Good morning all,
I am very excited today because I received my first email from Vanderbilt University about the course I am taking that starts on the 6th! Many of the Ivy league and larger universities in the US have started to offer free/non-credit classes online and I am taking "Nutrition, Health and Lifestyles: Issues and Insights" from Vanderbilt online! We got our first assignment for the class which is to track our energy intake and outflow for 3 days in a row. We are supposed to review portion sizes too! I was happy that this was the 1st assignment because its something I already do anyway with MyFitnessPal application on my phone - so easy! I am passing this class already! : )
I love that this class is being offered and at no cost because I have visited the topic before on this blog that it is SO HARD to be healthy if you aren't educated on what you should be doing. I think the worst part of the lack of nutritional education is that its not that the information is right in front of your face and you are choosing to not learn about it, its that there are companies that are purposefully misleading you to be uneducated. We have all heard of the horrors of Monsanto and their grip on the powers that be but that's a blog for another day. If you want to check out some of the free courses offered, visit this site. https://www.coursera.org/
So now, let's make the leap from College courses to college sports, and then another leap from sports to those that cheer for sports. Have you all heard of the CBS sports blogger that wrote about the "chunky NBA cheerleader"? The girl looks like this.
The blogger was fired for making the statement that she was "too chunky" to perform but I fear that the blogger wasn't fired for making a statement that has no merit or real purpose. Someones weight is NOT news. Instead, the blogger was fired to save face because of the backlash. I just want to know what kind of world it is when a beautiful, natural, active girl is told that she is too chunky to perform. Does anyone think that the guys watching that game gave a crap? The truth is that most men prefer women with shape and curve - it is the women that put the unnaturally skinny stereotype on women, not men.
Since I am getting married, I have noticed that I am bombarded with things telling me that I should be trying to "get in shape" for my wedding day. I should be attending "bridal bootcamp" classes, doing cleanses for my skin and water weight and whatnot. The wedding site The Knot even has a timeline for helping you plan your wedding and in the 9-12 months out category, there is a check box for "Start eating healthy and getting in shape for your wedding day." This perturbed me a little bit and this is why - You are ASSUMING that I am unhappy with my weight and health and that obviously, I couldn't possibly be happy on my wedding day without losing some pounds. Maybe this is me being hyper sensitive to this but all I can think is, my fiance didn't fall in love with a 110 pound girl, he fell in love with me as I am. So why on the biggest day of our lives together would I try to change myself and not look like the healthy girl he's dated for 4 years? Again, its a pressure that women put on themselves or other women to look flawless, its not something that the groom cares about.
These are the photos that we are shown to be a "beautiful bride" and this woman is awfully underweight. If I walked down the aisle like this, I would hope that my fiance would hand me a turkey burger at the end.
| MMMMM... |
