Rosie MacLennan and Dove are getting girls off the bench and in the game!
Kids are under a tremendous amount of pressure these days and that pressure can come from so many different sources. For some kids, trying to keep their grades up in school can be overwhelming, for other kids the stress comes from social situations with friends or relationship issues with family. Wherever the anxiety is coming from, it can lead kids down some dangerous paths which can include things like drugs, alcohol and eating disorders. Kids, just like adults, need healthy ways to release the stress they’re under while discovering new reasons to feel proud of themselves. Getting involved in sports is a great way to do that, but research shows that less and less girls are willing to participate in athletic activity because they just don’t feel pretty enough.
Crystal Chan is a 14-year-old, international taekwondo competitor who has been training in her sport since the age of seven. She says that she started taking taekwondo classes because it looked like fun and because she wanted to learn self-defence, but she’s gotten much more out of it than she’d expected. Along with making new friends and getting to compete with people from all over the world, Crystal says that she doesn’t worry about her weight or how she looks the way most of her friends do.
“Most of the girls in my grade NEVER eat lunch because they’re afraid of gaining weight. They’re always talking about how fat they are and how they need to tone up for summer, but never want to do anything active because they don’t want to sweat. It really upsets me when they talk like that because it’s much more important to be strong, healthy and fit than to worry about your weight all the time.”
“Six in 10 girls quit activities they love because of how they feel about their looks,” according to new Dove research.
Last month, Dove launched its Girls Unstoppable campaign with the goal of preventing girls from giving up on the sports and activities that can help them build their confidence and self-esteem. The campaign also hopes to spark conversations between parents and their daughters on the subject of body image before it’s too late. I absolutely love this campaign because I hear from parents all the time whose daughters are struggling to find their own identity in a society that’s constantly telling them they don’t measure up. With so much focus put on image and appearance, it’s crucial that our daughters start believing that their bodies are capable of so much more than just being looked at. They need to stop worrying about how their bodies look and start taking pride in what they can do.
2012 Olympic Gold medalist, Rosie MacLennan, knows firsthand the amazing things that can happen with encouragement and support, which is why she was so eager to work with Dove on their campaign. Rosie is a Canadian trampoline gymnast and current reigning Olympic champion in the individual trampoline event. She wants girls to know that being part of the action is much more fun than sitting on the sidelines all the time. I spoke to Rosie last week and asked her a few questions about the connection between sports and body image.
Me: You started taking trampoline lessons at seven years old, what made you stick with it?
Rosie: Being involved in a sport I loved, gave me a place to find my voice. I had friends in school, but making other friends who were as passionate about the same things I was, gave me another place where I could feel comfortable and supported.
Me: We live in such an image obsessed society; have you ever felt self-conscious about your body when competing?
Rosie: I have felt pressure at times. As a gymnast, the uniforms don’t leave very much to the imagination and it’s not uncommon to be compared to girls with smaller body types. What helped me was having a coach who put performance before aesthetics. I learned that in order to perform at my best, I needed to do things that would help me get there, which included feeding my body what it needed instead of restricting my food to change my physique. I don’t compare myself to anybody else, because we’re all built differently. I have muscular legs and a bubble butt, and these attributes give me the power I need to jump high and perform my best. I celebrate my body. We all should.
Me: How did your mother keep you interested in sports as you got older?
Rosie: My mom would always point out female athletes, so I grew up admiring women like Silken Laumann and Clara Hughes for what they accomplished in sports and in life. She also made a point of regularly checking in with me to see how I was feeling. I knew if I felt stressed, I could share those feelings openly.
Me: Have you seen girls drop out of sports because of body image issues?
Rosie: Sadly, yes. Some girls let the criticism get to them. It can be hard, but I understood that if I was worrying about how I looked in my gym suit, I was not focusing on what I needed to focus on, which was my performance.
Me: What’s the number one message you’d like to share?
Rosie: Find something you love and are passionate about. You’ll face challenges, but stick with it. Hold on to whatever your goals are and give yourself the chance to live your dreams.
What it comes to, is that being a kid shouldn’t be this stressful. Young girls need to start appreciating everything that they are, and stop judging who they think they’re not. Life is not a spectator sport, it’s time to get in the game and start playing!
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/marci-warhaftnadler/dove-girls-empowerment_b_3268604.html
I’m not buying it Coke; Your product OR your concern.
Why I started Fit vs Fiction and why I won’t shut up about it
BECAUSE:
We live in an image obsessed, fat-phobic, one-size-fits-all, thin is in, skinny jean wearing, thigh gap measuring, binging and purging, body hating society where kids barely out of pre-school are begging their mothers to keep them home from school because they feel like they’re just too fat to fit in!
And THAT..is NOT..Okay.
They may be skinny, but I’m not impressed
I was walking through the grocery store with my son yesterday and had a “WTF?” moment, when I passed by the snack aisle and saw bags and bags of a chip-like product with the words, “HI I’M SKINNY sticks ” boldly and brightly written on the packaging. I had to stop and check them out. It doesn’t take a genius to see that these are lower-fat options for the potato chip eater and I have no problem with that. My issue isn’t with the product, just with the marketing of it.
I get it.
The whole point of developing a product is to profit from it. In order to profit from it, you need to promote it and with the diet industry being a 40Billion dollar industry, it makes sense from a marketing perspective to hop on board the weight loss crazy train. But, I think that this company is selling themselves short. When I looked at the Hi I’m Skinny website, I found out that their snacks aren’t just low in fat, but contain whole grains and NO GMOs. That’s good,right?
The problem is that I cannot get past the obnoxious packaging.
It angers me that a company that seems to understand the importance of healthy foods would choose to focus on our fear of getting fat instead of our need to get healthy. I realize that ”I’m Skinny” is more of an attention grabber than “I’m Healthy” but every time our health takes a backseat to our weight, it reinforces the myth that skinny IS healthy and that is not always the case.
For me, this goes beyond cute or clever marketing. I think it’s dangerous and here’s why:
We live in an image obsessed, fat-phobic, one-size-fits-all, thin is in, skinny jean wearing, thigh gap measuring, binging and purging, body hating society where kids barely out of pre-school are begging their mothers to keep them home from school because they feel like they’re just too fat to fit in!
WHY is this happening?
It’s happening because we are constantly being told that fat is bad and skinny is good. But guess what? All fat isn’t bad, in fact, some it is pretty damn important! We need it in our foods AND in our bodies. Of course, there are healthy fats and unhealthy fats and moderation is key when it comes to how much of it we have in our lives, but demonizing it is just a dumb thing to do. There are too many low-fat/non-fat products on the market that might make you skinny, but the amount of chemicals and additives they contain, certainly won’t make you healthy.
We need to be so careful with the messages we’re teaching our kids. if we want our kids to grow up feeling self-confident, self-assured and full of self-respect, we need to encourage them to take more pride in being Smart or Brave or Fun or Inspiring or Curious or Unique than just being skinny.
I realize there are people who will read this and think, “Lighten up, lady. It’s just a crispy snack.” But if we continue to promote the idolization of skinny bodies while minimizing the importance of healthy ones, we need to accept that the only thing we’re going to be feeding is the diet industry’s insatiable appetite for profit.
UPDATE: I sent an e-mail to the HI I’M SKINNY website asking them about their name. I wanted to know if they had chosen it because they believe that being skinny is as important as being healthy or if it was all about marketing to desperate dieters. I was surprised to hear back from the president of the company within just a couple of hours and really appreciated her response. She explained that as a mom herself, she is very concerned with healthy food and it’s what their company promotes. She explained that their name was just a cheeky way of saying “lower fat” and compared it to coffee shops that sell “Skinny lattes”. She also said that it described the shape of their snacks. She sounded sincere and I believe her. However, I still think there’s a bigger picture that’s being missed here. Being obsessed with our weight has become so commonplace that we don’t even recognize it anymore. It would be hard not to think about our weight when it seems like we’re constantly being told we need to lose some! Personally, I think calling their product, “Skinny sticks” would be fine, it’s just the whole, “Hi I’m Skinny” thing that rubs me the wrong way. I guess it’s because with skinny messages everywhere these days, I am hearing from more and more kids who are feeling like they can never be skinny enough and are doing everything they can to try and get there.
Hi I’M SKINNY, I get where you’re coming from and I think your product is a good one. Unfortunately, I also think that by jumping on the “Everybody likes to be skinny” bandwagon, you’re missing out on the opportunity to change the way we look at food and our bodies. When I walked by your product at the grocery store, the message in bold print wasn’t about how your snacks would make me feel, just about how they’d make me look. Am I being oversensitive? Definite possibility. But if you knew how many kids were battling body image issues today, I think you might be too.
Thanks for hearing me out.
Latest Book review from VictorianEDTreatment Center, Newport Ca
Book Review: The Body Image Survival Guide
by mhurst220— last modified Apr 24, 2013 04:05 PM
Filed Under:
psychology
The Body Image Survival Guide for Parents by Marci Warhaft-Nadler is a must read for every parent raising a child in the 21st century. A negative body image is a contributing factor for developing an eating disorder. Eating disorders are on the rise in children. There was a 119% increase of eating disorder related hospitalizations among children under 12 years old between the years 1999 and 2006.
Watching a family drop off their daughter at the Victorian – Eating Disorder Treatment is heart breaking. Emotions are high; crying, screaming and bargaining are all quite familiar. Our staff calms the parents and client reminding them that they are making a wise decision to seek help for this deadly mental illness. It is a scenario every parent dreads – acknowledging their child is sick and in need of professional help. Many question if anything could have been done to prevent the eating disorder? A genetic and social disease, preventing eating disorders is hard to quantify. However, a new book titled, The Body Image Survival Guide for Parents by Marci Warharft-Nadler, eating disorder survivor and Certified Personal Trainer provides several preventative tools to navigate a child towards a healthy body image.
The Body Image Survival Guide is broken down into chapters addressing issues for every age group:
•Ages 0-3
•Ages 4-8
•Ages 9-12
•Age 13 and up
As well as how to address body image in a variety of scenarios:
•Body image issues with boys
•Building self-esteem
•How to help an overweight child
•When parents need to lose weight
•Post-pregnancy dieting
•Role modeling positive body image
•The dangers of negative body image
•Media literacy
My favorite thing about the book is the way Nadler breaks up the chapters with real questions from parents. The “Dear Abby” format of the book quickly makes it seem as if Nadler is simply one parent talking to another. I highly recommend The Body Image Survival Guide for Parents to parents, teachers and school counselors.
You can purchase The Body Image Survival Guide HERE
and follow Nadler on twitter here: @fit_vs_fiction
I’m 43! And just in case you were wondering…
I’m about to turn 43 years old, which is weird because there are times when I feel like I’m still 16 (of course, there are also times when I feel like I’m 143). I don’t dread birthdays. I don’t see getting older as a curse. I think it’s a privilege that too many people never get. But, at the risk of sounding like an “old” person, I will say that the time has gone by REALLY quickly and has been jam packed with LIFE. Some of it good, some of it weird and some of it pretty friggin’ bad, but it’s been my life and all I can do is embrace it.
So today on my 43rd birthday, I’m sharing 37 facts about ME! (because 43 facts would be crazy!)
Some are things you might know, some you’d never guess. WHY am I doing this? To be honest, while you don’t want to live in the past, visiting it once in awhile can help you appreciate how far you’ve come. I realize this is completely self-indulgent, but hey, it’s my birthday!
Here we go:
1. My (ex) stepfather was the Satchel Bandit. He spent 2 years robbing banks between Montreal and Toronto. (He told us he was a caterer) He was caught in the act and convicted on 47 counts.
2. I was a contestant in the 1990 Golden Girl International Talent Competition where Jackie Stallone (Sly’s mom) was one of the judges and I WON! (Just kidding, I lost miserably. May have even come in last place)
3. When I was in my late teens I was followed around the Cavendish mall for an hour by 2 girls who thought I was British pop sensation Kylie Minogue.
4. For an entire year, I decided to change my name to Jordan and drove my mother crazy by refusing to answer to anything else.
5. I failed home economics in High school (cooking and sewing) which should really be of no surprise to anyone.
6. I have the absolute worst sense of direction and once got lost jogging in my own neighbourhood.
7. I am a HUGE UFC fan! The only way I can fall asleep is by alphabetically listing UFC fighters in my head. Some people count sheep, I count Silvas, Guidas and Fabers.
8. I got fired from Club Med for being bossy. (There’s an interesting story there..)
9. I was the ONLY injured passenger in a via rail train crash in 1994. (I broke my nose) Canadian actor Saul Rubinek carried my bag off the train for me.
10. In 2000, I spent 2 months in the hospital (17 days in the I.C.U.) with kidney and respiratory failure. I was a medical mystery until 2 major surgeries confirmed that I had an unusual case of C-Diff, complicated by MRSA and pneumonia. I was given a 25% chance of surviving and was 5.5 months pregnant with our son Jackson. I couldn’t talk, eat or breathe on my own. After several weeks, I started to heal, but we lost Jackson. (His initials are tattooed on my ankle)
11. 3 years later, for reasons completely unrelated, I needed to have part of my liver removed. I now have quite a collection of Kickass Scars.
12. My scars are finally outnumbered by my tattoos. Scars:7 Tattoos:10
13. I worked at Pizza Hut for 1 day, but couldn’t handle the uniform.
14. I’ve never seen the movies: Ghostbusters, Gladiator, Braveheart or any of The Back to Future flicks.
15. Rob and I were contestants on “Love Handles”, the Canadian version of The Newlywed game hosted by Stu Jeffries and we won! Our prize was a train ride from Vancouver to Banff.
16. My first non-fitness related job was at the Second Cup cafe on Church street in downtown Toronto. I was their only heterosexual employee and met the most amazing people and learned a lot.
17. I became a vegetarian at 17, not for moral or ethical reasons, but because a friend of mine dared me to go a week without eating meat and I can be UBER competitive.
18. I met actor Jerry O’Connell when I was a “special skilled” extra on his teen show “My Secret Identity”. He teased me about how I wiggled when I walked. (FYI..he played a 14 year old with superpowers).
19. I moved from Montreal to Toronto on my own when I was 19 years old and had a CRAZY roommate who lied about EVERYTHING and stole whatever I didn’t hide. Last I heard, he was collecting money for a fake charity he created.
20. When I was 15 or 16, one of my family members had an insane stalker who terrorized us for months and forced us to spend some time at a friend’s place when he put his fist through our kitchen window. It took awhile (no stalker laws back then) but he was finally arrested.
21. On my 18th birthday, my mother got me a cake that said, “Happy Birthday Bitch”. She was extremely embarressed to order it, but it was an inside joke between the two of us and I thought it was a hoot!
22. I once got up to sing a Rihanna song at a PACKED Karaoke bar and completely forgot how to sing it. Instead of singing, I ended up repeating, “Holy shit, how does it go again?” over and over until the song ended.
23. Before I was 30, I had lost my mother, my brother, my father and my baby, Jackson. Every year on their birthdays (and mine) as well as on the anniversaries of the days I lost them, I do Random Acts of Kindness around the city so I can celebrate their lives instead of mourn their deaths.
24. Whenever I walk through the cologne department of a department store, I find the Polo Cologne (green bottle) and smell it. It was what my brother Billy wore and it reminds me of him.
25. I’m a terrible cook.
26. I used to have a crush on Pink.
27. I now have a crush on Rick Yune and Jon Stewart
28. Before getting into recovery for my eating disorder, I once walked to the gym, alone, at midnight on a Sunday (1 hour away), worked out for 2 hours and then walked back at 3am because I felt I had eaten too much that day. My fear of gaining weight was stronger than my fear of the danger I was potentially putting myself in that night.
29. The only reason I went into recovery was because I felt that my sons deserved a mom who was at least half as amazing as mine was. Even though I had given up on myself, I could never give up on them. I gave them life. They saved mine.
30. #29 came out sounding much more dramatic than I had planned.
31. At my Sweet 16 party, while I was dancing with my friends, somebody stole ALL of my gifts. I heard he pawned them for drugs.
32. In high school, my best friend hit another friend in the face because she didn’t like the way she talked to me and got suspended for it.
33. Twenty-five years later, I’m friends with both of them and hope they got a chuckle when they read the previous fact.
34. I made a promise to myself many years ago, that I would someday, somehow meet Prince and tell him about my brother who was a major Prince fan. He constantly listened to his music when he was in the hospital and when he died, we put Prince casettes (it was 1987) in his casket with him.
35. I took drum lessons for a month, always wanted to learn sign language and presently, wouldn’t mind learning how to box.
36. My first book was just published. I wrote it for parents who are trying to raise healthy, happy, self-confident kids in a society that keeps telling them they’re just not good enough. I wrote it because I spent most of my life feeling like I wasn’t good enough and robbed me of relationships, dreams and goals. It took me until I was in my 30′s to find recovery and I’ve made it my mission to save other kids from going through the trauma I couldn’t avoid.
37. I know it was kind of silly to write this but I did it anyway. 
)
What would your list look like?
My ex-stepfather.
The satchel bandit with my mom at my Sweet 16.
The Golden Girl International talent Competition 1990 (UGH)
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My crazy family
We just need to be kind to eachother
Amazing moment I just experienced:
I was feeling a little down this morning. Between the horrors in Boston and tragedy in Texas and the usual mom type of worries, I was feeling emotional and overwhelmed. I had a lot to do today and debated whether or not to stop at the post office to pick up some envelopes for some books that needed to be mailed, or to just go straight home. At the last second, I decided to get what I needed.
I stopped into the post office to get some large envelopes and there was an older gentleman in front of me trying to figure out which envelopes he needed. After a few minutes he chose a package of them and handed it to the young fella at the counter. Then he reached into his pocket and said, “UH OH, I’m in trouble now. I forgot my wallet.”
I looked at him and said, “It’s ok. I’ll get them for you.”
Stunned silence
He looked completely surprised and confused and said, “I can’t let you do that.”
I said, “It’s no big deal. Really.”
It’s hard for me to explain reaction. He just seemed so incredibly moved by this simple gesture.
He just stared at me, started to cry and then said very quietly, ” but why?” I said, (through my own tears) “With all of the bad going on right now, we all need to remember the Good. We need to be kind to eachother.”
He kept saying, “I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it.”
He asked if he could have my address so he could send me the money for it later. I told him that he could repay me by paying it forward and doing something nice for someone else today.
He told me that he was from Florida and was visiting relatives in Ontario and told me that if I ever got to Florida, I needed to call him so he could pick me up at the airport and get me whatever I needed.
I told him that was very sweet, but all he needed to do for me was to reach out to someone else today, even something simple like opening the door for a stranger.
He took my hand, kissed it and said, “God bless you.”
He/She just did.
The best $4 I ever spent.
We need to fight FOR our kids and not against eachother
I decided to send my Huffington Post article about Childhood obesity to a fairly well-known local fitness team and asked them for their thoughts. I did this, knowing that my article “Childhood obesity is not the problem” is a tad controversial. In my post, I discuss the dangers of anti-obesity campaigns and the fact that I believe we need to focus less on weight and more on health. I was genuinely interested in hearing their thoughts as people who have spent the last 25 years or so, offering health tips to families. They responded by saying, “The author is missing point. I think she is taking the topic and twisting it to write an article.” I wrote back explaining that I am, in fact, the author and that while I understand that there’s a health crisis in this country, focusing solely on weight is completely ignoring all of the other factors that play into our kids overall health and well being.
I was really looking forward to the discussion that I was hoping was going to follow. Afterall, we’re both trying to reach the same goal and I believed in the benefits that could come from extremely dedicated people approaching the same issue from different angles. Sadly, that’s not what happened. Not only did the conversation end, but my entire post had been deleted from their Facebook page.
REALLY?!
What this showed me was that some people are so stuck in their own opnions, that they aren’t even willing to consider that there may just be another way to look at things. I wasn’t looking to completely change their outlook, just expand it a little and I was just as open to the possibility of learning something new as well.
Here’s why I find this SO FRUSTRATING: There is hardly a lack of weightloss experts, programs and campaigns out there trying to make us lose weight and yet, obesity is still an issue. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to look at things in a different way. If we keep banging our heads against the same “Skinny means healthy” concrete wall, nothing will ever change.
Do I believe that I have a TON of knowledge to contribute? Yes, I do. But I am also not so arrogant as to believe that I have nothing left to learn.
We all know that childhood obesity is a problem, but here are a few things most people don’t know.
Fact: In Canada, for all the kids who are overweight, there are even more kids who are NOT but THINK that they are.
Fact: Eating disorders aren’t just a teen girl issue anymore. Girls AND boys as young as 5 years old are destroying their bodies in an effort to be skinny
Fact: It can be extremely difficult to find treatment for eating disorders due to lack of resources or finances.
Fact: Some people suffering from eating disorders find it nearly impossible to be taken seriously if they don’t “look the part”. It’s easy to look at someone who weighs as much as 380lbs or as little as 80lbs and recognize that they probably have a problem but someone battling a severe eating disorder can look healthy while slowly dying inside and can be overlooked even by medical professionals.
Fact: Anti-obesity campaigns tell kids they need to be skinny to be healthy by focusing on numbers, but we are more than just numbers and our self-worth should not be measured in pounds.
I understand that obesity is an issue, but I also understand that it is one of several issues that need to be tackled simultaneously if we have any chance of truly raising healthy children. While I understand this, there are way too many people who refuse to see the bigger picture and choose only to look at fat as the enemy. For there to be any chance of us finding solutions to the health crisis we’re facing, and for our kids to stand a chance at the long, quality filled lives they deserve, we need to fight the risks of unhealthy living instead of eachother.
If we let ego get in the way of progress, WE may feel better, but our kids won’t get any healthier.
Kids are dying to be perfect and parents feel powerless. I’m helping them both!
This is my book. The book I wish my own mother had had when I was struggling and she felt so powerless. It states the problems but is also full of solutions, games, projects, resources and cheat sheets for when your kids ask you sticky questions and you need solid answers. The negative messages our kids will hear from the media and society will be loud. The positive messages we give them as their parents need to be even LOUDER!
Kids as young as 5 and 6 years old are already feeling like being themselves is just not good enough and this is leading them down some pretty dangerous paths. Instead of waiting until we see a problem starting, we need to act NOW! I’m teaching parents how to empower their kids to love who they are and believe in everything can they be, instead of feeling like they don’t measure up to who they think society expects them to be.
Along with projects and games for kids of all ages are two body image pledges for you to sign with your kids as a promise to treat yourselves and those around you with the love and respect we all deserve.
If you’re a parent struggling with your own body image issues, learn ways to stop the cycle of insecurity and be the role model you want to be.
I lost 20 years of my life to body image and eating disorder issues and am now determined to help kids and their parents avoid the trauma I couldn’t.
We are so much more powerful than we give ourselves credit for!
Self-worth shouldn’t be measured in pounds!
xoxo
New Breakfast Drink from Mountain Dew..because it’s never too early to drink something unhealthy!
Gee, THANKS Mountain Dew! I think you’ve covered 3 out of 4 food groups: Caffeine, Sugar AND Aspertame! What’s wrong, couldn’t find a way to include Transfats?
