Welcome to my fat acceptance blog!

So here I am, joining the fat acceptance blogging community (well, actually, I already have such a blog, but it is in French and hosted over at Vivelesrondes.com). Since it's difficult to maintain a unique blog in both French and English, I decided that this would be the English version of the other blog. A single bilingual blog is too tiring too read and maintain (at least until one of the blogs providers start offering a multilingual option where the reader can choose to read entries in either language or in all languages).

Why is this blog titled Dancin' with my Mirror? Well, it's the title of an old Corey Hart song that I really like, and also because it's hard to dance with your mirror if you don't like yourself. Since I don't avoid mirrors, I thought that this would be a more than appropriate title for a self-acceptance blog.

Now, how about myself? Well, I've been fat for most of my life. "Skinny" for my body means 150lb, so I am not meant to be skinny (a quick glance at family pictures will convince anyone that I've inherited those fat genes from my grandmother's side, along with most of my genetic baggage it seems). However, even though I was a bit chubby as a child and as a teen, I was not a complete couch potato. Sure I loved videogames and watching TV, but I also spent quite of bit of time playing outside. Whether it was street hockey, riding my bike, playing softball, racing Seb to see how fast we could run... I was a fit kid. In high school, I played volleyball and ice hockey (on top of the regular phys. ed. class, which I usually enjoyed, unless it was a sport or discipline I didn't like as much like gymnastics).

As an adult, I became more sedentary, unfortunately. However, I decided to get fit again this year. I've been biking to work most days since June (a 40-45 minute ride no less on a slight slope) and started an aquagym class last week. And I love it. I'm getting reacquainted with the pleasure of playing, of moving around. I was thinking about this last night, how doing sports came so easily to me as a kid because it was play. I really want to cross-country ski on a regular basis this year, and I want to start playing softball again next summer. All this is not a weight loss thing (in fact, I don't care about that kind of outcome. My body will adjust itself as it pleases, that's all), but rather to reap all the benefits of good fitness levels (better inner body workings, more stamina, more energy, better sleep, more flexibility).

Oh, and being fat in my body doesn't mean that I hide behind tents or tomboy clothes (which I did for too long). Don't get me wrong, sometimes I wear guys' t-shirts and dress really casually, but most of the time I like wearing nice girly tops, skirts, etc. However, I usually wear comfy girls' skater shoes -- nice dress shoes are hell to find for me since I have wide feet.

This is what I look like (as of 2 weeks ago). It's not a perfect pic (the top of my hair is missing...), but that's what happens when you do self-photography at 8am on a weekday. LOL