Revisit Fat Talk Free Week

I've already mentioned Fat Talk Free Week, which was established by Delta Delta Delta in 2008.  Only 2 years, but this past October 35 college campuses took part in the Reflections program, to help women recognize that they need to love and be proud of their bodies. 

Why is this so important?

Because as an educator I hear young girls in the hallway, as young as 7th grade, talking about how they don't like this or that about their bodies.  In 7th grade girls should not be worried about how they look to boys. They should be worried about their homework, playing a sport, what movie they are going to watch with their friends that weekend, and understanding what a healthy life style means. 

What it definitely does not mean is only salads for every meal a month before spring break. It does not mean spending 3+ hours at the gym every day in order to get slim. 

Ladies, we need to be health conscious, not weight and size conscious!  Do I eat my 5 required fruits and veggies everyday? Am I taking a multivitamin for women? Am I getting enough calcium? Is my heart healthy? These are things we should be concerned about when we are younger. 

We need to be conscious of how we are taking care of our bodies, and only after full examination, decided whether or not that 21hour gym week is actually necessary to our over all health; mentally and physically.

Until then, Tri Delta to the rescue.  Good thing Deltas look good in Sara Blakely's Spanx.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leslie-goldman/do-i-look-fat-in-this-don_b_767565.html?ref=fb&src=sp

Jagged Little Pill

I am thankful to be born when I was. Not only do women have so many opportunities coming from the shoulders of our fore-mothers (Thank you, Abigail Adams, E.C. Stanton, S.B. Anthony, suffragettes a plenty, Rosie the Riveter, Donna Reed, Betty Friedan...etc!!), but we also have the right and the opportunity to make reproductive choices for ourselves.

 Can you believe that The Pill has only been around for 50 years?! Can you believe that women have only been able to have a real, grasping control on reproduction for the past 50 years? My mother is only 52 years old. It's crazy to think that my grandmother is the only woman in my family besides my mother and me who was able to make such staunch decisions about her uterus and what and when something was carried inside of it.

Now it appears, or at least there are rumblings of a possible new birth control revolution for American women: free contraception via the proposed health care bills that are passing through the houses of Congress.

I understand that everyone has their own ideas about the health care bill, and everyone is entitled to their opinion, including me.  Rather than speak on the health care bill as a whole, I wish to look at this possible revolution that I might be part of. 

Make no mistake about it: the health care bill isn't just advocating free birth control pills, but rather its searching for support for women to receive more reliable and even more expensive birth control methods for free under the passage of the bill.  That means women would be able to have IUDs and implants, for free. I don't know if you have ever had either form, but they expensive and depending on your health coverage you could be paying quite a bit for this preventative measure.

Which in fact is how the bill is proposing they target the opportunity: preventative measure, preventative medicine.  Opponents don't believe it is preventative, but family planning advocates would disagree. So would I, but this is why:

There are commercials for Univera Health Insurance, among others, that offer a deduction in payments or free gym memberships for their members. Isn't contributing to a healthy lifestyle a preventative measure that some Americans are taking part of?? If they're getting a discount for going to the gym or taking so many steps in a day, why shouldn't women, who are consciously deciding not to have children until they are ready, etc. get a break in the best methods available to prevent such?!? 

All right, I'm stepping off my soap box now. Here's the full article, if you'd like to read what the AP had to say about it all. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101031/ap_on_he_me/us_birth_control

Fat Talk Free Week

In college I was in an amazing sorority. Not only do I qualify it as amazing because of the women who were part of my chapter, but nationally it was awe-inspiring with its dedicated commitment to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital & women's body image.

As a woman, I look at myself constantly in the mirror.  I can tell that in the early morning, right after I get out of bed, I am at my skinniest. I look sexy, slim, trim, and every other great 4-lettered word.  I can tell if I'm looking bloated or have gained water weight, even when the scale won't tell me so. I have had boyfriends tell me that I should eat more and that they can't tell the difference on my body if I have eaten during the day or if I have abstained from food particles passing through my mouth today. 

But I need to treat my body better. I need to give it food. My body is beautiful. It is strong. My calves and ankles let me wear my sexy red high heels (inspired by Kellie Pickler's song) with confidence.  My body lets me run- sometimes with a little difficulty.  My arms are strong and help me lift things that guys don't normally believe I'd be able to because of my small size.

In chapter one Monday night we wrote down 5 things that we LOVE about our body. LOVE. Not nit-picking. Not picking apart. What do you LOVE about your body.  This vessel that protects your thoughts, emotions, and soul.

So as such, what do I LOVE about my body tonight?
1. I love the way my legs look in my red high heels.
2. I love that I can do 50 REAL push ups in a minute with my arms.
3. I love how little my hands are. They're cute.
4. I love being short; I can date men of all heights.
5. I love that I have a skull to protect my brain and my ideas & a rib cage to help protect my heart.

What do you love about your body? What do you love about yourself?

Take the Fat Talk Free Week Challenge with Tri Deltas and other college women all over the country.  This week, do not say a negative thing about your body or your shape. Take pride in the way you look. Love your body and yourself. Do not wish that you could change this or that about your body. You're beautiful the way that God made you. You have to look in the mirror every morning and tell yourself so.

If you aren't convinced, think on this: Have you ever gotten naked with a man, who made you put your clothes back on because you didn't have a body like a Victoria's Secret model? He was probably thinking he just scored majorly because he had a naked girl in a room with him.