But I'd rather go somewhere I know I'm not being judged whether I'm thin or not or fat or not. Also, I like the pools with stairs and no ladders. Those ladders have always hurt my feet, even when I was a slim, AAU synchronized swimmer.

In my opinion, anywhere that promotes acceptance of people as they are is a good place to be. And just because it may be unhealthy to be fat, doesn't mean you should belittle a person for being that way. We all know how hard it is to control our weight.

And we all need encouragement of all types. Many of us cannot make the changes we need to make to get our weight under control until we are comfortable with ourselves as we are. When you have people always telling you how fat you are, it's hard to be comfortable with yourself.

I don't see this resort as any kind of encouragement for being fat. Instead I see it as somewhere that allows you to be yourself without making value judgements at you based on your size. As they said, most other places that cater to larger people are places to "help" you lose the weight. That I think is cruel and I would never go to one of those kinds of places.

And when it comes down to it, I've given up being embarrassed by my appearance. If people don't like the way I look, they can keep their mouths shut and their distance. And if they do say something rude or unkind to me, they might get likewise back.

;-Deb