Happy Memorial Day 2011



Always in our prayers
Never forgotten
Forever grateful
Mrs M

Recovery Quote Of The Week: May 10, 2011

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
Charles Du Bos



pic source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/4112231176/

Happy Mother's Day!

The sweetest sounds 
to mortals given
Are heard in Mother, 
Home, and Heaven
William Goldsmith Brown

 Happy Mother's Day! 


pics source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/kryten/125710155/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/30282864@N02/3484041512/

It's International No Diet Day 2011!


International No Diet Day is today!

Created in 1992 by Mary Evans Young, a recovered anorexic, International No Diet Day's intent is to raise awareness of eating disorders and to combat the diet industry.

"I started INDD in the spring of '92 following two things. The first was seeing a television programme where women were having their stomachs stapled. One woman had split the staples and was in for her third op[eration]," she explains. The second thing that inspired INDD was, " a young girl of 15 committed suicide because 'she couldn't cope being fat.' She was size 14 (12 in US)."

Mary Evans Young knew someone had to stop the "bloody madness" and decided it would be her. "Desperate to keep the anti-diet/size acceptance concept in the public eye," she sent out a press release entitled, "Fat Woman Bites Back," and the media paid attention.

Are you putting your life on hold until you lose weight?
International No Diet Day was established to challenge the cultural attitudes and values that contribute to chronic dieting, weight preoccupation, eating disorders, and size discrimination. Participants will wear light blue ribbons symbolizing the day's goals. These include:
1. increasing public awareness of the dangers and futility of dieting, weight loss surgery, and obsession with thinness;
2. affirming that beauty, health and fitness come in ALL sizes, and everybody's right to eat normally, enjoy physical activity and emotional well-being;
3. helping change the way people of size are perceived and treated by society.
"When you love your body, you are most able to share its pleasures with  those who light your heart."      
Huitaco      

click for: The TOP 10 Reasons NOT To Diet


Did you know that dieting is a 50 billion dollar industry? 

Statistics show that those who diet are five times more likely to develop an eating disorder than those who don't. 

The act of restricting food intake, and viewing certain foods as "bad,"make food the enemy.

More often than not the weight lost from dieting is often gained back, bringing with it several additional pounds. 

The sense of failure from this has also been known to lead to eating disorders. 

Cycling weight loss and weight gain compromises health, too; blood pressure increase, decreased stores of necessary good fats, and increased risk of developing several diseases and other health issues.

Dieting forces your body into starvation mode. In order to conserve energy your body slows it's normal functions.This means your natural metabolism actually slows down.
Dieters often lack important nutrients such as calcium which is needed for strong bones and to combat osteoporosis.


Dieting often leads to unhealthy and dangerous attitudes towards food. Restriction, being the nature of dieting, places negative values on certain foods such as too many calories, too much fat, etc. The tension and stress of struggling over our food choices puts food in the position of enemy. A child/teen exposed to these attitudes in a dieting parent, sibling, or friend has an increased risk of developing an eating disorder. Anorexia and Orthorexia are two eating disorders to commonly result from dieting.


I finally realized that being grateful 
to my body was key to giving 
more love to myself.
Oprah Winfrey


(printout available)
check out  INDD's Goals






Some Interesting Stats:

Women and Men:

  • The average American woman is 5’4" tall and weighs 140 pounds.
  • The average American model is 5’11" tall and weighs 117 pounds.
  • 91% of college aged women have dieted in an attempt to control their weight
  • 25% of American men are on a diet on any given day
  • 40-50%% of American women are on a diet on any given day

Children:

  • 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner
  • 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat Over 50% of 10 year old girls wish they were thinner
  • 51% of 9 -10 year-old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet
  • 46% of 9-11 year-olds (and 82% of their families) are sometimes/very often on diets
  • 90% of female high school juniors & seniors women diet regularly though 10%-15% are over the weight recommended by the standard height-weight charts

Overall:

  • 95% of all dieters will regain the weight they lost in 1-5 years
  • 35% of dieters will progress to pathological dieting.
  • 20%-25% pathological dieters will progress to partial or full-syndrome eating disorders
  • Those who diet moderately are 5 times more likely to develop eating disorders than non-dieters
  • Those who diet severely are 18 times more likely to develop and eating disorder
  • 1% of teenage girls & 5% of college-age women become anorexic or bulimic
  • Between 90% and 99% of reducing diets fail to produce permanent weight loss
  • 15 percent of young women in the US who are not diagnosed with an eating disorder exhibit substantially disordered eating behavior and attitude
  • 8 million people in the US suffer from an eating disorder
  • In your lifetime 50,000 people will die as a direct result of their Eating Disorder
  • The current media ideal of thinness is achieved by less than 5% of the female population
  • Americans spend more than $40 billion dollars a year on dieting and diet-related products (That’s roughly equivalent to the amount the U.S. Federal Government spends on education each year)
  • Quick-weight-loss schemes are among the most common consumer frauds
  • Diet programs have the highest customer dissatisfaction of any service industry
  • Girls develop eating and self-image problems before drug or alcohol problems
  • Drug and alcohol programs are in almost every school, but no eating disorder programs
  • A recent survey: only 30% out of 250 randomly chosen women 21-35 years of age had normal bone mass. It was concluded that women are so afraid of gaining weight from eating dairy products                          
For more information check out:  
Diet Myths and Eating Disorders


Need HELP?
 

**Eating Disorders Help: Hotlines, Organizations, and Websites



Share Your Eating Disorders & Body Image Poetry & Writings

Would you like to feature your eating disorder and/or body image poetry or writings on Weighing The Facts? 

Writing is a very powerful tool for many with Eating Disorders and an excellent way for others to relate and be inspired. Do you have a poem(s) and/or writing(s) about your struggles, experiences, or recovery with your Eating Disorder and/or Body Image that you'd like to share with others? Weighing The Facts would like to feature your writing here so that others can relate, find support, and encouragement towards recovery.

Participation may be anonymous or credited, whichever you feel comfortable with. Poems/writings must be your own work. If you're interested in participating please contact me at Mrsmenopausal@yahoo.com.

Thank you.
Mrs. M
 

*Check out the wonderful poetry and writings of those who have shared on Weighing The Facts. They can be found in the sidebar drop down menu "submissions."

pic source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/jetheriot/5345090302/

Recovery Quote Of The Week: May 2, 2011

At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.  
Thich Nhat Hanh


pic source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplyshutterbug/4775278765/

The Healing: So Much To Gain



Lyrics, music, production by Hurricane (Dorothy Hodge)

Lyrics: 
The Healing

I'll drive to the beach to draw symbols in the sand
the waves come crashing in, fulfilling dreams at my command
dark colored auras are turning purple and pink
and my restless thoughts are calming down as I start to think

I am healing my self from the pain
I am healing for myself, I have so much to gain
I am healing my self from the pain

I'm writing letters for the things I cannot say
memories left lingering are the ones I'd hope would fade away
now the years are passing by, and I'm starting to grey
avoidance all these years have left me where I am today

I am healing my self from the pain
I am healing for myself, I have so much to gain
I am healing my self from the pain

if the phone is off the hook, or I'm not answering the door
if I dont seem like the person you once knew before,
I'm resolving things inside myself so I wont have to face them anymore

I am healing my self from the pain
I am healing for myself, I have so much to gain
I am healing my self from the pain