Weight Woes Outweigh Health & Wellbeing for Women

According to a recent article by Daily News Staff Writer, Rosemary Black in the NY Daily News.com health and lifestyle section, "Most Women Are Concerned with Weight than Overall Health." It's a sad state of affairs for women when we care more about the number on the scale as opposed to the state of our health.

This information was determined by a new Associated Press/iVillage poll in which 1000 women participated, half the women surveyed were distressed by the number on the scale, even 26% of the women whose BMI (body mass index) is in the normal range. According to registered dietician, Keri Gans, spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association, says that "So many women think more about the number on the scale than whether their blood pressure or cholesterol is normal.They really don’t think about disease risk as much as they do about their weight.”

As a professional coach, body image/self esteem expert, I'm so tickled that this
information is coming to light because as women, we've been having the same disempowered
conversations about our bodies for far too long. It's time to recognize that the problem is not
what we're eating; it's what's eating us! We've got to get more serious about dealing with the
stress on our plates and stop obsessing about the food that goes in our mouths.

It's such a crime that there are so many women with negative body images.It's no wonder that so many of us are body haters. Here in the U.S. 4 out of 5 women say they hate their bodies.

The truth is most women don't have a realistic view of what they actually look like. The average

American woman is a size 14 and nowadays a size 10 is actually considered full figured. The curvy size 14 woman accounts for 67% of the population, yet most designers don't

design clothes for the plus size woman. The fall out of that is a huge population of women feeling

fat and ugly, and that only feeds the desire to feed. Emotional eating is the reason why up to 98% of

all diets don't work.

 

As the article says, "the majority of women would rather get a root canal than hop on the scale. But do you stop to wonder why? It's that screaming meanie negative self talk that kicks us in the pants every time we do things that reinforce a fat and ugly self image, such as dieting, talking about being fat, thinking and fearing food, wearing clothes that are too tight, and scale hopping. Most people don't realize that the brain and body are two sides of the same coin and

you just can't get thin if you're acting fat.

Here are 5 quick tips to get you on the road to making peace with food and friends with your body:

1. Toss your scale Every time you step on the scale, you give it permission to tell you what kind of day you're entitled to have. Don't let anyone or anything have that kind of power over you. Step away from the scale.

2. Stop dieting  Eat when you're hungry and stop before you get too full. The wisdom of our grandmothers would call this eating in moderation. Nothing is off limits and everything is okay.

3. Deal with your stress You'll never be able to stop your raging hunger if your life is spinning out of control. I love to teach my clients a stress relief method called Emotional Freedom Technique, a simple tapping process based on the science of Acupuncture.

4. Have more fun  Spend more time each day doing things you love. When you have something to look forward to, you feel better about yourself.

5. Wear clothes that fit you now  Scale the internet for sources for styles for plus size women that
can make you feel good and look great.