There's a really great post over at 45+ and Aspiring which you can read here: http://45andaspiring.blogspot.com/2010/07/road-to-happiness-is-wide-enough-for.html#comment-form.
This was one of those posts I read with my my head bobbing up and down the whole time. Bobbing because I agreed with everything written.
Trying to just "lose weight" leads to bad habits which means that any weight actually lost is not sustainable. Making positive "healthy lifestyle" changes leads to weight loss (and healthier outcomes) which is sustainable.
In this culture we are constantly bombarded with images which just aren't real. We see advertisements with impossibly thin models. First of all, we were all much slimmer in our teens and early 20's (the ages of these models) and then the unreality is further enhanced by airbrushing them even thinner. Show real women in their 40's and 50's and you get a much "broader" picture (unless there's digital enhancement).
What is it about magazines geared to women that has to take any picture of a woman and make them slimmer, even when they're slim to begin with? Arms in particular always seem to be retouched. Cover models aren't allowed to have any thing other then buff or non-existent triceps I guess.
And, it's these false images that influence ourselves to be unhappy about our bodies, even when we are at a healthy weight for our individual selves.
So the message here is stop looking at pictures of Jennifer Aniston on the latest cover on Woman's Day. Instead start thinking about the ways you can add more exercise to your life, cut out processed food and start eating better.
This was one of those posts I read with my my head bobbing up and down the whole time. Bobbing because I agreed with everything written.
Trying to just "lose weight" leads to bad habits which means that any weight actually lost is not sustainable. Making positive "healthy lifestyle" changes leads to weight loss (and healthier outcomes) which is sustainable.
In this culture we are constantly bombarded with images which just aren't real. We see advertisements with impossibly thin models. First of all, we were all much slimmer in our teens and early 20's (the ages of these models) and then the unreality is further enhanced by airbrushing them even thinner. Show real women in their 40's and 50's and you get a much "broader" picture (unless there's digital enhancement).
What is it about magazines geared to women that has to take any picture of a woman and make them slimmer, even when they're slim to begin with? Arms in particular always seem to be retouched. Cover models aren't allowed to have any thing other then buff or non-existent triceps I guess.
And, it's these false images that influence ourselves to be unhappy about our bodies, even when we are at a healthy weight for our individual selves.
So the message here is stop looking at pictures of Jennifer Aniston on the latest cover on Woman's Day. Instead start thinking about the ways you can add more exercise to your life, cut out processed food and start eating better.
Oh, and for a photoshop hall of shame, check out Jezebel's list for 2009 here: http://jezebel.com/5426296/photoshop-of-horrors-hall-of-shame-2000+2009/gallery/
Hey there!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the publicity!
Those photos are incredible. . .and I thought my body looked freakish!
The tweaks they do on photos of those already thin women just go to show that we live in an ill society that thinks there is no one who is "thin enough." I don't get it. It kind of puts the old corset era to shame.
Thanks very interesting blog!
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