Does Weight Loss success have to equal a Bikini?

See Clip

On The Oprah Show, Oprah asks Kirstie Alley is success has to be a bikini? She says yes.

In my opinion this is crazy especially when you are 58 years old like Kirstie Alley. In my opinion setting success at a bikini ignores the importance of a lot of the healthy lifestyle changes and health benefits. I feel the there needs to be a health/hotness balance.

Why Kirstie Alley Fell Off the Wagon

Tune in to The Oprah Show on 4/30/09

It was an eye-popping moment on The Oprah Show—Kirstie Alley in a bikini. Two and a half years later, she's going public again with a big admission. (PG)

Beyoncé Dances to Stay Fit

Beyoncé says:

"I lost a lot of weight naturally, just from 12-hour rehearsals," she explained, attributing her recent weight loss to preparing to tour. "That's a lot of dancing. I would never work out for 12 hours, but I'm able to move around and not think about it. It's part of my job."
I am glad Beyoncé is saying what we all think. You only stay in that kind of shape when it is your job. I would love to look like Mariah Carey but I don't got 12 hours or even 4 hours in my day to be exercising.

Heidi Klum’s Model Diet Advice

Heidi Klum’s calls out the models on her show:

"In many cases, the girls eat garbage - things like pancakes and waffles and a lot of junk - which is not going to help them,” she said. “You don't need to starve, but you have to learn to look after yourself. You'd hardly see any of them eating vegetables or salads. Not even an apple. It was kind of shocking.”

"Eat healthily,'' she urges. “Models need to have some energy to be able to deal with long days on a photo shoot and taking red-eye flights and managing job after job. You won't last if you're not eating healthily.''

I am glad she recognizes that people need to eat to be strong to do the job at hand.

Lisad00 First 5K Results

Here are my RACE RESULTS
Overall: 479 out of 529Division: 27 of 31 Time: 00:52:03.194
I am now an athlete. I am a champion.

I feel very empowered by the 5K walk. I feel like the body is working well even if I am not Hollywood thin. I still don't believe in running without fire chasing you, but I did enjoy my first 5K walk.

Reading Rec: Learned Helplessness

I thought that THIS POST from Escape from Obesity was really good. Go read, come back and discuss.

Tori Spelling: I'm Not Anorexic

Too Busy to Eat Right"I'm so blessed to have as many jobs that I have, but I do agree that there needs to be some downtime," she says of her hectic schedule that can leave little time for proper meals. "I'm the first to admit that sometimes I don't have the time to sit down for a well-balanced meal," she tells PEOPLE. "Usually like you kind of just finish whatever your child doesn't eat. I'm like, 'Cool, you have a few pieces of hot dog left and one broccoli floret and a fry, I'll take it.' "

Ok, maybe Tori Spelling is not Anorexic but she does have disordered eating. If she is living off her kids leftovers, then that is close to stravation.

It is Only a Choice if you have the Funds to Choose It

According to Feministing a very important organization the New York Abortion Fund or NYAAF is going broke. NYAAF helps low income women pay for abortions and in these trying times both the need for financial assistance and abortion services are one the rise. Feministing gives a couple links, including a fundraising campaign on Facebook where you can help out. I'm sending in $20 (not very much, but every little bit helps). #1 reason cited for the need for abortions is financial considerations. Now, I'd love to live in a country where we have universal health care so no woman needs to worry about the cost of prenatal care and delivery, I'd love to live in a country where day care is subsized, heck, I'd love to live in a country where we get paid Maternity/Paternity leave. But, I don't. I live in the USA--where social safety net has been maligned by the powers of greed and corporate evil-doing since Roosevelt (no, since Hamilton). Despite this general humane wish list for the support of sound family policies, I am also unapologetically, without question PRO CHOICE and since this blog is very much about bodies, what is more body integrity oriented than the right to decide when and when not to continue a pregnancy to term? Bush wasn't able to completely get rid of Roe v Wade (though there are now so many hops and lack of access in rural America, the Republican Right did manage to essentially take away millions of women's ability to choose). For many, the right to choose is primarily about the rights of middle-class/upper-class women's right to choose and the rights of poor women to have to deal with accidental pregancies with forced birth policies or taking the measures into their own hands (like using pesticides or ulcer meds to try to self-abort). For many poor women, getting the money for an abortion takes time, and by the time they have it, its the 2nd trimester and its a much more expensive procedure. NYAAF helps women get safe abortions earlier and not only women from New York. We need more abortion funds like NYAAF and unfortunately, its going to have to be private foundations like NYAAF because the Right Wing will destroy any efforts at a universal healthcare system if abortion services is part of the package. Hopefully, with universal healthcare, our abortion rates will go down because more women will have access to contraception and the ability to plan their families (like in Europe, where abortion is significantly less likely to be necessary than here...ironic huh? Oh, wait, just common sense).

So, if you have $5 ro $100 to spare, help a sister out.

Peace

20 healthy foods that cost less than a buck

Below is the list. Click Here for the detailed artcile.

1. Oats
2. Eggs
3. Kale
4. Potatoes
5. Apples
6. Nuts
7. Bananas
8. Garbanzo Beans
9. Broccoli
10. Watermelon
11. Wild Rice
12. Beets
13. Butternut Squash
14. Whole Grain Pasta
15. Sardines
16. Spinach
17. Tofu
18. Lowfat Milk
19. Pumpkin Seeds
20. Coffee

Halle Berry Call's Out Lying Celebs

She says she doesn't buy into celebs who claim they never work out.

"God bless them if they're telling the truth," she says. "It's questionable if they are. I always had to diet. I'm diabetic, so it's a lifestyle for me anyway just to stay healthy and not end up in the hospital."

I am glad she is requesting that her counterparts keep it real. And if anyone knows, she is one of the few people who can afford to go to a celeb gym. So she know which chick be on the treadmill next to her then is lying in a magazine the next day.

Denise Richards is a Liar

FitSugar has "diet tips" from the current crop of "Dancing with the Stars" stars, including Denise Richards. The advice covers the gamut from Lil' Kim's admission that even with 5-8 hours of dancing per day, she's eating between 1200-1400 calories to fit into those revealing costumes to Denise Richards who claims that she lost her baby weight "while still eating pizza and ice-cream."

The full article is HERE

I do believe Lil' Kim, I don't believe Denise Richards and I'm tired of "stars" claims that they eat crap and still fit into a size 2, even after two babies. Y'all are lying. When Beyonce admitted that going on the Master Cleanse (fasting essentially on maple syrup, lemon juice, and cayenne pepper) to lose weight for Dream Girls was the hardest thing she'd ever done, I believed her and I knew that fasting for two weeks CAN'T BE HEALTHY and I'm glad that she literally SURIVIVED.

Cheryl Burke was criticized earlier this year for being "fat" on DWTS and she initally responded with strength and defiance, but recently she's lost 10 lbs. She's lost it by eating "egg whites, whole grains, veggies, and lots of water. She also tries to avoid salt, and keeps snacks with her to avoid temptation." Cheryl Burke was fine 10 lbs ago, but there's only so much pressure someone can take and like Jennifer Love Hewitt (who also had a meat-grinder like experience with the body-snarkers last year), losing the weight must have seemed easier than having to defend her already healthy frame. I don't want to body snark here either and say that these women are "too skinny" now or similar, because that doesn't help the conversation. I'm just saying that when you have on one side, women lying about how they attain their figures (see: Denise Richards) and then women who have to defend their much better than the average body, then cave and go super strict, what do you do? I think that being honest is first and foremost the right direction to getting Hollywood back to sane. Thank you to the women who are honest, liars shut the f$3@ up or at least try to be honest, and body snarkers (particuarly those women's magazines that in one column shame healthy women and then on the next page talk about how "How Your Body Insecurities Are Driving Him Away" you really need to change the conversation. I double dog dare Glamour or Marie Claire (two mags that might take me up on this) to publish just ONE ISSUE with no air-brushing--you can still use models and celebrities, just show them to us with no airbrushing for once and I guarentee it will sell faster than any other--we'll start a media campaign to make it happen).

Mandisa: 'Weight Jokes Make Me Feel Less Than a Human Being'

Former “American Idol” contestant Mandisa Hundley opens up to ESSENCE.com about her amazing weight loss.

One of the quotes that stood out to me was the following:

"I was molested when I was a child and then raped when I was older," she explains. "Subconsciously I associated beauty with danger, so I figured the more weight I gained the less men would find me desirable."

I think food addiction is one of the addictions that a person is showing the world at all times. Because the results show up on your body much faster then say drug and alcohol addictions. I think when were are walking around judging people for their weight we should think maybe they are using the weight as a defense mechanism for a terrible wrong done to them.

Kathy Ireland's Shocking Weight Gain (and Loss)

"I was not making enough time to take care of me," says Ireland, 46, a mother of three kids ranging in age from 6 to 14 and CEO of Kathy Ireland World Wide, a $1.4 billion design empire. She also runs a mentoring program for single teen mothers.

To get back on track, Ireland enlisted the help of a friend, who happens to be a personal trainer and nutritionist. Thanks to healthier food choices, including cutting down on snacking and desserts, plus three exercise sessions a week, Ireland says she's almost back to where she feels her best.

Why is it in order for a celebrity to "turn things around" they have to have a personal trainer and nutritionist? Those people aren't free. I would like a celebrity to "turn things around" for herself with a cookbook and gym shoes like the real woman living everyday lives.

Beware the perils of caffeine withdrawal

Story Highlights

• Up to 90 percent of North Americans consume caffeine products every day
• About half will experience withdrawal syndrome if they don't partake
• Symptoms include headache, fatigue, sleepiness, inability to focus
• The higher the caffeine intake, the more likely a patient will suffer

This is important for dieters to remember a lot of us give up soda for the sake of cutting calories.

Men tell Oprah why they beat the women they love

Men tell Oprah why they beat the women they love

This article provided insight in to the mind of the abuser. Yet, it didn't provide any solutions.

Economic or Financial Abuse

Since we are talking about abuse. I want to bring our attention to Economic or financial abuse.

What is economic or financial abuse of a spouse or domestic partner?
Economic or financial abuse includes:

• withholding economic resources such as money or credit cards
• stealing from or defrauding a partner of money or assets
• exploiting the intimate partner’s resources for personal gain
• withholding physical resources such as food, clothes, necessary medications, or shelter from a partner
• preventing the spouse or intimate partner from working or choosing an occupation

Well from a Grandma prospective, the grocery bill is still the woman's domain and is one of the few places a woman can access cash to create an escape fund if she is being abused.

Grapefruit and the Pill Don't Mix

This is scary

Apparently a woman might lose her leg due to a rare and nearly lethal combination of extreme dieting, chemical interaction, and just plain rotten luck. A 42 year old woman went on an 800 calorie, grape-fruit centric diet and she happened (as millions of woman are) to be on the pill. She developed a huge blood clot that could have killed her and her leg developed gangrene.

There are tons of things that can interfere with the Pill, (by Pill, I mean oral contraceptives--pretty much 99% of our readers will know that, but just to be clear). Things like antibiotics, the drugs used at the dentists office when you get a filing, tons of caffeine taken with the Pill can even cause problems. Grapefruit is also known to interfere with Statin drugs, like Lipitor.

This story has a two fold lesson I think: 1. its important to try to become aware of how drug/food interactions work with your particular medications, 2. extreme diets can kill even without the freaky drug interactions.

I hope that this the doctors will be able to save this woman's leg. Healing energy your way! Peace.

I'm one of the last food-justice bloggers to get to the Alice Waters Video on 60 Minutes.

Its pissed some folks off--well, one particularly dumb quote from this dreamy, but effective Slow Food Movement Doyenne: its not "I feel good food should be a right and not a privilege--that's not elitist" (which she also said in the segment) but that when questioned about the expense of organic food, she said some people choose to buy two pairs of Nike shoes, I choose to spend more on what I eat (paraphrase).

As SharkFu pointed out in Feministing:
The reality is that my diet has more to do with to eat or not to eat than to shop or to nourish and I know I'm not alone.

When I started teaching life skill classes at a transitional housing shelter for homeless pregnant teens in St. Louis Missouri, I quickly realized that many of my students could teach a master class on making a dollar stretch. A good place to witness their resourcefulness was in the kitchen - trust me, making $160 in food assistance last a month takes serious skill.

With the help of a nutritionist residents came up with quick, healthy and affordable meals that could be frozen and heated up later. They eventually put all their recipes together in a cookbook that I still use today.

What they didn't do was weigh their nutrition against the joy of shoe shopping.

What concerns me about Waters viewpoint is that she is a very influential person who is helping to shape public policy. As I said before, her genuine affection for food and belief that healthy food is a right is inspiring.

Promoting healthy food is a must-try recipe, but folks should skip that extra tablespoon of privilege if they want it to nourish the masses...

I don't think that we need to dismiss the very good work Alice Waters has done in the Slow Food and Organic/Local Food Movement--watch the whole 12 minute video--but I do think that someone in her position NEEDS to be conscious of how elitist she comes off and work to actively discourage that image in order to truly help "the masses" get on board. The edible school yard helps, the White House garden helps, but making breakfast over a camp fire in a multi-million dollar home in the Berkley hills does not and the shoe comment certainly doesn't help.

Privilege is a big a turn-off, but oblivious privilege is deadly to the public perception of a movement. Van Jones would never have fallen for the 60 Minutes ploy. Get some guile, hippy, or at least a PR team :) More on this later, I think...

"Cut"

We've talked a bit about Chris Brown/Rhianna and domestic violence on this blog--mostly about the media coverage and how far we have to come to understand DV and its incredibly complicated dynamics. Keira Knightly has a new anti-DV video available to view HERE with Women's Aid, a UK organization devoted to the health and welfare of women and girls. I have to say that it could be triggering if you have previous DV experiences or have witnessed them, so take care of yourself and don't watch if that's best.

The video is very good, I think because the young woman Knightly portrays is an actress, someone with money and a career of her own, yet she's in an abusive relationship. Its kind of a Russian nestlying doll in that she's an actress who drives home, finds her boyfriend in a rage (broken mirror and a bloody hand), the tension is thick, then he starts to berate her for kissing someone else on the set, she defends it as part of her job, the beating begins, then she says, "I didn't agree to this" like she's back on set, and it all pans out to a set, and the caption is "Isn't it time somebody called cut?"

So, its from controlled, to out of control to controlled, out of control--it leaves you topsy turvy, but you are definitely left with the feeling of the private as a place of terror.

Why discuss this on a fitness blog? We'll I hope this is really an intersectional blog--it is called fat feminist fitness blog and what is more elemental to health than bodily integrity and safety?

I don't think that this particular video is in response to Chris Brown/Rhianna (this video is: HERE and it is extremely triggering and based on the 911 call in their particular case). I think that 1st is a UK production and may have been in the works for quite a while. Yet, I do think that it is useful that a video that will garner quite a bit of attention (due to Knightly's status?) is important right now because it keeps the dialogue going without having the glare of a celebrity he said/she said case.

Watch, discuss--peace.

"More to Love" Casting to be done at Lane Bryant

"More to Love" Casting to be done at Lane Bryant

For anyone who is the size of the average american woman and looking to be exploited on TV for the sake of love, ratings, and exposure. This is the casting call for you.

I Didn't Know THAT!

I like factoids, here's an interesting one:

According to FitSugar one pound of muscle burns 50 calories per day and a pound of fat burns 2 calories per day. Now, I had always heard that muscle burns more than fat resting, but I didn't really know what that exactly meant. If you can think about like, I can eat 48 more calories, that's a big deal (especially if that means that say I could develop more muscle mass and eat 1600 calories per day and still lose weight verses the 1200 that seems standard). I have been trying to build more muscle--for bone density and strength--but this significant ratio helps me understand the old fitness adage: muscle burns more than fat.

Star Jones "Still" Feels Like She Weighs 300 Pounds

The 47-year-old is still sensitive of criticism about her decision to undergo gastric bypass surgery -- which helped her drop 160 pounds -- in 2003.
Star Jones is one of the poster children of why you shouldn't lie about your weight loss methods.

But in her defense, weight is a very personal issue even if the whole world can see what you look like. I also believe she does still have a belief that she weighs 300lbs. There is a tremendous mental baggage that comes along with body image. So if she didn't get proper counseling pre-/post surgery she will continue to deal with these feelings.