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I MADE A HAT!!!1!1!!!
| My very first hat. It has a brim, a stripe, a tassel, and it fits on my head. It is also crooked on many levels and is missing a few stitches here and there. |
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| Here, you can see the tassel ...not to mention how nice it looks on a gallon of distilled water. |
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And this time...it's personal.
I say this because the actual hat is for me.
...not that it will help me this weekend, because yarn does not protect you from rain.
While I'm here, have you seen this awesome article by Kim Barto?
I heard about it at Big Fat Blog, and it's strong stuff.
America is obsessed with dieting, and it’s taking a toll. The country that invented the fast-food greaseburger has now seen the rate of eating disorders double since the 1960s, according to the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. Up to 60 percent of high school girls diet, and even more worry about their weight.
The Eating Disorders Coalition estimates that millions of Americans are diagnosed annually, and anorexia nervosa has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness. Worse, the patients keep getting younger. Something is deeply wrong with a society that fosters self-loathing in seven-year-old girls.
The problem is the prevailing attitude that equates thinness with good health and happiness. Combine this with a grossly distorted view of what is normal, and it’s no wonder that so many people hate their bodies.
In reality, a wide variety of body types are normal, depending on one’s bone structure, metabolism and genetics. It is fruitless and misleading to expect everyone to conform to the same weight. Whether you are naturally muscular, chunky, twiggy, curvy or tiny, trying to change your body can be frustrating and even dangerous.
When people try to make the body thinner than it is genetically programmed to be, it retaliates by becoming ravenous and vulnerable to binge eating, according to ANRED (Anorexia Nervosa and Related Eating Disorders), a nonprofit organization against eating disorders.
Ninety-eight percent of dieters regain all the weight they manage to lose, plus about 10 extra pounds, within five years.
The editors of the New England Journal of Medicine concluded in 1998 that, “(s)ince many people cannot lose much weight no matter how hard they try and promptly regain whatever they do lose, the vast amount of money spent on diet clubs, special foods and over-the-counter remedies, estimated to be on the order of $30 billion to $50 billion yearly, is wasted.”
There is no magic pill to keep weight off, no matter what the advertisers would have you believe.
Those that are effective are only minimally so, and they often carry serious health risks. Remember Fen-Phen?
What a paradox, that dieting should be such a lucrative industry in a country with such high obesity rates. Someone is obviously profiting from fat phobia in a big way. Take a nation of insecure people, bombard them with images of impossible beauty standards, and they will greet the latest fad with open wallets.
Couldn’t those billions of dollars be better spent? Instead of trying to buy happiness, think of all the good that money could do if diverted to cancer research or stamping out hunger.
Rather than focusing on weight loss at any cost, we should aim for good health at any size. Too many dieters harm their bodies and psyches by skipping meals, purging and popping pills in the quest for skinniness. We should eat for nutrition and well-being, not solely to lose weight. Amidst all the deprivation and guilt associated with eating, we often forget that fresh, simple food is a joy in itself.
Likewise, our use of language reinforces the idea of exercise as a punishment for the body. Instead of saying “feel the burn” or “no pain, no gain,” try “feel good.”
Exercising releases serotonin, the brain chemical that causes you to feel happy. Find an activity that you enjoy, be it swimming, cycling or salsa dancing — it doesn’t have to be a torture session on the Stairmaster.
When you make time to be active, feel your body growing stronger and stay away from the scale. Movement is supposed to be fun. If you doubt this, go outside with your kids, assuming they’re not video game addicts, and watch them play tag in the backyard.
Better yet, join them!
America needs a change in mindset — let’s embrace diversity of size and question the source of our insecurities. Find the weight that’s healthy for you, individually, without comparing yourself to the skeletal models on TV. Life is too short to hate your body.
Kim Barto is a senior at the UNCA majoring in photography with minors in mass communication and French. She also works in human resources for the U.S. Forest Service. She lives in Asheville. Her columns appear on alternate Thursdays and she can be reached at kdbarto@bulldog.unca.edu.
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Good article, too. It just makes sense.
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Nice to know that total strangers know me better than I do...
...or not.
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Very interesting article. Personally I am not concerned with my actual weight, since muscle weighs more and I lack it. I care about my appearance, and the way my clothes fit. And I realize that I am not obese. Yet for the past months I have been obsessing about my weight gain. After an extended period of fast food, liquor, and zero exercise, my body finally decided to kick my ass.
I woke up one day, looked in the mirror, and thought "chubby."
A while later I woke up and looked in the mirror and thought, "I'm fat."
Still later, I thought "Jesus, I'm covered in cellulite."
Now I wake up and see myself naked and think, "I hate myself. I disgust myself. I look terrible. I'm ashamed."
Yet I realize that I am not obese. But I can't fit into my clothes and I hate the way I look. People tell me I look fine, but I think they're just being polite. I just feel like I need to be healthy. But I am also very tempted to crash-diet, and get back to where I feel I look OK.
I wish I didn't like the way really skinny chicks look. I guess America has successfully brainwashed me, despite myself.
I guess I'm in between seeking health and seeking improved appearance no matter what.
Wow, this comment turned out to be an entry. Perhaps I shall post.
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Even if everybody you know tells you how great you look, you're the one who must be convinced. And I can assure you, nobody will ever think you're as flawed as you do. That's how it is with me anyway...
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I hadn't thought of checking eBay. That's a fine idea!
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Nice article too. I can't agree more about finding some exercise that you enjoy doing.
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Indeed, I like to excersize by dancing around the apartment when no one is here.
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You can tell it's raw with heart and not one of those mass produced foo foo thingies...LOL!
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Thanks.
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I used to exercise a lot, and I did feel so much better overall. I have not exercised *at all* for months and months, and I feel like crap. It's getting started after time off that's so hard, and I also gradually cluttered up the floor area I had cleared for working out. I need to get started again, not for appearance's sake, but because I'm starting to get numbness again in my hands & feet & have upper back tightness. It goes away if I exercise regularly - no surprise since my job, commute, & online time all involves nothing more than sitting on my ass.
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Do you need a hat?
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*plots*
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And the article is super interesting and Amen to all, as far as I'm concerned. Now to find that exercise that I enjoy doing... I miss being home with my treadmill in front of a TV with a DVD player. I really need to get back in the habit, however, since it really does just make you feel better, especially when eating well. I didn't lose any weight to speak of, but I felt totally awesome-er.