Big and Active in Puddletown

[darkemeralds]

Well, I tweeted too soon. Of course.

Me, yesterday: Amazing how often it doesn't actually rain in Portland. I've cycled every day & been drenched only once. The weather is great from a bike! 12:59 PM Dec 14th from TwitterGadget

Ah-ha-ha-ha.

Make that drenched twice now. And just keep counting, twice more for every workday between now and Xmas, because it's pissing it down out there in that endless Pacific Northwest way that caused the Journals of Lewis and Clark to begin many a day in 1805 with "Cloudy windey morning wind from the East" and end it with "began to rain hard at Sun Set and Continued".

Merino wool is my new best friend! I found Minus33, a source of washable merino wool sport garments IN MY SIZE. I wore my new thin wool leggings and socks today, and though I was pretty soaked, I was warm and comfy. I wrote a fan letter to Minus33 to thank them for acknowledging that yes, big women do go outdoors in the wintertime.

Seriously, how much of the vaunted inactivity of large people is owing to their ghettoization by the American bullshit notion that activity=competitive sports and fitness=Olympic training? You don't need special gear to go outside and move around, but you DO need climate-appropriate clothes. The acrylic and polyester that fills up the plus-size shops is not adequate...but the sporting-specific shops look at you with a kind of pity when you wander over to their clothing racks.

So, thank you Minus33! If you had anything other than black, I'd buy one of every color!

Comments

[forodwaith.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm currently trying to figure out what clothes to bring to your fair coast for the weekend & I have no idea. My winter wardrobe is built for blizzards, not drizzle.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Water repellent shoes (or shoes that dry fast), a raincoat, and a hat of some water-repellent kind--felted wool is good.

Otherwise, just be comfy. We don't dress up here. And we ignore the rain as much as possible.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

Icebreaker do similar merino clothing in sizes that are big enough for me - I don't know how that compares with your size needs - and some of the garments come in colours that are not black. I turn their leggings into long shorts so that I can comfortably wear skirts in the summer without chafing problems. (I then refer to my long shorts as 'bloomers' which is what my grandmother used to wear, for this amuses me.)

And I have exactly the same complaints about 'active wear'. I mean, the bigger one is, the more desperate one's need for a supportive sports bra. When I was still doing karate, I had huge problems finding any kind of sports bra in a 34G.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I love Icebreakers, and I have one of their wonderful hats. But as far as I can tell (at least in the American market), they just don't offer my size. I'm both big AND tall, and I don't mean to imply that my limitations are only in active sportswear, because they aren't. At every weight, I have trouble finding trousers long enough, hats and gloves big enough, etc. Getting bigger around has compounded the problem, and I surpassed the "acceptably large" size that Icebreakers cater for at some point.

And don't get me started on bras! I'm not in the G realm--that has to be really difficult!--but it's all problematic.

[lamentables.livejournal.com]

I'm not tall, just fat, so my problems are not so extensive as yours - gloves and hats are petty easy for me - but they do happen across all types of clothing. I am not the shape for which women's clothes are sold.

I'm wearing lovely, comfy Indian clothes right now - black, red and gold, I feel positively festive - and was just wondering if I should pick apart my least favourite shalwar to make a pattern. Then I could have roomy, easy-to-wear trousers in winter fabrics too... *contemplates some more*

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

If you can sew and don't mind taking apart a favorite garment, it seems worth a try. I'm about ready to bust out my sewing machine too.

[serenity-valley.livejournal.com]

Hee, I wondered if you were braving the downpour on Clyde. You're a true cyclist now, eh? But with the right clothes, the wet is manageable for just about anything.

Congrats on the great find for warm clothes and Word Word Wordy McWord on the ghettoization of climate appropriate clothes for outdoor activities for anyone not magazine-cover-proportioned.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I went back and ordered a few more items from them (after fangirling them to death with my little fangirl email) because money, mouth, etc.

I really do need some actual waterproof rain-type gear next. Warm is all very well, but soaking wet is still unpleasant.

[kispexi2.livejournal.com]

*fierce nodding*

People also need facilities for washing/drying when they get to work.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I have drying facilities: the back of my monitors, the top of my computer...it was like a laundry in my cubicle yesterday morning.

[tehomet.livejournal.com]

Seriously, how much of the vaunted inactivity of large people is owing to their ghettoization by the American bullshit notion that activity=competitive sports and fitness=Olympic training? You don't need special gear to go outside and move around, but you DO need climate-appropriate clothes. The acrylic and polyester that fills up the plus-size shops is not adequate...but the sporting-specific shops look at you with a kind of pity when you wander over to their clothing racks.

Yeah, absolutely. Some of it is down to getting treated badly when one does go out and move around. I stopped walking back from the train station after work the third time some idiot threw rubbish and shouted abuse at me from passing car. I stopped cycling the second time someone threw a rock. It's so annoying! One gets judged by appearances, criticised for being fatandlazy -- for apparently that's just one word there -- and then criticised for exercising too. *rolls eyes*

I now get my exercise walking my dogs in the woods or on the beach. Having dogs by me is useful. *I* know that my dogs are sweetnatured (if huge) pooches who wouldn't hurt a fly. But to anyone who doesn't know them, they are enormous slavering barky hellbeasts who thirst for human blood and are only too willing to shred the flesh of the unwary.

Muhahaha! I love being a dog owner. :)

But I digress.

On the wetgear topic, I have consulted with my cycling peers and am informed that breathability is the most important thing. Good luck with the search!

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes, the abuse is lovely, isn't it? It happened to me a lot when I was younger, the shouting out of epithets as if I were a blank canvas for men (it was almost 100% men) to paint their hatred of women onto.

As a gray haired lady, I'm now free of most of it; all of that on-the-street abuse bullshit comes from the sense of entitlement that the world has over young(ish) women still in their reproductive years. The whole world thinks it owns you and that you owe it your body, and that they are therefore free to comment on it. I was both fat and thin at various times in my younger days, and whether it was a wolf-whistle or a shout of "Get your fat ass moving", it was equally abusive.

Sigh. It's good to be free of it, though of course the price is that you become invisible, inaudible and "stupid."

I love that you have big scary dogs! Barky hellbeasts FTW!

And on the raingear front, not much luck, but I've discovered that on rainy-but-not-cold days (as most of our days are here), a base layer of polyester is my friend. It dries quickly once I get where I'm going. Simple, outside-the-box solution that I learned from other dressed-for-the-office cyclists on the Intarwebz.