Weight A Minute

Every girl has their fitness or weight issue. Mine? Happens in cycles, I'm a runner so naturally if I'm signed up for a race my endorphins are flowing I'm working out regularly, eating right and feeling nonchalant about grabbing extra toppings at 16 handles. What happens on the down turn? My poor boyfriend gets his dose of crazy. So on this occasion of a downturn my roommate unbeknown to me broke the weight in the scale automatically adding a full five lbs to your true weight. So, there I am a week before I'm suppose to be in a bikini, just finished a hefty cup from 16 handles and I weighed myself. In typical fashion I waited before my shower (can't have clothes weighing me down) and there it was... a number I've never seen before. I walked into the room face covered from a combination of tears and shower mist and I wallowed to my boyfriend about canceling the trip - an expensive non-refundable trip, clearly I wasn't thinking rationally. Luckily my honey let me rant rave and then explained to me the scale was broken, he had tried it earlier...

I'm not the only one with extreme measures. I had a friend who pledged to go on a survivor diet - she picked the hottest week in the summer where she did nothing but drink warm tap water for that week and sit in the hot sun. I guess re-enacting being on a desert island makes sense if you have convinced yourself your naturally small frame is morbidly obese.

That's the other thing, my friends have a tendency to exaggerate their features. Bloated stomach becomes a prognosis for lap-band or trying on pants after they come out the dryer equals neurotic stints at the gym on the elliptical. See ladies, pretty illogical when you read it in print.
So how can we change? What can I say to convince an entire sex that creating routines around dieting and what not to eat plans only makes for an interesting brag session with the girlfriends and that being skinny is only relative to who you are standing next to. Probably nothing, but let's face it the only person who really cares about how well you fit in a size 2 is your friend in a size 0 and she probably hopes they are a little too tight, but I digress...
I decided to impart this knowledge on health, beauty and dieting to my dear readers that I discovered while figuring out my own lunacies: scales can be broken, jeans can shrink in the wash, but you'll never look your best thinking you are already at your worst. Hopefully, this should get someone through their next stint, don't be so hard on yourself, objects appear larger in mirrors anyway :)

Write a little, run a little

My first post of the new year... Well, this holiday, I spent the season with my boyfriend and his family in Arizona. Oh yea, 70 degree weather! While I was there, Harriet the Spy came on, which is by far my favorite movie - even to this day. The concept is simple she writes because, she wants to remember everything and know everything. This thinking also lead to her espionage, but nonetheless - it's true. Is it possible this movie I watched when I was nine took this many years to figure out what it all really means?
2010 was a year to pick up the pieces, but in the end I figured out a few things. I write because I believe writers understand a truth that not all can see and real writers are able to make this truth beautiful;  "beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know on earth and all ye need to know" - John Keats.
I run because I like the sound that my anxiety and negative thoughts make chasing behind me consistently slower than my own pace. When I run, all my affirmations, day dreams and counting over power so nothing but steady breathing and progression happen in the span of a run.

Get it yet? Two things. Truth and beauty, for me writing and running. At least now I know what I can do to get me through the year.

Who owns your ego?

How many of you follow the advice of women magazines and leave post-it notes on your mirrors and doors to remind you that you are beautiful, strong and to have a good day? I'm curious on what the impact on your life is. Do you repeat this mantra on the way to the subway?

Or do the sketchy construction workers whistling and hissing after you suffice as an ego boost? Speaking to the latter, I would have to say that in the moment it makes me quite uncomfortable and the attention is unwanted, however, if they don't say anything you know you look like death...
But, do you tell yourself "self, you look like death today, you should probably spare the rest of humanity and stay inside" Or do you wait for one of your girlfriends to say "oh no, you look tired" before you cry and commit yourself to hibernation? No matter how much male attention women receive it's the women in our life that validate our beauty.

It raises the standard because women know what other women can do to improve appearances. Take for example female facial hair (thank goodness I was spared *knock on wood), some people bleach, wax, thread, or shave (YIKES) and guess who pointed this out to them ... no not their boyfriends, their eye brow technician! She carefully finishes your eyebrows and looks at you and says "lip too?" At this point you're probably humiliated and commit to spending 10 more dollars for a lip treatment.

Women criticize each other, nothing new, right? But more than this, our distinct sense of beauty standards also makes men subconsciously dress, act and react to please women.

Exhibit A: Boy goes to work. He typically wears slacks a white button down shirt and a tie, nothing fancy just an iteration of his standard interview get-up. Boy meets great looking, well dressed girl... The next day you can find him dressed to kill looking as though he fell out of a GQ magazine.

Exhibit B: Boy hates beer, he typically gets something fruity and pink when he goes out. His friends make fun of him for it, but he doesn't really care. Boy takes out girl and girl orders a Bud Light. Boy begrudgingly asks for two and sips the beer while trying to maintain his gag reflex.

Exhibit C: Boy dates girl. Girl cheats on boy. Boy commits himself to a life of never trusting women and sleeps around to avoid emotional connections. He becomes 45 unmarried and his hair line starts to recede as he still hits on 20 somethings.

Ladies, I think we have an unproclaimed power on our hands... Since men don't critique other men, we fill this void and can pretty much take credit for confidence and egos of the straight men in the world. Just so my male readers don't have a heart attack, reader beware!!! Once you have an impact on a man, the ever popular "can't change a man" comes into play. So, use your power wisely, but don't miss out on the rare chance to change his ways!