Your friend: “No you don’t! Do you see my hair? It’s heinous.”
You: “Your hair looks fine! Ugh, I hope it’s dark at the party and no one can see me.”
Sound familiar? This is “fat talk,” folks, an exchange between two people, often female, that probably brings back memories of high school … and college … and a night out with friends last weekend. It goes like this: one person puts him or herself down and the other person responds with an equal, or more self-critical, response.
Since we’ve been following the Victoria’s Secret “survivor bras” saga for a few months now, we thought it fitting to let you know that … literally nothing is going to come of it. Wait, what?
The latest news is that Vicky’s won’t be making them after all. Womp woooomp. To jog your memory, 27-year-old Allana Maiden started a Change.org petition back in January to get support for her idea of a bra line specifically made for post-mastectomy bodies that’s both functional and beautiful. The petition was created in honor of her mom, Debbie, who had a mastectomy and wore a prosthetic, and found it difficult to find bras that fit correctly—much less look pretty. Allana aimed her efforts at Victoria’s Secret because she thought the idea was a good fit (pun intended) for the lingerie retailer; after all, they already had the pretty part down, so how hard could it be to peg the functionality?
Thanks to The Gloss for the heads up about a fab blogger named Gabi Gregg (a.k.a. GabiFresh), whose mission to help plus-size women embrace their curves turned into an awesome new collabo between Gabi and online swimsuit retailer Swimsuits for All.
Gabi’s been throwing around the term “fatkini” for a few years now, as part of her crusade to encourage body diversity in swimwear. Last summer, her effort culminated in a “fatkini” photo gallery, showing “31 hot sexy fat girls in skimpy swimwear.” The post landed her on the TODAY show, and got her all kinds of exposure on sites like the Huffington Post, latimes.com and more.
This year, Gabi’s back on the fatkini kick with a new bathing suit line inspired by her mission. The collaboration with swimsuitsforall.com features suits in sizes 8 to 34, and—get this—they’re actually good looking, too. In fact, that suits have been so popular that in the three days since their debut, most of the styles and sizes have already sold out. Awesome, right?
Check out this slideshow over at Teen Vogue to see a lookbook of all the styles.
I’ll admit, I’m a sucker for a good commercial. But I would challenge the even the most stoic TV viewer to just try not tearing up after watching this fantastic new ad from Dove, the latest installment of its Real Beauty campaign.
Read more about the story behind the ad over at the Huffington Post.
That's me, in an empire-waist dress. Nope. Not pregnant.
Hi, Be Wellers! I know we haven’t officially met, but I wanted to interrupt your regularly scheduled program to pass along a little friendly advice. Think of it as a public-service announcement as we venture ever further into the Season of Eating, a time when all of us are trying our damnedest (hello, enormous sweater) to hide a few extra gingerbread-induced pounds.
Okay, here goes: Never, ever (EVER!) ask a woman if she is pregnant. You run the risk of looking like an idiot and causing copious amounts of embarrassment (and, probably, tears. In that order.) in the highly plausible scenario that she’s not actually pregnant and just maybe, you know, not looking her very best at that particular moment in time.
I always figured this little nugget of wisdom was obvious enough on its own that it didn’t need to be stated aloud. You know, sort of like, “Don’t stick your hand in the fire, moron.” But apparently I was mistaken. Here’s why: In the past year, five people (5!) have stopped me and congratulated me on my pregnancy. Before you shout “Mazel tov!” at your computer screen and crack open a bottle of champagne, there’s more: I AM NOT PREGNANT.
Local health counselor Ali Shapiro is bringing back her popular Truce with Food program, starting next Monday, October 1st. This seven-week program provides a combination of weight-loss, nutrition and lifestyle coaching to help women break “emotion-eating” habits and reconfigure their diets. The program is virtual, so participants interact with Shapiro and others in the program over the phone or through online sessions. It includes five group sessions and two one-on-one sessions. Participants also get a workbook and recipe book to keep. Shapiro draws lessons from her own 30-pound weight-loss success, three degrees, and over five years of client success. Learn more and sign up here.
$499, October 1 through November 13 from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
Twitter makes miscommunication pretty easy: We can’t see people’s facial expressions or body language, we can’t hear the tone of their voices, and we can’t receive immediate clarification about something confusing. Lady Gaga was Twitter’s latest victim when she tweeted on Tuesday, “Just killed back to back spin classes. Eating a salad dreaming of a cheeseburger #PopSingersDontEat #IWasBornThisWay.”
While Gaga probably thought this was a funny and innocent remark, it has not been received that way. Many fans responded negatively to the post, and the National Eating Disorder Association even weighed in, tweeting back, “Huh? This is the same person who recently implored girls to stop dieting?”
• Have you followed this whole kerfuffle over Vogue’s April issue, in which a Manhattan socialite writes about her seven-year-old’s weight issues, bemoaning the fact that her daughter is “fat”—and calling her such repeatedly—and describing how she humiliates and deprives little Bea in order to get her down to a more ideal weight? Yeah. That happened. The most heartbreaking part is when Bea, after losing weight for the Vogue photo shoot and looking at a picture of her former self, says, “”That’s still me … I’m not a different person just because I lost sixteen pounds.” Her mom, of course, happily begs to differ. So here’s the thing: people are pissed about this story, and have been wildly talking about it for the past week or so. But now there’s a new twist: the mother, Dara-Lynn Weiss, has apparently landed a book deal with Random House. As New York Magazine reports, her memoir, aptly titled Heavy, is described by the publisher as “an experience that epitomizes the modern parenting ‘damned if you do/damned if you don’t’ predicament.” How about “damned if you’re the jerk who writes about her kid’s waistline and your bad parenting tactics in an international magazine story that will follow her for the rest of her life”? I mean, one couldn’t possibly be surprised that there’d be outrage over such thing? Right?
• In other news, sleep deprivation is obviously a problem—one that comes with a host of documented health issues—but now researchers say too much sleep (we’re talking eight or more hours, here) is also a problem. It can raise a person’s risk for heart problems.
• The Atlantic breaks down how the Mediterranean diet actually works, and why your body will love you for it.
Penn’s student newspaper the Daily Pennsylvanianposted a story earlier this week making the case locally for a national “trend” that’s been wildly reported in the media over the past six months. It’s called “drunkorexia,” defined as the dangerous intersection of eating disorder and alcohol dependency, in which a person (typically, females) restricts or purges food calories to make room for liquid ones in the form of booze.
The reporter cites Penn students who say they’ve witnessed this behavior, friends who refuse food all day long so they can make up the calories in beer at a frat party later on. They say it helps them maintain a slim figure and allows them to “process the alcohol better,” according to the article.
The piece (and others like it) quotes expert after expert who preach about the precipitous rise of college binge drinking and how drunkorexia is actually a psychological disorder, of the sort that requires rehab and counseling to overcome. The Penn article even quotes a psychologist who says there should be treatment programs specifically tailored to drunkorexics, ones that combine alcohol counseling with support for eating disorders.
Health counselor, author and health contributor on the NBC 10! show, Ali Shapiro, is hosting her five-week Truce with Food program starting March 6th. This popular program will provide a combination of weight-loss, nutrition and lifestyle coaching to help women decipher “emotion-eating” and reconfigure their diets. Participants will learn to develop a different relationship with food by learning body functions essential to weight loss, foods that work for and against one’s body, how to resist cravings and curb self-judgment. Shapiro draws lessons from her own 30-pound weight-loss success, three degrees, and five years of client success—and if the testimonials are any indication, it’s the real deal. Learn more and sign up here.
$299 tuition, Tuesdays, March 6, 13, 20, 27, and April 3 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. The seminars are run over conference call, so you can dial in from home. Registrants receive call-in details ahead of the program.
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
