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| Weigh your words before mocking the overweight | Weigh your words before mocking the overweight |
| (13 days later) | |
| As it’s the new year, the “season to be fit”, perhaps it’s a good time to talk about a time I lost weight – amounting to two to three dress sizes (sorry not to be more specific but, fat or thin, I’ve never felt the urge to weigh myself like cattle are at market). For some people, the only interesting thing would be that I had gained the weight because of a family hypothyroid condition, then lost it with no dieting at all and moderate exercise (two to three hours a week gloomily flailing about on a cross-trainer). | As it’s the new year, the “season to be fit”, perhaps it’s a good time to talk about a time I lost weight – amounting to two to three dress sizes (sorry not to be more specific but, fat or thin, I’ve never felt the urge to weigh myself like cattle are at market). For some people, the only interesting thing would be that I had gained the weight because of a family hypothyroid condition, then lost it with no dieting at all and moderate exercise (two to three hours a week gloomily flailing about on a cross-trainer). |
| The weight gain was a surprise. After a lifetime of effortless skinniness, verging on outright scrawn, I blew up like a lilo. Bigger me was fine about it. I’d love to pretend that it was feminist defiance (“Sisters, hear my cry – I’m taking a holiday from skinny!”), but, in truth, I couldn’t care less. | The weight gain was a surprise. After a lifetime of effortless skinniness, verging on outright scrawn, I blew up like a lilo. Bigger me was fine about it. I’d love to pretend that it was feminist defiance (“Sisters, hear my cry – I’m taking a holiday from skinny!”), but, in truth, I couldn’t care less. |
| The weight gain seemed like nothing compared to waking up exhausted and shivering with permanent cold. Some days were like a terrible hazy dream of trudging slowly though a dark, labyrinthine ice world. I would walk around the house swathed in blankets like a medieval queen and mainline coffee just to get through the day. Another weird symptom was skin so dry and flaky that one day my entire palm just peeled straight off in a single crackling strip, like the shedding of a snake. | The weight gain seemed like nothing compared to waking up exhausted and shivering with permanent cold. Some days were like a terrible hazy dream of trudging slowly though a dark, labyrinthine ice world. I would walk around the house swathed in blankets like a medieval queen and mainline coffee just to get through the day. Another weird symptom was skin so dry and flaky that one day my entire palm just peeled straight off in a single crackling strip, like the shedding of a snake. |
| Bizarrely, considering my family history, I didn’t suspect a wonky thyroid and was diagnosed by accident via an unconnected blood test (I am now on 125mcg of thyroxine a day). The good news: I got enough energy back to eventually start exercising. The bad news is that exercising sucks – I continue to hate every tedious, sweaty, stupid minute of it. Where art thou, mythical endorphin rush? The weight fell off embarrassingly quickly, considering my mournful predictions about my challenging medical condition. | |
| However, this doesn’t prove that other hypothyroid sufferers who say they can’t lose weight are lazy, delusional liars. The auto-immune problems of the thyroid (“hypo” and “hyper”), and the wider endocrine system, are myriad, bewildering, exasperating and far too complex to explain fully here. There’s an ongoing row about poor rates of diagnosis and treatment in this country (including a sidebar on natural versus synthetic treatments). There’s yet more confusion because the symptoms vary from person to person. | However, this doesn’t prove that other hypothyroid sufferers who say they can’t lose weight are lazy, delusional liars. The auto-immune problems of the thyroid (“hypo” and “hyper”), and the wider endocrine system, are myriad, bewildering, exasperating and far too complex to explain fully here. There’s an ongoing row about poor rates of diagnosis and treatment in this country (including a sidebar on natural versus synthetic treatments). There’s yet more confusion because the symptoms vary from person to person. |
| Hypo symptoms can include extreme fatigue, weakness, weight gain, difficulty losing weight, dry skin, hair loss, muscle cramps, depression and more. Like me, a fellow hypo may suffer from unexplained weight gain. Unlike me, they might find it nigh impossible to lose the weight. Like most conditions, it’s a lottery of symptoms – you get some but not others. Why do some people have such immense trouble understanding this – and why is an overweight person’s insistence that it’s their glands still viewed as a pathetic excuse to be mocked and disbelieved? | Hypo symptoms can include extreme fatigue, weakness, weight gain, difficulty losing weight, dry skin, hair loss, muscle cramps, depression and more. Like me, a fellow hypo may suffer from unexplained weight gain. Unlike me, they might find it nigh impossible to lose the weight. Like most conditions, it’s a lottery of symptoms – you get some but not others. Why do some people have such immense trouble understanding this – and why is an overweight person’s insistence that it’s their glands still viewed as a pathetic excuse to be mocked and disbelieved? |
| Certainly it makes me uneasy to think about how my own experience could be twisted to undermine a fellow sufferer (“They lost weight with exercise; why can’t you?”). Thyroid weight gain is real and medicine often doesn’t solve it; on thyroxine alone, I lost zilch weight. Some sufferers struggle to lose weight even though they medicate, exercise and follow rigid low-carb/anti-inflammatory diets. If you went to their online sites, read about the efforts they go to, the despair and confusion they feel, your heart would break in two for them. Just in terms of weight, their thyroid has trapped their metabolism in a flesh prison, with little chance of escape. And these are people it’s fine to mock and discredit? | Certainly it makes me uneasy to think about how my own experience could be twisted to undermine a fellow sufferer (“They lost weight with exercise; why can’t you?”). Thyroid weight gain is real and medicine often doesn’t solve it; on thyroxine alone, I lost zilch weight. Some sufferers struggle to lose weight even though they medicate, exercise and follow rigid low-carb/anti-inflammatory diets. If you went to their online sites, read about the efforts they go to, the despair and confusion they feel, your heart would break in two for them. Just in terms of weight, their thyroid has trapped their metabolism in a flesh prison, with little chance of escape. And these are people it’s fine to mock and discredit? |
| Well, the new year isn’t just about fitness, it’s also a time for resolutions, so here’s a thought. Unless you’ve had direct experience of this little-understood, oft-misfiring gland, how about gaining a little humanity and knowledge before going on the attack? | Well, the new year isn’t just about fitness, it’s also a time for resolutions, so here’s a thought. Unless you’ve had direct experience of this little-understood, oft-misfiring gland, how about gaining a little humanity and knowledge before going on the attack? |
| Overkill? No, that was Lemmy’s way of living | Overkill? No, that was Lemmy’s way of living |
| The death of Lemmy from Motörhead didn’t only upset heavy metal fans. Lemmy appeared to represent rock’n’roll infamy for a broad cross-section of humanity. If we must all be, as the Motörhead song said, “killed by death”, then Lemmy’s death was a “good” one, after a life unapologetically ill-lived. | The death of Lemmy from Motörhead didn’t only upset heavy metal fans. Lemmy appeared to represent rock’n’roll infamy for a broad cross-section of humanity. If we must all be, as the Motörhead song said, “killed by death”, then Lemmy’s death was a “good” one, after a life unapologetically ill-lived. |
| Elsewhere, there’s great excitement that Axl Rose and Slash are to reunite for a show. Some might describe both Lemmy and Guns N’ Roses as “cartoons”, in a way that is supposed to be reductive and derisive. Ozzy Osbourne is another one. It’s a criticism that many HM artists attract. | Elsewhere, there’s great excitement that Axl Rose and Slash are to reunite for a show. Some might describe both Lemmy and Guns N’ Roses as “cartoons”, in a way that is supposed to be reductive and derisive. Ozzy Osbourne is another one. It’s a criticism that many HM artists attract. |
| What these disparagers don’t realise is that sometimes people want the cartoon, particularly during a musical era dominated by Coldplay-style, carefully inoffensive ear drool. | What these disparagers don’t realise is that sometimes people want the cartoon, particularly during a musical era dominated by Coldplay-style, carefully inoffensive ear drool. |
| In my opinion, Chris Martin isn’t good enough (loud, brilliant, funny enough) to be a cartoon – he’s fated to be a finessed corporate “word cloud”, encompassing all human emotion and therefore none. Faced with that, most would take a lively, colourful, charismatic cartoon any day. Which goes some way to explaining the widespread goodwill towards Lemmy and the hope that he’s rocking – wherever he is. | In my opinion, Chris Martin isn’t good enough (loud, brilliant, funny enough) to be a cartoon – he’s fated to be a finessed corporate “word cloud”, encompassing all human emotion and therefore none. Faced with that, most would take a lively, colourful, charismatic cartoon any day. Which goes some way to explaining the widespread goodwill towards Lemmy and the hope that he’s rocking – wherever he is. |
| So much for being an empty nester... | So much for being an empty nester... |
| Christmas is well known for throwing evolving family dynamics into sharp focus. One of these is how many grown-up children don’t feel stable enough to manage without their parents and still need help from the bank of mum and dad (from moving out, to bills, loans and food shopping). A new study from the Skipton Building Society puts the age of financial independence at around the mid-30s. | Christmas is well known for throwing evolving family dynamics into sharp focus. One of these is how many grown-up children don’t feel stable enough to manage without their parents and still need help from the bank of mum and dad (from moving out, to bills, loans and food shopping). A new study from the Skipton Building Society puts the age of financial independence at around the mid-30s. |
| I once used to marvel and scoff at such studies. In my youth, people couldn’t get out of the family orbit quickly enough, barely caring where (or how) they ended up – in my case, it was a squat with bin liners taped over holes in the wall. Now, continued “child dependence” has been rebranded as routine – just variations on a norm. | I once used to marvel and scoff at such studies. In my youth, people couldn’t get out of the family orbit quickly enough, barely caring where (or how) they ended up – in my case, it was a squat with bin liners taped over holes in the wall. Now, continued “child dependence” has been rebranded as routine – just variations on a norm. |
| Escalating rents and job insecurity are turning varying degrees of progeny dependence into The Everlasting Story. The extended family is starting to be less about extended numbers and more about extended time. Along the way, parents of adult children seem to have ended up cast as property-owning, over-privileged baddies. Excuse me? It’s more likely that these parents are being soaked left, right and centre as penance for this generational shortfall. Too many years of that and they won’t be looking so “privileged” any more. | Escalating rents and job insecurity are turning varying degrees of progeny dependence into The Everlasting Story. The extended family is starting to be less about extended numbers and more about extended time. Along the way, parents of adult children seem to have ended up cast as property-owning, over-privileged baddies. Excuse me? It’s more likely that these parents are being soaked left, right and centre as penance for this generational shortfall. Too many years of that and they won’t be looking so “privileged” any more. |
| It’s not all grim, though. According to the study, the children make efforts to repay all the support and kindness later – from paying for parental meals and buying wine, to helping with bills and rent. So let’s get this straight – the parents go broke trying to help their children out and then the children go broke trying to help the parents out. Such is the cycle of family life in modern Britain. The really scary thing is that this sector of society counts as fortunate. | It’s not all grim, though. According to the study, the children make efforts to repay all the support and kindness later – from paying for parental meals and buying wine, to helping with bills and rent. So let’s get this straight – the parents go broke trying to help their children out and then the children go broke trying to help the parents out. Such is the cycle of family life in modern Britain. The really scary thing is that this sector of society counts as fortunate. |
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