Healthy B.P.M.

Ursula writes a fantastically funny review on The Skinny Bitch, a book that has made it big because Posh was caught reading it. This book is all about how eating a healthy organic diet can keep you away from plus size frenzy.

This book is a no-nonsense guide for girls who want to Stop eating crap and start looking fabulous. The author Rory Freedman, a former agent for Ford Models, seems to be an expert in diet, health, traditional, and holistic nutrition. Kim Barnouin is a former model who holds a Masters of Science degree in Holistic Nutrition. Both authors have successfully counseled models, actors, athletes, and other professionals using the Skinny Bitch method.

The idea is to rechannel your energies by eating the right foods. The question that critics are asking is does it make sense for a former model who is already wafer thin to give advice? Dare a skinny b***h advise a size 16 person?

Jimmy Moore of the Livin’La Vida LoCarb blog puts it this way:
The “Skinny Bitch” approach can be narrowed down to one simple statement: Starve yourself until nobody can stand to be around you anymore and then write a book sharing every single little thought that you would like to tell someone if they were there to listen to you.

A lot of dieting methodologies go for the low food quotient. Eat less, live longer(or starve longer…whatever way you like to put it). But for people low on metabolism(the thinner people in the world), the method works. If you are high on the pounds, this method will probably leave you feeling irritable. If on the other hand, you believe that veganism is not equivalent to starvation, you might want to consider this.

Skinny Bitch, Posh Spice, skinny bitch diet, veganism, size zero, diet

If you are a size 4 in Mauritania, then chances are that you will be considered unattractive.

This story goes to prove that beauty is in the eyes of cultural perceptions. There is no golden standard.

In Mauritania girls have to be gavage(as in fattening geese for foie gras). Girls are force fed from a young age. Mauritanian love songs praise fat women, and the health ministry is trying to change all that. Husbands complain that their wives are not fat enough:) and women actually have appetite-inducing pills including cattle steroids as opposed to diet pills.

Things could be changing because of satellite channels. But it’s strange that men’s preferences from voluptuous to size zero dictate women’s own body preferences. A Mauritanian woman would probably keep the pounds to please her husband.

Until he decides to leave her if she doesn’t look like Britney Spears.

Mauritania, fat women, steroids

I was scouting around for foods that burn the fat and came across some interesting links I want to share with you:

1.LadyThrill’s compilation of health foods. My favorites are cayenne pepper and ginger!

2.Tom Venuto’s tips are great! He’s classified his top 10s into starchy carbs, fruits, vegetables and lean proteins.

3. Have you tried grapefruit and black soya? Consider these foods to be your allies. Read this if you think that grapefruit is the fruit for you to stabilize your weight.

4.Learn to love foods that love you eg, fiber and more fiber.

grapefruit diet, weight loss, fat burning foods, fiber, calories, health foods

There are so many reality shows out there.

Now losing weight on national television is becoming an interesting new way to lose weight. If you are obese enough to get selected, you might just nail a million dollars and end up looking like Erik Chopin of the Biggest Loser hall of fame.

Another show is The Fat March, an ABC series that chronicles 12 overweight people during a 550-mile, 10-week walk from the start of the Boston Marathon to the White House for a chance to share a $1.2 million prize.

Is going for a 500 mile walkathon a realistic way to lose weight? That’s what experts are questioning. It’s an entertaining way to kill the pounds but how far can it be inspirational?

Even if the contestants lose weight how long can they sustain it once the cameras stop rolling? Once viewers and contestants alike get the hang of living healthy, some could stick by it; some will tire of it all and go back to their old habits.

This is a great story on the reality behind reality shows. Read it and tell me which show you swear by or hate.

fat reality shows, Biggest Loser, Fat March. Erik Chopin

Mo told me in response to this post that there’s no way there’s an equal amount of prejudice about skinny people as compared to their skinnier counterparts. She quotes Fatfu:

Fat has been thoroughly politicized in a way that other body sizes haven’t, and fat hatred has become woven into every aspect of the culture. There are layers of intolerance and hatred, abusive and hyperbolic rhetoric and increasingly organized discrimination, which is aggravated by a full-blown global hysteria about fat…..

The phrase fat hatred stuck with me. Why does fat hatred exist? It could be because we have an innate sense of what is unhealthy. In school stronger kids always single out the weaker kids. There are always opposites fat against thin, talkative against shy, dominating against reluctant. The positive or more acceptable child will be healthier, confident and have an acceptable body type. The rest of the class consists of the ‘geeks’ and the ‘fatties’ and the ‘punies’ and the ’shorties’.
(more…)

There are trigger mechanisms all around us and these affect the way we eat and live.

1. Surroundings Trigger:You could stop mindless eating by being aware of what you are eating and where you are eating it. That means you sit at the dining table and eat, not munch mindlessly in front of the television, computer screen or while you read a book. Good food for thought by Mark.

2.Food triggers and Health:Tackling food triggers is a good idea as it could put an end to obesity problems. It could help migraine too. Ever noticed how some foods can start that head throbbing sensation….so what’s the solution? Eat in moderation and eat sensible. You might be able to battle your headaches with a good diet Stay away from chocolates sundaes, MSG and salami to stall those headaches. Read this fantastically researched article for more.

Emotional Triggers:Definitely a diet alone is not enough.According to Maria, finding your emotional trigger is as important as cutting down on binge eating. What makes you lose track of your food habits? It’s not just the food trigger; it’s in your emotional trigger mechanism as well. Stay away from emotions that ruin your diet plan.

food trigger, emotional trigger, diet, weight loss, migraine

While fat ranters are ranting away, where are the thin rants?

Why are fat people getting all the attention?

What about puny people, short people, excessively tall people?

What’s all this obesity hype?

I loved this passage from Cynthia’s short rant excerpt posted on Big Fat Deal

Why is it that the larger sized people get so much more media attention? Size acceptance websites tend to skew more to the plus than to the petite, and they seem to be very negative (not sure if it’s intentional or not) towards people who are really size zero.

I firmly believe that while there is prejudice against fat people there is an equal amount of prejudice against skinny people. It’s always better to have more than less, especially when it comes to a woman’s body type. And while fatter persons can be glamorized with sympathy excessively skinny people can turn into sacks of bones.

That is not right at all.

health, anorexia, skinny, size zero, prejudice against fat people, fat rant, Joy Nash

Another book I found in the running is The Incredible Shrinking Critic. It’s a how-I-lost-the-pounds kind of book and good reading. Reading about how someone else lost weight always inspires you to lose weight.

A gist of the book from Chris’s book review:

- Lasting weight loss is about strategy, not willpower (plan for contingencies).

- Unwise, better, best: Losing weight involves a series of choices along a sliding scale.

Barnard is a film critic and she has style: “Most people who successfully lose weight report a click, a turning point. One minute, losing weight seems impossible, unthinkable. You’d rather go down fighting with a piping hot, lightly salted, tender-crisp clutch of fries in your defiant fist. The next minute, you’re the Zen master of weight loss.”

Bernard’s tryst with food triggers and food angst is detailed here.

I’ll say check it out!

Jami Bernard, fat pants, trigger foods, film critic, weight loss, New York, weight watchers

When I read this post I was curious about why being fat can stop you from committing suicide.

1.A fat person cannot hang himself as he can’t ascend the foot stool and if he did he would probably break it. Even if that didn’t happen the ceiling fixture to which the rope was tied would probably snap.

2.Being fat doesn’t let excessive dose of sleeping pills affect you either as blubber absorbs all the toxins.
(more…)

If you ask the fashion industry, I barely deserved to be allowed to wear clothing. And I’m definitely, definitely fatter than the girl who should not be wearing that

Don’t buy any more clothing in sizes that are too small — clothing that will ‘motivate you to get slimmer.

Throw out the stuff that doesn’t fit anymore. It’s just taking up space.

You want to hear more fat rant? Check out the video.

“A Fat Rant” is legendary fat speak. It’s a confident voice and it’s sparked off over 690 pages of debate in its comment section! 700,000 online viewers have checked out Joy’s video and yeah she’s in the papers too. As a blogger I can learn a lot from Joy Nash.

fat rant, Joy Nash, You Tube fat rant videos, obesity, weight problems

Speaking of book titles this is one title that I thought was worth reading. Japanese women don’t get Old or Fat is a book that talks about the benefits of the Japanese diet .

The secret to staying light is obviously eating less, eating brown rice as opposed to white and having the proverbial enormous dose of fruits and vegetables.

Ajay sums it up so well that I have an excerpt here:

1. Practice hara hachi bunme - eat until you are 80 per cent full.

5. Eat more fish, fruits and vegetables - and fewer saturated fats and trans fats.
(more…)

I liked this post about how moms juggle work and home:

To juggle, by definition is to hold, catch, carry, or balance precariously; almost drop, then catch and hold again. That described my life. Keeping everything up in the air was exhausting.

To balance is to maintain a state of equilibrium; equal distribution of weight, or amount.

Work-at-home moms have it good with the opportunity to make money and be at home but that has its share of stress factors too. What moms who work at home or in the office have to do is to find harmony in their life instead of try to have it all.

How do you do that? You make a checklist of what you want in your life right now.
(more…)

The title of Meg Cabot’s mystery Size 14 is not fat either makes you wonder whether the title is mmmmmmm slightly off the mark. Size 14 is considered to be a place from where you can think of the ugly word Diet. The book is fun(check out this review) but the title led me to a google search.

And I came up with this strange sexless ‘relationslip’ that had to do with Size 14 and Sex:BIG BROTHER LOVER: WE DID NOT HAVE SEX FOR 7 MONTHS, the reason being fat shame.

Does size really matter this much???

Meg Cabot, diet, sex, Big Brother

I found this interesting post on how eating
fat can make you thin.

Check out this passage(an excerpt in the post):

In one study, a group of women were given a mid-morning yogurt snack and then later served lunch and dinner. There were two choices of yogurt. One was regular full-fat and the other was low-fat. Each was labeled, but there was no mention of total calorie content. Each, however, contained the same number of calories. The only difference was the fat content. Participants were allowed to choose whichever one they wanted. When the women were later served lunch those who had the high-fat yogurt ate less than those who ate the low-fat variety. The extra fat in the yogurt snack satisfied their hunger longer and encouraged them to eat less at lunch.

It’s happened to me too. Eating less makes me feel light but somehow the hunger pangs stay on. So it’s better to go with the hunger pangs than wait and wait until you grab a burger and French fries to satisfy yourself

But then the problem that arises is can someone with a weight problem really listen to his hunger pangs? The more obese a person is, the faster is his metabolism. And so the hungrier he gets. It’s a Catch 22 situation.

calories, obese, over weight, diet, hunger pangs, appetite, metabolism

“I really need some how to get some sleep tips. I hate to stay awake all night and feel crappy in the mornings.” says one of my readers.

When I talked to her, I realized that she had a lot of underlying stress and uncertainty about her future. Sleep deprivation is a common affliction of people who have a lot of pressure either at home or the work place. Sometimes sleeping pills are the only solution but before you opt for that, visit your doctor and try to make some lifestyle changes.

1. Follow a routine. Being erratic can create problems.

2. Don’t binge-eat before bed.

3. Keep your room as dark as possible and make sure that other family members respect your privacy. No banging doors in the corridor or loud blaring T.V.

4. Indulge in a daily exercise routine. Physical tiredness helps.

5. Follow these valuable tips if you work shifts and lose out on valuable sleep.

6. Meditation can help relieve stress and soothen your sleep.

sleep disorders, night shifts, meditation, exercise, insomnia