Inspirational Blog For The Empowerment Of Women
Hey Guys, I will be doing an expert life coaching segment on a popular radio show starting on January 5th and I am looking for questions that you want answered. So, what life questions are you looking answers to. It can be Career, Relationship, Family or Finance. What ever you are struggling with and need some answers to. You can leave your answers in the comment section or you can send them to my email address: kimsebrooks@yahoo.com.
Thanks,
Kim
Hi, everyone. My name is Marie, and I’m here to say I love my fat.
For a long time, I wasn’t happy. I could go into the details here in a long rant, but let’s do the abridged version: I was bullied as a kid by peers and relatives for being overweight; crash-dieted as a teen to really dangerous levels; didn’t feel any better about myself when I got skinny; inevitably put on weight again after ditching the eating disorder; was super shy and introverted for years because my self-worth was so low. I was the far-too-typical American teen.
But I realized one day just how boring that all was. I’d seen and heard the same story from my friends and at least one character of every teen television show I’d ever watched. I’d certainly bored everyone I knew after years of talking about my crappy self-esteem — and I was starting to get bored of myself. When I was 18, I started NYU and I thought to myself, “This is it. This is my chance to reinvent myself and become the confident fatty I want to be.” But it didn’t exactly work out that way. New York is a hub for models, celebrities, and thin women, and my school felt like the embodiment of the borough. I was convinced that I was the biggest person out of a student body of thousands. So I became something of a hermit, too embarrassed to leave my dorm for anything but classes.
After spending two years as an undergrad in New York, I was craving a change, and signed up for five months in Madrid and five months in Prague. I didn’t know anyone in either city, nor what to expect.
Something happened to me in Spain. I still don’t know what to attribute it to: the weather, maybe; the city’s overall passionate and radiant ambiance, possibly; the way that no one is a stranger, and starting conversations with anyone and everyone is effortless, even for the introvert like myself. I got along epically well with my two housemates, and that meant that for the first time as a student, I had friends with whom I actually wanted to go out.
In stepping out of my comfort zone and leaving my turtle shell behind, I started feeling better about myself. When I went out, I had fun. People liked me. I don’t just mean men — though I did get asked out on more dates in those five months in Spain than I had the previous five years of my life — but just people: people who wanted to talk to me and who were interested in what I had to say and didn’t think twice about what size skirt I wore.
With Spain came something else: I fell in love. (Cheesy; I apologize.) Not long after arriving in Madrid, I met a boy from England on a busking holiday, sitting a café bar drinking a Guinness on the same day I happened to skip school with my roommate. I knew I liked him right away. That whole semester, we kept in touch. We visited each other on numerous weekends, spent a few days in Dublin, talked incessantly on Facebook — and we fell for each other. Two years down the line, he’s my biggest cheerleader, my main photographer, and my best friend. I would never want to tell any woman that her self-worth should correlate with what a man thinks, but I also won’t lie and pretend it’s not amazing to have a partner who makes you feel beautiful and sexy and loved on a daily basis. At the time Paddy and I met, I was still under the false impression that not many men liked voluptuous women (I have since discovered how wrong I was). But he loved every curve and every wobbly bit and every jiggle. And honestly, he helped me see my fat as an attractive thing, and not as the curse I once thought it was.
For the rest of my time in Europe, I noticed myself becoming more of what I always thought myself actually was. I was experimenting with tight clothes, I stopped counting calories entirely and actually gained more weight, and I started letting go of everything I thought was wrong with my body. In a sense, beginning to love myself and all my extra bits was empowering. I was enjoying something that society dictates one shouldn’t enjoy. When I returned to New York for senior year, I knew I was different. I was starting to view all those “imperfections” on my body as attributes — as quirky and unique pieces of the puzzle that made up who I was. And I was overcome with the urge to follow through with those feelings and build something off of them.
Thus, my blog Big, Beautiful and Bold was born. I had started coming across bloggers like Gabifresh and Nicolette Mason who were instilling confidence in plus-size women through their sites, and I wanted to be able to do that myself. I wasn’t remotely at the level of confidence and self-love that I am a year into blogging, but I was getting there, and I wanted to go with it. I started writing about plus-size related topics; from the media’s perception of beauty to changes in the fashion industry to the fat celebrities I thought were making a difference out there. And then I started incorporating my own fashion and my own pictures, and was overwhelmed by the amazing response I got. Brands started wanting to collaborate; women reached out to say I was helping them feel better about themselves, and ironically, they made me feel way better about myself. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, so my blog gave me an outlet to do just that. But it also gave me a sense of identity. It gave me a passion. I’m not saying that the plus-size loving, activist-y side of me is my whole identity, but it’s a part of it I had never before explored.
Strangely enough, a lot of people wouldn’t even call me fat. Chunky or chubby, probably, but never fat. I use the term fat because the fact is I know my naked body better than anyone, and I have lots of fat on it and happen to like it all. I also love using the word because the more we plus-sizers use it, the less of an insult it can ever be — the less anyone can hurt us with it. It’s funny because I spent so many years thinking of myself as “fat” in a derogatory way, and now that I see it as a positive thing, I have to be careful not to insult anyone larger by using the word in reference to myself. And though a lot of people may not think of me as fat today, a lot do — doctors, skinny-centric purists, and anyone who has seen me in undies. Personally, I am going to keep using the word with a smile on my face.
I don’t have a recipe to falling in love with your body. I don’t have an easy button you can press to feel fat and flabulous. I think it’s hard. It’s really freaking hard. We don’t live in a society that makes it easy. We don’t live at a time when fat is considered beautiful by the mainstream, so we have to fight to make people realize the beauty in it. And fighting is never easy, but it’s worth it. Bloggers, models, celebrities, magazine editors, and designers are starting to open their minds, though. We see more of these people creating a market for the plus-size woman than ever before. And I think we’ll keep seeing it. But we have to keep fighting. We have to be unafraid of proclaiming our big, fat message with any and all of our big, fat friends. So maybe, someday, saying we like being big and fat won’t be a proclamation.
The Huffington Post | By Catherine Pearson
The thing about research developments is that they are exactly that — developments. Studies need to be replicated, with more participants, better controls and in more direct ways, then replicated again (and again), before they’re considered definitive.
But that’s not to say that studies aren’t oftentimes fascinating, or that the scientific process doesn’t have value. We at HuffPost Women believe in staying up on personal and public health research, reading it critically and discussing it with our health care providers to see what implications, if any, it may have for our wellbeing.
With that in mind, and with 2014 lurking just around the corner, we’re pausing to look back at 13 of the most interesting things researchers learned about women’s health in 2013.
1. IUDs are safe for teens.
Intrauterine devices, or IUDs, are small, t-shaped contraceptives that are inserted into a woman’s uterus to help prevent pregnancy. Not only are they very effective (Planned Parenthood estimates that less than 1 in 100 women will get pregnant each year using an IUD), they’re also safe for teens, according to a major study that included more than 90,000 participants, and found that serious complications occurred in less than 1 percent of women with an IUD.
2. Birth control may cost more in poorer neighborhoods.
A startling public-health investigation that looked at the cost of birth control control prescriptions in Florida found significant differences in cost: Nearly every prescription contraceptive cost less in wealthy zip codes than in low-income areas. Though the study was preliminary and only focused on one state, it raised big concerns about women’s access to low-cost contraceptive options.
3. … And the need for it is enormous.
Figures released in a United Nations study last March found that by 2015, a whopping 233 million women worldwide will have an unmet need for modern contraceptive options — i.e. the pill, IUDs, condoms, vaginal barrier methods, emergency contraception or male and female sterilization. As one reproductive health expert put it, “Contraception is the single most cost-effective intervention that can reduce maternal mortality … improve maternal and child health and help women and families achieve their desired family size.”
4. Berries may slash women’s heart attack risk.
An investigation published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association found that women who ate at least three servings of blueberries and strawberries each week had a 32-percent reduction in their heart attack risk when compared to women who ate them once a month or less — even when those women ate plenty of other fruits and veggies. Researchers hypothesize that the reduced risk is due to a certain type of flavonoid in berries that may help prevent plaque build up, so it’s possible that other fruits and vegetables (and even wine) could have similar effects, too.
5. Inflammation-spurring foods may increase depression risk.
An investigation that followed more than 43,000 women between 1996 and 2008 found that women who ate the most inflammation-linked foods and beverages (think refined grains, like bagels and pasta, soda and red meat) had a 29 percent higher risk of depression compared to those who ate the lowest amount. Of course, it’s possible that depression may lead women to eat more of these foods, although researchers excluded women who had depression when the study started in order to help control for that effect.
6. Women’s mercury levels are down.
A comprehensive report released by the Environmental Protection Agency this year showed that levels of mercury in the blood of women in the U.S. have dropped — not necessarily because women are eating less fish overall, but because they’re making smarter choices about the type of fish they eat. (Mercury has been linked to kidney and neurologic disorders.) Large, predatory fish, like shark and swordfish tend to be high in mercury.
7. Sleep (or lack thereof) can affect women’s fertility …
Research presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology’s annual meeting found that women who work irregular shifts have a higher risk of infertility and greater menstrual disruption, while those who worked nights could have an increased risk of miscarriage. Though the study in no way establishes clear cause and effect, it’s possible that disruptions to a woman’s circadian rhythms, or internal clock, are to blame. Another 2013 study that focused on women undergoing in vitro fertilization found that moderate sleepers (i.e. women who got between seven to eight hours per night) had better pregnancy rates than those who slept too little (under six hours) or too much (nine to 11 hours).
8. … But surviving cancer doesn’t necessarily have to.
An encouraging study found that many women who had cancer as girls are able to have babies later on. When researchers looked at more than 3,500 sexually-active female cancer survivors between the ages 18 and 39 (who were diagnosed when they were 21 or younger), they found that two-thirds of those who tried to get pregnant for at least one year, but were unable to, eventually went on to conceive. Still, experts say there needs to be far more fertility preservation counseling provided to young women with cancer.
9. Exercising during pregnancy = a good thing.
Getting just 20 minutes of moderate exercise three times a week may help boost babies’ brain activity, according to a study released in the fall. Though the study is preliminary, and researchers don’t fully understand the underlying mechanisms, experts say that moderate exercise likely helps create an all around healthy fetal environment, which in turn is good for babies’ brain development.
10. In some cases, lumpectomy is best.
According to a study by researchers at Duke University, women with early-stage breast cancer who are treated with lumpectomy (sometimes called breast conserving surgery) and radiation may have better survival rates than women who have a mastectomy. While independent experts cautioned against over-interpreting the findings, one told Medscape Medical News that the findings could serve a powerful purpose, “educat[ing] patients who do not require mastectomy, but choose it for psychologic reasons.”
11. Young women haven’t been swayed by mammography recommendations
It’s been several years since the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force changed its guidelines to say that most women aged 40 to 49 should no longer get routine mammograms, but the revision doesn’t seem to have changed what women do. A study published in the journal Cancer found that between 2008 and 2011, overall mammography rates only increased slightly, and did not decrease at all among that 40 to 49 demographic.
12. Women are more prone to allergies than men.
Post-puberty, women are more likely than men to have rhinitis (basically, nasal congestion), asthma and food allergies, according to findings presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. The reasons why women appear to be disproportionately affected are complex, but genetics and sex hormones both play a role in determining who develops allergies and asthma, a release for the research explained.
13. Bras make breasts … sag?
One of the buzziest health stories of 2013 (albeit a light one) came out of France, where researchers claimed that bras provide no benefits, and may, in fact, be harmful to women’s breasts over time — concluding that women who eschewed them developed more muscle tissue, which helped provide natural support. In case you were looking for one, perhaps this is a reason to celebrate “No Bra Day” should it return next year?
Read More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/02/womens-health-2013_n_4338940.html?utm_hp_ref=womens-health
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