Laura Fenamore Publishes A New Book

Controversial Fitness Leader Publishes Book to Wide Acclaim "Inventing Change From the Inside Out"

CLICK ABOVE TO GET YOUR COPY OF THIS LIFE CHANGING BOOK AND USE IT! This is a powerful tool to end obesity, eating disorders, yo-yo dieting, food addiction and low self-esteem. You can change your life and create permanent weight loss.

For information on participating in Laura's new 12-week course, starting late September, call Laura directly at 415-464-1234. The course is limited to only a handfull of participants, so don't delay.

www.LauraFenamore.com

China Dolls

There are some expressions that seem to float timelessly and effortlessly through society. One of these is, “pretty as a china doll.” Recently we’ve had to stop, however, and ask ourselves, “Just what does that really mean?”

The Chinese government pulled a bizarre switcheroo at their opening ceremony at the Olympics and put one beautiful little girl’s voice onto another beautiful little girl’s body, somehow negating both children in the process. Obviously, a boatload of attention and support has been given to the “ugly duckling” (Yang Peiyi), who was actually as sweet and imperfectly adorable as 7-year olds ever are. But the other side of the coin – the other little girl (Lin Miaoke) – is really just as victimized.

Although she may have been chosen as “the pretty one,” beautiful little Lin Miaoke has been completely invalidated as anything but a pretty face. She is a cardboard cutout – a mask. She is not real. And to make matters worse, if you really look at this situation, she literally has no voice. Now, it’s no surprise that we stand here on our side of the world in strong judgment of this ”switcheroo” – and we should – but at what point do we point that finger back at ourselves?

The internet, the pulse of today’s society, is ripe with criticism. One blogger on TotalHealth.com (The Weighting Game with Leslie) expressed her outrage for the hidden Peiyi like this:

That's what happened with Peiyi. She was erased, pushed aside for a sanitized version of what China thinks a little girl should look like.

Another blogger, Lindsay Weiss, on Parent Center Momformation said:

Are you kidding me? What isn’t adorable about a little girl with crooked teeth, chubby cheeks, and a voice of an angel? This girl reportedly said she didn’t mind singing in the wings and that it was a honor to sing for her country. God bless her…but what kind of message does that send to her? … Please. I’m disgusted.

Yes, we all jump to our feet in outrage and harsh criticism of this bait and switch by the Chinese government, and the horrible treatment of a very normal looking little girl. But we have to admit that we are just as guilty of masks, disguises and deceptions of beauty. In fact, we airbrush even our most beautiful models and actresses, and then ridicule people like Jennifer Love Hewitt for being a size two. Every single day, we are complicit in the same kind of Olympic-sized fraud. We define beauty in more and more narrow terms. Over the last few decades, the line between pretty and ugly has become so thin that our girls are literally dieing to cross it.

Rather than stand in judgment of anyone, perhaps we need to step back and look at ourselves. Maybe we need to ask if we, as a society, have set the bar to beautiful so high that we have ostracized almost everyone. Maybe what we need to be outraged by is the crazy message that we are never, ever enough.

Let’s take a minute and really digest and mediate on the old adage: Beauty is only skin deep.

To all of my readers, I have an inspiration to offer you: Be healthy. Be fit. Be more than the skin you’re in. You are absolutely awesome and beautiful just as you are, right now.

To your health, Laura Fenamore, CPCC, Body Image Mastery Mentor
http://www.laurafenamore.com/

Copyedited by Mary Agnes Antonopoulos, www.RockawayWriter.com

Eating Myself Alive – The “Fat Princess”

There is a particular brand of humor out there where the comedian routinely makes themselves the brunt of every joke. Many of those jokes tend to be about weight, body image, and in general, self-depreciation. The reason that we can all sit anonymously in the audience and laugh at these “put-downs” is that we can usually be fully confident that the star on the stage likes themselves. They somehow embody an air of, “The joke’s really on you, because I’m awesome.” Or at least, “If you don’t like it, lump it.” We never have to stop when listening to Roseanne Barr or Drew Carey and wonder if all the “fat talk” is hurting their feelings. Somehow we KNOW that they KNOW we love them – every single ounce.

But what happens when we touch upon the average person, one who has not been seasoned by life yet. One who hasn’t had a chance to build the needed armor to love themselves in a world that obviously feels it is just fine to be prejudiced against the fat kid on the playground. Case in point? Fat Princess.

Briefly, Fat Princess is Sony's upcoming video game. It debuted at the recent E3 expo to much clamor and a web of criticism from feminists and non-feminists alike. Basically, the colorful Fat Princess is capture-the-flag with a twist – you thwart her capture from the “bad guy” by locking the once-thin princess in a dungeon and stuffing her full of cake so they literally can’t haul her big butt back to home base.

Fun? Funny? Unlike Drew Carey, the joke is on us. As a society, we decry segregation and prejudice in every way, and then we allow something like Fat Princess to be bought and sold with aplomb. And don’t kid yourself, the princess isn’t 35, she’s a kid. At most, she’s a teen. At a time in their lives when our daughters body’s are changing as fast as their hairstyles and what they need more than anything is reassurance and messages about healthy bodies, we are again allowing society to force feed them yet another message about FAT. And for good measure, this one is all tied up in a story about marriage and relationships.

If she’s fat enough, Fat Princess can remain … what? A virgin? Unclaimed? Unmarried? Ask any professional, and one of the tenets of most eating disorders is hiding from one’s own sexual development. Too fat and you’re safe from sexual overtures, thin enough and you’re so childlike you’re safe as well.

While allowing open dialogues around childhood obesity and healthy approaches to healthy bodies is vital to our recovery as a society, pretending that diminishing our young women is fun and games is beyond absurd.

Do yourself and future generations a big favor. For one week note how you speak about your body in front of your kids – and all the kids in your life. Are the words coming from your mouth self-loving? Or are they self-loathing? Don’t kid yourself; what you say matters. You ARE having an impact, one way or the other. This is not to shame or wrong you. Like all of us, you probably do enough of that without anyone’s help. But it is meant to open your eyes in order to live a new way.

I have no doubt that we, empowered women, are all about creating a legacy of empowered women. Creating an entire generation of self-hating adolescents is both insane and self-destructive. Let’s not feed our girls any more ideas about princesses at all – let’s fill their mouths with powerful, self-loving words about being QUEENS. Queens have power and queens rule their kingdom. Settling for anything less is just a royal flush.

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YOU CAN create REAL transformation in your life and your family.

I am about to launch my third session of my 12-week course, which begins in September. Like sessions one and two, this course will help you create REAL, valuable, and permanent change in your life. It is called: Loving What You See in the Mirror (Crucial Components to Permanent Weight Loss).

I am currently interviewing potential participants to fill the remaining spots for this course, and I welcome you to call me at 415-464-1234 to discuss your weight-loss experiences and goals. I've been there, and my course has grown out of many years and experiences helping others to find their own freedom from binging, compulsive eating, yo-yo dieting, eating disorders, anorexia, etc. You can click here to visit my website to see my story.

The two groups I currently lead are spectacular. The women are dynamic and wonderful. They are calling forth permanent change, they are committed to their accountability partners, and they are embracing their own transformation.

There is still room remaining, so encourage your friends and loved ones to reach out for a phone interview to decide if they would be an ideal candidate for this life-changing program. 415.464.1234


By, Laura Fenamore, CPCC, Body Image Master Mentor
www.LauraFenamore.com

Losing to Win – It’s a Family Affair

As any parent can tell you, the back-to-school season is only nano-seconds away. New backpacks, notebooks, sneakers, and oh yeah, lunchboxes. I wonder if we give what we plan to put inside those lunchboxes (and, ultimately, into our kids) half as much thought as which Disney character or pop singer graces the outside?

We are bombarded with information today, from Morgan Spurlock’s ”Supersize Me” and Michael Moore’s “Sicko,” to the recent cover story of Time Magazine (“Our Supersized Kids”). We literally pay billions of dollars toward sports programs and physical education. With all of this effort and knowledge, one would expect us to have the healthiest kinds in the world!

Let’s face it, making good choices in a world floating in high-fructose corn syrup and fast food isn’t easy!

In the last 20 years, the average American family of four has increased their sugar consumption by more than 8-10 pounds every week. Imagine filling your living room with two 5-pound bags of sugar, for each member of your family, every single month. Now imagine the same room ten years later. This is what we are allowing into our homes and our kids. It’s no wonder that two-thirds of Americans are overweight; we are literally sacrificing our personal sustainability in exchange for “the sweet life.”

Did you know that 32% of all American kids are overweight?

Penelope Slade-Royall, Director of the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion says, "Sit down on a bench in a park with a person on either side of you, if you're not overweight, statistically speaking, both of the other people sitting with you are."

So what happens now? What do we need to “lose” in order to “win” as a nation?

Every day we bring in, or send out for, bags and boxes of processed carbs and sugar (much of which becomes lunch and dinner), and then we spend our verbal energy berating ourselves and complaining about being overweight.

Where is that getting us?

Our sons and daughters hear every self-hating remark we make. “I’m so fat…” “I ate too much…” “My big butt…” etc, etc., and then we load on more self-hate with every spoonful and every meal. Talk about mixed messages!

1. Let’s begin a personal revolution right now and fill our mouths with self-loving words and healthy food. Let’s think “out of the box” when it comes to the lunchbox. Simple changes can make a big difference over time. How about peanut butter on whole wheat bread (or PB & Honey if your kids demand something sweet), then add an apple or a bunch of grapes and a skim milk. How about tossing in a sliced cucumber or some cherry tomatoes. Or consider a “do-it-yourself” lunch kit of whole grain crackers and lowfat cheese.
   
2. Next, let’s begin a self-dialog and a family-dialog focused on acceptance and self-love. Start by replacing words like “diet” with “healthy food” and “portions,” let’s replace “exercise” with “movement,” and let’s NOT give in to the quick-fix! Skip the drive-thru, and instead, stay hungry for ten minutes until you can get home and grab a delicious orange while preparing whole wheat pasta and lean chicken or fish.
   
3. Remember, if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Busy working moms and dads need to plan every single meal in order to avoid last-minute crises. Take the time today to sit down and take stock of what you have and what you need, then put together a plan for the next week that includes twenty-one healthy meals and at least four or five fun, physical activities to enjoy as a family.
   
4. Get honest about your limits and free up your time. If time is an issue, and let’s face it, it is for most of us, how about swapping responsibilities with a friend or neighbor? Get creative, what do you need? The universe is more than willing to support you and so are your loved ones – so ask for help, because chances are, they need it to.

Do these things and you will invite your entire family to live long and live strong! Let’s face it, like the piper, you pay the grocer by either spending a few extra dollars on healthy food, or you spend it at the doctor’s office later on. Nutritious, healthy, invigorating food or illness and co-pays...

Which do you choose?


To your health! Laura Fenamore, CPCC, Body Image Mastery Mentor

http://www.laurafenamore.com/
Laura@LauraFenamore.com
415-464-1234