Dear Old Navy,

Here is the email I recently sent to Old Navy (custserv@oldnavy.ca):

Dear Old Navy:

I recently went on your Canadian website to check out your plus size selection since it is no longer available in stores.  I was very disappointed to discover that your women’s plus is only available on your American site. 

Now, I have spent a significant amount of money at Old Navy in the past.  While I am a plus sized woman, many of the tops and sweaters that you carry fit me very nicely, and I have also shopped for gifts on numerous occasions for friends and family.  For the past few years Old Navy has been one of my favourite places to do a lot of my Christmas shopping.  Unfortunately, since you clearly don’t want my plus sized, Canadian dollars anymore, I won’t be shopping in your stores, and I refuse to pay the exorbitant rates on international shipping from your American site, and I will be encouraging my friends and family to do the same.

Thank you,

Rachel Hart

And here is Old Navy's response:

Dear Rachel,

Thank you for sharing your feedback regarding the lack of Plus sized merchandise at Old Navy and oldnavycanada.ca. We do our best to offer our customers top quality, fashionable merchandise at a fair price, and we regret disappointing you. Customer feedback is an important part of our business and we will be sure to share your remarks with our design and merchandising teams.

We appreciate your business and hope that you will continue to check out our latest fashions at Old Navy.

If we may be of further assistance, please contact us at custserv@oldnavy.ca or 1-800-653-6289.

Now, I must admit that I really like Old Navy, they have cute stuff at great prices and to be fair they do carry regular stock up to a size 18, which is better than many stores.  I just can't support a store that won't cater to me.  So I won't be spending any of my hard earned money at Old Navy any more.  I don't expect anyone else to do the same but if you're affected by this please let Old Navy know that you're disappointed, and feel free to copy the email that I wrote to them.  It is not ok for retailers to exclude plus size women, and we need to let them know that!!

Health at Every Size…

So I’m trying this new thing and it’s all about getting healthier.  Now most of the time when people say “getting healthier” they don’t really mean that, they mean losing weight.  For most people losing weight is almost impossible, the often cited statistic is that 95% of diets fail. Now I’ve never been much of a dieter, but I do have those occasional bouts where I decided I should lose weight and go to the gym for a few weeks until I remember that I hate going to the gym and give up.  Now, I’m just a beginner at this but, the basic theory behind Health at Every Size is that if you give your body the food that it needs and move in a way that you enjoy, your body will be healthier regardless of whether you lose weight or not.  It’s really all about doing things that make your body feel good.  For example, I feel good when I do yoga, and I feel good when I eat more fresh food as opposed to highly processed stuff.  It’s also about letting go of all those good food/bad food rules that we all keep hearing and eating food that you like and that makes you feel good, and not punishing yourself for eating a piece of cake it that’s what you want.  I'm not trying to convince or convert anyone here, I just wanted to share some things that I'm learning with you.

Linda Bacon wrote the book called Health at Every Size: The Surprising Truth About Your Weight.  I haven’t finished reading the book yet but I highly recommend it to everyone, even if you’re not struggling with weight or body issues.  There’s a lot of really great information in the book and all of it backed up by science as evidenced by the impressive bibliography at the back of the book. 

There will be more posts about Health at Every Size (HAES) in the future but anyone who is looking for some more info can click below:

Click here for more information about the book.

Here Ragen, of Dances with Fat, talks about why she decided on Health at Every Size, and I highly suggest you stick around and read some of her other posts becuase they're all really intelligent and well written.

I've also been reading a lot about fat acceptance lately...get more info here and here

Studying, LOMA, and Cupcakes

If you’ve been wondering where the hells I’ve been lately, I’ve spent the last few weeks chained to my computer studying for my LOMA exam, which was today and which I passed with a 90%. Yay me!! By way of background information LOMA is the Life Office Management Association which offers professional development courses for the financial, insurance, and other industries.  The exam I just wrote was for LOMA 280 – Principles of Insurance, the first course of the Fellow, Life Management Institute (FLMI) designation.  The designation consists of 10 courses.  You can only take one course at a  time and this one took me about 5 months to complete (although there were a couple of months in the middle when I didn’t really work on it at all), so in theory the designation could take about 5 years.  The great thing about these courses is that I take them through my work and they pay for them, unless I fail the test and then I have to reimburse the course fee.  Now here’s my dilemma, since the future of my career is at this time somewhat uncertain (as I’m trying to relocate to the town my Mister lives in) do I sign up for the next course?  If I sign up and don’t complete the course, I have to pay the course fee.  But on the other hand continuous learning always looks good on a resume, and if I complete the second course I get a certificate to show I’ve done level 1 of my FLMI designation.

On a more fun and delicious note I had the best cupcakes ever on the weekend!  My Mister and I were celebrating his birthday and I decided to buy cupcakes instead of a cake.  I went to Razzle Dazzle Cupcakes in London, and I highly recommend that everyone go there!!  My Mister is kind of a food snob, and he’s not really a big fan of cupcakes in general and he went crazy over these cupcakes.  I cannot stress enough how amazing these cupcakes are.  It’s just a family run bakery in an old converted house where the people are really nice and the cupcakes are beautiful and yummy. Seriously, Best! Cupcakes! Ever!  Oh, and if you go there and buy cupcakes, please pick up one for me. :)

Recent discovery

I have recently made a discovery that I thought I should share with everyone for safety and health reasons.  Listen carefully everyone, because this is shocking...Kraft Dinner mac and cheese, does in fact go bad.  That's right kids those blue boxes have an expiry date on them for a reason!  I discovered this recently when I really wanted mac and cheese and luckily there was one box in the pantry.  So after boiling the noodles and everything I dumped the cheese pouch into the pot and immediately noticed that the colour was off, instead of the normal flourescent orange the powder was more of a dark reddish colour.  I was so excited about my mac and cheese that I mixed it all up but the first bite was disgusting and I threw it all in the trash after realizing that it had expired 6 months ago.  So for those of you who think that stuff like Kraft Dinner can't go bad, be forwarned! And always check the expiry date for the safety of you and your family.  Now go make some KD for dinner becuase when it's good, it's oh so good! :)

Thank you...

Dear Random girl walking down the street, thank you for rocking that white feathered headband in your hair. 

Dear Random girl rocking a cute black summer dress on a sunny day, thanks for reminding everyone that summer is on its way.

Dear Random guy in the grocery store parking lot, thanks for taking my cart back for me, and other random guy who held the door open for me when I was carrying in my groceries, thanks for letting me know that chivalry is indeed alive and well.

Thanks to the lady in the green car who waved my through the intresection even though it was your turn.

And thanks to my yoga instructor who always tells me that I'm doing a great job and encourages me to keep coming back to yoga and pilates.

Most importantly, to all my family and friends who have been there through the good, bad, and ugly, the thick (and not so) thin, thank you!

Just a few random shout outs to remind everyone that world if full of great people and things if you just look for them. 

Fun and Fit - Update

So as promised, here is an update on my fitness challenge.  Most importantly, my team is totally winning (and not in a losery Charlie Sheen kind of a way).  Also very important is the fact that I have discovered that I love yoga, even at 7:30 in the morning on Mondays and Wednesdays!  I also love pilates, unfortunely that class is only offered once a week, on Fridays at lunch.  I have also discovered that I don't really like working out every day.  In trying to earn points for my team I have been attempting to exercise 7 days a week, and frankly, it's tiring!  Anyway, whether my team wins or loses, I have found that I acutally like yoga and pilates, and I plan to continue going to those classes even after this challenge is over, so I consider that a personal victory.  I highly recommend yoga to everyone.  I always feel so good on the days I do yoga, it might make your body happy too.

Editor's Update - My team totally won the challenge, and spent the next few days rubbing it in our bosses faces!

Reality vs. Reality

Does it bother anyone else that reality tv has little to no basis in acutal reality?  I'm not talking about competition type shows like Idol or Dancing with the stars, some things may be exaggerated for the camera but that's not really my issue.  I'm talking about shows like Teen Mom and Jersey Shore. I don't actually watch Jersey Shore so I can't even comment on the content of the show, but according to an online report  Mike "The Situation" earned $3 million in 2010, and his buddy Pauly D made a cool $2 million, and for what??  From what I can tell these guys make millions of dollars to get drunk and act a fool whereas I get up and go work in an office every day and will probably never see a million dollars!  Not long ago one of the young mothers on MTV's Teen Mom was in court because she beat up her baby daddy, and the judge asked her salary, and the answer was $280, 000!! Most hard working people I know don't make even close to that much.  And correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe that any of these "reality stars" are putting their huge earnings toward education or charity, as far as I can tell most of them are spending it on new boobs.  So apparently the message that "reality" tv is sending young people is to get pregnant at 16, perhaps through in some alcohol and/or drug abuse, and some violent outbursts and you'll have it made.  Apparently this is the new American Dream.