Archive for the ‘Healthy living’ Category
Friday, December 23rd, 2011 |
It’s that time of year again – when we look at trimming down in the new year.
While I still don’t personally do diets, because I would never be able to stick to an eating plan.
But some people like having the discipline of planned meals and exercise programmes.
The Paleo Diet is all about eating meat, nuts, fruit, vegetables and seafood. But no grains, dairy or gluten and minimal carbs.
Celebrities like Megan Fox and Uma Thurman have apparently followed this diet.
The diet supposedly takes one back to the Stone Age when hunters had to gather food in the natural environment. Surprisingly they gathered no legumes like beans, peas and lentils.
Primarily the diet consists of:
1. Lots of Animal fat (meat)
2. Fibre from fruit and vegetables
3. Moderate amounts of essential fatty acids.
4. Foods with high potassium and low sodium content.
5. Foods rich in antioxidants.
6. Probiotics from plain yoghurt.
Avoid:
1 Snacking between meals
2 Salt and sugar – eat honey instead
3 Refined and processed food
4 Ceral grains
5 Legumes and pulses
6 Dairy produce, except plain yoghurt.
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Saturday, September 17th, 2011 |
So last week at work I took some photos for a newsletter article we are preparing.
While we knew the photo had to be eventually taken, we did it on the spur of the moment. With a bit of begging and pleading. And a few “but you looking so pretty today, perfect for a photo” comments.
I took the photo while joking and laughing with the group of 6 and we got a few good ones, I thought.
I e-mailed it to them and immediately got a response: “Oh Abby, I look so fat!”
This from someone who is neither fat nor thin. Just perfect. And I have told her many times.
She is a young, beautiful, educated woman definitely going places if she chooses, with a matching partner and gorgeous little boy of less than two years old. And she is sweet and friendly.
But she keeps telling me she’s fat!
So I’ve been wondering why women do that. Why make that statement at all?
It’s not like I ever get e-mails saying “Oh, I’m so short/tall/white/black/brown/orange”. Please Photoshop me perfect. Well, not in quite the same numbers nor with the same level of shame and anguish!
Is being more than skinny really that bad? Is it worse than being a rude, angry person. Or a hypocrite? Or a criminal?
Why is there this focus on diets and food in the media? In magazines, on tv programmes. Just about everywhere you can find ways to slim down.
To stay healthy and live longer they tell us, almost with self-righteousness.
Lose some weight – fast or slow. Just do it!
For all the good she has done, Oprah hasn’t helped women’s self-esteem issues where weight is concerned.
When do we see her at her most vulnerable? When she’s confessing her addiction to food or something to do with losing or gaining weight.
She’s a billionaire. And she’s smart with a perfect partner, a best friend above all best friends and cute dogs. And has amazing houses all over the show.
But her weight issues make us not envy her too much. Makes her one of us.
Maybe if we took the focus off weight issues and put them it where it belongs, on being who we are meant to be, women would be less likely to be so critical of their physical selves.
Oprah and my colleague are both successful in many ways (and in their own ways), so they likely think it makes them easier to relate to when they talk about their weight.
But it continues the cycle. Because some other woman hears this, compares herself to the thinnest woman she can find and thinks: “I look fat!”
Posted in diet, fitness, Healthy living, Life | No Comments »
Monday, October 12th, 2009 |
We usually recycle magazines at our office and the other day I took two of my magazines – a Fairlady and Shape Magazine to work.
I noticed that my colleagues wouldn’t even look at the Shape Mag. I showed it to three different people and all three pretended to page through the Shape, left it and took the Fairlady.
It made me think of body image and how we see ourselves and others.
Initially I ignored the Shape mag in stores. Hell…they have these perfect looking models in bikinis on their cover every month!
And whether I’m happy with my body or not, those models are enough to give almost any woman a complex.
I started buying the magazine more for the workouts in it than anything else and eventually subscribed.
Now I barely even notice or give two hoots about the women on magazine covers – mainly because I know I’ll never look like that.
And having been thin almost of my life I know that no matter your body shape, there’s always something to be unhappy about.
Also, I’ve hated being thin, but at the same time the thought of being overweight is enough to make me rethink eating a whole Cadbury’s chocolate. (Which I can easily do, by the way.)
I’m far from at peace with my body every day. On the contrary…some days my body and my brain are at odds with each other.
Even though there’s frustration on some days when my shirt won’t close properly, I love my body best when I’m working out, walking or running.
That’s when I appreciate that my body can sometimes surprise me.
But again then there’s Abs training days…
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Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 |
During the few sunny days we’ve had this spring, I wore t-shirts and immediately noticed that I’d picked up some weight.
Even though I started eating more healthily at the start of September.
I even made my easy vegetable soup recipe for those times when I got too lazy to make a proper meal for lunch or supper.
Many eating plans and diets suggest snacking on fruit, nuts, certain health bars, yoghurt etc. inbetween meals.
What are those people trying to help us lose weight or help put more on?
What ever happened to eating 3 meals per day?
Since I’ve started snacking between meals, I’ve noticed that I’m actually putting more weight on.
Everything revolves around planning and eating meals.
It used to be so easy in the days when people were actually a lot less heavy than we are now.
We ate at breakfast, lunch and supper. And we had proper meals at each meal time.
No obsessions with food and watching the clock on the best time to start eating.
So I’m cutting out on snacking and only eating my three meals a day without obsessing over healthy snacks.
I try to get my vegetables and fruit and nuts in during meal times and for the rest and I eat sweet treats on occassion.
No more obsessing about healthy food for me.
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