It's about to get real

Dove had a good idea.  Show a bunch of "real" women in their undies and let's celebrate their beauty.  The campaign should have made us "real" girls feel all happy to see "ourselves" in the media instead of hating ourselves after seeing the Victoria Secret models.  The problem is, they just f***ed our heads up even more.  Stay with me.  I don't care what anyone says about skin and bones and all that nonsense, the VS models are gorgeous.  I will also say, the women in the Dove picture are also beautiful.  The problem with the Dove ladies is that they are wearing grandma's underwear and over the shoulder boulder holders while the VS models are wearing sexy bras and panties with fancy hair and makeup.  Dove should have taken these "real" women and glamourized them just like the VS models get glamourized.  Why should they have done this?  Why should they take "real" women and turn them into makeup piled fakes?  That would make them hypocrits right?  Yes and no.  Yes because it would be less "real".  No because girls and women need to see all sizes and shapes as glamorous as the fantasy women.  Speaking of the thin fantasy women- big girls, quit hating on the skinny girls.  They are beautiful, too.  That was a shout out to my girl Chrissy.  You reading this?

Next up, you want to lose weight?  There is no quick fix.  There is no pill, shake, or workout that will change your life.  If you want to change your body, you must change your life.  It takes eating less and moving more for the rest of your life.  No short period will do or you'll just gain the weight back.  Now, am I an expert on all this, hell to the no.  I struggle EVERY SINGLE DAY to not eat sugary  food.  If there is such thing as sugar addiction, I have it.  I am that person that has never understood when people say, "Oh that such and such dessert is just too rich for me."  Motha' motha' you crazy.  I ain't never met a dessert that was too rich.  Now, I might have met a dessert that required 2 glasses of milk instead of 1, but can I get another piece?  So, I still gots problems with food.  I just try to keep it all into perspective.  I workout hard and I eat well (mostly).  Also, I have an awesome workout partner (Hey Jennifer!).  Onto that, get a workout partner or come to the gym with me.  Today I did cycling and some kind of strength training in a group class setting.  Yesterday, Jen and I did this workout.  It was a doozy and I loved it!  I had success with Jamie Eason LIVEFIT trainer  at the beginning of the year and my sister is having a lot of success with it now.  And, both of the aforementioned workouts are FREE.  There are also Bootcamps throughout the community.  Some of them are more expensive than others.  My friend Tina from highschool runs a very affordable camp.  You can find her info on Facebook here. 

I also want you to read various parts from a journal of this 12 year old I know...

"Also, part of the reason I hate my life is because I think I'm a fat pig!"

"---- would ask me to the dance, but he's probably more interested in the thin, and pretty not the fat but I'm dieting...."

"Mom started letting me wear make up!"

"I'm so happy about myself...I've been on a diet for the past 3 days and I've lost 2lbs!" 

I pulled these blurbs from about 12 pages of journal entries.  There were at least 50 more pages I could have taken from (sadly).  I would be devastated if I knew that one of my girls thought about themselves this way.  I would be devastated to think that they thought makeup would make them happy.  I do not allow them to hear me bash my own body.  I do not "diet", our family eats food that is good for our bodies  I do not make a big deal of make up or clothes.  I do not scrutinize their appearance.  I don't care if their rain boots don't match their swimsuits (yes mh2 would wear boots to the pool).  After reading my journal, I realize that I had/have a screwy body image/self esteem. How it happened, doesn't matter.  What does matter though is how I'm creating an active and healthy lifestyle in addition to a lot of love and encouragement for the little girls that I am responsible to.