Eat Real Food: Thoughts?

Courtesy of Miss Mabel.

Take The No Diet Day Pledge

I Pledge:

That I will not diet for one day, on May 6, International No Diet Day.

Instead of trying to change my body to fit someone else's standards, I will accept myself just as I am.

I will feed myself if I'm hungry. I will feel no shame or guilt about my size or about eating.

I will think about whether dieting has improved my health and well-being or not.

And I will try to do at least one thing I have been putting off 'until I lose weight.'

Signed, __________________________________________________

Source

Happy International No Diet Day!

International No Diet Day was founded by Mary Evans-Young, author of Diet Breaking: Having It All Without Having To Diet. She explains how it all began on Largesse: the Network for Size Acceptance.

"I started INDD in the spring of '92 following two things. The first was seeing a television programme where women were having their stomachs stapled. One woman had split the staples and was in for her third op[eration]. And then a young girl of 15 committed suicide because 'she couldn't cope being fat.' She was size 14 (12 in US). I decided somebody had to stand up and try to stop this bloody madness and in the absence of anybody else, I decided it would be me. So I sent out a press release titled 'Fat Woman Bites Back'...and got some media attention. I was desperate to keep the anti-diet/size acceptance concept in the public eye. So, without really thinking about it, at the end of a live TV interview I said, 'Don't forget to celebrate No Diet Day.' ...Having declared it on prime time national TV I then set about organising a picnic in Hyde Park. Alas it rained, so we adjourned to my living room instead."

Here are Top 10 Reasons to Give Up Dieting:

10. DIETS DON'T WORK. Even if you lose weight, you will probably gain it all back, and you might gain back more than you lost.
9. DIETS ARE EXPENSIVE. If you didn't buy special diet products, you could save enough to get new clothes, which would improve your outlook right now.
8. DIETS ARE BORING. People on diets talk and think about food and practically nothing else. There's a lot more to life.
7. DIETS DON'T NECESSARILY IMPROVE YOUR HEALTH. Like the weight loss, health improvement is temporary. Dieting can actually cause health problems.
6. DIETS DON'T MAKE YOU BEAUTIFUL. Very few people will ever look like models. Glamour is a look, not a size. You don't have to be thin to be attractive.
5. DIETS ARE NOT SEXY. If you want to be more attractive, take care of your body and your appearance. Feeling healthy makes you look your best.
4. DIETS CAN TURN INTO EATING DISORDERS. The obsession to be thin can lead to anorexia, bulimia, bingeing, and compulsive exercising.
3. DIETS CAN MAKE YOU AFRAID OF FOOD. Food nourishes and comforts us, and gives us pleasure. Dieting can make food seem like your enemy, and can deprive you of all the positive things about food.
2. DIETS CAN ROB YOU OF ENERGY. If you want to lead a full and active life, you need good nutrition, and enough food to meet your body's needs.

And the number one reason to give up dieting:
1. Learning to love and accept yourself just as you are will give you self-confidence, better health, and a sense of well-being that will last a lifetime.

Will Carla Bruni Be Arrested?

"Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny. That doesn't exist in the world, and it will certainly not exist in France," declares Didier Grumbach, president of the French Federation of Couture. Grumbach is hotly contesting French parliament's decision to fine and/or imprison those who incite excessive thinness.

I'm not sure why, but his quote sounds especially sinister. I can imagine him meeting with other top fashion execs, Zoolander-style. They will sit around a stainless steel conference table and allow themselves 3 frozen grapes a piece while they discuss the fate of the female form.

This bill is reminiscent of Spain's 2007 decision to ban models with a BMI of less than 18. Fashion designers who held runway shows in Spain were furious when they did this. They claimed that this was reverse prejudice on skinny models. Seriously? Nobody is being prejudiced against models who are thin, just against those that are dying.

I think it's a little ironic that France might adopt a law that may have put the president's wife, Carla Bruni, out of work. Everyone knows she was a famous model during the 80's and 90's, but they may have forgotten how excessively thin she was.

Didier Grumbach Is A Silver Fox

"Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny. That doesn't exist in the world, and it will certainly not exist in France," announces Didier Gumbach, president of the French Federation of Couture.

What do you think of that NotDieting peeps?

Save the Date!

International No Diet Day is a day to:
* Celebrate the beauty and diversity of ALL our natural sizes & shapes
* Affirm everyBODY's right to self-esteem, respect and emotional and physical well-being
* Declare a personal one-day moratorium on diet/weight obsession
* Learn the facts about weight-loss dieting, health, and body size
* Recognize how dieting perpetuates violence against women
* Honor the victims of eating disorders and weight-loss surgery
* Help end weight discrimination, sizism and fatphobia
Click here for ways to celebrate!

Body Positive

Check out this website for lots of advice and help on not dieting!

Neutralize Your Number

NotDieting subscriber, Miss Mabel, has discovered a weight loss TV show that might be of interest. She agrees the title is hideous, "I Can Make You Thin". But, the creator has Four Golden Rules which encourage body awareness:

1. Eat whenever you are hungry
2. Eat only what you want, never what you think you ‘should’
3. Eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful
4. Stop when you even think your body is full
   

The only thing I would watch out for is doing these things just because they might make you thin. Weight neutrality is an important part of having a positive body image. If you are following the Four Golden Rules and are still plump, that's okay!

Many of us are form an almost spiritual attachment to a specific number on the scale. The waiting game can put your life in a constant state of inertia. When you focus on a number, instead of the way your body feels (hungry, full, tired, energized), then you will never be happy. Whenever I would reach my magic number I would feel happy for a day, and then become increasingly afraid of losing it.

The main reason I think the Four Golden Rules are important is because they encourage you to be aware of your body, which is the exact opposite of what dieting teaches us to do.

Note: I don't have cable, so if anyone watches this TV show please send me a report along with your opinions. Thanks!

Update: I just watched some clips of the show on YouTube and still agree with the Four Golden Rules, but disagree with the format of the show. What do you think?

Consider Your World Rocked

Curly needs to lay off the ginseng...

Now these two seem to be actual women who are not dieting.

The lovely ladies studied dieters and non-dieters and found, "that you can make significant improvements in both metabolic and psychological health without ever stepping on the scales or counting calories. You can relax about food and eat what you want."