Miss America Hopeful - A Former Heavyweight

I just read about Miss South Carolina who in the past few years has lost 110 lbs and is now on the road to a possible Miss America crown.  Inspirational?  Hell yes.  I also love that she lost her weight over a period of 3 years by simply eating well and exercising.  We aren't all 'The Biggest Loser' nor should we be.  With simple lifestyle changes and hard work and a forgiving attitude, you too could be the next Miss America!

Mommy, Am I Fat?

This upsets me greatly.  There is a video and article on abc.com about a 6 year old girl who thinks (because her peers told her she was) overweight.  First off, she's completely average and healthy.  Second of all, she's six!  A six year old shouldn't be worrying about needing to lose weight.  Apparently she isn't the only one.  The article says that nearly half of the kids between the ages of 3 - 6 were worried that they were fat.  I feel like a lot of the kids that are telling other kids they're fat are learning it from their parents.  Of course, kids are also hearing their parents talking about their own insecurities with their bodies and translating to themselves.  For the latter, we really need to watch what we say in front of our kids and leave our own insecurities to ourselves.  For the parents teaching their children to discriminate...well I think that's just plain ignorance.  And that's what I'm hoping to help with here.  Not that I get many readers, but you never know who you'll touch.

Men Find Women Who've Lost Weight More Attractive...Women Still Think They're Slobs...

Yet another article with some studies.  This one shows how men and women view women that have lost weight.  In good news for us, men seem to view us as more attractive, approachable and creative.  Women on the other hand still find the women undisciplined, unhygienic and slovenly.  So great news for these women's dating lives...not so good news for their friendships.  Have any of you run into anything like this.  Or have you judged any women who've lost weight this way?  Hit the comments!

Fat Weight Loss Experts Get No Respect

There is an article on abcnews.go.com about how workers in the health field do not get the respect they deserve because they are fat.  It seems their biggest critics are other health care professionals!  They feel that being fat almost disqualifies you from being a good doctor or nutritionist or what have you.  If we were to honestly not use any doctors that had unhealthy habits, there wouldn't be too many to choose from.  I'm sure they all have their vices that they're dealing with...smoking, drinking and drugs to name a few.  The only difference from being overweight is that you can immediately tell if someone is overweight making it that much easier to make a snap judgement.  I'm putting up a poll to go with this post to see if you guys would use an overweight healthcare professional.  Hit it up!

Break The Cycle

I found this great article from the Mom's Council containing tips on how to foster your child's self-esteem.  I know I constantly worry that when I have children I'm going to end up saddling them with my own insecurities and that's the LAST thing I would want to do.  I especially enjoyed the comments from Cristine, one of the contributing moms.

Through trial and error I have learned that the best way to build my children’s self-confidence is by letting them do things for themselves even if the result isn’t perfect. Whether it's watching my son struggle to zip up his coat for 10 minutes or letting my daughter get dressed by herself and the result being a “fashion don’t,” I have learned to let them do things for themselves and feel happy with what they accomplished.

I think that's fantastic, and I'm sure extremely hard to do!  As with most things in life one key to success is to really slow down, take a breath and truly think about what is going on and what potential consequences could be.  But don't over-think either!