June: A No-Weigh Month
Posted: June 1, 2011 Filed under: Banishing Insecurity, Beyond the Disorder, Breakfasts 14 Comments »Good morning! Welcome to June!
I ushered in the new month with a quintessential summer breakfast – a smoothie in a bowl!
I used the same winning combo from yesterday:
- 1 banana
- 2 large handfuls spinach
- 1 scoop bourbon vanilla Tera’s Whey
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1 tablespoon flax meal
- 1/2 cup rice milk
- 3 ice cubes
Cocoa powder may be my absolute favorite smoothie ingredient – it actually helps lessen my chocolate cravings throughout the rest of the day!
Gave her a good ol’ sprinkling of flax seeds and Nature’s Path Blueberry Optima and she was good to go!
No-Weigh June
Whenever I hear a blogger {or a real-life friend} mention not owning a scale or not knowing what they weigh, I can’t help but wonder: How do they do it? How do they not hop straight on the scale as soon as they wake up?
If you want to put it like it is, weighing myself has been my last hold-out from my eating disorder. I’ve established healthy eating habits and no longer use restriction as a coping mechanism; I’ve learned how to stop a binge in its tracks and I exercise for strength and stamina, not to burn calories. I’ve been very blessed to move beyond those disordered eating habits…yet I still hop on the scale daily. While I can honestly say that I don’t allow the number to influence my eating habits, I still have been a slave to the number.
In reality, I understand that it’s just that – a number. A silly, ever-changing number that doesn’t change how I look, who I am or how hungry I am. Unfortunately, what it has the power to change is my mood. A “low” number always makes me feel victorious, as though I’m proving to myself that I can eat when I’m hungry and not gain weight. A “high” number can turn a good day into one where I wonder what I did “wrong.”
Healthy? I don’t think so. Acceptable? Definitely not.
That’s why I’m packing my scale into the trunk of my car for the entirety of June. I’d love to throw the contraption over the side of my balcony, but I’m not sure that my apartment manager would be thrilled with that idea. In reality, I’m also convinced that without weighing myself every day, I’ll gain twenty pounds without knowing it. Rationally, I understand that it’s impossible, but irrationally, I’m terrified that it will actually happen.
By getting rid of my scale {albeit temporarily}, I’m hoping to distance myself from the number and learn even further how to listen to my body. If that means I lose weight, then I lose weight. If that means I stay the same or gain, than that too will be in response to the needs of my body.
I’m ready to break my dependence on this stupid scale!
What’s your position on weighing yourself? Do you own a scale? How often do you use it? Have you ever made a conscious decision to ignore the number?
Look Your Best Naturally (All You Need is Surgery)
Posted: May 24, 2011 Filed under: Banishing Insecurity 8 Comments »Last week, I recieved a copy of Central Florida Lifestyle in the mail. The mini magazine is distributed throughout several Orlando neighborhoods and covers local businesses and residents that are doing notable things.
As soon as I pulled it out of the mailbox, my eyes honed in on one thing: “Look your best naturally!” a headline read, followed by the sponsoring organization – the Bassin Center for Plastic Surgery.
I’m not one to mince words, but are they honestly suggesting that plastic surgery is a natural way of enhancing a woman’s beauty?
Before casting judgment, I flipped to the actual article. Perhaps, I thought, the center was offering tips that simply supplemented their services, such as wearing sunscreen and avoiding sugar to reduce bloat.
Instead, however, the article opened with the surgeon’s claim that he offers the “latest beauty procedure to make patients beautiful without downtime, general anesthesia, chemical fillers or foreign objects.”
I wasn’t sure what I took more issue with: the claim that surgery was a natural option, or the claim that it could make patients beautiful, as though they were ogres before seeking the center’s services.
I’m certainly not anti-surgery. If a procedure can help you feel more beautiful and more comfortable in your body, by all means – go for it. But to claim that surgery can produce natural beauty? No chance. Natural is a touch of mascara. Natural is working your butt off – literally – to see physical results that you’re looking for. Natural is not plopping down in a doctor’s office and having them cut fat from your body or pump substances into your breasts.
Furthermore, to blatantly play off your target market’s insecurities and sell the procedure as a way to become beautiful? I’m appalled by the message. I spent years exploring every avenue I could to “become beautiful.” Many of those methods were incredibly dangerous, yet was I a more beautiful person after starving myself for days on end or swallowing countless diet pills? No chance. In fact, the first time I truly felt beautiful was when I accepted my body the way it was – curves and all.
Shame on the writer for so blatantly twisting words, shame on the editor for allowing it, and shame on the company for suggesting that an operation can magically – and naturally – make an individual who was naturally gorgeous to begin with more beautiful.
Where do you stand? Plastic surgery – natural or not?
