Holiday food fever.

Well folks, it's that time of year.  Halloween has passed which can only mean one thing... the holidays are here!!

The holidays are my absolute favorite time of year, for a multitude of reasons: getting in some quality time with family (a serious issue when you're a college student living away from home), exchanging gifts, the lights, the music, the feeling in the air, and, of course, the amazing food!  My mom and I have been Christmas cookie fanatics for as long as I can remember.  Every year we buy all the Christmas cookie magazine publications and try to bake our way through them before the big day arrives.  And for as long as I can remember, I have spent the holidays stressing more than any other time of the year about my weight and my body.

For the few of you out there who have no idea what I'm talking about, breathe a deep sigh of relief.  For the 98% of you who, like me, have been in a love-hate relationship with your diet for years, the holidays are just an extra source of stress, emotional and otherwise; not only is there a multitude of incredible food around that you don't usually have, you're often going to parties and other social gatherings with people you haven't seen in a while and, of course, as a chronic dieter, you're once again hoping to impress everyone with an incredible body transformation.  Not by coincidence, every women's health magazine on the shelves right now has some feature or another on how to "control" yourself during the holidays.  Tips range from eating before every party so you're not "tempted" by the food offered, all the way to wearing clothes that are slightly too tight so you're feeling just "tubby" enough that you're too embarrassed to eat.  I don't know about you, but that does not sound like a fun party to me.

Then, on the opposite end of the spectrum, there are those of us who deal with the deliciousness of holiday food by letting ourselves go entirely, binging over and over again with the plan of simply waiting until January to deal with our food problems.  There is, after all, the opportunity to resolve once again to "lose the weight once and for all" come January 1st.

Here's the deal: the holidays are supposed to be the one time of year you can get together with those you love, relax and enjoy yourselves together, and believe it or not, part of that enjoyment includes eating.  Indulging in a few holiday meals with your friends and family should be a source of pleasure, not one of stress and anxiety.  While there is no need to partake in the American notion that Thanksgiving is not a success unless you've eaten to the point of making yourself sick, neither is letting yourself off the hook for a few meals going to lead to any kind of dire consequences, besides perhaps a little apprehension about consciously breaking from your "diet."

I know we're all at different points in our journey towards body acceptance, but no matter where you are, try to have some compassion in your heart for yourself this holiday season.  Keep in mind that the stress you're feeling over your body and your eating has nothing to do with what your body actually looks like, or how beautiful you actually are.  That, and let yourself enjoy that peppermint bark, eggnog latte or second helping of stuffing without worrying about your food log or your waist.  I hope that by now you're all trying to break away from the constant dieting, but if not, take the first steps this holiday season by letting yourself enjoy a few meals without worrying about calories, fat, carbs, or anything in between.  The holidays are a time of celebration, so I can't imagine a better time to celebrate the fact that you are beautiful and amazing just the way you are, and no slice of pumpkin pie with extra whipped cream is going to change that.  In fact, it might even make you just a little better! #

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Today, I found definitive proof that I'm right about this whole-body-image-being-depleted-by-the-media thing!  While I was surfing around looking for blog inspiration, I found a study just published by Durham University, based in the United Kingdom, which found that body preference can be radically changed simply based on the images you see of others regularly.

Let me explain.  It's long been apparent to body-acceptance proponents and scientists alike that the effect of the "thin ideal" in advertising has played a substantial role in breakdown of self-image in women everywhere as well as in the creation of eating disorders.  What's new about this research is that it resolves the issue of what came first: a preference for thinness among the general population, OR the mass use of thinner-than-average women in the media.  Researchers enlisted 100 women to view pictures of models at various sizes.  The more images of thin models the women viewed, the more they preferred thin bodies.  Here's where it gets pretty revolutionary: the more images of average or even plus-sized models these women viewed, the more likely they were to accept these bodies as just as beautiful as much thinner ones.  It gets better: even among women who "strongly" preferred thin bodies over any other type before the beginning of the study, by the end they were "significantly less keen" on thinner body types and some even began to prefer normal and plus-size bodies!

Here's what this means: the cultural obsession with extremely thin female figures could be drastically altered, or even eliminated altogether, if advertising began to flaunt much more "full-figured" women.  According to the study above, we each see over 2,000 images a day in advertising alone.  2,000!  Think about it like this: when was the last time you saw an ad that featured a women who was anything more than skinny?  Can you even remember?  Even if it was only a few days ago, that means that you've processed thousands of images of thin women since you saw that ONE image of someone who looks more like you.  But just imagine: what if for every thin model you saw, you saw one normal-sized woman and one plus-sized woman?  Do you think you'd still stand in front of the mirror and pick your body apart for all its flaws?

With that in mind, here are some photographs of absolutely stunning normal- and plus-sized models that will hopefully counteract at least a few of the super-skinny images you've seen today.  Instead of just scrolling through, take a few moments to really process each image.  According to Durham University, it may be a major step (and an easy one at that!) towards self-love and body acceptance.

 

And a bonus, just because you guys are so amazing and encouraging: here's super celebrity Demi Lovato on her latest beach vacation.  Pretty sexy, huh?  And not a rib in sight!

Every single women featured here is 100% natural and, as far as I'm concerned, 100% gorgeous.  So the next time you're beating yourself up because something is too big or too small, too chunky, lumpy, wiggly, or anywhere in between, remember that the major reason you're feeling this way is because you're bombarded with thousands of images every single day that are leading you to believe that that's true.  But you know that?  It's not.  If advertising didn't exist and the only frame of reference you had for how women's bodies are supposed to look were the normal, everyday ones you're surrounded by, you would have realized long ago that we really do come in every shape and size imaginable. And you know what?  That's okay. #

Don't hate, congratulate...

Quick question.

Do you think Kate Upton is fat?

If you answered yes, then you're in the wrong place.  See that little red button with an X through it at the top left of your screen?  Go ahead and click that right about meow.

If you're still here, then you must be of the persuasion that no, she is not indeed fat.

According to one of the web's most ruthless "pro-skinny" blogs, if you answered no, you're grievously misinformed.  Here's what an anonymous writer who goes by the name of Skinny Gossip has to say about this exact picture:

"Huge thighs, NO waist, big fat floppy boobs, terrible body definition – she looks like a squishy brick... lumbering down the runway like there’s a buffet at the end of it."

 She goes on to say, "is this what American women are “striving” for now? The lazy, lardy look? Have we really gotten so fat in this country that Kate is the best we can aim for?"  She later suggests that a picture of Kate eating a hamburger is "canniablism" because she is clearly "a cow."

Appaled yet?

Wait, there's more:

Here's what she has to say about this pro-body acceptance campaign...

"I’m really glad I can’t read the number on that measuring tape. Eww… can we say fat rolls!? Do you have any idea how much someone has to eat to look like this?"

It gets worse.  Not even the thinnest of thin is safe...

"Skinny Gossip" posted this picture of Emma Watson on her blog with the caption...

"She is such a beautiful girl but she would look amazing if she lost about 10-15 pounds.  She is only 5’6″ so she isn’t blessed with much height to help her look skinny.  She’ll end up like Hayden Panettiere if she doesn’t watch out!"

Oh, and by the way, here's the exact picture of the god-awful fate "Skinny Gossip" is hoping poor Emma Watson will avoid...

Oh, the horror!

-

If you're like me, you should be sitting at your computer reading this in disbelief.  If you're like me, you should also be furious.  What this blog promotes is pure, unadulterated body-shaming at its worst, and there is simply no excuse for that.  "Skinny Gossip" may just be one girl, but this kind of perpetuation of body hatred is far from isolated.

The irony of the matter is that, the girls who are spending their time maintaining these blogs, posting pictures of beautiful, strong, confident women and tearing them to pieces, are the same girls who have been taught by our own society that it is not okay to be anything but skinny.  They have been taught that being fat is far and above the most horrible thing a person could be, and so out of fear, not only have they started starving themselves to prevent this from happening (Skinny Gossip brags that by following her own "starvation tips of the day," she has finally reached her goal weight of "5'7 and 100 pounds"), they have gone so far as to start shaming others for their appearance.

While I in no way condone the words of this blogger, or any girl who thinks body-shaming other women is acceptable, I feel that this blog is a symptom of the greater evil: a society that has so completely ingrained a fear of fat in us that we are willing to turn on each other, picking each other apart and preying on others' imperfections to give ourselves a little boost.

Ladies.  Do you really think criticizing another girl makes you better than her?  If you're following this blog, then you agree with me that our society needs a change, one that will allow us to learn how to love our bodies as a whole, instead of denigrating them until they're only a collection of flaws.
Well here's some cold, hard truth coming at you: that movement not only starts with you, but with how you treat others.  I don't care if you'd never actually tell your lab partner she has some gnarly cellulite goin' on.  If you are thinking it, even though it isn't even about you, the only thing you're doing is perpetuating feelings of body shame and body hatred as a whole.

For a self-love movement to really work, it has to include not just your self, but everybody's self.  And that means putting an end to the body hatred you're keeping alive not only in yourself, but also in the judgment of others.  Just as you have to practice looking in the mirror and accepting yourself exactly as you are, so you need to practice letting go of the negative judgments you make about others.  If you genuinely believe that every woman has the right to feel beautiful in her own skin, it has got to start with you, and not just realizing that you yourself are a beautiful, powerful and incredible woman, but that all the other lovely ladies around you are too.  That is the only way we're going to achieve any unity in this movement, and that is the only way we're ever going to make any real, lasting change. #

You gotta fight for the right...

Ladies and gentlemen, it's election season!  And that can only mean one thing: political cartoons.

While this is not exactly a cartoon, I wanted to share it with you:

While I in no way mean to tell you who to vote for, I do believe that anything that has to do with our rights to our own bodies deserves our attention.  Regardless of your political or religious beliefs, if you're reading this blog you are most likely of the opinion that we as women should be the only ones making decisions about how we see our body, how we feel about it and how we treat it.

The fact that politicians have once again become involved in our access to our own bodies is just a testament to the reality of how out of touch we as a society have become with the female body.  For literally hundreds of years we've been objectified as a collective whole without any regard for the reality of the individual.  What I mean by this is that we have a definitive history of viewing the female body as a single entity instead of recognizing that every single woman's body is different (and beautiful because of it).

I believe it is this generalizing of women's bodies that has led to not only the vast disconnect between women and their rights to their own bodies, as is apparent in the current debates, but also the majority of the body issues we experience on a daily basis.  The way that our own society has universalized our millions and millions of unique bodies into one ideal form is what had led to a similarly universal feeling of detachment from our bodies.  It is what had led to that feeling that your own body, the body you were born in, the body you will die in, the body that you are incredibly blessed to have, is somehow foreign.  I'm sure that every single one of us has at some point felt trapped in their own body, as if it is simply some vessel that we are stuck in instead of something that is incredibly integral to who we are and what we can do in this world.

With that being said, it's important to keep in mind not only during the election but far beyond that you and your body are entirely unique: there is nobody like you that has ever been and nobody like you will exist again.  Beyond the snowflake cliches, it really is true that your body is unlike that of any other woman around you, and that is why it doesn't do us any good to compare ourselves to anybody else.  The only thing we all genuinely share is the body hatred that our society has imbued in us since we were little girls.  Some of us are naturally going to look like models and some of us are naturally going to look a little bit like lumpy mashed potatoes when we're under the fluorescent lights in the dressing room (hint: it's me!), and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that!  The only wrong  is trying to amalgamate into one single standard of beauty and acceptance when we're all so different!!

So, what have we learned from the blog today?  That we are all beautiful snowflake children of Mother Earth, and that, while we may all share the same messed up body issues that have been pushed on us since we got our first issue of Seventeen Magazine, we really are all very different.  During this election season, don't let anyone push upon you the attitude that you don't have every single right to decide for yourself what you want for your body.  I hope that, even by the act of reading this blog, you've made the first step in rejecting society's claim to your feelings about your body and reclaiming them for yourself.

The only way we should be generalizing the female race is through the fact that we are all struggling with the same things, and if we stand together and celebrate our differences, we can be more powerful than ever before.  Welcome to the 21st century: the weather is currently sunny with a 60% chance of radical self-love and female revolution. #

An angel's words of wisdom.

Today I want to talk about photoshopping, because it is my belief that the majority of the body issues we suffer from are those that are created and propagated by the media.  However, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, so instead of writing about it, I'm just going to show you.

Keep in mind that, while these photos are clearly photoshopped, most of them are still of models and celebrities who are paid six-figure incomes every year to maintain the way they look.  The fact that they're really a size 8 instead of a size 14 is a result of this.

Let's start with a basic swimsuit model, and let's also play that game, "can you spot the difference?"  This woman, while beautiful, has a normal body.  She doesn't have a particularly flat stomach or toned thighs and she's certainly rocking some curves on her hips.  According to the fashion industry though, she's nowhere near good enough.  Her breasts have been enhanced, stomach flattened, hips/arms/thighs slimmed, and she's been smoothed and tanned all over.

Here's one of fashion's most beautiful plus-size models, Tara Lynn.  Just in case us curvy girls don't struggle with our figure enough, let's take an amazing role model and shave off forty pounds.  Oh, and also, we're still going to list this as "plus sized."  Are your body issues starting to make sense yet?

Here's another plus-size photo that's been drastically edited.  Next time you're hating on your back fat, keep in mind that one of the highest-paid models in the industry to date sports it like a champ.

Let's switch over to celebrities for a moment.  Take Mariah Carey for example: for 42 I think she's looking pretty damn good, but apparently I'm wrong.  In this photo for Glamour, her body structure has been completely overhauled and everything has been smoothed out into that perfect, cellulite-free glean that no number of hours in the gym is going to get you.  Why, you ask?  Because it's fake.

You know how everybody is always raging about the fact that Madonna is in her 50's and still looks like a teenager?  Surprise!  She doesn't.

If you're like me, you should be looking at this next "before" picture and wondering, "okay, what could possibly be wrong with Eva Longoria?" As it turns out, her arms and thighs are actually too skinny (wish I had that problem!), while her waist is not nearly defined enough.  All that time you've spent doing crunches to get a teensy waist and squatting to get a fat booty to complement it?  Yeah, they don't exist together.

And just so none of you girls out there are left thinking "I don't even look like the before pictures!", here's one of fashion's top up-and-coming models, before and after.  This should prove to you, unequivocally, once and for all, that if we all had a personal stylist and professional make up artist hitting us up every morning before we left the house, as well as someone to photoshop all of our photos after they were taken, you can bet there wouldn't be a single picture that you would want to untag yourself from.

One of Victoria's Secret's angels, Erin Heatherton, recently had a pre-retouching photo released from her latest bikini photoshoot, and I was actually incredibly impressed with the way she responded to it.  Here's the image:

And here's what she said about photoshopping:

"We're not selling reality; we're selling a story. It's all about creating this fantasy. And I don't think people should confuse fantasy and reality because no one is perfect—we all know that, and I think people should embrace themselves and not really focus on where people are depicted as perfect and where they're not."

Also, just a good thing to keep in mind: take a good long look at the before picture.  That's a body that most of us would kill for and Erin, who is a Victoria's Secret Angel, is still self-conscious about this image, a testament to the fact that no matter what you look like, you, as a woman in our society, are still going to feel like you aren't good enough.  Keep in mind that it's a feeling and not a reality, and no amount of dieting is going to fix that feeling for you.  You have to acknowledge it and fix it yourself.  You are perfect in your body, right now, sitting at your laptop reading this.  You are beautiful and strong and powerful, and you are NOT what the media says you are.

So the next time the Victoria's Secret catalog comes and you feel like crying over the fact that there's literally no way you will ever look like that, keep in mind that there isn't any way you will look like that because it's not real.  Advertisers photoshop because they want you to think, "if I buy that product, I will be beautiful and sexy and happy just like that woman."  The fact of the matter is, you can be beautiful and sexy and happy right now.  And isn't that a lot easier than having to lose a ton of weight first? #

Gays and fatties.

Today is National Coming Out Day, a day where we are supposed to put aside our differences and honor the fact that at the base of humanity, we ultimately all have the same desires: to be accepted, to be respected, and most importantly, to be loved.

With those principle values in mind, I want to talk to you about an issue that is directly parallel to the struggles of being anything but heterosexual in a straight society: being anything but skinny in a fat-phobic society. 

At this point, I hope you have come to realize that the thinness obsession in our culture is not only perpetuating hate, both of ourselves and others, but it is also completely unrealistic and senseless.

Don't believe me?  This should sum it up:

First of all, that model definitely works out and she most certainly does not eat everything she wants, because it is her JOB to look like that.  I'm going to repeat that because I think this point is SO important.  It is a model's JOB to look the way she does.  She is paid huge amounts of money to spend 8 hours in the gym every day with a personal trainer and to have a nutritionist and personal chef craft the perfect meals necessary to look the way she does.  And as if that's not enough, she's photoshopped by experts to remove any lasting imperfections that even an intense regime of caloric deprivation and extreme exercise couldn't get rid of.

If you lived the life of a Victoria's Secret model, I guarantee you would look like one too.  And I can also guarantee that you wouldn't like it much and would eventually find that the sacrifices models make to look the way they do would not be worth the payoff of being a size 2.

Secondly, beyond that, why would you not accept that some people are built skinny and some of us are built to carry a little extra weight?  Why is that so inconceivable to you?  All people are not created equal, and neither are all bodies.  Being skinny doesn't mean you have an eating disorder and being fat does not mean you are lazy and glutinous.  I work out 7 days a week and eat incredibly healthfully, and I'm still carrying a good deal of extra weight.  Why, you ask?  Because I am a descendant of the line of Irishmen whose bodies survived the Potato Famine by learning to hold on to every extra calorie they could get.  Does that make me a bad person?  Of course not, just as it doesn't make you a bad one either.

Having a body that differs from "normal" does not mean that there is anything wrong with you.  Feeling bad about being different doesn't mean there is anything wrong with you either; it means that there is something seriously wrong with our society that we are not willing to accept anyone who deviates slightly from what we are taught is the norm. The truth is, there is no normal.  We are all different and no amount of fat-shaming or gay-bashing is going to change that. 

Regardless of your feelings about gay rights, if you are anything more than supermodel thin, you have experienced the exact same feelings of hatred and exclusion that gay men and women experience every day.  It's time we put our differences aside and with that, put an end to both the body-hatred and the baseless prejudices that are hurting every single one of us, every single day, whether we know it or not.  Life is hard enough as it is- instead of upholding these insane standards which we can't possibly live up to, why don't we simply our lives and try to learn compassion for both ourselves and the others around us who are struggling to be accepted just as much as we are?  I don't know about you, but I would much rather work towards that goal than towards getting into a pair of Heidi Klum's jeans. #

A bunch of thoughts on being fat.

I was first told I was "fat" by a dance instructor when I was 8.  Eight years old.  I was in 3rd grade.  I had my own thing going and I thought I was pretty fly back in those days.  The source of this fat accusation? I was 5 pounds over the normal range for my age.  5 whole pounds.  Pretty much the end of the world right?

Let me tell you what happens when you tell a child they're fat.  They reevaluate everything they've ever thought of themselves.  At 8 years old, I was a championship Irish dancer who had won more national titles than most kids my age could count to.  I was also at the top of my class, and I was invited to all the "cool" birthday parties.  But that one day when my instructor decided to label me with this terrible, horrible word, everything changed.  It no longer mattered that I was a great dancer, a great student, a great friend.  How could you be anything great if you were FAT?

I went on my first diet when I was 9.  I started going to the gym when I was 10.  When I was 11, I started down the road towards my first eating disorder.  I have been riding this rollercoaster ever since.

Even if you yourself haven't been the target of such hateful words directly, I'm sure you've experienced them indirectly.

Maybe you were told you're fat like this...

Or maybe it was like this...

Or even this...

However it happened, those feelings of physical inadequacy stuck because there was nothing that came before them that could have taken their place.

I want to share something with you guys that Kate Winslet said, that is so powerful to me.

As girls growing up, there are always certain women in our lives who we look up to, and because we admire them so much, they are by default beautiful.  But they, like us, have grown up in a society where loving and accepting your body is as taboo as being fat.  Because of this, we grew up watching the women we found so beautiful degrade themselves and their appearances. 

While your role models surely didn't mean you any harm by not actively embracing their chubs, the damage was surely done: if the women we admire most in the world continually put themselves down, how can we possibly grow up to see ourselves as beautiful? 

And if those women could have such a profound effect on you, imagine the kind of effect you're having on the women you surround yourself with.  Which leads me to my major point: learning to love your body does not end with you.

Let that sink in for a second. 

Loving your body and outwardly promoting this acceptance goes so far beyond yourself.  It sends a message to every other woman out there who is struggling with the same things we all are.  It sets an example for the women who look up to you (yes, you!), and it sets a precedent for an honorable way to treat ourselves that will eventually filter down to the next generation of women, little girls who right now have yet to learn that it isn't okay to love yourself just the way you are.

It is only by consciously rejecting the superficial standards of beauty society has defined for us that we can be free to love ourselves and teach our friends, our family, and our daughters to love themselves the way that every girl should.  It's a long road ahead of us, but the good news is this: it only takes one person to start a movement, and you can be that person.  Every time you put a little positivity into the world, you drop a tiny pebble into the sea of women who are still stuck feeling like they will never be good enough.  And while it may seem too small to make an impact, just keep in mind that every pebble makes a ripple on the water, a ripple that will always travel far further than you ever could have expected.  If we do this together, one by one, we could change the world. #