Ragen Chastain - Ragen is pictured in a dance pose against a white backdrop. She is caucasian, fat, with long dark wavy hair and a determined look on her face. She balances on her right foot, while she stretches her left foot high, up near her head, and holds it with her left hand. Her right hand is gracefully reaching up and away from her toward the right.In today’s video interview, I’m pleased to introduce you to Ragen Chastain! Ragen has been a huge inspiration to me for years and her activism work around size acceptance and fat discrimination are so impactful and absolutely necessary.

Ragen is a trained researcher, three-time National Champion dancer and marathoner who writes and speaks full-time about self-esteem, body image, and health. Ragen is the author of the blog DancesWithFat and the book Fat: The Owner’s Manual, and her writing has been published in forums including the Huffington Post, Calgary Herald, Jezebel.com and The Frisky.com. She has been a guest on programs including Fox News, Alberta Primetime, HuffPost Live, NPR, BBC, and NBC News, and has been featured as an expert in media including The Associated Press, Bloomberg Businessweek, FITNESS, and the Chicago Tribune. She is the editor of the multi-volume anthology The Politics of Size – Perspectives from the Fat Acceptance Movement, due out for Praeger in 2015.

In this interview, I talked with Ragen about being a fat athlete, IRONMAN training, using the body you have today, and much more. Check it out:

Connect with Ragen

You can find Ragen around the internet at the following places:

Dances With Fat – Ragen’s excellent blog, full of resources on size acceptance, fat activism, and Health At Every Size. You can also support Ragen’s activism and become a contributing member to her blog.

IronFat – where you can follow Ragen’s IRONMAN training

The Fit Fatties Forum and Fit Fatties Facebook page – where anyone, of any size can discuss fitness from a weight-neutral, Health at Every Size perspective

Buy Ragen’s book and dance DVDs

Join the Dances With Fat newsletter list

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