Why are we so obsessed with our weight?

While doing some posting on a few forums that I am a member of, I was reading posts about people trying to lose weight and some of the ladies who were saying they still needed to lose 10-20 pounds look so skinny right now they look like they are skeletons!

So why is America so obsessed about their weight? Could it be because of all the commercials, MTV, the skinny stars and sports fanatics who are constantly bombarding us with their idea of an attractive person? The tv or movie commercials that say if you are not a size 4 you are overweight!

I was watching The Devil Loves Prada the other night and was so upset when they told the secretary that she was a pig at a size 4! I couldn't imagine being in a size 4, let alone being told I needed to lose weight to be in a size 0 in order to look good! Come on!

Why are we so obsessed?

Why can't we love ourselves for ourselves?

Below is what I posted in reply to someone asking for diet tips etc:



I too am doing a "healthy living lifestyle" change...I have found for myself if I focus on losing weight I want to eat more items that are bad for me. I refuse to tell myself I am losing weight...I don't need to lose weight I just need to become healthier and tone up, sure there may be a few pounds I could lose BUT that should not be the main focus, becoming healthy should be.


What I have been doing, and this is for me as it works for me, is eating more raw fruits and vegetables, have a salad already made up as during the day I reach for something quick and easy to eat since I am working or chasing my 4 yr old around that I don't want to take the time to cook for myself.

I also have added more water to my diet, when I get hungry and its not meal or snack time I reach for the water.

Another thing I have been doing is finding DVD's that I enjoy some of you may laugh at the one I do that I just find so much fun to do and the time just melts away (no pun intended lol) I bought Carmen Electra's Strip Tease aerobics...I know but you know what it is so much fun! I also vary it with Turbo Jam and Yoga Booty Ballet all of them are fun and have great music that keeps me going.

Cutting out the real sugars I can't do as far as using items like Splenda etc because I don't feel they are safe, so I just cut down on how much real sugar I use in my coffee which I have also cut back from 2 pots, yep 2 pots a day, to 2 cups a day which is a feat in and of itself for me a coffee addict. To be honest what has helped me get over that "trial" was Tally Green's Gano coffee which really tastes good and is good for you, so if you need a coffee alternative contact Tally Green she sells Gano coffees and I highly recommend you using it I know when I am done with what I have here I will be ordering from her.

Everyone says to stop eating when you are not hungry, that's simple if you have the will power or are not using food to deal with other issues as I have been doing since my MIL died.

I was aneroxic and bulmic once, sorry about the sp, and I know all about eating and emotional disorders. If you look at food as either the enemy or a comfort food you need to see your doctor about those issues so you can get those resolved before you start any diet...trust me I have been on both sides: so skinny I looked like I was dying, I was...and being overweight it was affecting my entire health and mental well being and for me both sides I was dealing with emotional problems and the only way I felt in control was with food.

Good luck to those who are trying to lose weight, for me this year my goal is healthy living! I did this once 10 years ago, just watched what I ate and exercised 5 days out of 7 and lost 30 pounds while hubby was in Korea. So I know I can do it.

Besides you need to be at a healthy weight and not a skinny minny...who needs to look like a model or those ladies on tv who everyone loves and wants to be like.

If you are happy with the way you look or know your goal weight so you can feel better is to only lose 10 pounds then go for the 10 pounds and not the 20 pounds to fit societies image...sorry this is a hot topic for me, I have two nieces right now that are so thin they would blow away if the wind picks up and they are starving themselves because they want to look like the stars or sports people they know when I look at them all I see is what I did to myself and my body and how many of my health issue right now stem from not loving myself for me.

So what if you weigh 145 are you in good shape? Do you love what you see? If not you need to explore whether it is really for health reasons or emotional reasons why you want to lose weight...

I am off my soapbox now but I just wanted to wish all of you good health and let you know some of the things I do :)

Embracing Your Beauty

Embracing Your Beauty

By Rebecca White

For so many women beauty is what we see in magazines and on TV, we don’t focus on inner beauty or our own uniqueness. Don’t roll your eyes and tell me “I know that already” Well do you?

How many times do you go into your bathroom and look at yourself and compare yourself to those women on TV or in magazines? How many times so you pick yourself apart? I need to lose weight, I have my frizzy hair, my butt needs to be smaller so on and so forth.

What about taking a good long look at yourself and see the things you do like about yourself? Do you like your smile? Do you like the way your legs look in a skirt? Does your face light up when you smile? Notice the things you love about yourself! Only when you can honestly say you love you, that is the time you will show others your confidence and your inner beauty. You will walk with an air of pride because you love you!

Stop listening to the negative thoughts in your head:

I am a failure

I don’t deserve….

I wish I had…

This will never work out….

These thoughts only bring you down! Find that powerful woman warrior inside of yourself the one that tells you:

You are beautiful

You are successful

You do deserve this or that

It will work out

Think of the negative thoughts as a knarled old tree. Darkness surrounding it, no animals around, the way the branches are leaning towards the ground and the bark is falling off it.

Then think of the positive thoughts as that giant oak tree, standing there magnificent, tall and proud. The sun is shining behind the tree, the birds are singing and building their homes and the branches are rising to the sun to meet the day!

Who do you want to be?

Do you remember the old saying “I am woman hear me roar!” We as women need to stand up and be proud of ourselves, our bodies, our homes, our careers, our choice to stay home with the kids, or our choice to work outside the home. There is enough negative thoughts around us each day, don’t let your own thoughts be another thing to tear you down.

We, as women, tend to give out all our positive energy to our families and friends and all we are left with is the negative energy. Many times we don’t even realize it till we are sick or tired or wondering where to go next.

When you have negative thoughts go write them down on a piece of paper, walk over to the sink and with a lighter or match and light the paper while saying “I release all negative thoughts and energy. I will only allow positive thoughts to rule inside of me”.

So be proud of who you are, no matter what imperfections you may have. Would you want to live in a world were everyone looked the same, acted the same? I know I wouldn’t.

Rebecca White is the host for Heal Yourself Talk Radio. HYTR was started to help teach others to learn how to heal their mind, body and soul. Be sure to sign up for the newsletter for weekly inspirations, podcast releases and more. Visit HYTR today at http://www.healyourselftalk.com

SMART PARENTING: Raising Happy and Responsible Children in the 21st Century

CHILDREN IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Don’t be Surprised if Today’s Kids See Life as One Big Commercial Break

Television today is still a “baby sitter” both for adults and preschoolers. When people are bored or simply want to rest, they watch TV. Some are not really interested to watch at all. They need the TV to put them to sleep. As soon as you turn it off, they wake up.

With the remote control, watching TV can be a dizzying experience. I get confused with what characters go with what plot. What with that mysterious hand switching channels during commercial breaks, you find yourself following several shows at the same time. Sometimes you have to shout, “stop!” and confiscate the remote control. “Please decide which program you want and stick to it”.

That was supposed to be final but what’s this switching channel again? “Mom, there are commercial breaks!” would be the excuse. Today’s TV imports still have family-oriented shows and the rest are soap operas, game shows and their local counterparts which include slapsticks or tearjerkers, noontime variety shows, movie personalities’ song and dance, and movie Dom’s gossip sessions.

These are the kinds of shows very young children are exposed to. Most of these are shown at times when kids are awake and those of school age are already home. Programming leaves much to be desired.

One of the positive developments in local TV is the emergence of talk shows discussing current issues as well as TV-magazine formats. For mothers, “Sesame Street” is heaven-sent. You can put the little tykes in front of the TV (at least 4 “rulers” away – instructions to the little ones) and have a little break from mothering.

But violence even in cartoons is the order of the day. You see Bugs Bunny hammered on the head or blown to pieces by Sam his Enemy No. 1 or Road Runner running over the coyote. Tom and Jerry and now their sons slug it out; and of course, the Japanese robots and the superheroes in the endless fight between good and evil.

You don’t have to think about the violent “drama” teleplays or movies and their trailers, especially the one where the lead actress pokes a gun on the actor’s head who says, “Go ahead, and shoot it”. You’d probably close your eyes and shudder to think of the countless kids exposed to this kind of violence. And you parents are helpless. Ads just pop out of the boob tube every 15 minutes and you can’t tell which one will go on. Not unless the stations publish a list of advertisers or sponsors. Boy! That’s going to be a long list!

The crucial thing about TV is, it is a powerful medium. Repetitious subliminal messages are being exploited by advertisements that target kids. They are mesmerized by commercials. Cigarette and liquor ads suggest, “It is good to smoke and drink” without warning about its dangers. They often show images of sophisticated living.

Teachers reveal their frustration with college students who have limited concentration that usually lasts only for 15 minutes due to commercial gap syndrome. They suffer from what noted psychologists term “attention deficit disorder”.

Moreover, these teachers lament. Kids raised by TV hardly read, preconditioned as they are by TV-spoon feeding. (How many students actually read a book for their term paper? If they do, they choose a very short book but most just rent a DVD version.) There is nothing wrong with this audiovisual education like “The Planet Earth” but reading is entirely different from watching. Reading develops the imagination unlike TV, where the camera can focus on the smallest detail.

The fast pacing of images gives the illusion that “life is never continuous...it is fragmentalized; it is made up of commercial breaks. And if one doesn’t like what is seen and heard, one can change channels”. In reality, one can “change channels” in one’s mind and switch to fantasy.
Television’s powerful medium can be utilized in a positive way. Already public service ads by both the station and advertiser are being shown. It aims to educate the public on traffic and safety rules. Effective communication must be two-way. TV programs now feature citizens’ woes and call the attention of the concerned government agency or ask citizens’ cooperation in government programs. Not surprisingly, this produces faster results.

It is hoped that the government will subsidize alternative TV productions that will really give wholesome entertainment, education and develop local talent rather than the superstar “mentality” and its subsequent commercial rating that dominates the industry today.

In the high-tech world of communications via satellites, fax and computers, our children are bombarded with instant, varied and conflicting messages. It is easy to be carried away with images of fun and make-believe like the MTVs that seem to be getting more and more hallucinatory and lead an aimless life. Or children of the TV generation might be indecisive due to the myriad choices they are confronted with.

This is real life. There is no instant replay or fast-forward. “Changing channels” needs a lot of thinking and weighing of consequences, advantages and disadvantages.

There is great pressure not to be traditional. Don’t apologize. You can still be progressive and choose traditional values. Indeed, your children need to have an anchor and a focus – good old-fashioned principles and priorities.


Like It or Not, Kids Grow with Violence

Like most of the parents, you are probably against guns. Real guns. At the mere sight of them, your knees turn to jelly. A gunless society is ideal but only law-abiding citizens can make it one. If guns are in the hands of goons, who will protect the gunless citizens? Nowadays, it’s hard to tell who are the law enforcers and the law-breakers.

You must be able to enforce “toys for peace” in your home. You should be conscious about this, as your boys and girls graduate from plastic toys that go “bang bang” to water guns. What are popular now are air soft guns using plastic pellets. They are quite expensive.

This is probably one step ahead of video or role-playing games, where one uses the computer or imagination. In war games, they can act it out. You probably don’t notice it but when your kids start playing war games, their relationship skills improve. They become a team with a hobby to share. It’s good, clean fun. Nobody gets hurt. They wear protective goggles or face masks, long sleeves and long pants. (It seems there are some adults who join, not to play, but to hurt.)

The children’s justifications should never change your stand about toy guns. They know they can never ask you to buy such guns for them. (So they’d probably try asking their other parent.) Besides, you reaction is always economic: “How much? That’s a month’s groceries! No way!”
But when violence is deliberate, such as in hazing, then that’s a different story. This is no longer a game. The pain is real. It is not like those “blood pellets” you can wipe away when the game is over. You can actually have blood on your hands.

Hazing does not teach brotherhood. It teaches revenge. So this batch was made to take a gulp of milk, spit it out, and pass the same glass down the line. From a half-filled glass, by the time it gets to the last guy, it’s nearly full. Next year, this same batch will do the same, or worse, to their neophytes. And so the violence escalates.

Is this a rite of passage every boy must undergo to be a man, or a girl to be a woman? A father, especially one who got by without joining any fraternity, is proof enough that fraternities are not necessary. If by brotherhood, it means cheating by test paper leaks and connections, then you shouldn’t want that for your children.

They say the culture of violence is bred by violence in comics, movies and television. That enough exposure to violence can dull one’s sense and one can become insensitive to gore and blood. Power can be such a heady experience. Guns or even a car can give one a feeling of power. You’ve seen houseboys transformed into veritable kings of the road, once they get behind the steering wheel. Can you imagine those out of school youth recruited to be security guards and issued guns?

What can we do about this culture of violence? Parents ask the schools to be stricter with those involved in frat violence. For students, the best thing is to boycott fraternities. Those who join are mostly insecure students from the province who really need some form of brotherhood, as they are new in the city or university. They do not know that one can pass the course and find jobs based on one’s merits.


More Coming Soon....Look for the Book to be online soon at Support for Moms

FREEBIES for everyone no strings attached!

FREEBIES for everyone no strings attached!
A lot of great freebies this week w/no strings attatched! Come join our newsletter at http://www.plussizemommy.com and you will automatically receive the following ebooks free:
Blogging Made EasyMake Money BloggingKeyword ToolHow to Build a Thank You PageHandy Hyperlist Linkbook
Plus, each day of this week, you will receive an email with a link to other great freebies! On Friday the 3rd, we will be having a chat on the site and giving away some great prizes. After this week is over you will not receive any more newsletters from us, so there is no big commitment. Why are we doing this?
Our fabulous team is a part of a competition going on at www.wahm911.com We are all competing for some great prizes and learning a ton along the way. So you see, there really are no strings attached.
Our competition this week is to have a higher traffic flow to our website (which is not a real site, just our first challenge in the competition) than the other team. We just want to reward you all for helping us out and visiting our site. If you’d like to join the Yahoo group for WAHM 911 and learn from our discussions, join in mini competitions and meet some wonderful ladies, please visit (copy & paste) http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wahm911/ and once you join up you can go to the poll section and vote for Rebecca White as the person who referred you.

Rebecca WhiteGraphic and Website DesignerView all my businesseshttp://www.rebeccawhiteonline.com

Living with Diabetes

Do you or someone you love have Type 1 diabetes? Susie and I talking about type 1 diabetes and the effect it has on not only the person who has diabetes but the family as well.

Rebecca White talks about her husband and how they found out about his diabetes, the symptoms and some helpful hints on how to deal with Type 1 Diabetes.

Susie Glennan from The Busy Woman tells how they found out that her 19 month old grandson had Type 1 diabetes and the families struggle as they learn how to take care of his needs.

This is going to be a continuing segment so be sure to come back often to hear more information about Diabetes and how it affects both the person with diabetes as well as the family members of a diabetic.
http://www.healyourselftalk.com

Two new shows on Heal Yourself Talk Radio & a Surprise ad special!

Two new shows on Heal Yourself Talk Radio & a Surprise ad special!
Why I Forgave My Mom for Abusing Me for 44 Years
It took my mother's stroke to heal my broken relationship with her and to show me how EASY it was to forgive her for abusing me for 44 years.
Listen in to Sharon and Roy Montero as they share various events in their lives as it relates to the healing process between a mother and daughter.

and

Halloween or Fall Festival Tips and Recipes

How one family chooses to celebrate a given holiday should be between them and their family and their God.
Recipes, tips and how my family celebrates "Halloween or Fall Festival"

http://www.healyourselftalk.com

Also help me celebrate my son's 13th birthday all button ads on all pages till Friday October 27th are only $13.00 for one month!
Only those who read this ad will get this price!
http://www.healyourselfradio.com/Happy_Birthday_Alex_Ad_Specials.html

What Happened the Morning of 9-11? Two Survivors stories...

What Happened the Morning of 9-11? Two Survivors stories...

9-11: no other day in the history of our nation can strike the fear, the pain and the anguish that we suffered on that date from a terroist attack.

We woke up to the news blaring the impossible! We sat stunned as we watched the events unfold!

But what was that day really like for those who lived through that aweful experience?
Michelle Rosado and Eula share their stories. From the weeks before the event to the weeks and months after, you will hear what they experienced, how they survived, how they were in shock for many days and even years later from the life altering event.
Kim Mutch Emerson comes on at the end of the show to share how those who suffered, whether they lost a loved one or are a survivor, that they can have victory in healing even now.
Hear how Michelle and Eula have changed since that day and how they are finding victory in their experience.

http://www.healyourselftalk.com