I'm just trying to have a body

Sometimes I feel silly that I put so much effort into rolling over and over in my brain the issue of “trying to feel okay about and/or in our bodies.” One of my imagined/internal critics’ most devastating lines is, “Wow, calm down; who cares, bodies suck and are tawdry and stupid, and as embarrassed as I am to ever be reminded I have one, I’m even more embarrassed for you that you think this much about it.”

And then a Supreme Court draft opinion circulates that would overturn Roe v. Wade, and I’m reminded that I’m far, FAR from the biggest sicko about body stuff. Imagine thinking you are uniquely ordained to prevent anyone else from having an abortion, a routine health procedure afforded us by basic medical techniques. Imagine the revolting level of fixation and obsession you’d have to have with controlling and subordinating people who are just trying to live their lives. This is already horrifying before we factor in the pathetic milquetoast “haha, oops gotta vote!” reaction of the party that refuses to do any measure of its job. I only have to think about my body so much because everyone else is obsessed with depriving us with any shred of dignity.

Offer support to independent clinics in the form of escorting patients, volunteering, or just money. Please appeal to and work with your local politicians and tell them reproductive rights are important to you, and that “vote” is not an appropriate response. Throw weight behind the ones who actually want to work. This matters and this is winnable, but when we have political representation that can’t effectively defend rights that almost seventy percent of the country actively wants, we have to stop hoping they will call us back.

What subscribers got last week: After I wrote “How to eat like a big beautiful horse,” a bunch of wonderful people from our community have asked me how to FEEL like a big beautiful horse. Tis seems to be of particular interest to folks trying out LIFTOFF, because it’s not a weight loss program where you diet. In our lockstep body positivity times, this is very nearly a taboo question, which is why I saved the answer, how to feel like a big beautiful horse, only for the people I know who can handle it: my dear paid subscribers.

Eat

~Discord Pick of the Week: Beasties are coming through with the poetry! Here is a bit of Salvage by Rachel McKibbens:

“I have learned to need the body

I spent years trying to rid the world of

have learned to cherish its pale rebel hymn

warped by ghost heat, carried, carried

by all my loyal dead.”

Also, if you’ve ever felt bad about losing count of your reps: let me, a person who has taken graduate-level math, and this person from our Discord reassure you:

~

The girlies are winding up for IPF Worlds, and our queen Jessica Buettner just pulled her own world deadlift record (551lbs) for a pretty easy-looking double. The competition is still five weeks away, June 6-12. Add to cal.

A study on the role of nutrition and physical activity in sleep quality. Unsurprisingly, the study finds that an unbalanced diet and not working out affect sleep negatively. I don’t think is a snap-of-the-fingers solution for many people, but I honestly have found “wanting to sleep good” a great way of orienting my life. Sometimes I don’t feel like working out, and then remind myself that actually, I do want to sleep good.

Nora Ephron is, to be clear, my mother. But I happened upon this piece and her quote about “taking off one’s bikini when one turns 34.” I am 35 years old on this earth and have no plans to Stop. Do you?

Drink

I have tried to know and think as little about Liver King as possible, and so far I have done a pretty good job. I know he is very red and stupid and wears a hat and no shirt and likely takes a terrifying amount of PEDs. This is because a meme account I follow is very preoccupied with him and posts about him often, and that’s as much info as my brain absorbs before I scroll away. While I don’t like the idea of anyone else rewarding his dangerous antics with their brain space, either, I have to admit this GQ feature on him is very good, and worth reading for how Joe Rogan seems to be very, very threatened by him. There can only be one very red and stupid muscle man spouting bullshit on the internet and seeking attention at any price, and by god, it will be Joe Rogan!

In a similar vein, my eyes bugged out of my head when Kim Kardashian said she lost sixteen pounds in three weeks to wear the Marilyn Monroe dress with absolutely zero steez, looking literally like a mannequin at Contempo Casuals. Just a sick thing to do for no reason. And then it didn’t even actually fit, due to butt!! Most mainstream outlets were reverent, while my Instagram timeline is on day five of a spitting rage. I’m yearning for the day when we don’t need an outrage cycle about how this is Not Okay. But it is unfortunately the very kind of thing I would have learned about when I was 20 years old and thought, “wow, I too can lose 16 pounds in three weeks, and that’s a normal thing to do for the purpose of wearing a dress.”

~In that vein, an additional Discord Pick of the Week is the photos of Marilyn Monroe lifting weights at the bottom of this post.~

Too bad, so sad: Noom layoffs, Peloton layoffs.

In the year of our lord 2022, a “squat guide” telling people not to let their knees go past their toes. Wake up hon!

My nemesis Chris Hemsworth is once again out here implying he looks like he does from doing lots and lots of reps with barely any weight. I want to be blunt: this is HIIT and all it will do is make a normal person very sweaty and tired.

Insurance companies keep moving the goalposts on how much breast reduction qualifies for coverage. Disgusting! Just abhorrent behavior by everyone toward humankind this week. I’m done!

Rest

Frank Lloyd Wright’s forgotten city. This would make a great documentary.

TikTok has given me the shopping ick.

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That’s all! We deserve a better country and politicians and system, and we can have them! I love you, thank you for reading, let’s go—