the importance of... being healthy

tiffie's post on the model BMI ban really made me think. as a girl who has grown up with a very health-conscious mom, eating healthy, having a healthy mentality, and being educated about health/nutrition issues has always come naturally to me. my mom is now a personal trainer and nutritionalist with her ACE and CSCS certifications, and maintains a great healthy kitchen for my family. i may not be the most in-shape - my cardio is terrible, and i don't have a visible six pack - but in my opinion being healthy isn't just about being skinny. being "skinny" isn't necessarily a bad or good thing - people call me skinny a lot, but compare me to models or actresses, and i'm hardly skinny. i'm a size 2 or 4, if we want to talk numbers, but i'm 5'3" and i weigh 116-120lbs. i'm not afraid to say that out loud, or on the internet, and i think that's the difference: my mentality. being healthy is about a good balance of height and weight; about eating foods that are good for you in the right quantities; and most importantly, understanding health and nutrition issues.

i'm not going to get into a huge discussion about society, and the pitfalls of our standards of beauty. tiffie made a good point, that some girls are naturally incredibly tiny, and don't carry fat. that's genetics - that's life. it's not fair. and a girl who eats healthily and is still a size 0, i don't think she should be banned from the runway, either. but A+ to the modeling/fashion industry for trying to bring some attention to the horrible deaths some models have suffered, and to try and do something about this issue. they're doing the best they can. frankly, as long as we as a society are showing pictures of size 0 models and letting these skeletor girls walk down the runway, we're going to have issues with girls trying to be like that. so many girls want to grow up and be actresses and models - emulating them these days can come with some serious health issues.

unfortunately, even though gisele bundchen was ridiculed for saying it, the problem really does start at home. from an early age, girls are bombarded with this image: be skinny, be sexy. if you're not skinny, you're a waste of a girl. but that's not going to change. but it's the parents who really need to pick up the slack. most girls these days don't grow up with an understanding of what to eat and why. if your mom and dad eat junk food and don't help you understand what a good healthy meal is, and pack you lunchables for lunch, you are never going to learn how to be healthy. you're never going to understand what's good for you and what's not. and most importantly, you will never learn the right mentality. you have to have that support system and you have to know why starving yourself won't make you skinny, and that you can't spot-tone and lose weight just in your hips/thighs, and why vegetables are important, and what constitutes a healthy meal. girls aren't learning that, and we're all suffering from it.

until health is taken seriously at home, in school, and in the gym, we are not going to be able to fight back against the deformed standard of beauty on the runway. parents have to talk to their kids, feed their kids good, healthy food, and teach them about nutrition and body issues. schools need to teach and feed healthy foods to students, helping boost mental power and attitudes, and actually take health class seriously. in the gym and book store, we're being marketed tons of fad diets, and told that there are secrets to losing weight and looking like the celebs, for $29.99 a month for 3 months, AS SEEN ON TV. it's ridiculous. being healthy is much simpler than that, if you educate yourself.

it's a hugely personal issue to me, not because i've struggled with anorexia or something myself, but more because i have friends who have - and do. there is nothing stranger than having a gorgeous, 5'7" girl who wears a size 26" jean healthily and is trying to starve herself down to 24" tell you that you - 5'3" and size 28" and definitely not model-sized, tell you that you are gorgeous and skinny and laugh at you when you say you're having an icky body day. yeah, every girl has fat days, we all have days where we look in the mirror and go, "ugh". but the difference is, is that every day? and how do we deal with it? eating only candy and salads and counting every single calorie is disgustingly unhealthy. it's the mental side of it that makes anorexia so hard: even though you're educated, you may not be able to stop it. but being educated about what's healthy is the first step.

i know i can't change everybody; i can't make up someone else's mind to get help, or to eat better. but the least i can do is try and help, and educate. so here's a bunch of links and helpful info - i'm just doing what i can.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/topics/dieting-weight-loss - if you only read one link, read this one. really great info on healthy dieting and weight loss.

The 2 Most Important Facts about Successful Weight Loss

Before beginning any diet, it’s important that you understand these two important facts:

1. Weight loss depends on energy balance.
   To lose weight, your energy intake must be less than your energy expenditure. This will always be true. There are no foods, pills, or potions that will magically melt the pounds off. The only approach that works is eating less and/or exercising more.
   
   
2. Permanent weight loss requires permanent change.
   Don’t assume that you can spend six weeks on a diet and then return to your old eating habits. Short term diets only produce short term results. The only successful way to keep the weight off is to make small but permanent changes in your lifestyle. Coincidentally, this is also the best way to improve your health.

Helpful Tips

3. Maintain or increase your metabolism.
   One of the most common mistakes that dieters make is to get excited or impatient with their diet, and reduce their Caloric intake too far. If you do that, your body will respond by lowering your metabolism and slowing your weight loss. To prevent this downward adjustment of your metabolism, make smaller changes to your eating habits. Your patience will pay off in terms of more consistent weight loss, more energy, and fewer cravings.
   
   For the best results, add exercise to your plan. Regular exercise not only expends energy as you’re doing it, but can also lead to increases in your basal metabolic rate, so you’ll burn more Calories even at rest. High-intensity exercises burn the most Calories, but don’t select exercises solely on their fat-burning potential. Instead, pick exercises (i.e. sports activities) that you enjoy, and want to incorporate into your daily routine.
   
   
4. Avoid hunger.
   Hunger is one of your body’s strongest stimuli, and can be an evil challenger to your will power. Hunger is also relatively slow to subside, and can cause you to eat more than you intended. To break this unproductive hunger-overeating habit, always try to eat before you get hungry. This may seem counter intuitive to someone who’s trying to limit their Calories, but it’s a very effective concept. Two different techniques can help make this easier to accomplish:

Eat smaller, more frequent meals. Instead of three meals per day, try eating five or six smaller meals. By eating more frequently, there will be less time between your meals, and less chance of you experiencing such intense hunger. As an extra benefit, there is some evidence that suggests that eating more frequently can also help raise your metabolism.

Include more slow-to-digest foods in your meals. When it’s not possible to eat more frequently, make sure that your meals contain a mix of nutrients. In particular, fats and protein are much slower to digest than carbohydrates. While most carbohydrates leave your stomach within about two hours, protein takes approximately four hours to digest, and fat takes as long as six hours.

http://www.nutritiondata.com/ - analyze nutrition information of food (more than just calories!), analyze recipes, and lots of other helpful tools

http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/calories-burned - a tool to determine your calorie loss with your everyday life - use this to estimate how many calories you need to eat within a day. going below your daily nutritional needs can have serious health consequences

http://www.nutritiondata.com/topics/better-choices-diet - helpful tips about eating and how to pick foods that are healthy, but yummy too

http://www.nutritiondata.com/tools/firefox-plugin - their firefox plugin

http://www.whfoods.com/ - world's healthiest foods, info and recipes

http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2005/document/html/brochure.htm - brochure on dietary guidelines

http://www.healthyeatingclub.org/info/articles/index.htm - TONS of articles on all kinds of health-related topics

http://www.realtime.net/anr/10eattip.html - helpful tips on eating

http://www.healthyeating.net/ - great site with lots of articles and links

http://www.nutrimundo.com/diets/index.html - info on fad diets and how to pick a healthy diet plan

http://www.halls.md/body-mass-index/av.htm - great body mass index (BMI) calculator