone crazy) isn't in-network and is subject to deductible. In fact, I think my annual mammogram is about all they've had to pay. But because some asshole worships before the altar of the almighty BMI, some employer out there would be able to belittle my healthy old self simply because at 4'10" tall and of Russian peasant stock, I am unable to reach a BMI they say is "acceptable."

Interestingly, the only time in my adult life that I was anything close to "ideal weight" I was on a 300-calorie-a-day crash diet, I was working out five nights a week, and I would cry at the drop of a hat because I was hungry all the time.

This is health?

More at The Crone Speaks.

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