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Thinspiration a dangerous pursuit

Womens Health, Diet & Weight Loss

Staying healthy makes me inspired. Does staying thin, then, make me thinspired? To some degree, I guess it does. I eat right, exercise right, minimize stress, sleep enough, and do all I can to stay healthy, which also happens to help me stay thin. Not skinny. Not bony. Not skeletal. Just more thin than thick, more fit than fat.

Thinspiration is a buzz word used by youngish girls who strive to be skinny, anorexic even. It's a topic Blair at Gettysburg College addresses over at College Candy and what she finds is really quite disturbing. Scour the internet, she says, and you're bound to land at all sorts of anorexia blogs, pro-anorexia websites, and YouTube videos chalk full of crazy dieting tactics and images of girls whose bodies are wasting away. One 24-year-old even features on her website a thinspiration page, wallpapered with skinny-girl photos that mostly give me a sick feeling in my gut and make me realize I'm not all that thinspired after all. Nope. Inspired is what I am -- inspired to be healthy and happy in all of my 135-pound glory.

And you? Are you inspired -- or thinspired?

Source

Daily Fit Tip: Ban the word "fat" in your home

Healthy Aging, Healthy Habits, Healthy Home, Healthy Relationships, Womens Health, Healthy Kids, Daily Fit Tip, Diet & Weight Loss, Fitness, Motivation, Nutrition & Supplements, Men's Health

As a fitness trainer and woman who's experienced the fun of a childhood full of insecurities which led to several delightful years choc full of bulimia.....I'm always surprised to hear parents berating their bodies in front of their children and spewing the word 'fat' all over the place. What good does that do? None and I'll tell you why.

If you're a parent and you harp on fatness as if it's the greatest sin in the world, you will surely raise a child with a distorted body image. It's not fair to burden your child with your insecurities. When it comes to fitness, it's most important to teach healthy habits and focus on creating 'healthy bodies'. My two children, ages four and two, have never heard the word fat. Even though they meet hundreds of people I train who are trying to lose weight. All they know is that these people come to Mommy to learn how to exercise, eat healthy, and earn healthier bodies. Period.

The same goes for their little habits. I steer Ginger and Parker towards nutritious foods and explain to them that these choices are 'healthy for their bodies'. These foods will give them energy for gymnastics class, and help them make muscles so they can have more fun playing. Isn't that easy? Why would a parent warn a child that chips will make them fat? Instead of teaching good health, these words are suggesting to children that the appearance of their body counts above all else. Not acceptable. When it comes to traditional 'junk food', I just tell the kids that those foods are not healthy for their bodies, and that Mommy loves them too much to give them food that will make their bodies sick one day.

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