American Women and Their Obsession with Dieting

I had a comment from my previous post that I thought was worth addressing here. In a nutshell, I think the writer was asking, why are American women so focused on dieting so much when women are beautiful and healthy naturally? Ironically, I also remember reading an article last year in which the author, not an American, asked why American women dieted their bodies away to nothing, then used surgery to replace the breasts they dieted away?

Two fair questions. American women are unhealthily obsessed with diet – you only have to look at Hollywood to see that. The average Miss America contestant of today is about 20 lbs. underweight. Most of them would be screened for eating disorders by any nutritionist. What most frightens the hell out of me, however, is that in a recent poll, 51% of nine and ten year old girls stated they felt better about themselves when they were adhering to a diet. 81% of ten-year-old girls are afraid of being fat and 42% of girls in first through third grades state they want to be thinner. This is freaking insane … no, it’s more than insane, it’s absolutely horrifying. What normal six- or seven-year-old should be worried about her weight??? Why aren’t we teaching our kids about fitness and health instead of body image?

God willing, my Katie will never have those unhealthy ideas put into her head. I know it’s inevitable that she will be exposed to the frenzy from her friends and the media. By that time, however, I hope to have enough sound, healthy education drilled into her head that she can reject the freak body image obsession for the madness it is. I’m afraid, though, the whole situation is a lost cause, given the spotlight on how “thin is in.”

Here are some other joyous facts about America’s obsession with image:

§ Actresses Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz and singer Diana Ross all meet the Body Mass Index physical criteria for anorexia.
§ Pamela Anderson is 5’7” and weights 120 pounds. She is supposed to be the “voluptuous ideal,” yet she is 11% below ideal body weight.
§ A generation ago, Marilyn Monroe set the beauty standard at 5’5” and weighed 135 pounds. Today, her agent would probably tell her she had to lose weight.
§ A study found that 25% of Playboy centerfolds met the weight criteria for anorexia.
§ Twenty years ago, the average fashion model weighed 8% less than the average woman. Today, she weighs 23% less.

Insane.

For myself, I’m hoping I’ve learned not to focus on “diet” as much as I’m focusing on “health.” I need to get my body fat % into a healthy range. I need to continue to keep bad carbs like refined sugar and white flour out of my diet. I need to get off my ass and move every day, to be routinely active. In other words, I need to live life like a healthy person, not like an unhealthy person. And I need to teach my daughter what it means to do the same. I need to stay off the diet bandwagon and be the kind of person everyone wants to be like – so they ask what I do and start to understand what good body image really is.

Maybe other American women will even join me someday :)

Oooh, I Forgot the Blood Pressure Update

It's come down. Not tons, but enough to give us some encouragement. So, he wants me to keep on doing what I'm doing, plus take the same meds, and go back to see him in six weeks. He wants to see if we continue a downward trend at the same medication levels, plus he didn't want to overmedicate me, he said. My kind of doctor - our goal is actually to get me off the damned pills completely. But it was good news and I was happy.

I Have Found the anti-Tiffany and She is My New Hero

I actually tried to post this yesterday, but the site was apparently having server problems. Having no post actually wasn't my fault this time :)

So I’m trolling through Tom Veneto’s site, reading some back articles, and came across a question someone asked about good fitness sites for women. Tom listed a few and among them was one called Skwigg’s World, which he said was funny and informative. I took a look the other day and loved it – Skwigg (whose real name is Renee, I think) is a real fitness buff and has a ton of articles, blog entries, pictures, etc. about health and fitness. She seems like a fun and down-to-earth person, although I’ve noticed we are such complete opposites, we’d probably either kill each other or be immediate kindred spirits. Besides the obvious difference – she’s straight and I’m gay – I have Katie, she is afraid of kids. She can’t cook, I can’t stop cooking. She watches 60 hours of television a week, I can’t be bothered unless it’s FitTV or PBS or Nickelodeon (give me a break, I have a 15-month-old). She is highly caffeinated, I get dizzy spells when I consume caffeine. She does extreme martial arts in which she gets the shit beat out of her on a routine basis, I cry if I break a fingernail (although I do plan on starting Taekwondo later this year. God help the instructor). But trust me on this one – Skwigg rocks. I’ve spent some time reading her blog and I even went all the way back to start at the beginning (about three years ago) because I think, in addition to being funny and intelligent, she has a lot of sensible, educational things to say about fitness. Like Tom, she tells it like it is and I love that – and I can see where I can learn a lot from her. This is stuff everyone should hear, so go check it out.

I was jazzed to see one of Skwigg’s most recent posts is on N.E.A.T. – Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. By sheer coincidence, I was reading something about this last week. Basically, N.E.A.T. is your “fidget factor.” It explains why a person like Strutt, someone who is constantly in motion and never rests, is far less likely to gain weight than someone like me, who can stay calm and still for long periods of time. N.E.A.T. is all those calories you burn off when you aren’t sleeping/resting and you aren’t doing some type of activity or exercise. In essence, people with a high N.E.A.T. factor burn off lots more calories than people with a low one. For example, Strutt is never still. S/he is constantly moving, twisting, fidgeting, tapping, and twitching, even when s/he’s asleep (yet one more reason we have a California King bed … LOL). And s/he’s never been overweight a day in hir life (unless you count the period of months right after s/he quit smoking, which I don’t). I never was a fast gainer, even when I became a resident of PCOS-land, but I will gain weight faster than s/he does under the same exact circumstances – but I’m also a much more physically serene person. So, the theory of N.E.A.T. makes a lot of sense to me.

I don’t know if this can be a learned behavior … I need to do some more reading. Frankly, I don’t know how you would re-program your basic personality to become inherently more spastic, but who knows? To burn an extra 200 or 300 calories a day, I'd probably be willing to do a lot worse :)

More Hell ... :(

I keep promising, promising, promising to catch up and I don’t. Well, I have another hell week – what can I say? Patience! Patience is a virtue, right? Too bad I don’t have any … LOL. But I’m being pulled in 50 million different directions, so this is another quick one.

I wanted to briefly follow up on the Curves conversation. I think I mentioned Curves is somewhat of a joke in the bodybuilding industry and an entire workout burns like only 184 calories. But, amidst all the laughter, someone made a really good point. Curves encouraged women – and a lot of older, overweight women at that – who otherwise would have never thought about joining a fitness center to get off their butts, get out, and get moving. And how can that be a bad thing? Now, we can only hope Curves members eventually take it to the next level, although I think we can safely say that probably won’t be the norm. But if Curves gives these ladies the encouragement to get a little exercise, even if it’s only 30 minutes three times a week, who are we to laugh? It’s way better than nothing.

I have another doctor’s appointment this afternoon about my damned blood pressure. I don’t think the new round of meds worked and I’m getting tired of this. But, Dr. R says we’ll figure it out and I have the utmost faith in him, so I’m not going to get my knickers in a twist over it. Wish me luck and I will try to post again as soon as I can.

And the Week From Hell Continues ...

Work has gone nuts this week. I literally haven't had a minute to breathe and there is so much I want to post about. But I'll have to make do with a short entry and a promise to catch up next week (or maybe this weekend if I have a chance when Sweet Pea is asleep).

Anyhow, good news on the stats - I have lost a total of 36 lbs. and 20-1/2". Hooray for me :) People are really starting to pay attention now and ask me what I'm doing. I try to keep it fast and simple when I explain my program, but I've noticed most people still think it's complicated and would much rather hear a quick and easy solution. They want to hear me say, "Oh, I eat 1,200 calories a day, jog for 30 minutes on Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, and walk around the outside of the house at midnight sprinkling the blood of a dead chicken on the foundation during the full moon." Pah. People never learn.

I wish I had time for more today, but I don't. I have so much to write about! Stay tuned :)