mybodybeautiful Blog

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Block buster portions

Yesterday I took my daughter to see 'Toy Story 3'. We took our place in the queue and found ourselves standing behind a typical family of four. Unusually, the queue allowed us to purchase everything we needed, tickets, 3D glasses, drinks and confectionary.

The children in front of us were aged about 9 (boy) and 7 (girl). The mother ordered a family ticket, 4 large family size bags of chocolate, a small popcorn, 2 large and 1 small fizzy drinks (full sugar). She handed each child a bag of chocolate and a large drink.

We all know that during a film, in the dark with your mind focussed on what is happening on screen, it's very easy to eat without thinking. I'm sure that before the credits roll, only empty bags and cups will remain.

I shudder to think of the total 'snack' calories that each person, the children in particular consumed. e.g. A 170g bag of Minstrels (selected by one of the children) have 503 calories per 100 grams, 855 in total. A large Coke contains approximately 328 calories; that's a whopping 1183 calories.

With all the recent talk about the rising levels of obesity in children my visit to the cinemas yesterday made it clear better education for parents is urgently required.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Plus size school uniforms

The recent controversy over Marks and Spencer's new uniform range, that extends to fit plus-size children as young as three is certainly heated.

Marks and Spencer's sells more school wear than any other store on the High Street. They are not the first to sell plus size school uniforms, but are following the lead set by others such as Next and Bhs. Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said: "This is the actual commercial recognition of what we have known for some time - obesity in pre-schoolers is building up. Now 27% of entrants to primary schools are overweight or obese."

The debate is centred around the fact that the uniform should not be necessary, because young children should not be obese. In an ideal world every child would be a healthy weight, but we do not live in an ideal world.

Surely, it is preferable for all children to dress identically and comfortably; rather than making larger children stick out, because they have been forced to dress differently or badly due to ill fitting clothing.

Speaking as a parent, I am not surprised that parents have asked Marks and Spencer's to introduce larger uniforms. If my children were overweight, I would happily added my name to the list.

Now that the uniforms are on sale, its time to educate parents on what to feed their children and about the health benefits of exercise.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Weight-loss supplements

Over dependence on slimming supplements may cause you to ignore the real cause of obesity, reported Sian Porter, nutritional expert and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association.

The reason, she argued, was that over-the-counter products were only short-term and failed to address the reasons why a person has become overweight.

Sian believes that education about healthy living, eating, and exercise was the only way to stop many people from feasibly taking supplements for rest of their lives, with no significant benefit.

"I know from experience" said Dr Miriam Stoppard commenting on the report,"professional and personal that the most successful long-term weight loss comes from adopting healthy eating and lifestyle habits, not faddy diets or other quick fixes. Sadly, anyone who won't accept that is putting themselves at risk of exploitation".

Its clear that there will never be a shortage of people looking for a quick fix, which the diet industry is more than willing to provide.

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Fake is best?

Yesterday, during the delivery of our body image and self-esteem workshop to a group of year 10 girls, I decided to ask about the Channel 4 programme ‘The ugly face of beauty’ (last Friday's blog).

One of the girls had seen it, so I asked her if she agreed or disagreed with the programme's pupils who'd preferred the appearance of very obvious fake breast to large natural ones.

The reason given in the programme was that fake breasts allowed you to walk down the beach and not be embarrassed by your body. The fake breasts they insisted looked a lot perkier. One of the boys said he found them “more beautiful”.

If fake is better, then the pressure to undergo surgery will only increase. It is therefore not surprising that our largest cosmetic surgery clinic carried out 160 breast augmentation surgeries on teenagers last year.

I digress, back to my classroom conversation. Her reply to my “is fake better” question was disappointing to say the very least. She said that fake breasts were better because they didn’t sag. “Its all about what boys like”, she clarified helpfully.

“Don’t you think”, I asked “that girls should value themselves by who they are rather than what boys think they should be? “
“Yes”, she admitted soberly, “but that’s the way it is”.

I looked at her and the group in front of me and was suddenly filled with motherly compassion. They were great kids, very polite and it was disconcerting to realise that boys had taken on such importance, so early in their lives.

Friday, July 16, 2010

The ugly face of beauty

Tuesday’s 'The ugly face of beauty' presented by Dr Christian Jessen on Channel 4, raised more questions than it answered; for me anyway.

Why would 90% of the women who visited Jessen’s fake surgery, a temporary Portakabin that appeared overnight in their local high-street; willing signed up for cosmetic surgery no questions asked? If they couldn’t really afford it, no problem, finance with payments as low as £7 were quickly snapped up. No questions about the surgeon, clinic, risks or aftercare were raised.

The realisation that women would eagerly offer their bodies up for surgery, unconcerned about any possible repercussions, was disturbing to say the least.

Article

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Accept yourself ... Love yourself

A video to help you accept yourself just the way you are.

Friday, July 09, 2010

NHS apology letter

The department of health was forced to apologise this week after sending a letter to the parents of an 11 year old boy, suggesting that he was overweight for his age and sex. The parents were upset and said that they viewed the letter as offensive and that it judged their parenting skills.

In a shocked response to the letter the child weighed himself at home and found that he weighted more than stated in the letter. His mother stressed that this "made him anxious straight away". So much so that he "refused to eat his dinner that night."

The body father accused the Department of Heath of "scaremongering". "Not only does it say you are fat", he said, "but there is a possibility you are going to get cancer, type 2 diabetes and heart disease."

Barnsley PCT apologised and said it was following national policy.

This is yet another example of a well meaning government policy having an unintended negative outcome. Before sending out any more formal looking letters, the NHS should investigate the effect that telling a child that they are too fat will have on their long term body image and self esteem.

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

New Logo

This week we upgraded the entire mybodybeautiful.co.uk site with our new logo.

The logo is a full colour logo that uses the symbol of a person jumping, giving the expression of joy and freedom. The ribbons flowing from the person suggest movement and celebration.

The blue for the text highlights confidence and security. This brand symbolises the feeling of accepting yourself and the burden that is lifted and the joy that the release brings.

We hope you like it as much as we do.

Monday, July 05, 2010

One in 4 Britains too fat

ONE IN FOUR BRITONS ARE TOO FAT shouted the front page of the Daily Express on Saturday.

This was followed by a second headline on an inside page stating 'How obesity blights Britain'.

The figures the paper said were "shocking" and worse still, experts were predicting that obesity will hit 5.5 million by 2030.

Alarmist (guaranteed to upset everyone apart for the skeletally thin among us) or a reasonable response to a genuine problem?

Thursday, July 01, 2010

Poll Of 20th Century Beauties

Today the results of a QVC poll listing the beauties of the 20th century was published.

The top 10 beauties were:

1. Audrey Hepburn
2. Cheryl Cole
3. Marilyn Monroe
4. Angelina Jolie
5. Grace Kelly
6. Scarlett Johansson
7. Halle Berry
8. Diana, Princess of Wales
9. Kelly Brook
10. Jennifer Aniston

The poll (only 2000 women) was clearly a poll of the most beautiful stars and celebrates that have dominated the British media over the past century. Even with this clarification, the results leave much room for debate.

The good news is that the remaining 99.99% of the female population around the world were not even considered; so there is no need to have a 'feeling bad/unattractive/ugly' day.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Gossip magazines

This week a six month study of 550 teenagers by Cardiff University has concluded that gossip magazines are encouraging eating disorders in teens. The gossip magazines like Heat, OK, Reveal & Now, achieve this by their constant negative comments about celebrities weight and appearance. Worryingly, the study found that teens who regularly read gossip magazines were more likely to participate in extreme dieting and suffer from eating disorders.

“We are used to seeing images of extremely thin women in magazines”, Cardiff University psychologist James White, told The Times. “With the message that being thin is positive. "But", he continued, "with gossip magazines you have the reverse. You have the ridiculing of being overweight, with the message that being overweight is bad or negative. That seems to be a more powerful message for teenagers”.

I often reflect on the world that my children, particularly my daughter is growing up in and count myself lucky. Women, even those with a public profile, were allowed even expected to be a healthy weight and their bodies were not put under a microscope as they are today. Modern gossip magazines are mostly dedicated to publishing countless pages detailing every pound of weight a celebrity gains or loses.

Why do women continue to voluntarily consume media dedicated to the public praise or humiliation of female celebrities week after week. Someone who ‘looks great’ one week is ‘shockingly underweight the next’; or 'beautiful’ one week to having ‘unsightly wrinkles the next.

We are also concerned about teenagers, whose vulnerability often makes them susceptible to the underlying message that appearance is everything.

It’s about time the women, who write gossip for consumption by other women and teens, started to take their responsibility far more seriously.

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Un-airbrushed campaign

Celebrities and models often look great in photographs, because they've been airbrushed.

If you're feeling anxious about how you will look in your bikini this summer, Debenhams new un-airbrushed campaign may help.

Read Article

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The brain and body image

A new study arguing that the brain regularly distorts body image has recently been published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researches believe that their findings could be a possible explain for the growth of eating disorders like anorexia.

Distorted perception, states the article, which is associated with some body image issues, occurs as a consequence of the way the brain stores and reports information about different parts of the body.

"These findings may well be relevant to psychiatric conditions involving body image such as anorexia nervosa, as there may be a general bias towards perceiving the body to be wider than it is," said lead researcher Matthew Longo.

"They [anorexic patients] are able to judge other people's bodies quite accurately and would describe someone else the same size as themselves correctly, but still not be able to do that about their own weight and shape," Longo concluded.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Disturbing story of the week award

The most disturbing story of the week award goes to Sarah Burge.

Mrs Burge is a 50 year old mother who: -

- has injected her teen daughter with Botox

- is teaching her seven-year-old to pole dance, claiming that it's no different to playing on a climbing frame.

Mrs Burge claims to have had £500,000 of cosmetic surgery and has stated that she supports Poppy's (seven) wish to have surgery when she is older. "Poppy wants a boob job when she is old enough" she said, "and what my daughters want, they get. She also wears high heels and make-up, it makes her feel pretty."

We agree with the parenting experts and child abuse campaigners who have warned that she is sexualising Poppy far too young.

Full story

Monday, June 14, 2010

Eating disorders

Eating disorders are not a diet gone wrong or a fad or fashion. They are a way of coping with difficult thoughts, emotions or experiences.
Fact Sheet

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Weight jokes at the Glamour awards

This years Glamour Women of the Year awards took place in London yesterday, attended by Cheryl Cole, Billie Piper, Pixie Lott, Christine Bleakley, Alexandra Burke, Michael McIntyre, Fearne Cotton and Dizzee Rascal and Avatar star Zoe Saldana among others.

Sadly today's media buzz is not about what the celebrities were wearing or after party shenanigans; instead its focuses on an onstage row between Patrick Stewart and James Corden.

As a Patrick Stewart fan, it was disappointing to hear him say in response to what he perceived was Jaime's less than attentive behaviour, "from where I was I could see your belly and that was from right at the back of the room".

James retorted, "Sorry, I'm waiting for the punch line. You could see my belly... I can see you dying right now.'' Undaunted, Patrick referenced a quip James had made earlier about fancying Nick Jonas. He said: "If you fancy one of the Jonas Brothers, cover your belly."

Whatever Patrick may have felt about James's behaviour and attitude, making fat/overweight jokes was insulting, inappropriate and unacceptable in modern society. The audience, clearly unimpressed with Patrick's unbecoming performance, responded by jeering him.

After receiving her award from Patrick, Zoe Saldana jumped to James's defence, saying to a round of applause, 'For whatever it's worth, I like your belly.'

After Sir Patrick had left the stage, James told the audience, 'I feel bad for people who haven't seen my belly', before he lifted he shirt and rubbed his stomach.

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

The truth about the male celebrity body

In Friday's GMTV interview, Ashton Kutcher confessed that he wished he hadn't shown his wife, Demi Moore his latest film Killers. Why? "Now", moaned Kutcher, she expects it (his body which was bulked up for the movie), to look like it did in the film and it doesn't".

"You can't maintain that", he continued. "it's not possible. Really I disappoint her every evening .... When I walk in she just like (he pulled a disappointed face) oh! She's like, I know what that's capable of and your not living up to your potential".

At last, an A list celebrity telling the truth about the male star/model body.

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Compliments

New research by St Tropez and The Prince's Trust charity has revealed that body image still remains a major concern for young people, with nearly three-quarters of 16-30 year olds admitting they don't feel confident, and 60% laying the blame for this squarely on being unhappy with their bodies.

Company Magazine’s recent Pay It Forward body-confidence campaign launch, detailed the above findings and urged everyone to fill in a compliment slip, before giving them to their family and friends. Each slip would detail three things the sender liked about the way the receiver looked. The admirable aim being, “to give bad body days the elbow”.

Being told what is good about your appearance will inevitably give you a boost, however I believe the compliments would be more effective and longer lasting if they also detailed none appearance based positive attributes.

The message, particularly to the young, that their self worth is NOT purely based on outward appearance needs to be shouted from the roof tops.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Giving in to pressure

Yesterday, I was talking to Janet (not her real name), whose son is friends with my son. After a while our conversation turned to our daughters and makeup. Janet told me that she had given her 8 year old daughter permission to wear makeup. She confessed that she didn’t initially like the idea, but had eventually agreed, because her daughter’s best friends (also 8) was allowed to wear it.

To add to the confusion, the other mother in question had only agreed to her daughter wearing makeup, because someone else close to her daughter was allowed to wear it. Janet told me that she’d "given in to pressure" and still wasn’t completely sure that she had done the right thing.

"How long", I wondered, "is the chain of reluctant capitulating mothers"? It seems that child pester power is alive and well.

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Fat hysteria

According to research published in the Daily Mail, having a “pot belly” in middle age raises the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia later in life. Significantly, this very early research did not go on to examine whether any participants actually developed Alzheimer's or dementia. Clearly, at this stage of the research, no conclusions can be reasonably drawn.

We know that it is prudent for everyone to adopt a healthy diet and lifestyle; to reduce the known risks associated with being overweight, such as diabetes and heart disease.

That said, this does appear to be yet another hysteria generating attempt (unsubstantiated) to make body fat the villain of all that is good and desirable. Against this background, is it surprising that the fear of being fat is on the arise, along with the associated body image, self esteem and eating issues.