Parental effects on Children's Weight

Daughters look up to their mothers in many ways. If a parent is obsessed with dieting, then a girl is more lively to be self-conscience of her body as she enters teen years. Parents are especially important in creating a good relationship between their children and the food they eat. It is never okay to tell a child that she would be prettier if she lost some weight, or that she was fat. If I child does need to change eating habits, do it with them. It would also be helpful to participate in physical activity with them or to encourage any form of physical activity that they do like to do.

According to womenshealth.gov, here are a few steps a parent can follow to encourage a child to have a healthy relationship with food.

1. Make sure that a child knows that gaining weight is normal, especially while going through puberty
   
2. Avoid negative comments about weight, body shape, and food
   
3. Allow a child to make their own decisions about food, but provide nutritious varieties to choose from
   
4. Always compliment a child on their achievements
   
5. Restrict television viewing
   
6. Keep lines of communication open

Rate of Anorexia in Adolescent Women

Today when browsing through the New York Times, I came across a newly published article about anorexia—a disorder that associates individuals with starving themselves to achieve ultimate thinness. According to SADD, 1% of young women ages 10-20 suffers from anorexia. This means that one out of every 100 girls we see is slowly starving herself to death. The New York Times reported that currently, there is no effective recovery program for anorexia nervosa. Recovery rates take between 5-6 years, and only 23-50% of girls recover. Of those girls, 4-27% will suffer relapses, and 30% will never recover.

Girls striving for this devastatingly unattainable portrayal of body image will not only suffer anxiety and depression, but they will have dangerous heart rhythms, their blood flow and blood pressure will be reduced, and cholesterol levels will rise. The hormones in their bodies will not be produced in a fashion that will supply the heart and bones with the minerals they need, which leads to osteoporosis in 40% of anorexia sufferers. Bloating, disordered thinking, and seizures will also be a part of their lives. Is all of this really worth looking like a lady on the front of a magazine cover? Will the “beauty secret” of starving yourself really bring you all of the joy and satisfaction one craves in life? The answer is an overwhelming and astounding NO! More action should be taken to prevent anorexic tendencies in women, and to teach that killing the body does not attain beauty.

For more information, visit the website for National Eating Disorders Association

Barbie Body=Fantasy

When thinking about this blog and what else I would like to address in it, I started to think about the body image that women and girls are striving to attain. What I have come to realize is that most girls want the “Barbie Physique”. Okay ladies, so if you want to be Barbie here are some facts you might want to take into account…

Researchers decided to generate Barbie-doll type women on a computer to see if such proportions are realistic in women. They found that her back would be too weak to support her upper body and her waist would be too narrow to contain more than half a liver and a few centimeters of bowel. Not only that, but women with those proportions would suffer from chronic diarrhea and eventually die from malnutrition. Sadly, our culture is one of thinness, and some would do anything to attain it. As women, we must realize that the beauty market is strictly established for economic reasons only. The reason so many pictures of women with unattainable beauty are shown on billboards all around the world is to make money! This fad is trying to make fools of everyone. We need to realize that beauty does not come from being the thinnest person around. Beauty is shown through confidence and charity. True beauty is loving yourself and others around you.

Healthy Diets

Want a Diet that Actually Works?

The trick to finding your perfect diet may lay in the definition of a diet alone. A diet is considered absurdly strict rules, starving yourself, expecting to get and stay unrealistically thin, and depriving yourself of the foods that you love. The trick to a diet is to feel good about yourself, get to a point where you can maintain the amount of energy you need throughout the day, and the be as healthy as possible. This can all be achieved through learning a few basics of nutrition and arranging them to fit your needs and make you as healthy as possible.

It’s important to choose foods that will decrease chances of cardiovascular disease, and other chronic illnesses. Here are a few tips to a healthy lifestyle:

1. Eat enough calories, but not too many—do not intake more calories than you would need throughout the day (usually 2,000). It is also important that you get enough calories to provide you with enough energy to get through the day.
2. Eat a wide variety of foods—setting a goal to keep your body healthy opens the door to a wide range of healthy foods you wouldn’t normally try.
3. Keep portions moderate—this is HUGE! Most of the time we eat way more than our bodies need! Be especially careful in restaurants. Most of the time you can split a dish, and will also save money.
4. Eat plenty of fruits, vegetables, and grains—try to get fresh, local produce.
5. Drink more water—water helps flush out our systems, and keeps our bodies functioning well.
6. Limit sugary and salty foods—sugar and salt are added to extremes in many foods. Be weary of these. Packaged foods are culprits.
7. Don’t be the food police—Enjoy your favorite sweats! Just make sure to eat them in moderation.
8. Get Moving—exercise is extremely important in maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It will help prevent many chronic diseases in the later years of life.
9. One step at a time—integrate your new diet of lifestyle slowly. Make sure to accomplish one thing before you move onto the next.

For more information, click here

Dove Self-Esteem Campaign

Okay, I'm sure everyone has seen at least one of the Dove commercials that they show on T.V.  They are absolutely AWESOME!  I love that a company that sells women's beauty products campaigns for inner beauty and the importance of loving your body as it is.  The whole purpose of their fund is to educate 5 million girls about the importance of self-esteem and healthy body image.  They hope to reach this goal by 2010.  By the word "reach", the Dove campaign means to give 5 million girls a one hour course to make them feel better about themselves. 

(Under Pressure--Dove Video)

This is a global effort, and is reaching girls throughout the entire world.  Dove is proud to inform that they have conducted nearly 2,700 educational self-esteem workshops throughout the world.  This is a great opportunity to actively participate in changing the stereotypical ideal of body image in the eyes of many young girls.  If you are anyone you know would like to contribute to this effort, here is the link to Dove's donation web sight.  

Most Common Media Myths

When browsing through articles, I came across a great one on USA Today. It is an article addressing a photo shoot that Jamie Lee Curtis posed for in More magazine. Instead of getting glammed up for the photo shoot in order to give the appearance of what a movie star is supposed to look like, Curtis took pictures in a sports bra and spandex shorts to show what she really looks like. When asked why she wanted to do this, she replied, “I don't want the unsuspecting 40-year-old women of the world to think that I've got it going on. It's such a fraud. And I'm the one perpetuating it." She admits that she profited highly from participating in the myth of perfection, and have even admits to having cosmetic surgery to try and perfect her looks. She said that none of it works!



Now Jamie is known for actively speaking out against the way the media depicts beauty. She has written a number of children’s books about self-esteem and loving yourself. One of her most recent books is called I’m Gonna Like Me: Letting off a Little Self-Esteem. At the end of her interview Jamie said, “I want to do my part, as I develop the consciousness for it, to stop perpetuating the myth. I'm going to look the way God intends me to look ... with a little help from Manolo Blahnik."


So what is Jamie saying? She is saying that we need to learn to love ourselves as we are. This is not an excuse for laziness; part of loving ourselves is keeping our bodies healthy by balancing exercise with a nutritious diet. The point she is getting across is that we determine what beauty is. We need to stop relying on the media to tell us what we need to do in life in order to be happy.

To read the full article from USA Today, click here

10 Frequently Asked Questions

1. Why are standards of beauty being imposed on women?

• Most believe it is for economic reasons. As long as they present ideals that are unable to reach, the cosmetic and diet industries will always be able to make money.
  

2. How many college age girls practice unhealthy eating patterns?

• Four percent (4%), or 4 out of 100, college-age women have bulimia.
  

3. What ways do girls manage weight loss unhealthy?

• Many women and girls have gone without eating for 24 hours, have taken died pills, or have vomited or taken laxatives to loose or maintain weight. To view more, click here.
  

4. What Percent of girls between 6-12 have been on a diet?

• Around 35%
  

5. What Percent of women are dissatisfied with their appearance?

• 90%
  

6. Is there a healthy way to lose weight fast?

• NO! The average person should lose one to two pounds a week with exercise and healthy eating.

7. How can I learn to love my body the way it is?

--1. Don't compare

2. Focus on your Accomplishments

3. Learn to take a compliment

4. Self-talk

5. Positive affirmations

6. Learn to compliment others

7. Focus on the positive

8. Stop fantasy thinking

9. Heal your relationship with food

10. Body movement

11. Support

--For more information, click here.

8. How do i prevent weight gain?

• The best way is to choose a lifestyle that includes good eating habits and daily physical activity.
  

Monitor yourself, and change goals along the way in order to build a plan best for you.

9. Why do all the celebrity diets and exercise routines not work for me?

• What magazines fail to tell you is that celebrity diets and exercise routines are a full-time job.
  

They can spend hours a day at the gym because it is part of their jobs. Click here to read more.

10. How do i know if a diet is reliable?

• The best way to differentiate between effective and harmful diets is to realize that any reliable diet will not have a quick fix. It will be comprised of changing habits, exercise, and eating healthy. Do not expect to magically lose 20 pounds in two weeks!