Too Far?

Last Week's Exercise Report: 1x Perfect Cardio (warmup, abs), 1x Treadmill (60 mins, 4 running - ok. Running for me. And not all 4 minutes together.)

It was bad enough when they came out with a report recently that exercising might not do anything...for a select few because of genetics. (Gotta read that fine print. But that's not what they led with, and probably not what everyone heard. I had to go looking for the details.)

Then it was you can be obese at your natural weight.

Now it's babies at 3 or 4 months old. Really. Really?

How insane is this? I knew as a culture we were totally obsessed with body image and weight. But seriously. I was skinny my entire life. All the way to college. My issues with weight didn't start until second/third year of college. And even that wasn't too bad. It got worse when I returned from the Peace Corps and had access to all this food I didn't for two years. The readjustment period sparked self-esteem and body image issues that I'd already had. But we ate well growing up. I was active, so to speak, until junior high. Until playing tag and riding bikes, etc, became a not-cool thing to do. Actually, until I learned to drive.

Most doctors would now classify me as obese. Not morbidly (like the images we see on tv when discussing this.) But obese. I'm 40 pounds heavier than I think I should be. Sixty heavier than the docs prefer. (I've been that weight and looked like crap.) I think our views of what is healthy are seriously skewed. But it was my lifestyle and mentality and personality as an adult on my own that caused my weight issues. Not what my parents fed me at 3 months. Sheesh.

Yes, being overweight and obese is an issue. But looking at chubby 3 and 4 month old babies and thinking "obese" is insane.

Why don't we just try making our lifestyles as a whole for all ages healthier? Try making eating green, fresh, more affordable. Because seriously. I've tried eating healthy. Buying from the health food store or even shopping only the "perimeter" of the grocery store (ie, where the freshest foods are) is too expensive. It doubles my food budget. And I make a pretty decent living for where I work. Not poor, but I'm not middle class, either. And then there is the factor of time. I'm single with no kids. And it's still time-consuming to eat this way; to always be preparing meals. Doable, though, if the money was there.

What about nobody knowing how to cook anymore? How many people actually, honest-to-goodness, could do the kind of shopping and cooking needed to eat "healthy"? Not very many, I don't think. I grew up eating fairly decently. Although I've never like veggies. Well, not since I was a toddler. Up until then my mom says I ate anything. Learned to cook early on. But my recipes are limited.

But who has the money or time to take cooking classes? Not very many of us. I think these are some valuable life skills we just don't have anymore. Why not teach this in school? Make nutrition part of English, Math, Science curriculums, through all the grades. Link it all together. Make it easy. Make it part of every day life. Make it so natural it's like breathing.

How about dealing with those food packaging issues? You know, like realistic portion sizes and understandable labels. Although if we can tie in food and what it's made of into school, we'd know what those ingredients are. Or be able to figure it out. We'd realize that ingredients ending in "ose" just might be sugar. We'd get the fact that high fructose corn syrup might be okay in moderation, but we can't get it in moderation because it's in everything!!!!! Even bread. Has anyone ever taken a look at the ingredient list for, oh, say, yogurt? Supposedly healthy. Yeah, right. What about all those juices that are "better" than soda. Absolutely ridiculous.

And there's hardly any Phys Ed in school any more. No time, no money. Not that I was a fan of Phys Ed growing up. I suck at all sports. No exaggeration. I so dreaded those classes. It's hard to come up with free activities to keep moving and healthy. Especially in winter. I try with my little sister. It costs money. Everything costs money. It's hard when you don't have any, which is where I see her family at. Granted, they can do alot better with what they have. But who ever taught them? No one. They are clueless about food, money, budgets. The parents too. The kids, not so much now due to my lecturing. The 22 year old is very overweight and bounces from fad diet to fad diet. The 19 year old has decided to become a vegetarian, and thinks all she has to do is just eat veggies.

It's a struggle for my 14 yr old Little because in spite of the fact that she has some phys ed at school, and we are back to rock-climbing 2x week, her mom still does fast food for most dinners (cheap & easy). Even when they cook at home, it's not low cal, low fat by any means. Because the lean, healthy foods cost twice as much.

Frankly, it isn't going away. We have a mobile, fast-paced, instant-gratification, think now not later mentality. And I don't see how that will really change. Not until enough of us have died. Really. We don't change easily.

But starting to look at babies that young and think in terms of obesity...I can see how we're going to have a generation of kids with self-esteem issues tied to body image and weight by the time they're in kindergarten. Not to mention the health issues from being underfed, undernourished. Too many parents don't know how to eat healthy for themselves, much less for their young kids. Give me a break. This is why we have this problem to begin with in my opinion!

Body Image

Sitrep (a/o Friday): 2 weights - Cardio 2x, Arms 1x

Thank you Janet W for your call last night. Your timing was perfect because the thought of the new J.D. Robb was not enough to motivate me. I think I'd been sitting here for several hours watching tv and telling myself to REV. :) After getting off the phone I did Cardio and Arms. And am going to do them again tonight. Although I think I must be channeling someone else. Preferring cardio and exercising at night instead of the morning is just not me!

So last night while waiting for the dogs to settle down (I'm dog sitting the boss' dog) I was channel surfing and landed on Tyra Banks. Now, I've never watched this show before but the sight of a group of mostly overweight naked women on the screen stopped me cold. WTF? Was my thought. Turns out they were wearing flesh-colored body suits and doing this little experiment in Body Image. It was brutal. Actually, they were brutal. They stood in front of a mirror and described themselves. Then they stood behind the mirror and the others had to pick a label out of things they'd all said. Like fat, unhealthy, thick, overweight, needs to eat, etc. It was sad. It really was. Because I think all of us have been there. Whether we're in-shape, overweight, too skinny...we're our own worst enemy, we women. We are so cruel to each other.

It was interesting to see them try to avoid giving anyone the worst label there "Fat Slob". It ended up going to one of the women who wasn't fat, but her attitude was pretty nasty. She was the one that had originally uttered the phrase. Her attitude was basically if you're overweight it's because you're a lazy slob. I thought they were going to lynch her. They might yet - part 2 is on tonight. I have to admit I'm intrigued enough that I'm planning on watching it.

And the discussions while picking labels for each other. The whole thing was about being truthful, yet you could see some of them didn't want to be hurtful. And when they talked about giving out the "hot" label...What makes someone hot? The "mean" lady (I can't remember her name) came right out and said you can't be hot if you're overweight. Sigh. People's preceptions are just so...I don't know.

Like the one they gave the label "couch potato". Turns out that yes, she's overweight. But she's no couch potatot. She has been playing baseball for 17 years, eats fairly healthily, is always on the go with her husband...Reminds me of my friend N. back in FL. By no means overweight; she never was. But she is not the typical skinny model. She's bigger boned; she really is. And I've known people that would consider her "thick" (one of the descrips used last night.) Which is absolutely nuts. N. is gorgeous. From head to toe. And very much has the athlete's body. (Even those 2 years when she couldn't be active because she just couldn't seem to keep that one leg in one piece for long.) [g]

Anyway. It was just eye-opening to see these women and hear how they think of themselves. And then to see how they judge each other. Downright cruel. It's not just something we do as youngsters and grow out of. It stays with us. It seems to me the only way to stop it is to stop it at a young age. And yet I worry that I've let my own insecurities and fixation on body and image influence my little sister in a bad way. I'm trying to make it about doing fun stuff together and having energy. Trying to make it about being healthy more than being pretty or fitting that mold that society says we have too. I guess only time will tell how well I do. It's frightening how much impact you can have on someone else, especially someone so young.

Who is that girl in the mirror, there?

Sitrep: 2 wts- 1x Arms, 1x Cardio; 10 min Bicycle (1.25 miles), 30 min Treadmill (1.4 miles)

Used the hotel's Cardio Room last night. First time I've actively sought out a fitness "center" in about a decade, I think. I still hate the bicycle. Love regular outdoor bicycles, but the stationary ones...they suck big time. [g] Still love the treadmill, though. That was always my "reward". Funny for someone that doesn't like walking. Maybe it's because on the treadmill I get to keep a steady pace and have a beginning and end time. Usually when I'm "walking" it's more of a meandering kind of thing with no real beginning and end or destination in mind. Probably why I hate shopping so much. Surprisingly, I can walk this morning with only a few aches. Although there is this one muscle that runs just behind and sort-of to the left of the knee bend that hurts. That acted up about 6 or 7 minutes into the bicycle workout. Tomorrow I will probably hurt like hell.

The wall in front of all the workout equipment was solid mirrors. Normally I avoid those like the plague. It wasn't too bad when I was on the bicycle. It was a recumbent one (fancy word for sitting with back support, lol) so I couldn't really see myself. But on the treadmill, I got a good look. At least from the waist down. And all of a sudden, I could see me. It was weird. As if some blinders fell off or something. Instead of seeing a fat blob, I saw my hips, curves. Yes, I've lost 20 pounds and toned. Lost some inches, definitely. But that doesn't account for all of it. It's just like I saw myself a bit more clearly. I've heard that the camera adds ten pounds. I think that our eyes add twenty, when we are looking at ourselves.

Why is that? In high school I thought I was unbelievably fat. Yet I wore a size 7 dress to my graduation ceremony. What is up with this? Size 7 is not fat. Fat is 5'2" and 185 pounds. Except now I'm at 165. But still in the obese category according to BMI, etc. Which I think is a crock. Totally does not take into account body structure/type.

But I digress. Most of the time on the treadmill I kept thinking to myself, "Who is that girl in the mirror there..."

Why can't we take these blinders off and just keep them off? What is it that makes us add these pounds to our images? Is it internal? External? Both? Neither? Why are some of us worse off than others in this respect? And now I worry that my new "obsession" of getting into shape is inadvertently making my little sister think negatively about her own body. Yes, she has some baby fat on her, yes she does run a risk of being overweight when you look at her family (both sides.) But I don't want her to obsess on it. So how do I help her? Is this fixation on body image and newly-found exercising mania hurting me too? Do I stop talking about it all together, or keep talking, like I have been.