Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Are we making ourselves more resistant to being well?

WOW! Over two weeks of having a cold, more like Bronchitis, really kicked me in the “BigBear” junktrunk. For a minute, it seemed like I was not going to get rid of it. Actually I’m still fighting a few of the symptoms but no longer have a fever. Apparently I was not alone many in MIAmi have been getting some sort of upper-respiratory infection and are just not able to rid themselves of it. Like myself a few have been going at it for well over the 3 week mark. This got me thinking about the strange long lasting flu like or cold.

Are we becoming immune to getting better quickly? Is sick time our only chance to recover from the hustle and bustle of our everyday life? Or are we just looking to be taken care of or spoiled during this time of illness? But if the last is true, then what’s to be done of those of us who are single?

There are many in the medical community who believe that the overuse of antibiotics has made us and virus-infections drug-resistant; some to the point of becoming fatal. It makes it harder for doctors to treat relatively simple infections one of us gets; essentially making us immune to getting better let alone doing so quickly.

But there is something about that time while we are sick that make us relax. It’s not a full relaxation like that of taking a vacation, but you actually are forced to rest. So is there something about that which makes us want to be sick longer? Do we unconsciously think if we are sick and we take time to recover that some how that’s the only way we can rest? I think there is something about this. Some of us don’t take enough vacation days or take time off to just rest. We have so much to do that there is little time to really relax. But if we are sick and need to rest maybe our body makes us sick longer to force us to get the rest it needs.

We often get the rest we need when we are sick but there is some attention we attract when we are sick too. Could that be the reason we stay sick? Are we just unconsciously trying to get attention and have people take care of us? Chicken soup brought to you by your BFF? There could be something to this too. We are sometime in need of the emotional care and/or attention we get when we are sick; like that of your coworker who brings you some meds from home to get you better, or your caring neighbor who beings you some movies after hearing you are in bed sick, or your lover who comes to nurse you back to health with loving care.

Well, if we stay sick because we are affection hungry, what about us single people? Are we staying sick longer because we are so hungry for affection it’s the only way we get enough of it? Or is it the only chance that we have of getting enough affection from others? Again there is something about this. We all know people who seem to get every little bug that goes around but are they really getting them? Are they just unconsciously making themselves sick for the attention? This is simply mind over matter. But what about the physical evidence of the illness?

It’s very easy to understand why someone would be manifesting the illness if the attention is there and they are in need of that attention. All this makes me wonder which of these categories do I call into? Or do I fall in to all these categories? Could being single make me feel sicker than I should because I’m hungry for the attention? The thought that this is possible actually makes me sick. It’s not something I feel good about because it means I don’t value myself enough to be fine being alone, that’s what makes it strange for to think about all these thoughts. Do you find yourself in any of there?

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Which BigBearMIA is sexier the Bear or the Chub?

Ahh… the New Year is finally here. It seems to always make all of us want a new start or to commit to some New Year’s Resolution even if it’s for a few weeks, days or in some cases hours. Stop smoking, save money, and the ever popular lose weight. The later is the one which has been intriguing me for a few weeks now. About 8 years ago, I was the thinnest I had been since the age of eight. I was always a big boy and when I hit puberty at about 10 years old I quickly became a BigBear without even knowing it.

Fast forward through a decade & a half of yo-yoing my weight and I finally found the formula that worked right for me. I kept the weight off for about 3 years and actually continued to lose more albeit at a much slower pace. I was very proud of my weight lose. BUT in no way was I happy with my new body. It was turning into a flabby hanging of skin which I couldn’t fix no matter how much I hit the gym. My physician finally told me that the only way to take care of it was by the expensive Excess Skin Removal Surgery done after extreme weight loss. Soon I was so depressed and disappointed with all my efforts going to waste that I began to take less care of myself. Eventually I gained it all back and once again was not happy with myself.

This year I’ve been struggling with the idea of going for it again. Working on losing the weight but since being exposed more to the Chub community in the last few years I’ve been discouraged to do so by a few people. I’m not happy with my current weight and know I have to lose some of it for myself. But I question whether I should go back to my thin weight, even if it means having the excess skin which makes me so unhappy? Should I do it just for the sake of doing it?

Well I want to know what you guys think about his. To help me quantify this I’ve opened the first monthly poll to get your feedback on this topic. At the moment it will be up for a month which may be changed to a quarterly poll depending on the traffic I get on here. When you are this close to the subject it is hard to make an un-bias opinion.

Please vote on the poll and leave as many comments regarding this topic as you like.

UPDATE 2011: I decided to remove this poll from the side menu because it was not really being productive for me any longer. After quite some time up the votes were split even 50/50. Just for reference below are the two images that I had posted. Thanks to everyone that voted.

BEAR BigBearMIA

CHUB BigBearMIA