Demi Lovato Was A 'Cutter' Before Entering Rehab

Radaronline.com reports:
In wake of the shocking news that Disney darling Demi Lovato has entered rehab for what her rep describes as "emotional and physical issues", one reason for her entering treatment could be is that she's a "cutter" - a person who self-mutilates as a way of releasing inner pain.

My heart goes out to her. As a child/teen star, I am sure agents/executives/fans/critics have requested a lot. Many times these requests are to much to ask of an adult let alone a child. I think we as a society should move back to evaluating people on their talent and not their looks. I believe this one gesture can sooth much of the drama celebrities create for themselves.

Girl, 6, thrown off squad over ‘booty’ cheer

The Today Show reports on a 6 year old kicked of a cheerleading team because the mother questioned the point her her daughter make the following cheer: “Our backs ache, our skirts are too tight, we shake our booties from left to right!”


As Kathy Lee points out, “It’s the sexualization of our young females from an earlier and earlier [age]. When do parents lose our rights to raise children according to the values that we think are important?”

I agree on Kathy this way. When we over sexualize children, it makes it all to easy for the weak minded to prey on children. It also makes a young girl think her only commodity in life is her body.

She drops 100 pounds, gains new world

Emily McCombs at The Frisky discusses how a 100 lb weight loss got her better treatment and that how maintain a weight loss for 6 years causes her to sometimes diss fat people.

Emily makes some great points, but I think her experience is not typical. Just because you fit in department store sizes doesn't mean you stop having problems with people being mean. As a black woman, I know if I lose the remaining 70 lbs to get height/weight chart dimensions. I will still be treated "separate than". Losing weight does rid you of some assumptions, but thinner woman get stuck with different labels such as:

1. Thin people can wear anything.

2. Thin people are not sensitive about their size.

3. Life is easier for thin people.

4. Thin people eat very small portions.

5. Thin people don't have to worry about their health.

6. But thin people don't need to exercise, right?

Rape by Deception

Jo Adetunji and Harriet Sherwood in Jerusalem report the following:

A Palestinian man has been convicted of rape after having consensual sex with a woman who had believed him to be a fellow Jew.

Sabbar Kashur, 30, was sentenced to 18 months in prison on Monday after the court ruled that he was guilty of rape by deception. According to the complaint filed by the woman with the Jerusalem district court, the two met in downtown Jerusalem in September 2008 where Kashur, an Arab from East Jerusalem, introduced himself as a Jewish bachelor seeking a serious relationship. The two then had consensual sex in a nearby building before Kashur left.

This case is really sad on many levels.

1. No one should feel the need to lie about his/her religion for a relationship.

2. No one should have to go to jail for 18 months for telling a "lie at the club".

3. No one should take something to trial on a minority that he/she wouldn't take to the trail on a member of the majority.

4. No one needs to call the cops because he/she were scorn in a relationship.

5. If you can't handle the ramifications of a sexual relationship don't have sex.

Lisa's 12 Week Summer Jump Start

Week 7 Results

7/19/2010 Up 0.2 lbs going back to 237.8 lbs.


How I did it:
1. I drank a lot of water.
2. I got in some slow paced walks even though it was crazy hot.
3. I ate out more meals then I planned.


Even though I am up a little I am OK with that. Last week at Weight Watchers we were asked to focus on the non-scale goals.

Since being on weight watchers I have lost:

3 inches on the waist
2.5 inches on the hips
3 inches on the bust
.75 inches on the arm

Let Go of Negative Thinking to Lose Weight

Tracy Rose at Suite101.com wrote about Practice Positive Self Talk:Let Go of Negative Thinking to Lose Weight . The highlights of the article are:

1.How you think about yourself directly relates to how you feel about yourself.
2. Overweight people tend to think negatively about themselves.
3. Negative comments from family and friends stick with them for a long time if they go unchecked.
4. Comments made about your weight and body as a child can effect how you feel about yourself as an adult.
5. Challenge your negative thoughts to find out if they come from a real place.

A Better Me! By Tammie Temple in the January 2010 issue of Guidepost also talks about how positive think can be a turning point in your weight loss journey.

Slim Hopes

I found this video via the Fat Nutritionist

It seems to be from the late 1990's, but its still relevant today. If anything, the stats might be worse for adolescent girls' self-esteem and disordered eating rates. Check it out and discuss!

Best quote: "it is profitable for women to feel terrible about themselves."

Book Review: Sarah the Duchess of York My Story

Sarah the Duchess of York My Story is an excellent book about how low self-esteem can make you lose yourself and set you on a path of self destruction. Even though this book came out in 1996, it still resonates today. Sarah Ferguson really gets deep in this book. She talks about how she stressed to do more for others to avoid looking at herself. She also talks about how being a people pleaser caused her to push her feelings down until the stress and depression all most pushed her over the edge. I feel many modern women can relate to her even if you don't get sucked into a high profile marriage.

Girls at "Weight Extremes" Less Likely to Practice Safer Sex

Oh, dear, although this does make sense considering our current cultural climate. Apparently, girls at "weight extremes" in other words overweight and underweight girls who are sexually active are LESS likely to engage in safer sex practices, specifically to demand condom usage, than "normal weight" sexually active girls.

The study (found HERE) finds that sexual risk taking is predictive by actual or perceived weight. Some of the findings include:

• Caucasian girls who believed that they were underweight, whether accurate or not, were more likely to have had sex and to have had four or more sexual partners. Overweight Caucasian girls were less likely to use condoms.
• Underweight African-American girls also were less likely to use condoms while overweight African-American girls reported four or more sexual partners.
• Latina girls of all weights were more likely to engage in a wide variety of sexual risk behaviors -- lack of condom or oral contraception use, sex before age 13, greater than four sexual partners and use of alcohol.

Dr. Akers, the lead researcher, noted: "This study will contribute to sexual health education prevention efforts, which can be tailored to address how cultural norms regarding body size may influence adolescent sexual decision making. Knowing how a girl perceives her weight may be just as important as knowing her actual weight."

Weight and self-esteem are linked, this we know. Self-esteem is crucial for women and girls to insist on safer sex practices and to advocate for their own reproductive health as well as pregnancy planning and prevention. Some might take this study and say "yet another fallout of the obesity crisis" but that's bunk. The answer isn't more pressure to conform to a perfect size (for both the skinnier than average girls and the over weight girls), but to stress self-esteem development, accurate and sensible comprehensive sex education that includes life-planning skills--nothing can destroy a girls educational or economic prospects like an unplanned pregnancy and teen motherhood (less than 3% go on to finish a 4 year college degree by age 30 and only around 33% graduate from High School--teen motherhood is a recipe for poverty).

Of course comprehensive sex education is crucial for both boys and girls, but it is important to remember that girls carry (literally and figurative) most of the burden of unplanned pregnancy and that often the fathers of teen girls children are adult males, men typically five years older than their teenage baby-mamma. So, yes, a very specific kind of sex education that relates to body image needs to be used with girls. I think that separating the sexes in High School for some portions of a sex ed curriculum could be useful when discussing these gender specific anxieties and problems. And after the gang rape of that poor 15 year old girl by 10 boys in Richmond, California (with up to ten more witnesses who did NOTHING), I think that a rape and domestic violence prevention program is necessary in our schools written specifically for males. I'm not saying that the teacher will call all of your precious, darling boy children rapists (which is often the outcry one hears from parents of boys when they hear "rape prevention education" but that rape culture and "boys will be boys" memes should be discussed with young males to help them call out the everyday misogyny their experience/participate in.

Any who--lets hope that this study will help comprehensive sex educators better teach their subjects and that science based sex ed becomes the norm once again. I feel so sorry for those kids today who will (are) facing greater teen pregnancy levels and STD/STI rates due to the ABSOLUTE failure of Abstinence Only Education that had factual errors and lies at its core. Of course I don't want kids to have sex before they are able to handle a healthy sexuality (that means mutual pleasure and respect) as well as STD/STI prevention and pregnancy prevention--and generally I think that is possible after age 18 or so, and Comprehensive Sex Education should cover that (it doesn't mean that Liberals think Kindgarteners should start having origies like some of the Abstinence only people have implied). But most of all, it needs to be accurate and health oriented.

Exercise & Self-Esteem

Great news, a new study shows that no matter your fitness level, engaging in a fitness routine helps to boost your self-esteem!

"This is an important study because it shows that doing virtually any type of exercise, on a regular basis, can help people feel better about their bodies," said Kathleen Martin Ginis, a kinesiology professor at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. "With such a large segment of the population dissatisfied with their physiques, it's encouraging to know that even short, frequent bouts of lower intensity exercise can improve body image."

I know that this is true for me--the act of exercise produces feel good neurotransmitters, but it also helps remind you that you do have the ability to alter or improve your body--you do have some control.

Do you have a theme song?

As a child, I always wanted to live my life in a musical. Well since I cannot do that, I decided to pick a theme song for myself. I play my theme song for myself during the following times:

• Before interviews
• Before possible stressful situations
• To change my mood around
• Before big projects at work

I suggest everyone get a theme song. It is a quick cheap way to try to change your life.

My theme song is Vanessa Williams' Happiness. Here is her video and here are the lyrics.

I don't believe what I'm hearin'
You can't impress me by what you show me
Don't think I'm goin' through changes
Or you might see me change for the last time

Having a bad day
Better deal with it
If you're playin' games
No time for it
If you're bringin' pain
Gonna run from it
Don't mess up my day

I'm the only one who's responsible
For me havin' fun
And you can't take my

[Chorus:]
Happiness is what my life's about
Happiness no I can't do without
Happiness nothing can stop me now
Through ups and downs I'm still happy

Life is good as I make it
I can't sit while you make it for me
I like those jewels you gave me
But I wanna buy some jewels for myself
To lose the ball and chain
Gotta reach for it
To realize my dreams
Gotta reach for it
Nothin' comes for free
Gotta reach for it
No I'm not gonna have to depend on you

I'm the only one
Who's responsible
For me havin' fun
And you can't my

[Chorus]

I'm the only one
Who's responsible
For me havin' fun
And you can't my

[Chorus 2x]

Happiness
Happiness