fitness & feminism
Age 20, Canada, 5'6" and ~160lbs.
No specific weight loss goals as of yet, at this point I'm just starting out and know that I want to get healthy and be 100% happy with how I look.
The "feminism" part comes from the inevitable social justice-y posts that will be mixed in with fitblr stuff, and the fact that it was my introduction to feminism that made me realize that, after almost 10 straight years of doing so, I don't have to hate my body.
i understand that people that are very overweight are beautiful but it’s not about people accepting that they are beautiful it’s that it’s plain unhealthy, yes someone just barely overweight can be as healthy as someone whos at a healthy range but your body wasnt made to carry around excessive weight…im not badhing overweight people but they need to understand its about health and life worth
You can be fat and healthy, actually.
But the most important part is: Not your body? Not your business. Shame doesn’t help anyone. Stigma doesn’t help anyone. Vague future health threats don’t help anyone.
But if the only places that you hear that fat is always unhealthy are from mass media, which helps the diet industry make $40 BILLION (or more) profit per year, or from the medical community which is more interested in making money off prescribing pills and bariatric surgery, you might want to consider that you’ve been fooled. Also keep in mind that the government and medical community immediately throws out/stops funding any studies that prove that fat is not unhealthy.
(o.p)
I was going to reblog this picture before I saw the commentary. Reblogging for both!
^ Same!
(Source: scaryann-horror, via fitness-and-diet)
“MILK GIVES YOU STRONG BONES”
MYTH DEBUNKED – Why the dairy industry doesn’t campaign the strong bones mantra anymore:
The truth is the dairy industry never had the science to prove this claim. When research was requested to prove that animal milk (such as cow’s/goat’s/sheep’s, etc. milk) gives humans strong bones, they quickly discovered that animal milk consumption actually does the opposite – it depletes the body from calcium.
How does animal milk deplete your body from calcium?
Like all animal protein, animal milk acidifies the body pH which in turn triggers a biological correction, and it turns out that calcium is an excellent acid neutralizer. The biggest storage of calcium in the body is obviously in the bones. So the very same calcium that our bones need to stay strong is utilized to neutralize the acidifying effect of animal milk. Once calcium is pulled out of the bones, it leaves the body via the urine so that the surprising net result after this is an actual calcium deficit and possible kidney stones. Knowing this, you will understand why statistics show that countries with the lowest consumption of dairy products also have the lowest fracture incidence in their population.
Source: www.milkdocumentary.com
Watch the trailer for the Milk Documentary here:www.youtube.com/watch?v=8m6VErjH5VY
See some of the dairy alternatives in the US here (not in the US? Let us know so we can help):http://tinyurl.com/d6nxogjEducate & Grow.
the more you know
(via trying-formyself)
XtinaFeels #17/ She doesn’t play the curvy vs skinny game.
She’s a woman for women. She won’t trash other body types to make herself/others feel more beautiful or superior. I love this about her.
It’s been a while. I definitely fell off of the working out bandwagon. Looking forward to getting back on it.
At the beginning of this year, I spent two and a half months living and studying in a small Tuscan hillside town. I traveled around Italy for trips in my spare time, and went to Greece with some friends one weekend. My boyfriend met up with me right at the end of the term, and I showed him Italy for a week and a half before we went to England to stay with his parents. Since then, we’ve returned to Rome for a week, and now we’re in Iceland (!!), although ill. After heading back to the UK for a few days, we’re off to Luxembourg and Germany. Phew.
I love traveling, but oh my god am I exhausted, and now also sick (makes going out all day to make the most of this trip difficult since we feel gross and tired after just a couple of hours of wandering around Reykjavik’s little museums and whatnot). I’m not homesick, but I am looking forward to going home, getting properly rested, and getting my shit together in just under a month.
Even though being in Italy meant eating like a king, I found that my clothes that I brought with me still fit just fine at the end of the trip, which I credited to walking around everywhere (especially uphill in the town I was in). That, and that virtually everything I was eating was, even if 3 course meals, was home-made with real ingredients grown in back yards and family friends’ farms, not processed chemical shit. However, once I returned to Rome from England, I found that a dress that I brought (and wore regularly when the weather was nice) is now quite snug, and absolutely smothers my boobs. I hadn’t weighed myself since late last year, but I did back in England and I’m up probably 8-10 lbs now from the last time I checked. This will not do.
The plan: Get over this stupid flu/bug/whatever so we can make the most out of Iceland (I’m definitely in recovery mode). Continue walking everywhere/whenever possible. Cook more meals, dine out less. Try not to get completely burnt out before I go home. Unfortunately, being completely ignorant about what all to pack for 5 months abroad, I was convinced not to bring my running shoes. Ah well, I’ll make do with what I have (which is a decent pair of walking shoes).
Once home, my boyfriend and I want to overhaul the garden beds in his backyard that his mom used to use before moving to England and start growing our own food. Eating such great, home-grown food in Italy, combined with all of the Monsanto et al. shit going on right now, really inspired that, and we’re excited to give it a go. I definitely want to invest in a juicer and a decent blender to start making fresh juices, smoothies, nut milks, etc. with what we grow, and cooking more in general. I’m planning on starting Couch to 5k, and hopefully doing Insanity/P90X/something along those lines. A friend in Italy and I also made a tipsy pact one night to join roller derby together, so I should probably invest in a pair of skates that fit me and start tooling around on those too. I know that all of this will make me feel great and I can’t wait to get at it. :)
Most weeks I’ve been going to the gym 2-3 times doing about 40 minutes of cardio, and arms or abs here and there. During weeks where I’m bombarded with exams and papers, I don’t go, but make sure I head straight back to the gym the following Monday. I haven’t weighed myself in a while, but last I checked I was down to about 156 lbs.
Between school and the first local comic expo, I ended up booking off about one consecutive month from work (I only work weekends), which was a really nice break—to the point that when I started back this weekend, I wasn’t perpetually pissed off like I normally am there for one reason or another (purposely understaffing and then pretending they didn’t know any better being the main reason). I managed to fit in a photo shoot with a model from out of town, and she’s planning on submitting the shots to a new Canadian tattoo magazine, so here’s hoping they accept them once we get that all sorted. I was supposed to have another shoot today, but the designer flaked on us, so no idea if/when that will be post-poned to :/
Last week was my pre-designated “week from hell” because it consisted of a take home midterm due Monday, in-class midterm Tuesday, evening midterm Wednesday, and 7 page argument paper due Friday. My paper’s due date was extended because my prof had been sick for a week’s worth of classes, so I thought the week would go better. I know the in class midterm went shitty (like the previous one) because my prof is fucking incompetent and, in a class that should be about themes and concepts (it’s anthropology of gender, age, and culture), he tests us on dates and irrelevant shit that requires straight memorization of the readings rather than a greater understanding of them. So even though the class is centred around gender, I might have around a B, which is so frustrating as someone who gets As and A+s in women’s studies classes that study similar material.
The day of the evening midterm (in economics) I was tired out and unsure of how I would do. I aced my first midterm (90%) so I thought the second one wouldn’t go too badly. That morning, I got my first polisci essay mark back and it was less than desirable (around 77, well above the class average, so I’m trying to be happy, but if it’s below 80—even if you can round it up—the number alone messes with me), which was overall discouraging. I spent the rest of the afternoon with my boyfriend studying for econ and got to a point where I felt like I knew nothing and panicked, so I started over with what I knew and reassured myself that it would be ok. I got to the exam, and within the first few questions, I was holding back tears because I realized how royally fucked I actually was. I scrambled to finish and went home in silence trying not to cry on public transit. I felt sick. I had never (in memory) felt so absolutely stupid when writing an exam. When I got home I just weeped, and soon after had my first major panic attack. I was so afraid that my marks were going to shit and I’d never get into law school at this rate and my life would be shitty because I’d have average marks in an expensive useless degree with no job prospects coming out of school.
The following day, I woke up feeling ok but soon sunk back into a familiar depressive state that I didn’t remember feeling in years. After classes, I found myself periodically crying throughout the day over nothing. Again, something that hadn’t happened to me in years. I felt like my depression and anxiety were resurfacing in full force.
This (long) weekend, I’ve managed to get my 7 page essay done early and do my econ homework (which involved 1 1/2 hours of not knowing what the fuck I was doing and having another miniature crying meltdown). I still have to get my shit together for an 8-10 page research paper for my Norse mythology class. It’s not due til the end of the month, but the optional first draft is due this Thursday. No idea if I’ll get enough together in time at this rate.
I still can’t help but feel like I’m going to fuck everything up. Like I’m currently fucking everything up. I try to remind myself that I currently have A+s/4.0s in two of my classes and I’m so far nowhere near failing any of my others. I even got a paper done well ahead of the night before it’s due, and I’m happy with it. Yet my outlook is so pessimistically shitty that I can’t get past the daunting notion that there is still so much more work and stress ahead and that I’m probably not going to do nearly as well as I want (or feel I need) to.
Ladies, don’t be afraid of strength training! Not only will it make you more toned, you will become stronger which leads you to achieve even more during your workouts.
No idea why I look so pale in the first picture…and excuse my bruise!
