Police spotting (junction watch)

eing overweight may be the result of overeating (except for, as you point out, the vanishingly rare glandular / immobility reasons), but that overeating may be the result of a multitude of psychological reasons and motivations.

Or medication...

Or Crumble too, I concede.

i like what a throwaway comment has given birth to.

http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk43/TheUnwind/everythingwentbetterthanexpected.jpg

People need to htfu and deal with their issues

addiction? really? considering that many people manage to quit nicotine by themselves, which is shown in some studies to be more addictive than heroin(1) isn't it time to HTFU?

Overeating is often an addiction driven by shame. Someone gains (temporary) comfort from eating, and then feels ashamed, and the cycle begins again. Shaming people into not eating is more likely to reinforce this cycle.

Hmm, possibly. As I say, I can only speak for myself, I'll only stop doing something that's bad for me, if I feel bad for doing it.

Just to provide some gender balance that fat bearded cunt of a plod who patrols Hyde park needs to get in the saddle a bit more and stop waddling in front of cyclists trying to slow them down.**Unless of course he has glandular or psychological issues.

As another ex fatty (I'm still a bit fatty, but used to be morbidly obease) I'd like to say the opposite of john which is being ridiculed made me eat more and sometimes react violently, neither of which i would say were productive... My way of loosing weight was to take lots of drugs as a student... But I wouldn't really recomend that either...

Oh but I do like jokes about any subject... But sometimes matey jokes as used by oli above ;) can be just as, if not more, damaging than random comments made by strangers.

.

That depends. Shouting "you're a fatty fat fat" at some random person isn't really on, but spreading the attitude that being overweight is unhealthy, and therefore is a bad thing, (and the same goes for underweight) is generally a positive thing in my book.

Fair point on the shouting at people. And you seem a decent man John, I wasn't accusing you of hurling abuse in the street!

I keep having to argue about the fat bit though. It's unhealthy to be unfit, we all know that. It's more unhealthy to be fat and unfit than thin and unfit. But if you are fat and fit, you are as healthy as someone thin and fit. (The issue of potential joint strain aside).

Fat = unhealthy per se is a lie spread by the medical establishment, because it was seen as easier to get people to slim down than get fitter. That lie is one of the reasons why getting people to exercise is more important in my view than getting them to lose weight first. But because we stigmatise being fat, people are discouraged from doing stuff like going to the gym until they lose weight first. Which they often do in unhealthy ways. It's actually a really pernicious cycle for many people.

Note: There are studies which prove the above, I can't send you a reference on the net though. If anyone wants to argue it, I don't really care. If someone works in the field and wants to know more, I'll try to help find where I read that stuff.

thinks this thread is going off topic

i am confused by what you mean by getting "fit" before losing weight. my mum was fat and unfit, joined weight watchers, started eating right, started going to gym, swimming, pilates etc. and now is normal and fit?

i am confused by what you mean by getting "fit" before losing weight. my mum was fat and unfit, joined weight watchers, started eating right, started going to gym, swimming, pilates etc. and now is normal and fit?

"Normal" ??? Fucking hell, I wish we could all live up to your definition of normal...wait a min I've seen you in your undies looking...not so normal. Choose your words with little more thought.

+1 Tea_Bee.

Fat ≠ (always) unhealthy

People need to htfu and deal with their issues

you'll be alright not drinking for a couple of months then Mike? Control of consumption takes many different forms…

:^]

i thought that i meant that "she is within medically established limits for healthy weight of woman of her age and height with regards to studies into longetivity and quality of life" was obvious.

i am confused by what you mean by getting "fit" before losing weight. my mum was fat and unfit, joined weight watchers, started eating right, started going to gym, swimming, pilates etc. and now is normal and fit?

I can't comment on your mum, but you've said she did weightwatcher and more exercise. That was her choice. But women who are overweight in general feel seriously out of place going to the gym - all the ones I know who wanted to start going dieted to become more "normal" before they were happy to be seen there. When they should have been encouraged to just get fitter and fuck whether they lose weight or not.

There aren't many good examples of people who are fat and fit. I know of a cold water swimmer (places like the Bering Straights) who swims like a fish but is built like a barrel of beef dripping. He was assessed by some scientists who were amazed at his ability to swim in water that should kill him. For what he loves to do, he needs the bulk - even though he looks overweight. He also runs marathons, despite being in the morbidly obese band. But he's seriously healthy - despite being fat. It's not necessary to lose weight to start exercising.

i have always been curious, do you ever find a conflict between your cycle training side and couriering side? i.e. do you rlj, wrong way one way, etc.? or do you find there is no conflict?

I am pretty sure no one else is interested but since you ask....
I long ago decided I was not going to end up crippled or dead so that some crappy advert could get from post production to ad agency a little quicker. And I don't care how 'urgent' you tell me it is to get this bag of clothes from a Mayfair boutique to the Belgravia home of a Jordanian princess I am not hurrying. Still, even if I had not made this decision then age and bad knees would have made it for me.
RLJing and pavement riding isn't, in a way, a particularly explicit part of cycle training . It is implicit though in that it is about making sure people have the skills and the confidence to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances. I don't consider a client's desire to have their package get somewhere quicker than it can safely be got there to be a circumstance; it is an element of the exploitation of couriers to be ignored, with a rueful smile at best and with a barely concealed fury at worst.
So, in short, for various reasons I am not a very quick courier but nor am I leading a double life of riding one way and encouraging other people to ride another.

I can't comment on your mum, but you've said she did weightwatcher and more exercise. That was her choice. But women who are overweight in general feel seriously out of place going to the gym - all the ones I know who wanted to start going dieted to become more "normal" before they were happy to be seen there. When they should have been encouraged to just get fitter and fuck whether they lose weight or not.

There aren't many good examples of people who are fat and fit. I know of a cold water swimmer (places like the Bering Straights) who swims like a fish but is built like a barrel of beef dripping. He was assessed by some scientists who were amazed at his ability to swim in water that should kill him. For what he loves to do, he needs the bulk - even though he looks overweight. He also runs marathons, despite being in the morbidly obese band. But he's seriously healthy - despite being fat. It's not necessary to lose weight to start exercising.

i suppose, but that is quite an isolated case, no? anyway, i don't know enough about fitness vs. weight to comment further.

I am pretty sure no one else is interested but since you ask....
I long ago decided I was not going to end up crippled or dead so that some crappy advert could get from post production to ad agency a little quicker. And I don't care how 'urgent' you tell me it is to get this bag of clothes from a Mayfair boutique to the Belgravia home of a Jordanian princess I am not hurrying. Still, even if I had not made this decision then age and bad knees would have made it for me.
RLJing and pavement riding isn't, in a way, a particularly explicit part of cycle training . It is implicit though in that it is about making sure people have the skills and the confidence to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances. I don't consider a client's desire to have their package get somewhere quicker than it can safely be got there to be a circumstance; it is an element of the exploitation of couriers to be ignored, with a rueful smile at best and with a barely concealed fury at worst.
So, in short, for various reasons I am not a very quick courier but nor am I leading a double life of riding one way and encouraging other people to ride another.

thanks

Well as you are asking for fat and fit... When I was 19 I was 20 stone which definatly covers the fat part of the equation, I also played American football 3 times a week (two fitness sessions on weekdays and a game plus early training on Saturdays and played rugby during the american football off season) football five lunch times a week and two evenings and basketball on Sundays... I'm pretty sure I managed both fatness and fitness and I know quite a few other people who played either rugby or American football who managed both.

Fatness isn't condusive to fitness over long periods of life though...

i thought that i meant that "she is within medically established limits for healthy weight of woman of her age and height with regards to studies into longetivity and quality of life" was obvious.

no

** I mentioned women as an example BTW (sexist!!). Similar issues can apply to men, I was just thinking of several real-world examples when I typed that post, rather than making a statement about women in general.

Can we start a new thread on this topic. We're supposed to be cop-watching on this thread.

Where were you during the great 'hippy is fat' tag wars of 2008?

Oh.. http://www.lfgss.com/post781100-115.html

:P

schick has been dismantled.

Hehe. That's why I made the distinction above between discrimination and political correctness. I like silly jokes far too much to ever be politically correct, but I try my hardest not to discriminate against people.

The first post I could find that implied that hippy is fat is this one:

That Bec hillclimb looks really cool! Especially with the crowd getting behind the riders. I'll leave it to BMMF though - ain't no joy watching a fat man climb.

I don't know how the joke developed afterwards, but part of it was always that while hippy is quite heavy, he's certainly not fat. And it doesn't carry the slightest whiff of discrimination, but it is certainly not politically correct. It would be discrimination if hippy walked into a bike shop full of skinny mountain goats and they said: 'We don't want your kind here, and you're so fat you can't even ride a bike.'

A lot of good posts in this thread, and Louis is absolutely right that you can hurt someone who is close to you much more with a thoughtless remark than someone whom you don't know:

Oh but I do like jokes about any subject... But sometimes matey jokes as used by oli above ;) can be just as, if not more, damaging than random comments made by strangers.

But again, that need not be discrimination. What I originally objected to was merely the suggestion that just because the policewoman in question was quite big, she might not be able to do her job/ride a bike. Such superficial attributes just don't have much of a bearing on whether she can do her job or ride a bike. Maybe she can, maybe she can't. You can't tell from just looking at her. The problem is looking at people superficially, jumping to conclusions (or applying a foregone conclusion), and then trying to use that against her, e.g. someone I know who's a wheelchair user was refused entry to a restaurant with the words: 'We don't want your kind here.' Obviously a more serious case, but of the same origin. Anyway, a lot could be said about discrimination, serious or less serious.

Strictly speaking this is the correct thread... I was at a junction, on Victoria Street, this morning... and spotted two unmarked police (I'm assuming) cars blasting up the road, sirens and lights on, police officer in passenger seat of following unmarked car had his arm out the window and a mini-video camera, filming the other unmarked car in front of him..... training perhaps?

Really? Or are you being disingenuously obtuse.

Still, at least he isn't being disgustingly obese.