Katniss has a healthy relationship with food, despite struggling for food most of her childhood. In the books, Katniss experiences food as nourishment, necessity and, when possible, enjoyment. Katniss doesn't eat her lamb stew with a side of guilt and an off handed comment about how "she'll go running tomorrow". She just eats it (with a side of resentment for the capitol and the system she's a part of, but, well, that's a much healthier and accurate way of looking at things, imo.)
As for the movie, I haven't seen it yet, but I heard there was drams with the casting of Jennifer Lawrence. I thought this blog concluded their summary nicely: "Jennifer has said previously talked about her weight, saying ”I don’t really diet or anything. I’m miserable when I’m dieting and I like the way I look." She's miserable when she's dieting, so she doesn't do it. Smart thinking!
I found the most inspiration from Katniss in the last line of the 3rd book. Often counting the days that I haven't weighed myself seems a lot like counting my weight. On my better days, I don't need it. But on other days, when I discover a scale in my Aunt's beach house on day 5 of our 10 day family reunion, on those days, I remind myself that even if not weighing myself feels like a game, "there are much worse games to play".
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Research to Back Me Up
Wrote a ten page research paper on the subject: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1AY1yEyEwIctThIin15NlrYexHCJp0Ycb_WlxfZw5SQ4/edit.
Dieting does not work!
Dieting does not work!
Friday, July 15, 2011
You probably can't do it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I announce: the Cure For the Common Diet
I am not excited about adding to the slew of media about body image. I believe that "real change is telling our daughters that they are gifted before we tell them that they are beautiful”. However, as much media about body image as there is, there are few positive voices. We find diet advice everywhere we go, from the grocery store to our mothers lips, yet good advice on how not to diet, how to just be, is a lot harder to find.
Diets are attractive because they're challenging. Especially attractive diets offer a way to bond with other people, a way to measure success, and cute little pictures, rules or guidelines. That's not why one starts to diet, but it does keep one coming back, or it distracts ones from how crazy they are.
I'm offering an alternative to the crazy, but keeping all the perks. How Not To Diet. It's harder than you might think. A lot of people struggle with sticking to diets. That’s because they’re not natural. Your body knows hunger and satisfaction and what to do about it. But if you’ve dieted for a long time, or been exposed to the diet mentality (and believe me you have), then you may have lost touch with your body. It is hard to escape it or conceptualize a different relationship with food. People say, “Love Yourself,” but they never give you a break down. Here’s a plan, or at least a beginning.
First Challenge: Stop Weighing Yourself.
Yes, that's right, you heard me, stop doing it. No need to bash your scale with a hammer or drop it from a bridge (go ahead if you want to), but just cover it with a pillow or a towel and ignore it for a while.
If you already don't weigh yourself: CONGRATULATIONS!!! How long has it been since you haven't weighed yourself?
If you weigh yourself often and this idea feels really outlandish to you, read on:
1. Ideally, weight doesn't matter. So stop weighing yourself.
The only purpose of a number is to compare. To compare yourself to your mom, or your best friend, or Christina Aguilera, or, probably more often, to compare yourself to some past or future self. You are only the you that you are right now! You can't change that. You can try to hide it, to restrict or disguise it, but it doesn’t feel very good. It’s hard to make the scale change. But you know what is harder? To not care about the scale. Not weighing yourself. Not caring about the number. You probably can't do it.
You’re concerned about your health? This is a conversation you should have with your doctor, not your scale!
You're curious about the number? Try this. Try being curious about what would happen if you didn't weigh yourself. See how it feels. Keep a tally of the number of days you don't weigh yourself. Give yourself a gold star. When your friends say, " I lost five pounds!!" you can say "I haven't weighed myself in five years!" When your daughter says, "I gained five pounds," you can earnestly tell her that it doesn't matter. Tell her she is more than a number. Are you?
I am not excited about adding to the slew of media about body image. I believe that "real change is telling our daughters that they are gifted before we tell them that they are beautiful”. However, as much media about body image as there is, there are few positive voices. We find diet advice everywhere we go, from the grocery store to our mothers lips, yet good advice on how not to diet, how to just be, is a lot harder to find.
Diets are attractive because they're challenging. Especially attractive diets offer a way to bond with other people, a way to measure success, and cute little pictures, rules or guidelines. That's not why one starts to diet, but it does keep one coming back, or it distracts ones from how crazy they are.
I'm offering an alternative to the crazy, but keeping all the perks. How Not To Diet. It's harder than you might think. A lot of people struggle with sticking to diets. That’s because they’re not natural. Your body knows hunger and satisfaction and what to do about it. But if you’ve dieted for a long time, or been exposed to the diet mentality (and believe me you have), then you may have lost touch with your body. It is hard to escape it or conceptualize a different relationship with food. People say, “Love Yourself,” but they never give you a break down. Here’s a plan, or at least a beginning.
First Challenge: Stop Weighing Yourself.
Yes, that's right, you heard me, stop doing it. No need to bash your scale with a hammer or drop it from a bridge (go ahead if you want to), but just cover it with a pillow or a towel and ignore it for a while.
If you already don't weigh yourself: CONGRATULATIONS!!! How long has it been since you haven't weighed yourself?
If you weigh yourself often and this idea feels really outlandish to you, read on:
1. Ideally, weight doesn't matter. So stop weighing yourself.
The only purpose of a number is to compare. To compare yourself to your mom, or your best friend, or Christina Aguilera, or, probably more often, to compare yourself to some past or future self. You are only the you that you are right now! You can't change that. You can try to hide it, to restrict or disguise it, but it doesn’t feel very good. It’s hard to make the scale change. But you know what is harder? To not care about the scale. Not weighing yourself. Not caring about the number. You probably can't do it.
You’re concerned about your health? This is a conversation you should have with your doctor, not your scale!
You're curious about the number? Try this. Try being curious about what would happen if you didn't weigh yourself. See how it feels. Keep a tally of the number of days you don't weigh yourself. Give yourself a gold star. When your friends say, " I lost five pounds!!" you can say "I haven't weighed myself in five years!" When your daughter says, "I gained five pounds," you can earnestly tell her that it doesn't matter. Tell her she is more than a number. Are you?
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