That last one sounds interesting, if a bit pre-judgemental.

I hope it's interesting - and yeah it is judgemental, but SF fen? Not your most physically fit bunch of guys and gals. Sedentery jobs and sedentery hobbies, except for things like SCA, for the most part.

And we're getting older as a group, too.

(I am sort of qualified, with the martial arts and all. And I do want to make the point that fitness has nothing to do with how much you weigh. Cause I'm still 200 lbs.)

I'd be interested in a discussion about the phenom of "fan-shaped fans", and how it might relate to health and whatnot. I'd even be down for talking about ways to affect positive changes.

I just can't help but roll my eyes at the "killing themselves" thing. Possibly they deliberately went for a provocative title in order to get people's attention, but my gut says that when you make that your opening foray what's really going to happen is a lot of debate/argument over whether or not fat=death and very little substantive discussion about what it means to be healthy.

Which is a shame b/c I really do think some good discussion could be had.

Hey - maybe we should try our own panel at Connexions. 8)

We should do one. You want to propose it?

And so far as I'm concerned, it's inactivity=death. A sedentary thin person is just as unhealthy as a sedentary fat one.

Can we give it a better title? ;)

And yeah. It's not fat vs. thin. Being healthy is so much more than what you weigh. I have friends who are very overweight, but who have the blood pressure and cholestorol levels of a completely healthy person. Heck, so do I, now that I come to think of it (I'm so used to only caring about my thyroid levels when I get my yearly blood test.)

If we do the panel, what do you want to focus on? I think for me I'm more interested in the sociological and cultural aspects than the medical ones. None of us are dietitians or doctors, we're not really qualified to speak on what is or isn't healthy. And I think focusing mainly on that is a way to send the conversation into a non-winning spiral of things like Atkins vs. Weight Watchers and Studies that show fat=death vs Studies that show Yo-yo dieting=death.

But I do think there could be interesting discussion about the general concepts of fandom and weight, and fandom and healthful habits.

Just going off the top of my head, discussion topics could include:

Does fandom as a culture encourage healthful living?
Does fandom as a culture encourage positive self-esteem? (which is often tied into weight issues)
How do we feel about the phenom of "fan-shaped fans"?
Should fandom as a culture try to work towards promoting overall healthfulness (both physical and emotional)? If so, how?

Things like that. What do you think?

I think that you've hit on a lot of my issues, and I think that's the best direction. We probably will have dietetians at the convention, and if they attend the panel, they can speak to the medical stuff.

I say, let's do it.

Focusing on *fitness*, yes.

They still haven't emailed me my schedule yet...

Hmm. Maybe they're just assuming you'll be on every panel again?

Ghod, I hope not.. :-)

:)

BTW, we've decided you and Nomi have the right idea, and we'll just have our own Shabbat dinner. Sometimes, you just don't want to do the group thing.

Yeah, Arisia is hectic enough as it is for us, especially with the open house we like to throw on Saturday night.

I think it would also be worthwhile and pertinent in your panel on fandom and fitness to mention the kinds of foods found in your average con suite, and how to make healthy choices. I've been very pleased to see things like raw vegetable trays in con suites - containing tomatoes, carrots, sugar snap peas, and red peppers.

I don't think that you need to be a dietician or nutritionist to say general things like "Avoid white flour, sugar, grains and other highly processed foods, eat lots of raw and steamed veggies, eat complex carbohydrates like whole grain cereals and breads, and eat plenty of fruit." Those statements are repeated over and over in the media by people who are talking about different diet plans, and I don't think any of them are particularly controversial. Also, like many others, portion control is my big bugaboo. That's my 2 cents :)

The problem with healthy foods in con suites is that you don't want to spend money on food people won't eat. That said, yeah. I know I make an effort to provide a balance between outright junk and healthier stuff. I'd have a riot if I didn't have chocolate and chips, but veggie trays seem to be popular, too.

I want to go to Arisia!
I would love to meet you and the topics sounds good!

:) If you can go, that would be lovely.