Nicole Richie: Eating Disorder Rumors Were "Insulting"

Nicole Richie's shrinking frame has been the subject of much debate over the past few years. But the mother of two, 28, is speaking out now, slamming rumors that she ever had an eating disorder.
"I felt it was a little unfair to say someone has an eating disorder when they don't," she says. "It's extremely insulting and irresponsible."

Adds Richie, "An eating disorder is serious and it's a disease."


I feel Nicole Richie is splitting hairs. She may not have had text book anorexia, but she has some disordered eating. Cause just like Kirstie Alley and Valerie Bertinelli, Nicole Richie spent time on the "cocaine diet". Click here to read the Larry King transcript where she discusses her drug use.

Vintage Beauties: Ann-Margret

Vintage Body Snarking?

Is it just me, or is this vintage photo of Sophia Loren with Jane Mansfield just screaming: "bitch, please?"

Vintage Beauties: Lena Horne & Eartha Kitt

Lena Horne

Eartha Kitt

I have added some photos of Eartha Kitt and Lena Horne. Even though Thealogian has great intensions and will be featuring Dorthy Dandridge in a future post. She like others first think of White Women when thinking of Vintage Beauty.

Also with the limited parts for black actresses Lena Horne and Earth Kitt also had to pursue singing to stay in the entertainement business.

Vintage Beauties

I'm going to start a new series "Vintage Beauties" to remind readers that our present view of beauty and ideal body-type is not timeless, let alone universal. If readers can direct me to images of vintage women of color, that would be great. Vintage Beauties will post every Friday.

Lisa's 7 Week Jump Start: Week 5 Results

After five weeks of Jump Start, I am down another 1 lbs. For a total of 8 lbs. This is how I did it this week.

1. Resiting free donuts.

2. Turning around my sabotage thinking.

3. Having a protein snack on Tuesday night, my late night, so I wasn't so starved I had to go to McDonald's.

4. Walked some extra step while running errands.

Also, this 1 lbs help me reach another bigger milestone of losing 10% of my starting Weight watchers weight.

Goals Update

So, ate a lot of salad, worked out Monday, Tuesday, Thursday & Saturday. I shed about 2lbs.

This week:
Monday, out due to stomach bug
Tuesday, gym
Wednesday, teach class
Thursday, gym
Friday, yoga class (its supposed to snow up to 10 inches, so yoga may be replaced with pilates since I can do that at home)
Saturday, pilates

I might need to go gluten free for a while again or accept that I have celiac even though my blood test say's I don't. My stomach seems far more sensitive when I ingest gluten (wheat) that when I abstain and I have heard from other gluten-adverse people that the celiac test is only accurate with biopsy, not blood panel alone. Sooooo...

I think I'll focus on my legs at the gym today, I hope I get an elliptical. I got to go to the gym early (due to non-flex week) at 3:30 p.m. and it was REALLY hard to get an elliptical. One thing I did notice was that I probably need to challenge myself in terms of the arm weights. My colleagues, who are all going to the gym for the first time in quite a while, were all complaining about how much their arms hurt last week and mine seemed fine. Also, when I did do free-weights, the 5lbs hand-weights seemed like they weighed 3lbs--that's good, that's strength, but I'll need to move up to 8lbs pretty soon.

Onion Video: It Would Be Funnier if This Video Weren't So Close to Reality

New Law Requires Women To Name Baby, Paint Nursery Before Getting Abortion

Personal Accountablity

Taking a queue from Sherri Shepherd. I am asking soon to be mistresses to but on there "big girl panties". It has been recently reported that Bill Gates was getting to cozy for a married man with women not his wife at Sundance.

All the women claiming they were done wrong by:

Shaquille O'Neal
Tiger Woods
John Edwards
Bill Clinton


In my opinion, they should take some responsibility for their actions. All these women involved with these men willing enter relationships/arrangements with men who were publicly and legally married at the time. Therefore, these women should have deducted the following facts about these men:

1. The man has the ability to lie.
2. The man will not honor promises.
3. The man will have to divide his time between you and his wife.
4. The man knows how to cheat.
5. If the relationship goes public you are the one getting thrown under the bus.

Lisa's 7 Week Jump Start: Sabotage

Heading into the 5th week of my Jump start and being just 2 lbs away from losing 10% of my overall start weight of 269. I sabatoge myself with the following:

1. 12 chips Ahoy cookies
2. McDonalds Breakfast
3. Whole milk
4. 18 Ritzs crackers
5. No workouts.

I vow to turn it around tomorrow. With one workout and a salad.

Gavage

Jezebel has an excellent post up (read/watch the clips HERE) on "gavage" or the forced feeding of young girls while having their feet tortured in Mauritania. In Mauritania it is said that the size of a woman is the size a husband will have for her in his heart. Female obesity is encouraged, much like a bank-account (and famines were/are common in West Africa, so this practice doest come out of an ecological as well as social reality).

Encouraging women to become stick thin or zaftig harms women and girls. Period. If you watch the video where the little girl is crying while her mother hurts her feet so she'll eat the
milk/millet/butter porriage they use to plump up, you may want to cry. So be warned.

I have to echo Tracie's sentiment: "Why must appealing to men always be such a heavy burden on women?"

Lisa's 7 Week Jump Start: Week 4 Results

After four weeks of Jump Start, I am down another 2.8 lbs. For a total of 7 lbs.This is how I did it this week.

1. No diet soda.
2. When I went to McDonald's I didn't get the Angus meal for 32 points. But got a McDouble and a McChicken for 20 points
3. Got some extra sleep.
4. Went to Trader Joe's and got some salad fixings. I spent 30 dollars but I got 6 salads out of that. The comparable salads at Penn Station are $9.25 each.


Also, this 2.8 lbs help me reach a bigger milestone of losing 25 lbs.

Goals Update

My co-blogger gave me a gentle reminder to update the blog on progress. This weekend has been wack-a-doodle, but putting that aside, here was my stated goals:

Goals Jan. 4th-10th
Exercise at Gym Mon-Thurs; Pilates or Yoga Friday and Sat or Sun.
Eat pre-packed breakfast/lunch
Meditate 5-10 minutes per day

I worked out at the gym Monday and Thursday (Wednesday, I got a last minute class to teach, so I'll now try to aim for Mon, Tues & Thursday gym dates). Friday, I went shopping, which equals activity points, but no sweat-generating exercise. Sat & Sun, I was at Starbucks all weekend working on a syllabus for a class I'll teach online this next summer (due this week). Monday, I went to a peace march, which was at least 1.5-1.6 mile walk at a good pace (it was for the MLK celebration event in my city and we followed the first loop of the 5k I did this summer, so that's how I gauged the distance).

Eating: I ate pre-packaged meals all week (mostly smoked salmon sandwiches with laughing cow on a 100 calorie multi-grain bun) and tomato soup. I also had healthy snacks.

Meditation: totally didn't even take a deep breath for patience. This is definitely a learning edge :)

Goals for Jan. 18-24th
Exercise at Gym Mon, Tues, Thurs. & Friday (non-flex schedule); pole-walk or pilates Sat.
Eat turkey-chilli for lunch
meditate for five minutes 3 times per week (more doable than daily?)
Do some sort of ab workout for toning post-cardio at gym (it can be at home or prior to gym in office).

Thanks for the reminder to keep me on track, LisaD!!!

Heidi Montag: My Surgeries Aren't an Addiction

Heidi Montag is quoted at saying the following when discussing the controversy about her recent cosmetic surgeries:

"I'm in a different industry," she said, "and I have to do things that are going to make me happy at the end of the day."

I'm living in my skin, and I look in the mirror and it's my career and my life, and you only have one. So, I want to take advantage of everything and be the best me, in and out, every way."

Heidi Montag is just an example of the Hollywood machine distorting another starlets reality. I feel sorry for her. I am just glad she didn't end up like Tara Reid and other celebrites with bad plastic surgery. Yet, if Heidi keeps at it she will end up like them.

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.

Lisa's 7 Week Jump Start: Week 3 Results

After three weeks of Jump Start, I am down another 0.8 lbs. For a total of 4.2 lbs.
This is how I did it this week.

1. Maintained the increase of exercise from last week. So 13 WW activity points.

2. Ate less food by choosing more filling foods, like Spinach, so I wasn't as hungry.

3. I also got more sleep this week.

Here is a tip that was shared at the this weeks WW meeting that gave me something to think about. She said if you have recently upped your exercise and your body feel sore then you are in the process of increasing muscle. Muscle is created by tearing and repairing tissue. She said your body needs fluid and blood to do this. So that exercise may be delayed on showing up on the scale due to the fluid retention for muscle repair.

10 Ways to Beat Bloat

10 Ways to Beat by Nicole DeCoursy Mead lists 10 things you can do to reduce your belly bloat. They are:

1. Pick Potassium-Rich Foods

2. Beware of habits that cause you to swallow excess air — like chewing gum

3. Cut Starches like bread and pasta before bed time, because they may cause you to retain water.

4. The bubbles in carbonated drinks will make your belly pooch out

5. Some people have difficulty digesting artificial sweeteners, which can cause gas

6. calcium and magnesium in your diet before your period can reduce bloat.

7. To help evacuate gas,try massaging your abdomen in the direction of your GI tract

8. Nibble on Parsley

9. Pop a Probiotic, these "good bacteria" can keep you regular and bloat-free

10. Fight constipation by walking for at least 15 to 20 minutes each day

video: Biggest Loser Winner Gains 175 Pounds Back

Video: Biggest Loser Winner Gains 175 Pounds Back

When Erik Chopin shed more than 200 pounds to become the winner of 2006's Biggest Loser, he was eager to start his new life. Unfortunately, his new life included gaining nearly every pound back.

So when the husband and father of three -- who cites procrastination and overeating as some of the reasons for his weight gain -- was featured on a Biggest Loser "Where Are They Now?" special that aired in November, he decided to give himself a second chance.

I actually think this man is typical of the average dieter.

1. When you lose wieght purely for the money. It is hard to maintain a reason to keep it off once you got the money.
2. Not learning how to eat. The Biggest Loser Ranch is really a bubble. So it would be very hard to go home and cook meals if you home lifestyle is based on eating out.
3. Exercising 6 hours a day is not often possible in the real world. So if the only reason you stayed thin required 6 hours of exerise then you would gain in the real world.

Also all the people who seemed to being the best in the reunion show at maintaining the weight went into exercise related fields where they had to exercise daily for their job.

Workout Video Review Part 2

Leslie Sansone: Walk Away the Pounds - Fat Burning Miles

This weekend I did the second two workouts. The "Walk and Jog" and "Walk and Kick". Both of these workouts are a combination of walking and moderate/high intensity aerobic activity.

The "Walk and Kick" was an intro to kick boxing for beginner. In the 33 minute video you got about 8 minutes of kick boxing. I thought this was a great way to try kick boxing with out taking it to the next level before my fitness ability got there.

The "Walk and Jog" was mostly walking with about 3 intervals of light jogging in place. This was a very easy jog. It was really there to increase the heart rate without going crazy and having the heart attack.

At 247.4 lbs both these workout left me with the need to take a shower after just 33 minutes.

Both workouts are equivalent of walking two and half miles if you were in a track setting.

Elizabeth Gilbert on Human Creativity

What to Expect from a Boot Camp Fitness Program

What to Expect from a Boot Camp Fitness Program by Caitlin Moscatello gives tips on what to expect and look for in a boot camp. Here are the highlights:

1. Boot camp maybe for you if you have recently been cutting corners in your workout.

2. Do your research on the boot camp before signing up.

3. Find a boot camp with people who fit your style.

4. Check to see if there are any starting requirements—like being able to run a 10-minute mile or do a certain number of push-ups in a minute, and what level classes are offered.

5. See if you can pay for one trial case before committing to a package if you are on the fence about this issue. Note: Boot camps run for 4 weeks or more on average.

Here are my personal tips
1. Boot camps are for the season exerciser not the recent coach potato.

2. Totally know your physical limit. Don't let the excitement of the boot camp make you injury yourself.

3. check with your doctor before starting something intense like this.

Caregiver Weight Gain

Many women end up being the care giver role. The stress of can cause havoc on the health and weight of the care giver. Here are some quotes on the subject:

Weight gain can be a problem for caregivers. Some female caregivers are prone to weight gain. A major study finds that women who care for alzheimer patients tend to gain weight, but only if they are unable to control their anger. Women caregivers who find effective ways to control their anger do not gain weight.

Caregivers may find that they are gaining weight due to emotional overeating. Or, caregivers may not eat due to not enough time or no appetite.

TIP: Being healthy is very important. It will give you more energy during the day. If weight gain is a problem, consult your physician.

Therefore, I would like to remind everyone that you have to remember to take care of you if not you will not be strong enough to take care of others.

I Bought Fava Beans, Now What?

I pretty much want to make every recipe I found HERE using Fava Beans. Any experienced Fava Bean advocates reading wanna give me some tips or another recipe? Pass it on!

21-Day Vegan Kick Start Diet

Free is nice and over at The Physicians Committee for Responsible Eating, they're offering a 21-day vegan kick-start diet for those interested in adopting a vegan diet. This is "diet" as in what you eat more than "dieting," so don't be put off by the title, but do note that a big selling point for this program is that people tend to lose weight when adopting a Vegan diet without counting calories. They offer meal plans with linked recipes, grocery lists, etc.

I remember when back in the day friends try to adopt a "vegetarian" diet as Freshmen in college, they often ended up eating mostly french fries and salads. Vegetarianism and most definitely Veganism isn't easy to adopt without some guidance because we do need vital nutrients to survive (see B12), but a program like the KickStart (at the beginning of the year, worked out by medical professionals, etc.) is a great way to try to eat this ethical diet.

I'm not a vegetarian or vegan--I'm trying to be a more ethical eater which will hopefully involve cutting out factory-farmed meat/dairy over the next few years--but I'm not quite there yet. I do like to eat vegetarian and vegan meals regularly. This is for full disclosure.

So dear readers, have any of you tried to become vegan/vegetarian through a program or with the help of a mentor?

Lisa's 7 Week Jump Start: Week 2 Results

After two weeks of Jump Start, I am down another 2.2 lbs. For a total of 3.4 lbs.

This is how I did it this week.

1. Increasing exercise. I went from 8 WW activity points to 14 WW activity points.
2. Making better choices at restaurants. Not clearing my plate at the diner. I was OK letting left over fries go in the trash.