I hate my body / I love my body's topics - tribe.net

I love my body

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 23:26:00 GMT

Just a random thought, but I do. I think it looks pretty good and it gets me where I need to go.

That is all.

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 2 replies

Why do I hate my body?

Alexandra — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 23:14:03 GMT

I'm in my early twenties. I am 5'3 and I weigh 105 lbs. I have nevr been overweight in my life. But lately all I can think about is how fat I am. I don't really like to work out but I am fairly active, I go on walks and play volleyball. But nothing very strenuous. I look in the mirror and all I see is cellulite and skin hanging over my clothes. I hate it. I don't know if I am really getting fat, or if I have an unhealthy body image. I hate my arms, my thighs, my butt. All I see is fat. I get really bad cravings and I have a difficult time saying no to sweets, but I eat fruits and vegetables everyday. No red meat, little white flour. How do I get healthy without having to drastically change my life. I need some motivation for easy, but effective workouts.

What's wrong with me? How do I battle these thoughts of how disguicting my body is?

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 0 replies

hey, can i moderate this tribe?

999 — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 02:02:02 GMT

i would also add to the subject matter that we could discuss here

emotional eating
food as intimacy
and
repressed sexuality that leads to using food in a self-destructive manner...

i feel that this would be a good place for me to really expand my understanding of the connections between emotional eating, body image, food, and how nutrition fits into this whole thing.....

please let me know if i qualify.

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 0 replies

Help Me Disappear

Fri, 23 Mar 2007 04:21:17 GMT

http://allmybones.blogspot.com/

It is my intention to use this blog to chart, record and report on my attempt to drastically change my body, and thus myself, over the forthcoming months. If I can master the art of blogging with photos, the journey will be complete with visual aides.

http://allmybones.blogspot.com/

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 1 reply

Barbie Doll ~ a poem

Thu, 02 Nov 2006 05:32:26 GMT

You Barbie Doll
The envy of us all
You portray your beauty
as if it is our duty
To be just like you
to be confused
You want our ribs to show
our skin to glow
To look perfect and right
To try with all our might
To not be who we are
To look like superstars
Your superficial looks
Trying to stop us from reading books
What if we want to be smart
and interested in the arts
These veiws need to be changed
because your lessons are dirranged
I want to stop you
Help you change your attitude
For people all over the world
You can be who you are
You already are a super star

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 1 reply

New Show Casting People Who Want To Lose Weight!

Allison — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:35:15 GMT

The makers of “SUPERNANNY” are currently seeking Overweight Men & Women for a Major Network TV Show.

Do you want to change your life and lose BIG pounds? Tackle physical and mental challenges that could march you down the path to a new (and better) life! – and possibly win a large sum of money.

Go on the Journey of a Lifetime! Change your Body, Change your Life!

For more information & to apply, email: adeutch@ricochettelevision.com

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 0 replies

I,ve lost over 7stone..or 98lbs..but i am so unhappy to the severe point of depression!

lorna lammond — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 20:09:09 GMT

hey newbie here!.....i used to smoke and weigh ahuge amount and realised headin for 30 this wasnt good.. so i gave up the smokes and ayr later decided to lose weight. since february this year i have lost over 98lbs or 7stone.you,d think i,d feel fantastic huh??? no so......i used to be, when fatter this confident outgoing bubbly free spirited kinda girl...lost all the weight..now i,m an introvert..dont go out, dont socilaize...has serious low self esteem.. cry alot .and am severley depressed.all because ilost the weight and have now got big mounds of sagging skin mostly all over my body..under arms thighs..but the severe area is my stomach..yeah ilook fantastic in clothes..but when the clothes are off seriously i look as if i weigh 28 pounds more!!lol.i feel at such alow ebb.i dont know what to do with myself..the the worst part of all i did it sensibly and excercised throughout the whole process.i cant stand how this"loose skin" is making me feel and how its affecting me physcologically..is upsetting me severley.i just dont know what to do with myself.i feel ashamed of my body..i dispise it!!...to be honest i prefered my body when i was fat..at least iwas fat then!!!!!..everbody keeps saying "wow i bet you feel great" and i dont at all...i have had ababy and always been and up and down girl..but i just dont understand what when wrong ?? i excercised ate well.....and during the whole process i split my with partner of 10 yrs..so the losing weight bit was also.. akinda self discovery of finding myself and "My" identity again........i even have met someone else..whom i have booked aticket to go and see in nyc in amths time.which is another issue in itself..as we talk across yahoo messenger and cam ..and hes like "what are you talking about" yr as skinny as anything..and thats the trouble in clothes i do look slim as u like..butim a size 10..yet have to wera 16-18 knickers as they dig in my stomach...and no.I., not one of these women who have the tiniest bit of fat and is making abig deal out of it.i have serious loose skin!!.now my arms and legs i can deal with, as i,m sure with some severe weight liftin this can im sure be toned.but the stomach.i dont hold out any hope.as there just too much........the thing ismy relationship is getting on a pretty serious level..with this man now....and i,m so soooo frightened..about how he we feel and think about me once hes sees this stomach im sure he will be discusted!...( hes very toned n sleek)..and ive tired to tell him how it is...hes says hes not after asupermodel..and just wants alovely girl..and likes my head and what i consist of..and said that as long as he can get his arms around me for acuddle he really doesnt care!......the thing is.i,m at such alow ebb right now and so frightened of recjection because of my body.............i,m really frightened this is going to tip me over the edge!!....i do think ineed some sort of help.but dont know where to turn or who too.......despite this though.i,m an attractive girl.and i really have tried to focus on my postitive parts but....my heads isnt having any of it.i just dont know what to do!! any suggestions or help or ideas..or anyone who has felt similar let me know.many thanks.......xxxxxx

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 2 replies

Feed the Model

Thu, 03 Aug 2006 16:24:56 GMT

Not much action in here... where is everyone? I humbly offer a fun little bribe to coax a few people into conversation. Have you ever played 'Feed the Model' ?
http://www.adiosbarbie.com/

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 2 replies

I've Got Super Strength

lordvader — Fri, 26 May 2006 23:20:56 GMT

Got that human growth hormone shiz goin

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 4 replies

What do you think of Pink's hit video

DJ_BlackAngus — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 17:58:05 GMT

. . . and the political stance behind it? I'm talking about, "Stupid Girls," which I hope you've seen or can find online.

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 7 replies

Soft Drinks Significantly Contribute to Obestiy

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:30:58 GMT

Liquid Candy???

Adding in noncarbonated soft drinks (including fruit drinks, ades, iced teas, and the like) adds thousands of more empty calories to the diet each year.

Carbonated soft drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet, providing about 7 percent of calories; adding in noncarbonated drinks brings the figure to 9 percent. Teenagers get 13 percent of their calories from carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks.

Consumption of carbonated soft drinks peaked in 1998, when consumption was 56.1 gallons per person. In a historic turnaround, consumption was 7 percent lower in 2004. And because some people have switched to diet sodas, the consumption of caloric soft drinks declined by 12 percent.

Soft drinks provide large amounts of sugars (mostly high-fructose corn syrup) to many individuals' diets. Soda pop provides the average 12- to 19-year-old boy with about 15 teaspoons of refined sugars a day and the average girl with about 10 teaspoons a day. Those amounts roughly equal the government's recommended limits for teens' sugar consumption from all foods.

Soft drinks are a problem not only for what they contain, but for what they push out of the diet. In 1977–78, boys consumed more than twice as much milk as soft drinks, and girls consumed 50 percent more milk than soft drinks. By 1994–96, both boys and girls consumed twice as much soda pop as milk. Heavy soft drink consumption is associated with lower intake of numerous vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber.

The empty calories of soft drinks are likely contributing to health problems, particularly overweight and obesity. Those conditions have become far more prevalent during the period in which soft drink consumption has soared. Several scientific studies have provided experimental evidence that soft drinks are directly related to weight gain. That weight gain, in turn, is a prime risk factor for type 2 diabetes, which, for the first time, is becoming a problem for teens as well as adults. As people get older, excess weight also contributes to heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.

Frequent consumption of soft drinks may also increase the risk of osteoporosis—especially in people who drink soft drinks instead of calcium-rich milk. Dental experts continue to urge that people drink less soda pop, especially between meals, to prevent tooth decay (due to the sugars) and dental erosion (due to the acids).

http://www.cspinet.org/liquidcandy/index.html

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 7 replies

Obesity Finds Niche in American Marketing

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:37:26 GMT

NEW YORK - From the cradle to the grave and most points between, obesity has found its niche in American marketing. Make that a wide berth. Baby seats, doorways and caskets are but a few examples from a long list of life's accouterments that are getting much bigger to accommodate much bigger people. There are also vacation resorts for those embarrassed to be seen in a bathing suit.

At Freedom Paradise on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, the chairs are wider and without arms, to prevent getting stuck; the beds are king-sized and reinforced, to prevent collapsing; and the beach is private and secluded, to prevent gawking and staring.

"You should not be embarrassed by how big you are," said William Fabrey, whose online business "Amplestuff" offers larger versions of everyday things from umbrellas to footstools. "You can't just yell at someone and tell them to lose weight. You're already dealing with people who think they have no worth.

"They still have to sit down on a chair that doesn't collapse," he said.

Like others in this small but growing group of businesses, Fabrey started his company after discussions with an overweight friend. "She was a big woman, and she said, 'There's got to be an easier way to get through the day.' "

To make living large a little easier, Fabrey sells lotion applicators and sponges attached to handles — enabling the user to reach all parts of the body; handbooks on hygiene with tips on dealing with odor problems, chafing and irritations caused by skin folds. His business also provides links to physicians and medical services.

"We don't take any position on whether someone should lose weight," Fabrey said. "That's up to the person."

Seemingly every day, another study appears that shows the United States is becoming a country of fat people. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 71 percent of men weigh too much, along with about 61 percent of women and 33 percent of children.

As Americans grow in weight, their life expectancy becomes shorter — by as much as five years, according to the latest national statistics — more than the impacts of heart disease and cancer. Obesity is fast approaching tobacco as the No. 1 cause of preventable death.

The price tag to taxpayers, according to the CDC, is a whopping $117 billion a year, a figure that some health experts dispute, claiming the government numbers are based on faulty data. Not disputed, according to obesity specialists, is the amount Americans spend trying to get thinner — $33 billion a year.

U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona sounded a dire warning last month, telling university students in South Carolina "obesity is the terror within," and that unless people start getting thinner, "the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9-11 or any other terrorist attempt."

Such pronouncements help fuel criticism that catering to bigger people really means throwing wide the door to death by overeating.

But for those who are overweight, who know full well how it feels to be sneered at, laughed at, pitied and scorned, having a simple tool such as a sponge on a stick, or a sturdy footstool that can bear up to 500 pounds, makes one feel a little more human. And a little less demonized.

Joan Borgos weighed 350 pounds for 28 years, until she had gastric bypass surgery and lost 200 pounds. She began putting out LargeDirectory.com because there was nothing available "that didn't look like a muu muu from Lane Bryant's," she said.

From her home in Massachusetts, she lists clothing catalogs, bridal shops (for gowns up to size 32), plus-size dating services, counseling services, seat belt extenders and lingerie. She recently added listings for teens, after desperate mothers told her they couldn't find stylish clothes for their overweight adolescents.

Even toddlers have joined the overweight ranks, with car seat manufacturers offering the "Husky," which is 10 pounds heavier and four inches wider than the standard size.

"There are all kinds of theories that abound about why people are getting heavier," said Borgos. "People are more sedentary, people eat more junk food and get less exercise. I don't know what it is.

"But it's a constant level of stress to live as an overweight person. You're always scoping out the environment, looking if you're going to be able to fit. "

Kelly Bliss, a self-described "chubby chick" in suburban Philadelphia offers "plus-size fitness and lifestyle coaching."

Which means, she says, encouraging overweight clients to exercise as best they can, to eat healthily and to not focus on losing pounds.

"People cannot just stop being fat," she says. "It's prejudice when you say a fat person does not need things to make them comfortable," she says. "People crumble when you given them even more pressure on top of a life that's already not working."

To make caring for the overweight ill easier, and to make patients more comfortable, there also are specialized medical products for an ever-growing clientele.

Treating the obese is called bariatric care, from Greek root meaning weight. Providing it means hospitals are paying for wider beds, wider wheelchairs, wider doorways, longer needles and bigger CT scan machines. As well as larger gowns and extra-sized slippers.

And for the end of life's road, coffin makers have introduced new lines with higher-gauge steel and widths of up to 28 inches, from the standard 24.

In Indiana, the Batesville Casket Co. calls it "a little extra room for life's final journey."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060417/ap_on_bi_ge/diet_accommodating_obesity_6

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 11 replies

Beauty Pageants for Children

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 17:20:54 GMT

Children's Beauty Pageants
By: KK

This article has been a long time coming. I am overwhelmingly disturbed by children's beauty pageants. What a fantastic way to make your little girl feel beautiful. Dress her up like a street walker and display her to the general public.

I would love to blame the father's, but since I never see them involved in this disgusting child exploitation, one can only assume that the demented mother has him handcuffed in a closet so that he can't interfere with her dastardly evil ways. Although, this is a fantastic forum for pedophiles to entertain themselves with. But according to the arrogant, controlling mothers nothing like that would ever happen to my little girl. News flash honey, your daughter will be the first one to have her head cut from her 8x10 glossy and pasted onto the photo of an 18 year old and filtered through the internet and every other underground child pornography rings.

The hair and make-up on these girls would make even the brassiest transvestite blush. Surprisingly the mother's don't put their own make-up on with a putty knife and their hair doesn't house a birds nest. So why do that to your daughter? It's hard to imagine that a two year old actually enjoys sitting through hours of hair rollers, teasing, spraying and soaking their faces in a vat of make-up and false eye lashes. It would take a rake to comb out all of that hair spray and a heavy duty mop to remove the war paint.

The outfits are not only atrocious and outdated, but not even the sleaziest harlot would wear such inappropriate get up's. Ruffles belong on a cake, glitter belongs on Christmas ornaments, belly shirts, low cut v-necks and booty shorts belong on strippers. It's nauseating to see toddlers and elementary school age girls shaking their ass for an audience full of mother's trying to turn their little girls out on the street. These little girls cannot sing, dance or entertain in any way what-so-ever. Nor should they be forced to. It's complete bullshit when the mothers claim that their daughters actually want to do this. The girls are too young to decide what the hell they want and they wouldn't even know what a beauty pageant was unless the mother introduced it to them. They only know what they are taught. These girls should be skipping rope, playing with their friends and swinging from trees. Beauty pageants are not for children and it is detrimental to their emotional stability as well as their maturity.

This is not an appropriate "hobby" for girls. These unstable mothers are sending the wrong message to their daughters. These mothers are trying to fulfill their own unattained dreams of not being beautiful, accepted and below average, by exploiting there daughters. It's criminal.

These brainless mothers have taught innocent little girls that being beautiful is the most important thing in life and the only way to feel beautiful is to wear a tiara to bed every night. Why not teach them that they are beautiful on the inside, without all of the make-up, hair and garish outfits. Teach them that they don't have to be on a stage, performing like a trained animal to prove to a room full of strangers that my idiot mother taught me that this is the definition of beauty.

http://k-says.com/childrens%20beauty%20pageants.htm

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 2 replies

Lower Calorie Diet - Longer Life?

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:33:40 GMT

Biomarkers suggest a very low-calorie diet might slow human aging. Compared to a control group, people who ate 25 percent fewer calories than the recommended daily allowance (and people who ate 12.5 percent fewer calories than the RDA while getting 12.5 percent more exercise) developed lower body temperatures and significantly lower insulin levels and DNA damage, which correlate with longevity. This follows previous studies in which 1) a very low-calorie diet apparently slowed heart aging in humans and 2) animals on such diets exceeded their species' maximum life spans.

http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/295/13/1539

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 1 reply

Clinton Returns to Governors Group With Plea to Fight Obesity

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:28:57 GMT

New Message for Old Friends
Clinton Returns to Governors Group With Plea to Fight Obesity

By Dan Balz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 1, 2006; Page A04

It was billed as a personal conversation about his own health and fitness battles, but when former president Bill Clinton stood before a group of governors yesterday, he just couldn't help getting wonky.

His forum was the National Governors Association, the organization he chaired when he was governor of Arkansas and was rising to national prominence, and one with which he still has a special bond. He was greeted as family, introduced generously by the current governor of Arkansas, Republican Mike Huckabee, who serves this year as the NGA chairman. And when it was over, it was hard to get him to leave the room.

Clinton, who underwent heart bypass surgery in 2004, and Huckabee, who lost more than 100 pounds after a health scare, have teamed up to combat childhood obesity -- even though, as Huckabee noted, Clinton has campaigned and raised money for every one of his opponents in Arkansas and that he had done the same when Clinton was in office.

When Clinton took the stage, he responded. "I was backstage listening to Mike's introduction . . .," he said. "I thought, the reason we're both here is that we were total failures in those efforts."

Then he was off, imploring governors to join the crusade to change the culture of food consumption to reverse the epidemic of obesity, which has led to a startling increase in diabetes among children and which consumes an increasing share of the nation's health care budget.

He is haunted, he said, by the sight of a young woman in a wheelchair, "who couldn't have been a day over 35," whom he had met in Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina, her leg amputated because of diabetes. "If we don't do something about it, we're going to have a terrible, terrible problem."

Huckabee had said he asked Clinton to speak in personal terms about his health care journey, but the former president spoke only fleetingly about his battles with obesity, fast food and heart problems. He noted how many McDonald's fries he had consumed over the years (and how they would be less unhealthful but too expensive if cooked in olive oil) and how, as an overweight teenager, he learned that physical education in school was "something you had to do if you weren't cool enough to be on one of the sports teams."

But what he really wanted to do is impart what he has learned since his surgery and enlist the governors in the cause. What followed was a tour of the horizon, a mini-lecture on food, nutrition, health care, competitiveness and lifestyle.

Clinton talked about how rising health care costs threaten the country's economic competitiveness. He said obesity accounts for 27 percent of the increase in health care costs since 1987.

The feel-your-pain politician was empathetic toward low-income families who load up on fast food; unhealthful foods are both cheap and filling, he said, and offer an inexpensive way to give children calories. He described the changing composition of the American diet and of food itself, and how the body metabolizes fructose, a soft-drink sweetener, differently and more destructively than cane or beet sugar.

There is no quick solution to the problem. He and Huckabee have set a goal, he said, of halting the rise in childhood obesity by 2010 and reversing it by 2015. The closest he came to a prescription was when he pointed to Huckabee's example.

"Look at Huckabee," he said. "You've got to consume less and burn more. There is no other alternative. And to do that, you've got to change the culture."

Questions from the governors consumed another half-hour. "I was one of them when I was a teenager," he told Alaska Gov. Frank H. Murkowski (R), who asked how to encourage healthful eating without destroying the self-esteem of overweight children.

Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) asked what the food industry can or will do. Clinton said what doesn't work is offering a few "heart healthy" items on restaurant menus. He was quick to add, though: "It works for me because I nearly died. . . . I'll look for them. But the whole objective here is not to let too many people get in the fix I was in."

When the hour was over, Clinton began a long, slow walk around the big, square table, greeting individual governors, embracing old friends, posing for photos and fielding questions from reporters.

"Thanks, guys. Thank you, guys," spokesman Jay Carson said several times, to no avail. Clinton was in no hurry to leave. In fact, long after Huckabee had adjourned the winter meeting, the former president was still holding court.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022801343.html

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 1 reply

Why immigration makes you sick

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:41:09 GMT

Why immigration makes you sick.
By Arthur Allen
Posted Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 12:27 PM ET

A hundred years ago, immigrants were treated as vectors of decline and mental illness. The biggest role of the U.S. Public Health Service when it was created in 1902 was to quarantine and examine newcomers for signs of physical and moral degeneracy. Over the past few decades, however, research has established that foreign-born inhabitants of the United States live longer and healthier lives than native-born Americans, even though they have far less access to health care. Whether Asian, white, Hispanic, or black, immigrants can expect to live four years longer on average than native-born whites, while suffering fewer chronic illnesses, including neuroses.

But according to the most recent data on immigrant health, these health advantages decline over time. The longer they live in the United States, the sicker immigrants get, especially if they are people of color. According to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control comparing the health of immigrants and native populations, white European immigrants report improved health after living five or more years in the United States, but most other immigrants—blacks and in particular Hispanics—have the opposite experience. No one knows exactly why, and the causes are clearly multiple. But the most important factor may be the biological difficulty of tolerating the abundance of America life.

For example, black immigrants are half as likely as black Americans to be fat or have heart disease—and only a third as many smoke, regardless of socioeconomic status and age. Similarly, even the poorest, doctorless Hispanics entering the United States are healthier than Hispanics born here. Sixteen percent of Hispanic immigrants who've been here fewer than five years are obese, compared to 22 percent of Hispanics living in the United States for five years or longer. The rates of hypertension and cardiovascular disease also dramatically increase among Hispanic immigrants of long standing, as do complaints of stress and mental instability. And Hawaiian studies have shown that breast and colon cancer and heart disease rates rise the longer Japanese and Korean immigrants live in the United States.

In sum, whatever it is about American life that makes African-Americans and native-born Latinos sicker, on average, than your average white person—recent studies show higher rates of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension—eventually drags down new arrivals as well. Acculturation to American life signifies regression to the health mean of one's ethnic group.

Reaching for explanations, scientists have suggested that immigrants are a self-selected bunch—immigration officials play some role in selecting out the sickly—who must be especially hardy to make a difficult transition to a new land. Also, while they come from countries where infectious disease shortens lives, people from Third World countries have the advantage of belonging to cultures where people stay married longer; live in larger households with more family members; use fewer drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol; and eat less fat. These are all healthy behaviors. Over time here, however, these immigrants become more like Americans—hardworking single and divorced McDonalds eaters. In their home countries, immigrant women tend to smoke, drink, and divorce less than they do here; with sexual equality, apparently, come some bad habits. The discrimination and related stress that blacks and Hispanics contend with in the United States is also part of the mix of explanations for their deteriorating health.

The decline in health that follows immigration isn't a problem here only. In Canada, a country less conflicted over race and immigration (with a population that is 20 percent overseas-born, compared to 12 percent of the U.S. population), the same trends hold true. White immigrants to Canada largely maintain their health over time, but blacks get sicker. (The number of Hispanic immigrants to Canada is relatively small.) The adoption of bad diet and exercise patterns explains some of this difference. But minorities in Canada do not lack access to health care the way they often do in the United States.

Thus, genes are probably the best explanation for much of the marked deterioration of the health of immigrants as they move from the Third World to the First World. While driving to work and eating lots of saturated* fats is bad for all humans, it seems to take a special toll on people from warm climates. Genetic studies have shown that many Latinos, blacks, and south Asians have a greater inherited predisposition for diabetes and hypertension. The presumption is that people living in traditionally poorer areas of the world evolved more of a "thrifty genotype," allowing them to survive on a starvation diet. But they're exposed to a variety of metabolic problems once they start consuming Western carbohydrate portions. The obesity epidemic hits former Third Worlders hardest.

Still, what's clear from the CDC study, and other data on the health of immigrants, is that most of the things that make immigrants sicker the longer they stay here are caused by things they can avoid. Even if the consequences of such behaviors may be worse, in general, for people of color, the contrast between the health of new arrivals and longtime immigrants underlines the value of truisms about the importance of exercise and moderation in smoke, drink, and munchies.

Immigration to North America isn't a total wash, healthwise. At least new arrivals reap the benefits of our high rate of vaccination and cervical exams. Asians in particular show lasting health gains. Here and in Europe, routine pap smears have reduced cervical cancer rates dramatically over the past 30 years. But the practice hasn't caught on as fast in Asia, and cervical cancer rates there are far higher. Women in Vietnam, for example, suffer the disease five times as often as white Americans. And liver cancer is more common throughout Asia because of infections from hepatitis B, which infants are vaccinated against in the United States.

If only there were a vaccine against eating Krispy Kremes.

http://www.slate.com/id/2137730/

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 1 reply

Tips for Healthy Lifestyles

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 17:17:09 GMT

http://www.cdcfoundation.org/programs/lifestyles/index.aspx

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 0 replies

Diabetes Prevention

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 17:13:28 GMT

Diabetes Prevention

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Is it possible to delay or even prevent type 2 diabetes from ever developing? Yes it is. There is a lot you can do yourself to know your risks for pre-diabetes and to take action to prevent diabetes if you have, or are at risk for, pre-diabetes.

Pre-diabetes
Before people develop type 2 diabetes, they almost always have "pre-diabetes" -- blood glucose levels that are higher than normal but not yet high enough to be diagnosed as diabetes. There are 41 million people in the United States, ages 40 to 74, who have pre-diabetes.

Diabetes Risk Test
Take our diabetes risk test to see if you are at risk for developing diabetes. Diabetes is more common in African Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. If you are a member of one of these ethnic groups, you need to pay special attention to this test.

Diabetes PHD: Health Risk Calculator
Diabetes PHD (Personal Health Decisions) is a powerful new risk assessment tool. It can be used to explore the effects of a wide variety of health care interventions, including losing weight, stopping smoking, and taking certain medications.

How to prevent or delay diabetes
Pre-diabetes is a serious medical condition that can be treated. The good news is that the recently completed Diabetes Prevention Program study conclusively showed that people with pre-diabetes can prevent the development of type 2 diabetes by making changes in their diet and increasing their level of physical activity.

http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-prevention.jsp

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 0 replies

Challenge The Beauty Myth

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:59:44 GMT

Challenge The Beauty Myth

1. Make a List of People You Admire
Ask yourself - how often is the person’s appearance a reason that you admire them? What do you think are the most important attributes a person can have? What would you like another person to most admire in you? Does our culture seem to admire the same things in people that you do?

2. Question the Motives of the Beauty Industry
Always remember that the main objective of the fashion, cosmetic, diet, fitness and plastic surgery industries is to make money, not to make you the best person you can possibly be. The ultra thin ideal is working for them. But is it working for you?

3. Stop Weighing Yourself
Cut yourself some slack. Imagine spending a day, or a week, without the scale measuring your self-esteem. Get rid of it. The emphasis on thin is new and arbitrary. And it can be reversed.

4. Concentrate on Things You Do Well
Do you look in the mirror one day and think you look great and the next day and think you look awful? Your body isn't changing, your perception of it is. It is true that if you're feeling good about other things in your life, you'll be less critical of how you look. Do things you do well. And if you've had a bad day, stay away from the mirror. When a person is happy and confident, he or she doesn't give a damn!

5. Get Physical For Fun
Your body needs EXCERCISE and REAL FOODS. Take walks, dance in your living room, garden, golf...try to get moving for your heart, not to decrease the size of your bottom. You may lose weight and you may not, but your body will be stronger, your stress will be lower and you'll feel better.

6. Value Your Dollars
A quick review of most media demonstrates just how much your dollars are much in demand. You are being courted! How much of your money goes into the beauty industry? What are you getting back? Look at your budget and be sure the money you spend reflects the person you are, not the person society wants you to be. If looks didn't matter at all, what would you spend your money on?

7. Voice Your Opinion
Both large and small businesses are interested in your input. Your letters, e-mails or phone calls really make a difference – and try to work out ‘where the buck stops’. That is, if you see an ad in a magazine that really offends you don’t just complain to the publication – go direct to the source – contact the manufacturer of the product in the ad – after all they are the ones after your money!

8. Be a Role Model
Every culture and every generation has its own rules and expectations. It is never easy to go against the grain, but there have always been those who took risks to grow and learn and succeed. And, there always will be. Many inspirational women and men have broken moulds, set new standards, and blazed trails. Wouldn't you like to break a mould or two?

9. Stop Talking About Your Weight (especially in front of young girls)
Young girls (in particular) listen to the way many women (in particular) talk about themselves and each other and learn the language of ‘beauty’. Young people can only learn to love or even accept their bodies if they see those around them who love and accept theirs. Every discussion we have about weight, or fat, or being too this or that, leaves an impression on the people around us. We are encouraging an unattainable quest for perfection – and this goes for comments about other’s bodies as well!

10. Learn a new language!
Stop using comments related to appearance as praise and start working on complimenting others on their mind and spirit. Turn ‘crows feet’ into ‘laugh lines’ and see how much better you can feel! It may take a bit of practice to develop the translations – but it will help yourself and others on the journey from valuing ‘beauty’ as a physical trait to ones which transcends our bodies – whatever shape, size, colour or age they may be.

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 0 replies

Surgical Options for the Treatment of Obesity

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:52:04 GMT

What's All the Controversy?

For cases of extreme obesity and among patients for whom other weight loss treatment options have failed, obesity surgery presents a possible option to achieve weight loss. Obesity surgery is recommended as an option in the treatment of obesity only for patients with either a BMI (body mass index)> 40 or a BMI (body mass index) of 35 to 39.9 combined with other serious obesity-related medical conditions52.

What Does the Typical Surgical Candidate Look Like?
The International Bariatric Surgery Registry (IBSR) has put together a database with information on more than 14,500 people who have had obesity surgery.

The patients having obesity surgery had the following weight and body mass index (BMI) characteristics:53

Average Weight at Time of Operation: 279.4 pounds (+/- 60.3 pounds)
Average BMI (body mass index) at Time of Operation: 46 (+/- 8.3)
A body mass index between 35 and 39.9: 19.7 percent
A body mass index of 40 or more: 76.1 percent
What are Some of the Weight Loss Benefits of Obesity Surgery?54

Most patients experience rapid weight loss and continue to do so for 12 to 18 months following obesity surgery.
Patients may experience weight loss of up to 50 percent of their excess weight in the first six months and 77 percent of excess weight within one year55 of obesity surgery.
Patients may maintain 50 to 60 percent of their weight loss 10 to 14 years after obesity surgery.
What are Some of the Risks Associated with Obesity Surgery?56

Complications caused by the obesity surgery may be as high as 10 percent or more.
Complications requiring a hospital stay of seven or more days were reported in 1.35 percent of patients from the IBSR database. Some of the obesity surgery complications involve the heart or liver, rupture of blood vessels in the lungs, infection surrounding the diaphragm area, leaking and bleeding of the stomach and intestines, blood clotting in veins and blockage of the small intestine.
Obesity surgery complications requiring a hospital stay of less than seven days were reported in 5.28 percent of patients from the IBSR database. These complications include breathing difficulties, wound infections and injury to the spleen.
Ten to 20 percent of patients needed follow-up operations to correct obesity surgery complications such as abdominal hernias.
Gallstones develop in more than one-third of patients as a result of significant weight loss or from losing weight quickly. Taking medication can prevent gallstones. The condition is irrelevant if the gallbladder is removed during surgery.
Anemia, osteoporosis and other bone disease are nutritional deficiencies that develop after the obesity surgery due to long-term loss of absorptive function. Nutritional deficiencies, which occur in almost 30 percent of patients, can be prevented with proper attention to vitamin and mineral intake, especially vitamins B12 and D, calcium, folate and iron.
Women of childbearing age should be aware that quick weight loss and nutritional deficiencies can harm a developing fetus.
The Vertical-banded Gastroplasty (VBG) and the Roux-en-Y Gastric Bypass (RGB) death rate is relatively low. Within 30 days of obesity surgery, death occurred in less than a quarter of one percent (0.17 percent) of patients in the IBSR database. Pulmonary embolism was the most frequent cause of death.
Possible death (1 out of 200 cases).

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.obesityinamerica.org/surgicaloptions_files/options.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.obesityinamerica.org/surgicaloptions.html&h=573&w=497&sz=72&tbnid=1447Nep2M7I2fM:&tbnh=131&tbnw=113&hl=en&start=1&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dobesity%2Bsurgical%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 0 replies

World Health Organization - Global Obesity Epidemic

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:25:58 GMT

Facts

Globally, there are more than 1 billion overweight adults, at least 300 million of them obese.
Obesity and overweight pose a major risk for chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke, and certain forms of cancer.
The key causes are increased consumption of energy-dense foods high in saturated fats and sugars, and reduced physical activity.
Obesity has reached epidemic proportions globally, with more than 1 billion adults overweight - at least 300 million of them clinically obese - and is a major contributor to the global burden of chronic disease and disability. Often coexisting in developing countries with under-nutrition, obesity is a complex condition, with serious social and psychological dimensions, affecting virtually all ages and socioeconomic groups.

Increased consumption of more energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods with high levels of sugar and saturated fats, combined with reduced physical activity, have led to obesity rates that have risen three-fold or more since 1980 in some areas of North America, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, Australasia and China.The obesity epidemic is not restricted to industrialized societies; this increase is often faster in developing countries than in the developed world.

Obesity and overweight pose a major risk for serious diet-related chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension and stroke, and certain forms of cancer. The health consequences range from increased risk of premature death, to serious chronic conditions that reduce the overall quality of life. Of especial concern is the increasing incidence of child obesity.

http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/publications/facts/obesity/en/

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 0 replies

We do not see ourselves (or our health) clearly

MyBodyIsATemple — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:17:32 GMT

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Obese people are accurate in assessing their height and weight, but only 15 percent think of themselves as obese, a new study shows.

"I think it's a misconception in people's minds about what constitutes obesity," Dr. Kimberly P. Truesdale of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health. "I think a lot of people when they think about obesity they think of someone that's extremely obese, 400 pounds or so."

In fact, she pointed out, a woman who is 5 feet 4 inches tall would be classified as obese if she weighed 175 pounds. "I don't think that's the image most people have of obesity," said Truesdale, who reported her findings Tuesday in San Francisco at the Experimental Biology 2006 meeting.

Truesdale and her team surveyed 104 people, of whom 31 were of normal weight, 40 were overweight, and 33 were obese. They were asked to report their weight and height; how they would define their own weight status; and how much they would need to weigh in order to be obese.

The researchers measured participants' height and weight and calculated their body mass index (BMI), and then calculated the BMI based on the participants' own reports of their height and weight.

Ninety percent of normal weight people and 85 percent of overweight and obese individuals reported heights and weights that resulted in a BMI in the same category as their actual

BMI.

But while 71 percent of normal weight people and 73 percent of overweight people identified their weight category correctly, just 15 percent of obese adults did.

Nearly three quarters of the obese subjects classified themselves as overweight, while 12 percent said their weight was normal for their height.

Even among a group of her colleagues who work in the obesity field, Truesdale noted, many don't know the weight at which they themselves would be classified as obese.

Denial as well as skewed perceptions of what constitutes obesity may make people reluctant to define themselves as obese, she added. "Just the term obesity has a lot of negative images associated with it. People might just not want to put that label on themselves."

However, the researcher said, it is important for a person to recognize if they are obese, because being obese carries a higher risk of health problems than being overweight.

SOURCE: Experimental Biology 2006.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060404/hl_nm/obese_people_dc_1

posted in I hate my body / I love my body - 1 reply