Archive for September, 2007

Weightism: Prejudice or discrimmination against people based on weight.  It not only happens with fat people, but skinny ones too. (From urbandictionary.com)

I heard this word for the first time this past Thursday.  I was listening to the radio in my car on the way to run some errands.  The radio station played a recording from a listener that left a message. 

We all know that there are all walks of life out there, but to actually hear someone have such a strong prejudice against an overweight person was really hard for me to hear.  Though I’m far from being overweight, I’m very sensitive to this topic because I used to be very overweight.  I know that there can be different reasons why people are overweight and that’s fine.  Maybe it’s genetic, maybe they have binge eating disorder, maybe they have a really hard life and don’t know where else to turn…

No matter why someone is overweight, there is absolutely NO reason for anyone to make fun of them or to say hurtful things.  No reason. 

The message was left in response to the DJ having a friend that is on this season of The Biggest Loser.  The woman said that it was “disgusting to have a fat friend” and she went on and on.  Can you believe this person?  What kind of a person says things like this?

The most ironic part of the whole thing is that the friend is on The Biggest Loser because she wants to become more healthy.  She obviously realizes that she needs to lose weight and she’s being proactive about it.  How do you knock someone like that?!?

I’m sure many of you are not the kind of people who would ever make fun of someone with weight issues… and that is awesome.  We never know what issues are going on in someone’s life and we are not in the position to ever pass judgement. 

Weightism is something that needs to be put to rest and not be just another thing that people can choose to be prejudice about.

I know there’s been some buzz for a while now about this reality show, but I just watched my first episode last night.  I was at the gym, later than usual, and I put myself on the elliptical right in front of the tv.  Of course, I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but I could read at the bottom of the screen.  It was amazing!  So many people are fighting to get their life back and to lose weight and become healthy - What’s not to love?

Most of the time when I go to the gym, I listen to my iPod.  I try to get distracted by great music and find the extra motivation in it to push myself one more mile.  I will admit that it’s hard for me to focus on the music to get me through cardio at times, but it’s the best thing for me…

Until Tuesday nights when I can watch The Biggest Loser.  If you haven’t tried working out (home or gym) while this is on in the background - try it now!  It was the motivation I needed to sweat my butt off!  No joke.

It reminded me of how much I used to weigh, and how I never want to go back to that place again. 

It showed me that we all have the ability to do whatever we want to do because it comes from within.

It was great to see the people on the show busting their butt to haul 21 tons of plane to be rewarded with letters from their family and friends.  (Seriously, if they can haul a plane, couldn’t I do just 5 more minutes on the elliptical?  You bet I could!) 

I think gyms should play motivating shows like this one on repeat all of the time.  I know I’m not the only one who enjoyed working out while watching it - You should have seen all of the folks around the Biggest Loser TV!  Clearly I was not the only one!

What about you?  Have you worked out while watching this show or another similar one?  Did you find it extra motivating like I did?  If you haven’t, do you think that it would make you push yourself to be faster, better, etc?

You can bet I’ll be at the gym next Tuesday night to tune in to the next episode and watch the sweat pour off my body!

Whether you want to stop binge eating, stop smoking, lose weight, etc, there is one thing that you will find that is common between everything and that is…

Your mindset. 

Your mindset plays the most vital role because it starts to change your thinking, it allows you to see your life as it would be if you didn’t binge eat.

When I was still binge eating, working on my mindset was the best thing that I did for myself.  I knew that if my mindset stayed the same way I would continue to binge eat.  It’s such a no brainer really.  The way I thought for so long was having me reach for binge food to ease any situation instead of focusing on fixing the circumstance.  Something had to change…

Changing the way we think is never an easy task, but it’s the best thing that we can do when we need to change something important in our lives. 

For me, binge eating allowed me to have a low self-esteem and not love myself.  It was so detrimental in my life.  I started keeping a journal so that my negative feelings would be written down somewhere.  While it’s great to write in your journal about how you want your life to be when you aren’t binge eating, it’s also really, really important to capture your reality too.  It’s such a freeing feeling and those feelings need to come out somehow.

Start keeping a journal today about your day-to-day life and write down everything good and bad in it.  Use it as an escape instead of bingeing.  I noticed right away about how good I felt after writing - Try it out and see how it works for you!

While at the gym today I saw a woman who was probably in her late 40’s and her body was awesome!  Usually when I’m at the gym I do not pay attention to anyone, male or female.  I’m in my own world, listening to my iPod.  This lady was quite the exception though.  Not only did she get my attention, but everyone else’s that was in the gym too. 

I know that there’s a lot of people out who would feel frustrated seeing someone like this… but I’m wondering if there are any of you that actually might find a little motivation in this situation.

I know that when I was binge eating there were days when the gym was fine and there were days when I avoided it like the plague.  Drastic, I know.  Some days I was A-OK with myself and didn’t focus on binge eating.  Some days weren’t so good. 

I hated myself.

I hated my body. 

I hated my neverending struggles with food.  Oh man, I could go on and on…

If I would have seen someone like this when I was still deep in binge eating disorder, I think that it would have made me binge eat even more after I left the gym (on a bad day).  But I’m a different person now…

Today while I was sweating away (and I do mean drenched in sweat), I appreciated how this woman looked.  I mean, it’s obvious that she has spent a lot of time in the gym working out to get her muscles so defined… and I think that’s awesome!  She inspired me to keep on lifting my 30lbs (did arms today) when I wanted to stop (and I was successful, I might add )

I’m curious about your thoughts…  Assuming you have binge eating disorder, if you saw someone that was totally toned and in fabulous shape, how would that make you feel?  Do you feel accepting enough of yourself that it wouldn’t bother you in a negative way, or do you need to work on that part?  Do you think that it would motivate you to end binge eating disorder and move on with your life? 

We are all motivated in different ways, so I just want to know about YOU!

I’ve been trying to catch up with the latest on binge eating since I got back in town.  There’s a lot of buzz going on right now about pregnant women and binge eating, so naturally this piqued my interest.

A study was published in the 2007 issue of Psychological Medicine about the relationship of binge eating and being pregnant.  Over 100,000 women were included in this study and researchers noticed that binge eating developed during pregnancy. 

Of course they are not referring to the usual cravings that pregnant women experience.  The researchers found that women who had binge eating disorder prior to becoming pregnant still binged.  In fact, more of them continued their bingeing behavior than going into remission.  They also found that more women who didn’t binge before becoming pregnant were likely to develop binge eating during the pregnancy.  Lower education levels plus lower income households were the main factors of the pregnant binge eaters.

Since there is not one particular reason why binge eating develops in women, the researchers will continue the study by looking at the women and their children over time.  Hopefully this will give some additional insight to binge eating disorder. 

I’m excited to follow this study to learn further information about binge eating disorder.

Are any of y’all currently pregnant or have been pregnant in the past and found this study to be true in your own life?  If so, please share.

It’s been a long time since I’ve last posted…

Rob and I have been in Boise, Idaho and it was surprisingly very enjoyable!  We went there to attend a fantastic marketing conference where I learned so much good stuff that I can’t wait to implement into my own business.

We also had a day to drive up to the mountains and that was amazing!  We got to see some of the damage due to the fires that had been going on for 3-weeks - It looked like a war zone and was really sad to see.

Anways, I’m back and ready to continue posting about various topics regarding binge eating.  How has everyone been doing lately?  

Here are some pictures taken in the mountains:

At the beginning of our drive - Still a lot of desert

One of my favs - At a canyon

Notice the snow on top of the mountain in the back

You can see the damage from the fires