Class act, this one. #weheartpink
I would argue that caring for your body in traditional ways- like eating a healthy diet, exercising, and taking your vitamins- may be the least important part of your health. (I know! Radical idea coming from a doctor!)
This may sound shocking to you. After all, you’ve probably watched many other doctors get on television to tell you that your health is all about using food as medicine, getting enough exercise, and avoiding bad habits. I’m not suggesting that those aren’t great health-inducing behaviors. What I’m saying is that it doesn’t matter how great your diet is if your body is flooded with stress hormones! No amount of kale is going to counterbalance the toxic effects of high levels of cortisol and epinephrine on your body.
So what’s the most important part of your health? The nature of your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. When your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings are positive, relaxation responses are activated, healing hormones like oxytocin, dopamine, nitric oxide, and endorphins are released, and the body's natural self-repair mechanisms are activated, allowing the body to do what it does best-heal itself.
- Lissa Rankin, M.D
I don’t want to influence the perception of “flaws” in others. No girl grows up thinking that cellulite is a flaw: she learns it. There is a period of time BEFORE we learn something is a flaw and before it becomes something to “fix”. By associating things like cellulite, sagging breasts, arm jiggle and other body bits with the words “flaws” or “trouble zones”, we are reinforcing the idea that people SHOULD be “worried” or insecure about them. There’s a difference in saying “this will tighten up your arms” and “this will get rid of your gross, flabby arms”. The latter associates arm jiggle with “gross” & “flabby”, qualifying it if you will.
Really fit arms can jiggle. Power jiggles. True story.
There are times, in chats with new moms, when I WISH they saw their bodies the way I do. Stretch marks are divine, badges of honor to those who want, but can't, bear children.
- Chichi Kix
“My weight/loss/gain since I was a child has tormented me. No amount of help has ever helped my pain about it. But YOU have. My boyfriend prefers me curvier, when I eat and am healthy and not so worried about my looks, I’m happy. Happier then I have ever been. I am not going to go on a psycho-spree because of scrutiny. This is who I am. And I am proud at any size.”
- Lady Gaga on recent body snarking (bullying) about her weight.
Photo caption reads "anorexia & bulimia since I was 15".
Women are constantly being looked at. Even when we’re not, we’re so hyperaware of the possibility of being looked at that it can rule even our most private lives. Including in front of our mirrors, alone.
Excerpt via Beauty Redefined ''To BE or to be LOOKED at?''
Cellulite is a result of the body's natural fat storage structure. It is not a disorder, or 'toxins' trapped in the fat, or the result of not eating 'cleanly' enough, or not doing the right exercises. It is simply the way our bodies are made.
Plenty of people will tell you that it IS those things, and that if you buy their product you can rid yourself of this 'unsightly blemish', but the REALITY is that 90% of women have cellulite, and it is normal, and that the only way to get 'rid' of it is to lose all your body fat.
And that would kill you.
Via Go Kaleo