Mmmmm, so not everyone is impressed with the results of my 12-week challenge then?

If there's one thing that really gives me the irrits, it's name calling such as that. What exactly does it prove? What does it gain?

I'm overweight. Yep. Bigger than I should be. So I'll wear the fatty tag. But what does calling me that prove? Does it make you feel better to say something like that?

The truth is being called 'fatty' didn't hurt me at all. I'm big enough these days to handle such barbs. But that wasn't always the case.

Sometimes names hurt and sometimes they can do some serious damage to people.

Take the much publicised case of Adam Goodes and the teenage girl who called him a racist name during an AFL match at the MCG last season.

Truth be told she probably didn't really mean anything by it. But clearly she didn't have any idea or comprehend the power of using that name against Goodes. She does now and so do a lot of other people and that is a great step forward. 

It comes down to what's deemed acceptable by society standards and that's how it should be, right?

During a tour of the United States we got chatting to an African American in a Washington hotel bar one night. 

The conversation moved into friendships and acceptable language and somewhere along the line he raised the N word to illustrate just how offensive some things can be.

It made me squirm.

Uneasy.

We are so educated that this word is totally out of bounds that to hear it that night generated an instant reaction.

He went on to explain he had no issue with his close friends calling him that - almost a term of endearment - but should I have used it against him, well, the reaction would have been far more drastic.

The world is getting far better educated on this, thankfully.

Growing up I was often called Chinese.

I was born with my eyes closed and the subsequent operations to open them left me with what kids in the school yard and on opposing sporting teams would often refer to as 'slanty eyes'.

That hurt.

When you're in the schoolyard the power of such names is magnified significantly because you don't have the maturity to deal with such things and you just want to be liked.

What's that saying, kids say the cruelest things?

Looking back today I wonder what all that fuss was about - should have just turned the other cheek.

Yes, it's easy to say 'sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me'. Accepting that as the truth is a little harder when you're on the receiving end.

Think about that next time you go to call someone a name.