2009 Summer Bikini Diet- Read More to Develop Low Self Esteem!

It’s finally springtime!  All of the critters are crawling out from winter’s hibernation.  It’s time to get outside, lay in the grass, and best of all- start your beach bod diet!  The diet articles in magazines are flourishing during these pre-summer months.  Now that you’re wearing lighter clothes, people will see you better, and you better be thinner and younger than you were last year!  Hell, thinner and younger than you were 10 years ago.  I encourage all of you to restrain yourselves from buying magazines with diets as their cover stories.  If this is what we buy, this is what they’ll give us.  If you already have some, do something empowering- whether it be shredding or burning or defacing.  You don’t need that shit!  There is never a “new you”; your identity is your own.  Own it!

Ps- Notice how headlines group the words thinner and younger with happier. What a joke.

Mail Time

Eating Disorders Awareness Week: February 22-28

The big week is approaching!  I will be sending out little cards (in previous posts) to anyone anywhere.  Comment with your mailing address, how many you’d like, and any special requests.  Comments are screened and your address will NOT be posted to the world wide web.

Anyone have any special plans?

Thump.

I’ve hit a wall with this project.  Anyone have ideas?  I want to make something other than those little cards.

NEDA auction has been extended until December 4th.  But that’s not much time, so get over there and bid!  Do your holiday shopping and support an amazing organization.  There’s even an auction for a luncheon with Lynne Grefe, CEO of NEDA!  Droool.

College Life

I worried for a long time about what my eating habits at college would be.  Without the love and support of my parents- where do my intentions go? Well, I moved in a couple of weeks ago and have been feeling great. I eat “normally” and even visited the gym and managed a “normal” workout. It’s not so hard being on my own. Shit gets better.

Walking down the hallway this morning, I saw this sign:

My first reaction was excitement- a scale! Measurements! I filed the dates in my head.
Wait a second……
This will get me nowhere. I’m not overweight, and I certainly don’t need a weight loss competition. If someone overweight really feels unhealthy and safely sheds pounds, whatever. But to win an iPod? This event is dumb.

So I’ve taken down all of these signs and replaced them with quotes from Margo Maine’s “20 Ways to Love Your Body” list. Some of my favorites:

2. Create a list of all the things your body lets you do. Read it and add to it often.
9. Think about all the things you could accomplish with the time and energy you currently spend worrying about your body and appearance. Try one!
15. Think back to a time in your life when you felt good about your body. Tell yourself you can feel like that again, even in this body at this age.
3. Become aware of what your body can do each day. Remember it is the instrument of your life, not just an ornament
14. Find a method of exercise that you enjoy and do it regularly. Don’t exercise to lose weight or to fight your body. Do it to make your body healthy and strong and because it makes you feel good..
4. Create a list of people you admire: people who have contributed to your life, your community, or the world. Consider whether their appearance was important to their success and accomplishments.

Read the rest here.

Let us eat chocolate in peace

It’s getting more and more difficult to indulge:

And I can’t find a company name/website for this one..

BULLshit!

Hi, all. I’m sorry for the extended hiatus. To be completely honest, I haven’t been feeling so hot about my own body and haven’t had any inspiration for this project. I dropped it for a while, claiming it to all be “bullshit”. Humans, and especially women, are destined to hate their bodies, right?

NO! I don’t feel like putting up with it any longer. You know what IS bullshit? Dieting. Hating your body, instead of loving it for all of the magical things it does for you. Your body is a simply vessel for all of those beautiful thoughts and emotions you have. You are not your body, but please treat it well.

What do you do when you get down about yourself? What helps you remember, “Oh, yeah! I need to love myself!”

My best friend told me last night: don’t get mad at yourself. Get mad at whatever is putting these ideas in your head. How about the fashion industry? Fuck ’em! Brb guys… I have to go pick up some skinny jeans for my baby:

What is up with the world, huh?

Inspiration (not thinspiration)

My mother recently went on a trip and brought back a journal for me. It’s covered in pastel colored flowers and comic-sans-esque font. Not exactly my style. I showed my teeth and said, “Thanks.” Now I sit at home, after doing some busy traveling myself, paging through the ribbon encrusted book. It has a quote at the bottom of every few pages. Most make me snort-laugh at cheesiness. But then, I find my mind cranking and turning several minutes later. Something to spark a train of (positive-loving-myself-but-not-totally-fruity) thought. Maybe they can do the same for you. Don’t take it for what is it, but something much more. Get on with your cheesy self.

Loving other is easy when I love and accept myself.
My heart is open. I allow my love to flow freely. I love myself, I love others, and others love me.

I am worth loving.
I do not have to earn love. I am lovable because I exist. Others reflect the love I have for myself.

I accept my uniqueness.
There is no competition and no comparison, for we are all different and meant to be that way. I am special and wonderful. I love myself.

My thoughts are creative.
I say “Out” to every negative thought that comes to my mind. No person, place, or thing has any power over me, for I am the only thinker in my mind. I create my own reality and everyone in it.

It is safe to look within.
As I move through the layers of other people’s opinions and beliefs, I see within myself a magnificent being, wise and beautiful. I love what I see in me.

I forgive myself.
As I forgive myself, I leave behind all feelings of not being good enough, and I am free to love myself.

Better said by Good With Cheese: fuck that.

Whole New World

I have just stumbled upon the world of Fat Acceptance blogs. YANYB is not one of them, nor does it want to be. What is your view on the fat acceptance movement? Don’t know what it is? Look it up. Read up on Big Fat Deal and some Kate Harding. Extensive list here.

I do love the mentality of acceptance. However, I don’t like the way many women are going about this. It’s not about equality, but about “Fat power! Skinnies can kiss my ass!” Yeah, pear shapes rule, but so do stick shapes, and so do stereotypical American beauty pageant shapes. It’s all good.

ROUND TWO

A Brief Moment

Please take a brief moment (or a long one, for that matter, even the rest of your life if you’d please) to answer these questions.

1. What is the best compliment you have ever received?

2. What is the best compliment about your body you have ever received?

I want to know what makes each individual feel good. If you don’t want to answer to me, that’s just fine. The purpose is that you think about it. It’s strange how harsh words can stay stuck and repeating in us but we forget the nice ones.

I asked several high schoolers and adults yesterday, and they all had trouble answering. I asked an eight year old and she quickly replied, “You are beautiful.”

Do you realize what an impact it has to say those three words to a young soul? State the obvious, everyone needs to hear a kind word more than once.