What Are ISAA Pods?

I've started new podcasting for the International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA). My last stint at podcasting was a fully recorded talk radio show called The ISAA Rapport (archives are still online).

This new podcasting will just be me audioblogging regularly on up-to-the-moment size, weight, and health-related topics.

Check it out and bookmark it!

ISAA Pods
http://isaapods.blogspot.com

I'll get back to IR topics as soon as possible.

Best Wishes,
Allen

The International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA) is delighted to announce that Dakota Main was returned to his mother on Sunday, February 20, 2005. ISAA believes that it was the lobbying efforts from the public -- from you -- that made the difference in this weight-related child removal to foster care. ISAA sends its heartfelt congratulations to Dakota, his mother and his family in friends.

To read more of this ordeal, please visit the "Free Dakota" section of the ISAA website.

FREE DAKOTA!

Before You Consider Weight Watchers, Consider This


Size Acceptance Organization Challenges U. of Pennsylvania Weight Watchers Study

I did the research on this myself. Although as a size activist I wasn't terribly surprised, it has been amazing to me the extent to which respected medical and health professionals ally themselves with the diet industry and try to help promote it. There couldn't be a financial motivation -- or is it just the

Weight Bias Among Health Professionals Specializing In Obesity? (PDF File of the shocking study by the Rudd Institute at Yale)

Within ISAA's press release is our organization's alternative to the yo-yo dieting frustration: fitness, healthy food choices and improving self-esteem. Not all that profitable, but they work.

Happy New Years -- stay safe, everyone!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Return To "Supersize Me"



The DVD of Supersize Me came out last week, featuring an additional hour of material -- including a segment with me and my ISAA Rapport co-host Gia Melissa Marciano! That's right, our segment is located in the "Deleted Scenes" section in the "Overeaters Anonymous" segment. Not that the director, Morgan Spurlock, implied anything about us, rather he chose to insert our segment after he visited and filmed an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. We're the final 34 seconds of that segment.

You can hear what Gia and I had to say about the experience in The ISAA Rapport by by clicking here! (You'll need Windows Media Player to hear it - the topic comes up in the second half of the show.)

So, this week, Gia was contacted by someone who got the DVD and saw the segment, so Gia contacts me and says "You think we're in this thing now???" Angel bought a copy and confirmed everything.

Wow! We're famous -- sorta!

Best Wishes,
Allen

Priorities

It is not bragging to say that my non-profit work with ISAA could probably gain me some kind of celebrity status; I've done an incredible amount of media spots on television, radio, newspapers and magazines...and there is no doubt that this work has helped people obtain valuable information to empower themselves and make choices to improve their lives. I'm happy to do this work and I love to help people whenever possible.

Recently, however, I've had to pull back from that work and do some delegating to other ISAA volunteers. The Lord used my minister to help me prioritize my focus...not to stop all my non-profit work but to give some much-deserved extra attention to my wife and kids as well as my day-job. It was just in time, too. The Lord has really blessed me in my communications with my wife and being able to be a more integral part of my sons' lives.

I still coordinate efforts in ISAA and maintain the ISAA website (which is not a daily task). I still read a tremendous amount of e-mail in efforts to keep up-to-date on matters that affect the size acceptance movement. But ultimately, I have to take care of home and family before I can help anyone else. That's biblical and I stand by it. The Lord has really enriched my life, even in a short time, as a result -- and I am very grateful.

Best Wishes,
Allen

Mild Modifications and Near-Future Plans, etc.

I've updated some links on IR Haven, mainly to take out newly "broken" links. I also added the "Free Dakota" banner, about an 8-year old boy taken by Child Protective Services in Valparaiso, Indiana because of the boy's weight. ISAA has decided to be supportive of this child and his mother, based upon overwhelming evidence in the mother's favor. Please check it out, you can help reunite a little boy with his wonderful, loving mother. Just click the Free Dakota button below:



In other news, my church is gearing up for a wonderful "Youthfest 2004." This is a program where our church works with other churches to send the positive message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to today's youth of all nations. First Light will be performing, as well as several other musical groups from our church, in addition to youth-oriented skits, statistics and performances by groups from other churches. The date for Youthfest 2004 is October 23, 2004 in Austin, Texas at the Delco Center. I'll give more details, including times, as I get them.

I want to do more blogging on IR Haven, but I've been wanting to keep everything relevant and not just relay talking points from the news or talk radio or what have you...

Best Wishes,
Allen

I don't normally do this but since this issue affects every American, please click on the graphic below to learn more about what the nonprofit I run, the International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA), is doing in response to yesterday's announcement by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, Tommy Thompson.
 


 

Thanks!  You may help save lives by participating in this effort.
 
Best Wishes,
Allen

(Loren) Root wishes she could turn back time. "I would've researched. I would've talked to people," she said. "You can find these support groups, you can go on the Internet." "People need to know that there's a really bad side to this procedure," she said. "Death."

A Costly Choice: Weight-Loss Surgery Wrecks Woman's Health This is the surgery that medical professionals want to happen more often -- and it's a surgery that is destroying people's lives! If you click on the story link above, this woman, Loren Root, had WLS and is slowly starving to death. There is a fund set up for this poor woman, so please help any way you can. You can also help by clicking HERE and sending a message to the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services -- people don't need this surgery, they need to be educated in self-esteem, fitness and healthy food choices. As you can see, WLS is rarely the "quick-fix" it is claimed to be. This woman's case is extreme but not terribly uncommon. It is one of the many side effects that affect more than 40% of WLS patients. Not all deaths are immediate. Please help save lives because OBESITY IS NOT A DISEASE!

What A Difference A Few Months Make

In May, I was unemployed, still kind of sick and struggling to find relevant ways to spend my time while my wife worked and my kids were at school. Now, I've been blessed with a great job (that grants overtime -- woohoo!), my volunteer work running ISAA (International Size Acceptance Association) is booming and bustling (check out our Yahoo activism -- plus I'm writing an ISAA-related book.

I may be ridiculously busy but I'm hardly complaining! It's good to have purpose and feel needed.

I won't bore you with the daily ISAA routines. Let's just say that I do a lot of communicating and coordinating, often with ISAA branch leaders in different cities (and usually different continents). I'm grateful for e-mail and instant messaging or I wouldn't be able to do all this!

Why am I writing a book? Two reasons.

One: I believe that ISAA has had a fascinating history over the last seven years. In fact, I believe ISAA's history will be one that people will enjoy and be surprised at.

Two: This is an opportunity to sum up ISAA's philosophies and recommendations to the public which I truly believe represent a realistic, healthy way to deal with the "obesity epidemic." It is my hope that this information will help improve health and save lives.

This is some of what's been going on with me lately.

I'll keep you updated as things progress.

Best Wishes,
Allen

The Call From GQ

An interesting day already. I just did a phone interview with GQ (UK Edition), representing ISAA's view on a particular plus-sized actor.

There's something very ironic in me being interviewed by GQ.

No, really.

Anyway, the interviewer was very nice and asked some interesting questions which I tried my best to answer.

I'm gonna be in GQ?

Best Wishes,
Allen

Ah, It's Friday...

First, let me announce that we got our van back last Thursday. I was glad for that, even though the PT Cruiser was pretty nice (as was having a CD stereo system in the car).

The musical drama A Crown Of Thorns went extremely well last Sunday. We had a good turnout, the program had a good pace and transitioned very smoothly between scenes and songs. One of the elements I like about our church and about this musical drama is that the makeup of the people is interracial and international. We have many IR couples in our nondenominational church and many biracial and multiracial children, young people and adults. The Bible says that God is no respecter of persons and Jesus told his disciples to preach the gospel of peace to all nations. We practice that in our everyday lives, although it took the Lord changing us to make that possible for a group of over 300 people of all ages and all nations. God gets all the glory for that because people have a hard time doing that on their own.

It's been a good week so far. Tomorrow will mark the Fifth Annual International Size Acceptance Day (ISA Day). I'm pleased to announce that Austin Mayor Gus Garcia granted my request to have Saturday April 26, 2003 proclaimed "International Size Acceptance Day" for the City of Austin, Texas. ISAA began ISA Day in 1998 as a way to bring attention to size- and self-esteem-related matters and more recently, ISAA's Respect Fitness Health Initiative.

You can view the proclamation here

I also had the pleasure of being interviewed by USA Today and the San Antonio Express-News. I don't know when the USA Today story will be printed/go online but the SA Express-News story will see print tomorrow. If I can find it online, I'll relay a link in my next blog.

That's all for now. See you soon!

Best Wishes,
Allen

More Updates

Okay, so I rescheduled Entitled 2003 to the fall of this year, for numerous reasons (the war's impact on travel and planning being a huge factor) -- so now all I'm really concentrating on is Easter 2003. And actually, that's quite enough as I'm playing electric bass guitar for my church's Easter Drama/Musical this Sunday. The drama/musical is called A Crown Of Thorns. My wife, Angel, will be performing in the musical as well, as part of the orchestral ensemble. So we've had a lot of rehearsals in the last couple of months.

Click here to listen to one of the songs from "A Crown Of Thorns" called "Praise Ye The Lord"

"Praise Ye The Lord" is in Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. If you need a copy of Windows Media Player (also available for Mac), click here. It was recorded live and is not quite CD-quality but should give you a good idea how the song goes (and yes, I play bass on it)...

If you're in the Austin/Manor, Texas area and would like to come to "A Crown Of Thorns," it's this Sunday at Manor High School Auditorium in Manor, Texas. Admission is free and you can e-mail me for directions if you are interested in attending.

We (my wife and I) hit an interesting snag last week when our van started having radiator problems, so I took the van to the dealership. Of course, there were complications and delays and cost add-ons (I have learned my lesson about dealerships now). Bottom line: we are still waiting on the final repairs and the return of our vehicle (I took it in almost a week ago) BUT there was one silver lining to an otherwise frustrating cloud...we got a loaner of a 2002 black PT Cruiser! (which looks almost identical to the pic below)



We will probably be informed that our van is fixed by the end of today or tomorrow but in the meantime, the `cruiser is fine with us...although it's not well-suited for transporting a bass guitar and amplifier.

Why do people stare at PT Cruisers so much? Sure, they're unique-looking enough but they've been around for a couple of years now! I see plenty of them on the road but it seems like everyone has to stare when we park or are waiting at a traffic light. Do you think no one's ever seen an IR couple and their kids in a PT Cruiser before? In a way, it's funny because no one's said anything rude...they just stare like they've never seen one of these before. Go fig?

Anyway, I'll write again soon. Bye for now!

Best Wishes,
Allen

St. Paul and New England radio coverage and, oh yeah, now I'm A Movie Star...

Happy Valentine's Day

I apologize for the lack of blog in the last week or so but I have more than enough exciting info to make up for it!

Last Monday (2.3.03) I got a call from a radio show producer in St. Paul, Minnesota. She had seen the TIME Magazine article I was quoted in and wanted me to appear on the Arnie Arneson show. Arnie was a most gracious radio host, included me in her morning topic prior to discussing ISAA and the TIME article; I had about 25 minutes on her morning show. Then, after we finished, she called me personally at my home and said she felt things went so well that she wanted to include me in her afternoon show. She told me she is heard throughout New England on her afternoon show and of course I agreed. The afternoon show was even more productive, as we discussed size acceptance, health, fitness, the decline of physical fitness in schools, Without Measure, Entitled 2003 and more! All in one day...



That same Monday, I got a call from a filmmaker named Morgan in New York who's shooting a documentary concerning the recent fast food lawsuits. This has the potential to be a major documentary that could be released in theaters around the country. After communicating via phone, voicemail and e-mail for over a week, Morgan and Steve The Cameraman arrived in Austin late yesterday afternoon. I asked Gia Melissa Marciano, my co-host from The ISAA Rapportand the President of the ISAA Austin chapter to be a part of the documentary; I also asked if we could film our segment of the documentary at her and Darren The Producer (her partner)'s house; she agreed.

After waiting a mere 45 minutes for them to make the house environment suitable for filming, Gia and I were miked for sound and the interrogation began. Actually, Morgan and Steve were perfect gentlemen (although I think they would cringe at being described that way) and went out of their way to make everyone comfortable and engaged in what we were doing. I'm not going to go into much detail about the film because I don't want to give too much away, it's a really great concept and should help inform a lot of people about health- and size-related issues. Morgan seemed to be very pleased with the sound bites he got from our interview and felt it would get some good facts out to the public, which what ISAA is all about.

Now, considering that the whole interview was somewhere between one and two hours, (where does the time GO?) we'll probably be fortunate to get 10 minutes in the film, but that's fine. This was a great opportunity.

...and now Gia and I can say we are movie stars...

...non-paid movie stars...

...but movie stars nonetheless!



Best Wishes,
Allen

A Strange New Milestone Of Sorts

The latest issue of TIME Magazine (the January 27, 2003 issue) is hitting many shelves across the country today -- and I am quoted in it, as part of their business article "How To Sell XXXL." My quote is in regards to the Southwest Airlines policy towards "people of size" from July 2002 and it appears on the last page of the article (which starts on page 43). I was interviewed because of my role as Director of the International Size Acceptance Association (ISAA). The article addresses how American businesses are adapting to service larger and larger-sized Americans (or in the case of SW Airlines, how some businesses are working against larger-sized Americans).

I've done media interviews before but none of this kind -- in a generally well-respected national/international publication like TIME Magazine. It's already snagged me a radio interview with Atlanta's WGST 670; I did that yesterday morning and was interviewed by Tom Hughes. I thought it went well.

In other news closer to home, I'm very proud of my sons (and my wife, too -- but that should go without saying.



My oldest son, Adam (he's 7), is in first grade but reading at mid-2nd grade level. He's also astoundingly creative and writes short, illustrated stories he calls his books; he can write them spontaneously and they are always to-the-point, interesting and tend to have a moral or a distinct message.

Josey (4) has just reached the point of being able to play with us or his brother or be able to entertain himself in song or thought or drawing or playing. He'll be entering pre-school this fall. Josey is much more cerebral and serious but he often wakes in a good mood and stays in a good mood throughout the day. He imitates his brother a lot (which is normal, of course, but uniquely amusing sometimes, too).

My wife is a very private person so I can't divulge too much about her, except to say that she is a wonderful, beautiful person whom I deeply adore.

I'll blog more soon...

Best Wishes,
Allen