Fat Tuesday – Love Your Handles!

It’s almost Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday, or as I grew up knowing it Pancake Tuesday.

I never knew when exactly it was, or even why exactly it was, but mom always made me crepes! She’d slice up the nicest fresh fruit she could find, whip up cream, and make sure we had a little duster filled with powdered sugar. It was a great surprise, especially since I never knew when it was coming. Was it February? April? March? Who knew? Mom did and she kept it secret. (My mom rocks!)

Since then I’ve acquired some Roman Catholic in-laws who have educated me in the whole Lent-thing and the fact that Pancake Tuesday is actually Shrove Tuesday. Though they didn’t know what I was on about when I started asking about Pancake Tuesday and Hot Cross Bun Friday. (I still don’t know when that is.)

However, while I love Pancake Tuesday, I’ve realized that the world really needs Fat Tuesday. At least we need it the way I see it.

Fat Tuesday is an excellent opportunity to recognize the impact of societies negative view of being fat. Now I’m not pretending that there are no health issues with carrying weight. Nor am I advocating people zipping off to their local Timmies for a 40 pack of timbits for lunch.

However, Fat Tuesday can serve as the perfect reminder that no matter how much you hate the fat, there is a person in there who doesn’t deserve to hate themselves. Creampuff explains it better.

So, on Fat Tuesday, why not:

• strive to cut yourself a little slack
• complement someone who looks good, whether they are big, small or in between.
• Wear something sexy no matter what size you are.
• try not to talk about calories, weigh-ins, and how “fat” you are. (Especially around someone who is bigger than you.)
• love your love handles.

Why not celebrate Fat Tuesday by throwing a little love around? And what the hell – buy yourself a crepe too.