That's Fit

I have just come across the coolest thing I've seen all day -- Girls on the Run. It's a program designed to encourage "preteen girls to develop self-respect and healthy lifestyles through running."

Girls on the Run holds 5K events and pairs up a girl with a running buddy -- that could be you! According to the Girls on the Run Northeast Florida Chapter's website, "a running buddy chaperones and mentors one or two girls through her two 5K experiences: the Practice 5K and the RITA CASH 5K. That means keeping pace with the girl, ensuring her safety, and cheering her on!" Each location might be slightly different, but you get the point.

You'll be running slightly over three miles, encouraging a young girl to get involved in fitness, and building her self esteem. Just try to find something that's not to like! If you're interested (and I hope you are), check out the website for locations near you.

via FitSugar

Years ago, when I was a slightly chubby pre-pubescent, I met the deaf sister of the friend. She signed 'hello', looked me over and then said something in sign language to my friend that I didn't understand. After a but of prodding, my friend fessed up; 'I didn't want to tell you this, but she said you'd be really pretty if you lost weight.' Ouch, huh? A few years later, I grew tall in a hurry and lost the baby fat--and then some. I was eating pretty sparingly at the time and while I didn't have an eating disorder, I probably wasn't far off. And I'm sure the comment didn't help -- I'm over it now but I have to admit, I sometimes still think about it as I eye myself up in the dressing room mirrors.

A while ago, I asked if it was better to be honestly blunt when it comes to talking about someone's weight. The results were pretty clear -- being blunt is better than being sweet (and fake.) But there are limits. Think about what you're saying -- it can make a lasting impression on someone's self confidence. Here are some tips:

I have a sticker on my mirror that says 'you're my favourite' on it. And each morning, before I blow-dry my hair, I look at the sticker, smile at my reflection and repeat what it says while staring myself in the eye. It sounds cheesy, and trust me, I've gotten some weird looks from Jon, but in the long run, it's been worth it.

You see, there's no one in the whole world who is harder on me than myself. I suspect it's the same for you -- all too often, we are our own worst enemies. It seems like we're wired to be critical of ourselves.

But there's no limit to the benefits that self-confidence and positive self-talk can have on both your emotional and physical health. It's not easy to change your behaviour, and the key is to start slow. Every day, while you're primping in front of the mirror, make an effort to say one nice thing to yourself. As for me, I have my sticker to remind, and it does, every day.

Most of us have trouble feeling good in a bathing suit let alone completely buck naked. Myself included. But feeling great naked is a key aspect to developing a healthy sense of body image and body satisfaction. The problem with this is--well, duh--we usually don't like our bodies. Often, there's some extra weight to contend with and if that's not the problem, there's almost always cellulite. Um, ick.

But once you feel good about yourself naked, you're on your way to feeling good about your body fully clothed too, curves and all. You need to learn how to embrace you body, even with all its imperfections, and eDiets tells you how in this article. You don't need to fully embrace nudism -- just learn to love the skin you're in. After all, it's the only body you've got.

How do you feel about your body, naked or otherwise?

Recently, this picture of Kate Moss surfaced, depicting her hanging out with Gossip singer Beth Ditto and another friend. Normally, I wouldn't pay much attention to the picture, but it came alongside this article, which explains why every girl needs to have a 'fat friend' to make them look more beautiful and feel better about themselves. My first response to the article was, is this a joke? I suppose it doesn't matter because I've seen similar, very serious articles in many different magazines, including Cosmopolitan.

For someone who believes that inner beauty is every bit as important as outer beauty, I think the idea of 'using' your friends to feel good about yourself is shameful and unbelievably shallow. The attitude that one should keep fat friends around for self esteem is hurtful to anyone who has ever carried a few extra pounds, and if the author, as she says, has been on both sides of this kind of friendship, she should know this. I also feel sorry for the author, who obviously has very meaningless relationships if her girlfriends' sole purpose in her life is to boost her confidence at the expense of their's. Good girlfriends, whether fat or thin, are an amazing gift -- something she apparently doesn't grasp.

I'm interested to find out what you think of the article?

So many people are searching for the answer to losing weight. What if it could be achieved by applying a few principals to your lifestyle -- a sort of '10 Commandments' of your body? You're probably thinking that these rules would be almost impossible to follow, but they're not necessarily. eDiets has this article on the 10 Cardinal rules of weight loss, and surprisingly, they're not all to do with exercise and cutting calories. They're geared more to body acceptance and image, hinging on the idea that if you're not comfortable with yourself, and if you don't know how to handle emotions, negative or other, you won't be successful at losing weight.

This isn't news though -- experts have been going on for ages about the dangers of emotional eating and negative self-thoughts. Is it a bunch of psycho-babble or is there something to this emotional strain of thinking? What do you figure?

As a teenage girl in the 90s, I remember being absolutely shocked whenever someone would call me pretty. Me? Pretty? I had braces, acne, a flat chest and a stubborn layer of baby fat surrounding my waist. The girls who graced the cover of Seventeen were pretty, but not me. A lot has changed as I now sail through my late 20s. I love my body, my mind and my confidence. But as someone who battled with low self-esteem for years, it really bothers me when I see girls being down on themselves, something that seems to be endlessly perpetuated by the media.

I don't have a daughter but if I did, I think I would do whatever I could to avoid fostering the self-doubt and lack of self-regard I had. So how do we do this? We can't remove the media presence from our children's lives, but we can counteract it, according to this article.

What's your stance of self-esteem and the media? Do you have any suggestions for fostering positive self-esteem?