Fire Fighting Tales from Rural Maine: Fire truck you, BMI believers!

I just want to pause here and send out a big "fuck you" (or "fire truck you!" in cleaner parlance) to anyone who is attached to the idea that having a high BMI (body mass index) means that you are in a "physically unhealthy condition."

Even though I lost a little fat and gained a lot of muscle and my scale at home says I lost 12 pounds training to earn my black helmet (and my doctor's scale says I lost four pounds), the body you see here is a body that is still considered clinically obese. It is also a body with a blood pressure that is generally around 92/62; it has healthy blood sugars; and a heart so healthy its cardiologist says it will live a long and healthy life. This body with all its curves and contours, is a body that can carry a 200-pound man down a ladder. It can run and jump and climb and do yoga. It can endure!

If you are thinking (or being told) that because you have a round body or a high BMI, regardless of your gender, picture this body and know that if it can swing a sledgehammer at a concrete wall with success, so can you!

Know that *joyfulness* is more powerful and less measurable than any number you can see on a scale. Know that finding joy and moving your body in ways that give you satisfaction and pleasure are your inalienable rights. And that you are *desirable* and powerful and sexy and alive, just as you are!

Instead of focusing on labels (like "obese") and instead of focusing on numbers, let that shit go, and focus on *joy*. Joy will boost your immune system. Joy will inspire and strengthen you. Joy will make your heart healthier. Find your thing--do your thing! Move your body and *enjoy* living in it! Right now. Not five or ten or twenty pounds from now. Right the-fire-truck now!

<Individuals with a BMI of 30-34.99 are in a physically unhealthy condition, which puts them at risk for serious ilnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, gall bladder disease, and some cancers. This holds especially true if you have a larger than recommended Waist Size. These people would benefit greatly by modifying their lifestyle. Ideally, see your doctor and consider reducing your weight by 5-10 percent. Such a weight reduction will result in considerable health improvements.>>