This topic is something that really struck me earlier last week when I signed up for Women's Health Newsletters. I have read Men's Health more than a couple of times, and they seem to have really good tips for nutrition, food, etc. and i figured why not look up the women's version for a change. so i did. and here is what i found
On the opening page right next to the title was "Drop 15 pounds in 6 weeks". I found it unsettling that they would have that RIGHT NEXT TO the title of the page, where everyone who comes across the page is bound to look. So after trying to ignore the sign telling me to drop 15lbs, i kept browsing the page and I see a link called "Look Better Naked". It is a eating/workout plan that is sponsored by Women's Health. Described as a "6-week fat melting breakthrough". It promises to reshape and and lose weight 3xs faster so you can “look better naked”. All of this talk about physically appearing better naked, made me realize, you never see these type of diet plans talk about FEELING better naked.
In our society there are a ridiculous amount of diet plans that sucker us in by trying to convince us that we will have a firm, tightened and toned body in 5 weeks with their special fat busting, high calorie burning, cookie a day diet workout. I myself have been suckered into these fad diets as well. Who doesn't want Kim Kardashian's ass or Pussycat Doll abs? It is a tempting and successful way of making people buy into these diet plans. But, do I ever hear these diet programs promoting mental well being in their infommericials? no. You would never hear, “feel beautiful and more confident about your body in 5 weeks” unless it was followed by “after you drop 20 pounds”. It is always about how you will feel AFTER you lose the weight that you want.
45% of American women are on a diet on any given day (Smolak, 1996). and if diets are being promoted by basically advertising "Lose weight now, feel better about yourself later", how are we gunna feel about ourselves, not just going into starting a diet, but in general? Especially for the younger girls, how are they supposed to feel if what they see on tv are these same people telling them they can be happier if they just lost 5 more pounds? The necessity to promote a health body image in today's society is crucial for not just my generation, but for the ones before me and the ones up and coming. I want to make sure to point out that I am not saying Diets are bad, for some people they can help them to maintain a HEALTHY weight/lifestyle. But, I also feel that with all these major diets becoming apart of our society and way of life, they should be not only responsible for helping people to become more fit, but also try and coach their clients into feeling better about themselves throughout the entire process. No one should have to feel shitty about their own bodies to be forced into dieting. For me, it all comes down to, If you feel better about the body you have, you will take better care of it. If you dislike your body, you will only be satisfied with drastic changes or what shows up on the scale.
to the readers, i hope next time you start a diet plan or if u are on one now, to be conscious of what i just wrote about. Being healthy should not just be defined by your BMI or your heart rate after you run a mile, but its how you feel about yourself mentally. Your body is nothing without confidence. Learn to appreciate your body for what it is, no matter what. Loving your body still does include treating it right by eating right, but also not beating yourself up because you gave into the chocolate treat that was in theh staff lounge today. Do what you can to help nourish your body properly to keep it running smoothly. Hating your body won't make itlook any better, but learning to love your body will make all the difference.
p.s. i ordered the free trial of "look better naked". im going to attempt to see if they do infact try to promote a healthy body image anywhere in their program. im hoping for the best :)
p.s.s. I found out that Weight Watchers has support groups as part of their plan which helps support positive well being
Monday, January 17, 2011
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
so what is an eating disorder EXACTLY?
Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia are categorized in what is called the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). This book is what therapist and doctors use to diagnose ALL psychiatric disorders. It is basically the bible of mental health. It has the symptoms listed, the amount of symptoms that can be present to diagnose a disorder, and a whole bunch of other guidelines that help mental health professional when diagnosing a disorder.
anyways, onto these definitions...first we have the most commonly known eating disorder in out society..
Anorexia: Characterized by EXTREME weight lost and excessive weight lost
some symptoms include
1. Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height.
2. Intense fear of gaining weight or being "fat"
3. Feeling "fat" or overweight despite dramatic weight lose
Anorexia is the most lethal disorder to have out off any psychiatric disorder.
There are also two types of Anorexia.
Restricting type which basically means they severly restrict the amount of caloric intake on a daily basis.
There is also the Binge Eating/Purging Type:During the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behavior. Purging can include vomiting or the misuse of laxatives and diuretics.
Bulimia Nervosa:
Characterized by a cycle (usually secretive) of binge eating followed by purging(vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics). A binge can differ depending on the size of a person, but some people will consume anywhere from 1000-3000 calories in one sitting. It fluctuates per person and that is just my educated guesstimate lol.
These are the two MAIN eating disorders in today's society, and the two main ones that this blog will cover. But just to have it out there it, there is also an eating disorder known as Binge Eating Disorder. Most commonly known as compulsive overeating. To summarize, Binge Eating is summarized by periods of uncontrollable and compulsive eating that goes WAY beyond the point of fullness. But unlike bulimics, Binge eaters do not purge after eating, which the feeling of fullness they experience after a binge will lead to strong feelings of shame and guilt.
One important thing i have learned from reading about eating disorders, just because you do not have all the symptoms of an eating disorder in the DSM, does not mean you dont have a problem. There is a title for those who fall in this category, which is known as ED-NOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified). This is usually when the patient has symptoms from both anorexia and bulimia but does not necessarily reach the amount of symptoms needed to be diagnosed in either category, but they clearly have a problem. A big downfall of being diagnosed with ED-NOS is that it makes it more difficult for those patients to be covered fully by their health insurance, which willl be a topic i will eventually write about.
The website I got most of this info on is
http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/nedaDir/files/documents/handouts/WhatIsEd.pdf
Remember, all this information is a summarization of what they are. I tried to put it in simple terms, cuz if not I would be writing a book every entry lol
Well I hope this helps whoever is reading this to distinguish a little better what the different types of ED are. If you have any questions, leave a comment :) i would love to get my brain picked about this. If i dont know the answer you can guarantee ill try and look for it. Thanks again for reading!
anyways, onto these definitions...first we have the most commonly known eating disorder in out society..
Anorexia: Characterized by EXTREME weight lost and excessive weight lost
some symptoms include
1. Refusal to maintain body weight at or above a minimally normal weight for age and height.
2. Intense fear of gaining weight or being "fat"
3. Feeling "fat" or overweight despite dramatic weight lose
Anorexia is the most lethal disorder to have out off any psychiatric disorder.
There are also two types of Anorexia.
Restricting type which basically means they severly restrict the amount of caloric intake on a daily basis.
There is also the Binge Eating/Purging Type:During the current episode of Anorexia Nervosa, the person has regularly engaged in binge-eating or purging behavior. Purging can include vomiting or the misuse of laxatives and diuretics.
Bulimia Nervosa:
Characterized by a cycle (usually secretive) of binge eating followed by purging(vomiting, misuse of laxatives or diuretics). A binge can differ depending on the size of a person, but some people will consume anywhere from 1000-3000 calories in one sitting. It fluctuates per person and that is just my educated guesstimate lol.
These are the two MAIN eating disorders in today's society, and the two main ones that this blog will cover. But just to have it out there it, there is also an eating disorder known as Binge Eating Disorder. Most commonly known as compulsive overeating. To summarize, Binge Eating is summarized by periods of uncontrollable and compulsive eating that goes WAY beyond the point of fullness. But unlike bulimics, Binge eaters do not purge after eating, which the feeling of fullness they experience after a binge will lead to strong feelings of shame and guilt.
One important thing i have learned from reading about eating disorders, just because you do not have all the symptoms of an eating disorder in the DSM, does not mean you dont have a problem. There is a title for those who fall in this category, which is known as ED-NOS (eating disorder not otherwise specified). This is usually when the patient has symptoms from both anorexia and bulimia but does not necessarily reach the amount of symptoms needed to be diagnosed in either category, but they clearly have a problem. A big downfall of being diagnosed with ED-NOS is that it makes it more difficult for those patients to be covered fully by their health insurance, which willl be a topic i will eventually write about.
The website I got most of this info on is
http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/nedaDir/files/documents/handouts/WhatIsEd.pdf
Remember, all this information is a summarization of what they are. I tried to put it in simple terms, cuz if not I would be writing a book every entry lol
Well I hope this helps whoever is reading this to distinguish a little better what the different types of ED are. If you have any questions, leave a comment :) i would love to get my brain picked about this. If i dont know the answer you can guarantee ill try and look for it. Thanks again for reading!
Saturday, January 1, 2011
The beginning of a life mission
Here i begin my new years resolution...To help spread awareness for eating disorders and to promote a healthy, positive body image.
Im new to this whole online blogging business, but I figure that getting over my fear of what people will think of this blog is in no way in comparison to the change I can help start.
Ill start with what exactly ill be blogging about. My focus is to spread the awareness of how serious of a disorder eating disorders truly are. They affect about 10 MILLION females in the United States ALONE. With such a high population suffering from this disorder, the funding they receive for research is depressingly low. For example, Alzheimers only affects about 4.5 million americans, which is less than half the amount of people with ED(eating disorders), yet eating disorders receive 75% LESS funding than Alzheimers does. How is this right? Its not. This is where my mission starts. Raising awareness for this disorder will hopefully raise interest, increase knowledge, and hopefully, eventually increase the amount of funding so there can be more research done to help find better ways of helping people to cope/deal/overcome this disorder.
So what makes me interested in ED? I recently had a 6 month internship at Princeton University Medical Hospital in the Eating Disorder Unit. I feel so blessed/lucky/thankful that i was given the opportunity to meet some AMAZING people who happened to be suffering from ED(eating disorder). The past 6 months I know have impacted my life in so many ways. I know for sure this is the population i want to work with, and want to make it my life mission to help girls and boys with ED.
I have not suffered from ED, but like most teenage females in the US, i have had body image issues. Growing up and due to genetics ive always had a slender frame. But being "thin" comes with both positives and negatives. When i was younger I was "too skinny", being called toothpick, string bean, etc. It didnt bother me too much, especially because my dad would make me feel better by always saying "dont worry, they are gunna be jealous when they are older". and he was right. i went to being made fun of for being too skinny, to in high school being scrutinized by people saying "i hate you, you can eat whatever and your still skinny". I never really paid attention to how I looked until my senior year high school. senior year in high school till almost senior year of college, my weight fluctuated a lot due to just normal growing into womanhood. The idea of "eating whatever I wanted, and not gainging weight" was no longer holding as much truth as it used to. I started paying attention when my pants fit too tight, and my shirts didnt exactly button up well. It was almost daunting to admit I was going from a size 2 to 4. Silly right? I never thought of it as finally getting some womanly curves to my slender frame, i just thought of it as weight. And the thought of weight and pounds overshadowed my view of my transition into womanhood. Of course my body shouldnt look the same as it did in high school, but it took me awhile to realize that. There have beens lots of body struggles inbetween my senior year in high school and senior year in college; the thing though i feel that was most important was when i just stopped. Stopped worrying so much about how i THOUGHT i looked, and just realized that I will have this body for the REST OF MY LIFE, so instead of WASTING my time on why i dont like it, just ACCEPT it for what it is, MINE. Its my body and I shouldnt be so harsh on it. I would never criticize someone else's body as harshly as i was criticizing my own, nor would i even notice or care, so why do i have to be so hard on myself? I dont. I have slowly realized that your body is your own, not someone elses. There is no one else in the world with the exact same body as my own, even if i had a twin, there are always differences lol So why am i going to waste time looking like someone else, when I can spend time on making what I already have look good too? Ill admit, everyone has their days when they feel like they want to be thinner, prettier, sexier, etc and thats ok...but as long as those days arent more than once or twice a month (usually at that time of the month lol) and you are happy with yourself at the end of the day, than i think it makes life a WHOLE LOT EASIER.
and through all that, i find where my 2nd goal of this blog is...to promote a positive body image. By finding good and strong level of happiness with my own body image, i hope that I will be able to spread positive vibes/feelings/thoughts about body image to others. Life is so much easier when you aren't worrying so much about how your body looks. you can concentrate those energies on so many other things.
Well yea, thats my first blog. for those who read it, thanks. I know i ramble and my sentences dont always tie together and i have a tendency to CAPITALIZE words, but i promise i will try to get better as time goes on..in the mean time I am going to put a link to the NEDA website so everyone who reads this PLEASE go and learn something about ED. Expose yourself to knowledge and i hope this is just the beginning of a really good journey to spreading awareness for ED and promoting positive body image :)
<3Stacy Rae
Im new to this whole online blogging business, but I figure that getting over my fear of what people will think of this blog is in no way in comparison to the change I can help start.
Ill start with what exactly ill be blogging about. My focus is to spread the awareness of how serious of a disorder eating disorders truly are. They affect about 10 MILLION females in the United States ALONE. With such a high population suffering from this disorder, the funding they receive for research is depressingly low. For example, Alzheimers only affects about 4.5 million americans, which is less than half the amount of people with ED(eating disorders), yet eating disorders receive 75% LESS funding than Alzheimers does. How is this right? Its not. This is where my mission starts. Raising awareness for this disorder will hopefully raise interest, increase knowledge, and hopefully, eventually increase the amount of funding so there can be more research done to help find better ways of helping people to cope/deal/overcome this disorder.
So what makes me interested in ED? I recently had a 6 month internship at Princeton University Medical Hospital in the Eating Disorder Unit. I feel so blessed/lucky/thankful that i was given the opportunity to meet some AMAZING people who happened to be suffering from ED(eating disorder). The past 6 months I know have impacted my life in so many ways. I know for sure this is the population i want to work with, and want to make it my life mission to help girls and boys with ED.
I have not suffered from ED, but like most teenage females in the US, i have had body image issues. Growing up and due to genetics ive always had a slender frame. But being "thin" comes with both positives and negatives. When i was younger I was "too skinny", being called toothpick, string bean, etc. It didnt bother me too much, especially because my dad would make me feel better by always saying "dont worry, they are gunna be jealous when they are older". and he was right. i went to being made fun of for being too skinny, to in high school being scrutinized by people saying "i hate you, you can eat whatever and your still skinny". I never really paid attention to how I looked until my senior year high school. senior year in high school till almost senior year of college, my weight fluctuated a lot due to just normal growing into womanhood. The idea of "eating whatever I wanted, and not gainging weight" was no longer holding as much truth as it used to. I started paying attention when my pants fit too tight, and my shirts didnt exactly button up well. It was almost daunting to admit I was going from a size 2 to 4. Silly right? I never thought of it as finally getting some womanly curves to my slender frame, i just thought of it as weight. And the thought of weight and pounds overshadowed my view of my transition into womanhood. Of course my body shouldnt look the same as it did in high school, but it took me awhile to realize that. There have beens lots of body struggles inbetween my senior year in high school and senior year in college; the thing though i feel that was most important was when i just stopped. Stopped worrying so much about how i THOUGHT i looked, and just realized that I will have this body for the REST OF MY LIFE, so instead of WASTING my time on why i dont like it, just ACCEPT it for what it is, MINE. Its my body and I shouldnt be so harsh on it. I would never criticize someone else's body as harshly as i was criticizing my own, nor would i even notice or care, so why do i have to be so hard on myself? I dont. I have slowly realized that your body is your own, not someone elses. There is no one else in the world with the exact same body as my own, even if i had a twin, there are always differences lol So why am i going to waste time looking like someone else, when I can spend time on making what I already have look good too? Ill admit, everyone has their days when they feel like they want to be thinner, prettier, sexier, etc and thats ok...but as long as those days arent more than once or twice a month (usually at that time of the month lol) and you are happy with yourself at the end of the day, than i think it makes life a WHOLE LOT EASIER.
and through all that, i find where my 2nd goal of this blog is...to promote a positive body image. By finding good and strong level of happiness with my own body image, i hope that I will be able to spread positive vibes/feelings/thoughts about body image to others. Life is so much easier when you aren't worrying so much about how your body looks. you can concentrate those energies on so many other things.
Well yea, thats my first blog. for those who read it, thanks. I know i ramble and my sentences dont always tie together and i have a tendency to CAPITALIZE words, but i promise i will try to get better as time goes on..in the mean time I am going to put a link to the NEDA website so everyone who reads this PLEASE go and learn something about ED. Expose yourself to knowledge and i hope this is just the beginning of a really good journey to spreading awareness for ED and promoting positive body image :)
<3Stacy Rae
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