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Quote of the day

May 23, 2012 by Beth@WeightMaven

Yesterday’s QOTD and MrsS’ comment re perseverance compel me to post one of my favorite quotes: Calvin Coolidge on persistance:

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

I think we each need to decide whether we are climbing Mt Everest or tilting at windmills and respond appropriately. But as another of my fave quotes points out (in LOLcat style ;)


Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement.

Posted in QOTD | 4 Comments »

Quote of the day

May 22, 2012 by Beth@WeightMaven

From Big Fat Blog on loving vs accepting your body:

To me feeling love for the body is not as important as accepting it and honoring it. … Choosing to treat my body with respect and honor, to act lovingly towards it, is vital.

There are parts of my body I like more than others, but I have to say that I feel very accepting of mine. Part of that is because I am an old lady who wears purple … it’s very freeing to be past the age where your biological clock has stopped ticking so loudly. And part of it is my approach just leaves me feeling pretty damn good. I will take peace of mind over being a size 0 any day.

As an aside, I think HAES is a wonderful framework. And yet, here I am on a weight-loss journey. How do I reconcile it?

Well, I guess partially the way Debra of Just Maintaining reconciled weight loss maintenance and size acceptance:

So here I sit, living honestly a maintainer’s life (sans style), and yet knowing the veracity and compassion that is Size Acceptance. There is no question about reconciling them. They’re both truthful. I don’t need to reconcile that grass is green and the sky is blue.

For me, I suppose it’s my cockeyed optimist viewpoint. Although dieting is a terrible weight loss strategy (largely because the emphasis is typically on weight rather than health), that doesn’t necessarily mean (to me anyways) that successful weight loss is impossible.

No, I see this as a quest … one that’s a bit like a Chinese finger puzzle. As long as you try to solve the puzzle with the obvious solution, you fail. And so I persevere, exploring the less obvious.

Posted in HAES, Weight loss | 3 Comments »

You, the eater

May 20, 2012 by Beth@WeightMaven

Interesting week. Aside from the paleo “shit slinging” (and re the person who stopped following me on Twitter because of it … all I can say is ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself), there have been some useful posts. I mentioned yesterday Paleo Pepper’s evolutionary perspective for women.

And there’s also Lindsay’s The Post That Was Going to Be Called “Fuck Paleo” But Isn’t who shares her experience with orthorexia and coming out on the other side.

While I’ve not gone into the orthorexia abyss that Lindsay did, I’ve lately been thinking about other aspects to ancestral health besides food. So here’s my contribution to the “it’s not just about the diet” theme that these ladies have started.

It’s not just what you eat, it’s also about you, the eater.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Diet, Psychology | 1 Comment »

On being fierce

May 19, 2012 by Beth@WeightMaven

Wow … Pepper of Paleo for Women is on fire! First there was her great series on weight loss. And she’s topped that with her last post — The Evolutionary Perspective: Liberating and Empowering a Woman’s Self-hood — which makes the not often enough said point that ancestral health is not just about avoiding neolithic foods.

You must go to her blog to read the whole post, but here are the highlights of an evolutionary perspective for women.

According to Pepper, with an evolutionary perspective:

  • a woman does not work against but instead works with her body
  • a woman listens to her body
  • a woman does not see herself as separate from her body
  • a woman loves and respects her body
  • a woman is free
  • a woman feels good
  • a woman looks amazing and real
  • chins come up
  • a woman is fierce
  • things aren’t perfect

As I have the not being perfect thing down pat, here’s to being fierce!!

Posted in Ancestral health | 4 Comments »

More Weight of the Nation

May 16, 2012 by Beth@WeightMaven

I was fully committed to watching the rest of Weight of the Nation despite my disappointment with the first two episodes. This turned out to be a good thing, as episodes 3 and 4 are much stronger than episodes 1 and 2.

Episode 3 — Children in Crisis — looks at what’s happening to the kids. And it ain’t pretty.

Episode 4 — Challenges — starts off weak with a rehashing of obesity’s link to America’s lifestyle diseases. But it takes a turn in a better direction with a long look at evolutionary biology and the role that our ancestral past plays in terms of our eating behavior. It then spends a chunk of time looking at the problem with our current agricultural policy and specifically the subsidies that make corn and soy such profitable crops.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Obesity | Leave a Comment »

Weight of the Nation

May 15, 2012 by Beth@WeightMaven

So, perhaps it’s a version of confirmation bias, but I approached last night’s debut of HBO’s Weight of the Nation skeptical and I’m afraid my skepticism was rewarded.

The shows are slickly produced and they’ve assembled quite a plethora of experts to weigh in (pun intended). And there’s so much packed into each episode that I think it’s easy for people to pick out bits and pieces they like and don’t like.

Marsha Hudnall, who spent the night live-tweeting the show, summed it up this way:

my take overall: #weightofthenation had some good moments but #weightstigma was fostered. too bad

Word.

Continue Reading »

Posted in Obesity | 4 Comments »

Quote of the day

May 14, 2012 by Beth@WeightMaven

Today’s NYTimes Well blog reports on a national survey linking TV viewing with unhealthy eating:

Adjusting for snacking while watching TV did not change the associations, leading the researchers to suggest that broadcast advertising influences eating choices even when children are away from the television.

Color me surprised … not. And makes me suspect that food marketing on TV (especially to kids) is more porn like than we know.

Posted in QOTD | Leave a Comment »

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