A story about my hot date.

So I had been hanging out with a new boy and the other night we were talking on all sorts of topics. He has no idea I'm blogging on dieting, yet some how, as of course it often does, the issue of "fat people" (as he liked to put it) came up.
Boy: "I dont believe in that crap about fat people being genetically prone to being overweight. I think that anyone who is fat is fat because they dont exercise and their lazy." (His words were somewhere along the lines of this.)
Me: Thats interesting, I think that genetics does play a role and no not everyone can be as skinny as some one else regardless of how much they exercise and how well they eat. Every body is different.

He is kinda of an air head, so we dont hang out much lately ... but I just thought it would be interesting to provide evidence of this "I'm thin and your lazy" attitude and its ever-lurking force in my day-to-day life.

Since When Did Weight Become Like the Weather?
A clevor and very true metaphor I just found in a blog entry on myspace. This woman draws upon the media and general populations frequency and emphasis on weight as comparable to the everyday conversations and importance of the weather. Just another person who feels the weight obsession has gone overboard.
Check it: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=75830252&blogID=195198848

Reality Television Pushing Healthy Girls to "GET HOTTER" or else.

Has anyone seen the new Dallas Texas Cheerleaders reality television show? My roommate was watching a marathon yesterday and I couldnt help but listen in. The show documents the journey of a 40-girl group of potential Dallas Texas cheerleaders and their journey to making the team. It also reveals another example of the ridiculous standards women are put to. If these girls were cut based on a lack of talent alone (which yes some are) and not because of the way their body looks in the uniform or their bottoms looking "too large" then I would consider this an ethical audition. Listening to the show you hear the two middle-aged judges critique the "fattness" of girls photographs, these girls who work out hours a day and are in amazing shape! What they propose is that these girls meet requirments impossible for many body types, regardless of diet or exercise. Im repulsed as I watch these poor gorgeous women cry over their bodies and their inability to achieve their dream of making this team despite their heatlhy and by no means overweight frames.
As girls are cut the coaches utter , "too bad...she was so pretty." Let us please analyze this phrase. Too bad, she was pretty? How about too bad... she was so smart... she had such an amazing drive ... or she had a lot of talent.
Even more sickening is that it is women who are perpetuating the focus on looks as opposed to talent. I guess sometimes women can be the most vicious enemy to the esteem of their own sex.

Smoking for weight loss?

This is yet another examle of the extreme measure we are willing to go to, sacraficing our lives for a hotter bod!
Despite the well-known adverse affects of smoking; cancer, breathlessness, yellow teeth, asthma, cough, death . . . many people, particularly women, continue or even take up the smoking habit as a means of weight control. Many who are current smokers fear quitting because of the usual 5-8 pound weight gain which accompanies losing the habit.
Because smokers, on average, are known only to weigh 5-6 pounds less than a non-smoker it is important to understand that an almost insignificant few pounds of loss or gain is meaningless in comparison to acquiring a life threatening disease and losing the breathing ability to maintain a healthy heart
Smokers: Stop smoking and only then can you actually breathe sufficiently enough to perform cardiovascular workouts! Workouts will not only improve your health but allow you to keep off those few terrifying pounds. Duh people.
http://www.http:/no-smoking.org/april02/04-30-02-1.html

Let’s encourage and nurture our unhealthy obsessions, shall we?

HP digital cameras have just released a new product which enables an instant “slimming effect.” Obviously targeting women, this camera enables the owner to look up to ten pounds slimmer in their photographs with a touch of a button. Men are marketing this as a perfect idea to appease girlfriends who are always asking “do these jeans make me look fat?” By hitting the button before showing their girlfriends their photo they can essentially trick their girlfriends into liking the way they look.

This marketing, in addition to the benefits being sold are pathetic.
A product like this seems merely to me another exploitation of our body image obsessions and potentially the perfect recipe for the development or encouragement of an eating disorder. The woman they use in their marketing isn’t event slightly overweight! Are they encouraging an emaciated look as the new in?

5’9 models must weigh 123 pounds (suggested healthy BMI)

A sign of progress… as of last month, Spain has enacted a law requiring a model of 5’9" to weigh at least 123 pounds, considered the minimal healthy weight for a woman of this height. The current average is 110 pounds for a 5'9" model. People are worried to death that this is some kind of slap at free speech or what have you, but since the thrust for the laws was a supermodel who starved herself to death, the truth of the matter is this is basically a necessary protection for the models so that their employers can’t demand they sacrifice their health in order to keep their jobs.

Real life example, Sarah Lenah, had an agent tell her she must lose 70 pounds in order to enter the modeling industry. She went from 165 pounds to 93 pounds by a 2-3 hour daily exercise routine and extremely strict dieting. It wasn’t until she became tremendously ill, her skin turning gray and her menstrual cycle ceasing for about three years that she recognized she could not maintain this lifestyle without risking death. She now eats and exercises normally, maintains a successful modeling career and accepts her natural size-12 frame.

Adjusting the modeling industry to suit all healthy body types will enable girls to feel confident and represented within an industry that holds excessive influence on the esteem of women. Models, such as Tyra Banks, who refuse to conform to an unnatural size are paving the way in this rapidly progressive movement.

What are your thoughts on enforcing a normal BMI on models?

Star Jones
Before and After Stomach Stapling







Celebrities. We long to look like them, dress like them, and live like them. Unfortunately I think we may need a reality check. A celebrity is famous, therefore has money. It is part of a celebrities job description to make others envious of them. These people have personal chefs and personal trainers at their beck and call.
Read this article from the diet-blog and you will see the kind of assistance Jessica Simpson got in getting in shape for Dukes of Hazzard:
http://www.diet-blog.com/archives/2005/07/29/jessica_simpsons_diet_and_workout_routine.php

Those of us who are not in the business of looking hot professionally shouldn’t be overly concerned. I argue that perhaps it is these women (celebrities) who suffer the most pressure to reach perfection, often partaking in extreme diet tactics and surgeries to keep up with the rest.
Women actors must be beautiful and youthful in order to get the part. When they gain a pound or lose it, the media capitalizes on it. Oprah’s constant struggle with weight has been exploited through the media countless times.
Believe me, it does not come easily for celebrities. Madonna participates in daily-two hour workout regimes and follows a strictly vegan diet. Beyonce participated in a two week liquid-only fast to lose 20 pounds for her new movie and once overweight stars, such as Star Jones, former host on The View, participated in gastric by-pass surgery only to have it revealed to the public as a scandal. Yes, she was overweight…but there are healthier long-term options that would have helped her reach her goals. She is the example of Americans wanting results now and not willing to work for them.
We must be perfect and we will not wait for results!
What do you expect when perfection is the only route to stardom?
Why do we seem surprised when stars such as Mary Kate and Nicole Richies bones are protruding through the skin?
They are a reflection as well as an influence on what women in our society value, unfortunately the top value has become sexual and superficial in nature.

Listen to your friends, they won’t lie.
Your friends, possibly the most important and influential aspect of a young persons life are really not lying when they tell you your beautiful.
Your best friends are your cheerleaders and they see you for who you are. If your friends say YOU ARENT FAT or YOU DO NOT NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT, then please take their opinions into consideration.
Here is a challenge for any 18-25 year old woman reading this blog:
Try to go a single day without mentioning your weight, diet or body with your girlfriends. You’ll be surprised at how often these issues come up in a woman’s day to day convos.
I challenge you to forget yourself…believe me its harder than you think. By doing this, those of you who may be overly concerned with image might recognize that you do indeed reflect an unhealthy body image.

Can I have a vent session?
We all know that really the underlying cause of me writing this blog lies with the fact that I once obsessed over diets and have survived! However, it’s not as though I have been completely freed from thoughts about health, losing a few pounds and sometimes remaining a little too conscious of what I eat. It’s a constant struggle to resist admiring ideal bodies and not guilt myself for eating some Ben and Jerry’s on occasion.
Diet, particularly for women and men experiencing the rapid gain that accompanies college, is often inevitable. What I’m really trying to say is obsession and/or dieting as a way of life is the recipe for emotional and physical disaster. You know the popular saying often heard in conversations of women: “A moment on the lips but a lifetime on the hips,” adorably restrictive, but hardly true.
Please don’t post pictures of airbrushed models on your refrigerator or on your live journal (as seen in pro-ana websites).
A piece of advice, don’t go hog wild over a box of donuts but don’t tell yourself you don’t deserve one.
No one ever gotten fat from eating a snickers bar … just keep that in mind.