Dieting Disturbances: Bulimia

We would all love to be thin or at least our “average” weight. We all want to look healthy and feel healthy. To diet and lose excess weight under these conditions is a good step toward becoming a healthier and more attractive person. To exercise to build our muscles and become more toned is also a step in the right direction for optimal health and appearance. Sometimes though dieting attempts become obsessive and the mentality of the person dieting becomes confused. Bulimia is one of several eating disorders. When a bulimic attempts to diet, like most of us, they find … Continue reading

Obsessed With Losing Weight: Diabulimia

I’ve been spending this last week talking a little bit about cleansing diets and other similar ideas that really cause more harm to our bodies than good. It is important to be healthy and it is important to fuel our bodies with good things. However, the issue comes when our obsession becomes unhealthy and our struggle to lose weight sends us to do things that actually destroy our body. Today, I’m going to address the issue of diabulemia, a growing trend among diabetic teens (especially girls) to skip their insulin so that they will lose weight. Diabulimia like anorexia and … Continue reading

Baby Blog Week in Review: Feb. 10 through Feb. 17

Did you miss anything this week? We’ve gone through news stories, potty training, feeding and more. Check here to see if you need to catch up with reading the baby blog! Saturday, Feb. 10 Babies in the News: Cocaine Laced Breastmilk This is a sad and heartbreaking story. It makes me wonder how moms like this slip through the cracks. Sunday, Feb. 11 Tales from the Potty: The Right Method Continue with me on our journey as we potty train our 20 month old twins. In this article, I share the method we are using to potty train our twins. … Continue reading

What is Bulimia?

The late Princess Diana had the unenviable reputation of being the world’s most famous bulimic. Back in the 1990s when the rumors of her eating disorder were finally acknowledged by her in one of her many authorized biographies, she became the flagship for sufferers the world over. Bulimia is a disorder that strikes people from all walks of life, as the tragic story of Princess Diana clearly indicates. It affects one in six teenage girls and a slightly lesser percentage of women in their twenties. However as noted in a previous article (see The Desperate Housewives’ Syndrome), the condition is … Continue reading

The Weight Watchers Diet

Weight Watchers is one of the most well-known diets. This is due to how long it has been in existence and its advertising efforts. Is it the best diet for you? Before beginning a new diet, it is a good idea to speak with your doctor. What is the Weight Watchers Diet? Weight Watchers is a diet that uses a points system. Recently, Weight Watchers changed their points system to a new one called SmartPoints. Their new points formula looks at the type of fat in a given food, with saturated fat pointed more heavily. Lean protein has fewer points … Continue reading

Lady Gaga Gets Bigger

Lady Gaga’s fame has seen an incredible increase within the past few years. After the release of The Fame in 2008, which included the hit “Poker Face,” her career took off dramatically. That was followed up with The Fame Monster, which produced hits “Bad Romance,” “Telephone,” and “Alejandro.” She went on tour for 18 months and it became one of the highest grossing tours ever. Born This Way was released in 2011 and sold a bazillion copies (okay, not really, but it did sell over a million copies the first week it was released). She has a devoted following (her … Continue reading

Boys and Anorexia

Anorexia is typically seen as a girls’ disorder, and this can have fatal results for boys whose disease often goes undiscovered too long, as parents, friends and loved ones don’t recognize the signs until the disorder has a firm hold on its sufferer, often with fatal results. According to the National Eating Disorders Association, there are at least one million males in the United States that are fighting anorexia or bulimia. Some affected by these psychological illnesses are as young as ten years old. These numbers are probably lower than the reality. There is more of a shame when a … Continue reading

Weight Loss Its A Family Thing

SO my weight loss journey has become a family thing. All 3 of my kids are considered to be overweight and one even obese when it comes to the BMI. It is not because we don’t pay attention to what the kids are eating because we really do. I truly believe part is genetics now they are all adopted so I cannot use the fact that they have my genes as a reason but having seen pictures of their biological family I do think it is part of it. I had taken my daughter to the doctor once when he … Continue reading

Eating Disorders – Mixed Messages

As I was reading up on some recent research I came across two related to eating disorders/weight, and while reading them I realized how many mixed messages we are sending. One was about a spike in eating disorders in older women while the other focused on the link between body weight and personality. While I found the information in both articles interesting, there were pieces that were almost contradictory in nature. It got me thinking about the messages we send out about eating disorders. We complain about living in a culture obsessed with thinness, and often blame the media and … Continue reading

Physical Problems Brought On By Eating Disorders

The whole thing had started as a way to improve Christina’s looks. All it had done over the years was wear her body down. Her hair was thin and lifeless. Her face dry and flaccid. Her eyes, dull and rimmed with red. The skin on her upper arms drooped, robbed of muscle tone. Her body was an odd mix of thin limbs and stubborn stores of fat, seemingly as double-minded about itself as she was. She was tired all the time; tired of the constant battle with her body. At some point, her body had ceased to be her subservient … Continue reading