My butt, January 2009

My butt,  January 2009
(who could miss it)

My butt, January 2010

My butt, January 2010
photos by Tom Peal

Welcome to You and All your Brilliant Parts!

In 2009 I lost 40 lbs and I got a new butt. How? Diet and exercise, that's the short answer. But all of the things I learned that made it emotionally possible, that allowed me to succeed when I had failed before - that will take longer. This blog celebrates the intelligence of the body. Please leave me a note to let me know what you think of this writing, if it's been helpful. I welcome your input and experience.

Why Content Warning?

Weight loss is a grown-up topic.  To consciously choose to reduce the weight of your body, fat that your body has created because of or in support of your lifestyle, is an adult activity based on an adult's ability to reason and reflect using experience and perspective.

Children need our help and teaching in all areas of their lives.  The only way people learn is through experience.  So, the best we can do to help young learners is to create learning environments where they can learn what we want them to.  That is Dewey's definition of education.  He also defined mis-education: learning the wrong things.  When kids find themselves alone in adult learning environments, they often learn the wrong things, and these ideas burden them.  They re-appear in strange forms and sometimes don't go away (because children don't have the perspective to view them correctly.)

I don't think we should burden kids, especially obese or severely under-weight kids, with our adult summations and perspectives of their child experiences.  After all, childrens' number one imperative is to grow.  So how can a child understand that he's "too big?"

I'm glad blogger.com gave me the opportunity to invite only adult minds into our discussion.  It is our job to teach the children with environments they can understand, and that certainly doesn't include a blog about my butt.

Thanks for reading, Jenni