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Unbroken


Recently I was in Yoga around about posture 16 in the series of 26 that is Bikram and I looked at my self in the mirror (as is the practice) and something hit me. I was fine. There in the 105 degree room sweaty, disheveled and literally a hot mess I actually felt good, I liked what I was seeing, and even better than that I happy. It is a feeling that overcomes me so seldom that when it happens I make a point of taking note of it. What I find so interesting is that with 24 hours in a day- 7 days in a week and 52 weeks in a year, on average if I strung this intermittent moments of feeling fine together I might barely clock a full week. Almost everyday there is some sense of inadequacy, of something not being right and needing to be fix, of being broken.

One late morning I sat across a table taking tea with a friend discussing topics related to body image. She told me a story of how upon seeing her judging herself in a studio mirror, stretching and pulling trying desperately to “improve” a teacher once told “Stop, you’re fine- you’re not broken you just have work to do.” That statement she says changed her life by changing her perception of who and what she was and what she was not. That statement moved me. It echoed in my head at the most interesting of moments: When I passed the mirror on my way to the shower, and lingered just a long enough to see that my behind and thighs are still (despite hot yoga four times a week) not what I want them to be, it floated through my head. When I was having a thin day and passed by a store front window and catch a glimpse of myself and like a rearview mirror it made me look larger than I actually was that phrase kissed my face like an crisp fall breeze. When I was teaching a class and felt my students weighed down with the reality that dance is hard, I spoke the words “You are fine, you’re not broken, you just have a lot of work to do.”

It is strange how such a small shift of thought can completely transform you from being a being damaged, helpless, or a victim of sorts to being empowered with the idea that within you, you possess the ability to alter anything. It allows you to become proactive in the solution, and sometimes the solution is merely learning to accept what the reality is. There are things you can change with information, work, and commitment, and there are things that are what they are. Your genes are your genes; you can’t alter your DNA. Things like your race, and your bones are what they are, and if you can’t change them then you can work to come to a level of acceptance and appreciation for them. It may take time, and the road to finding the beauty in you is neither short, nor easily found but the good news is, there is a road, there is a way- many ways in fact.

As I laid on my belly preparing to do the second round of Cobra pose finding myself contented, it prompted me to assess how I had been feeling about myself of late. Since starting the blog I have notice a heightened awareness of not only things surrounding the body and image but to my own feelings about myself. I find that since beginning this process I have notice that I have become more compassionate and accepting of myself. When I have a self-debasing thought I hear my own voice in my head telling me that I am fine, and there is nothing wrong with me. I supposed that one couldn’t preach it all day and not have it affect you in some way. I have found myself to be more balanced and less neurotic about my appearance. Certainly I have ebbed and flowed with bloatation but I have been able to see it as just that the tide of my body. I have also put on honest weight and been able to reign myself in without mentally flogging myself about becoming a cookie monster. Oddly my desire to bring awareness has brought upon me an awareness of not only how much work I have done, but how much more there is to do. I don’t think there is an “end point” or “finish” line per se, but there is a sense that some how little by little I am getting closer to myself, to my unbroken self.

Ladies an important tip hosted by Kim Kardashian

If you don’t want people to see your body.
If you don’t want your image exploited.
Then keep your damned clothes on.

she looks really sorry about this huh?

Either put you clothes on and sit down or own it, collect the check and keep it moving, but this whining about being taken advantage of is growing tiresome. Kim K.I.M (keep it moving I like it)

Giuliana Rancic: Infertility Has Nothing To Do With Weight

Giuliana Rancic is still struggling with infertility, and she says it has nothing to do with her weight, pointing to other skinny celebs who have managed to conceive. She tells Radaronline.com:

“Look at Kelly Ripa! She’s half my size and has no body fat and has kids.

Giselle (Bundchen) is a supermodel, and I’ve pinched her in real life just to see if she has body fat — zero body fat! Look at Victoria Beckham, she’s on her fourth child.
I personally believe that Rancic does have some body issues, I feel that she is obsessed with being thin. In fact one of the reasons I can’t watch her red carpet coverage is because every actress that she speaks to she mentions how “Thin” and “Great” they look, she asks them how the stay that way? and what is their work out? Now that may not seem so strange, but it is EVERY single woman she seems covetous. When she was on the View years ago at the start of her reality series they queried her on her weight and her inability to get pregnant, and she got livid. Later she did put on weight and indeed GOT pregnant (Which kind of proves that it was an issue) and perhaps her body could not sustain the pregnancy (there are many reasons why miscarriag­es happen- whatever they may be– it is heart breaking). Though she is a petite woman her thinness looks effortful- and she look much healthier when she gained the 7lbs. (though I have no “proof”) Courtney Cox was painfully thin at the end of friends and suffered several miscarriag­es – she put on weight and conceived. Of course every case is different and individual­, but if you want to have a child and be a mother, shouldn’t weight be the least of your worries? This is one of the reasons I feel she might have some issues.

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Raven-Symone Shows Off Dramatic Weight Loss, Talks Body

“Actually, now I wear bigger clothes because I don’t like the way people stare at me,” she told People. “I liked it before. Now, you’re just looking at me for the wrong reasons. Before, you were actually looking at me for a real reason.”

I said the same thing!!! There is something about “looking good” meaning the way that we “want” to look, and feeling attractive, that makes us brace ourselves for the unwanted attention. It makes us self-conscious in a different way. Damned if we do damned if we don’t!


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Katy Perry’s New “Diet” umm sounds a bit Disordered…

In the new Rolling Stone Magazine Perry talks about how she is getting in shape for her upcoming tour. She is on a meal plan for 6 days and then gorges herself with all that she wants on the 7th. Remember what Natalie our nutritionist said about “diets” and how “They often lead to overeating” . We heard the concept of having a cheat day before it’s nothing new, but as we are trying to change our mentality about our bodies and food, perhaps we should come up with a eating plan that doesn’t make us feel criminal or label things as “Bad”. Just a thought!

n the new Rolling Stone Magazine Perry talks about how she is getting in shape for her upcoming
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More Men Going Under the Knife to get RIPPED!

I know I know finally a story about men! Ladies like Michael Jackson sung “We are not alone”

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN

“SIX-PACK abs, the rippled midsections that grace models in Men’s Health covers and Calvin Klein ads, are beyond the reach of many men, but that doesn’t stop them from trying. From 2000 to 2009, the number of men in the United States undergoing abdominoplasty (tummy tucks) more than doubled, to 4,670, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.”

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