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This week marks National Eating Disorders Awareness Week (NEDAW), and so we will be posting tools/resources/tips/personal stories and more this week in support of eating disorder recovery.  To kick the week off, how about checking out and joining these supportive Facebook groups (because isn’t everyone and your grandma on Facebook?).

• Letters to My Body: Fostering body kindness and promoting stronger self-esteem; One letter at a time (check out the project’s website to read letters from others).

• 5 Resolutions to Transform the Fashion and Beauty Industries: Founded by model Magali Amadei and writer Claire Mysko, 5 Resolutions (http://5resolutions.blogspot.com) is a network for anyone who believes in promoting healthy beauty and fashion.

• Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action: The Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy & Action promotes the recognition of eating disorders as a policy concern. This Facebook group was created so that people will know that there is hope. It is for everyone who is alarmed by the prominence and danger of eating disorders, but is unaware of what can be done to change it. We can ask our government to help create actual policies that will translate into advancing the goal of eating disorder prevention and recovery…

• Blogging for [ED] Awareness & Recovery: A group of bloggers that write specifically about eating disorders, whether a loved one has been diagnosed or you have been yourself.  This group is *NOT* for pro-ed blogs! These are strictly recovery and awareness-minded bloggers!

• I’m making fat socially acceptable and I’m not sorry:  This is a fat acceptance group. This group is for people who one day stumbled upon the truth that fat is not as bad as it is made out to be. In fact, most of the time fat isn’t bad at all – and even in the cases where it is (where is causes mobility or other issues) it isn’t being treated properly, and fat hatred is only hurting the issue…

• Dear Eating Disorder,: This is a group for those of us who suffer from an eating disorder can come and write a letter to let ED know exactly what we think of it. Whether you are recovering or recovered. Whether you are struggeling or in a good place. Whether the Eating Disorder is runining your life or the life of a friends or family members its time it should know. Tell your Eating Disorder your thoughts and feelings about it. Breakup with the Eating Disorder if you want!!!

• Start a Revolution.  Stop hating your body.: is an attempt to raise awareness about the vast array of problems that stem from body consciousness and lack of esteem including, but not limited to: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, body dysmorphic disorder, binge eating disorder, depression, and general dissatisfaction. Furthermore we acknowledge that society today has constructed a multi-billion dollar industry designed to perpetuate the desire for unattainable beauty while capitalizing on products for self-improvement. Our mission is to end corporate dominance over body esteem.

• Men Get Eating Disorders, Too: is a web and publicity campaign that aims to raise awareness of male eating disorders to enable men to get support. The site provides essential information and advice, links to support and a message board.

• Academy for Eating Disorders: The AED is a leading global professional association committed to promoting innovative eating disorders research,education, treatment and prevention.

• Eating Disorders Anonymous: For those with eating disorders looking for support OR someone with a loved one suffering and needing advice as to what to do OR supporting friends with eating disorders OR wanting to know more about eating disorders and their danger [this group’s content is public, so be forewarned that it’s not exactly “anonymous,” per se).

And, of course, be sure to join The-F-Word’s Facebook page, as well as friends of the blog: Big Fat Deal and Feed Me!. Know of any other great Facebook or MySpace groups? Give them a shout out in the comments below!

The New Year’s weight loss self-flagellations resolutions are returning in gale force again.  Why not trade in those tired (and probably oft-repeated) resolutions for something more purposeful and constructive?  Like, say, a copy of Rethinking Thin by New York Times science writer Gina Kolata. That’s right.  I’m giving away not one, but TWO hardback copies of the book to two lucky readers now through Dec. 13.

Interested? Details and entry form after the jump Read the rest of this entry »

I shouldn’t complain about the weather, considering that Charlynn is braving subzero Wyoming temps, but the Arctic freeze — and the fact that it gets pitch black now by 5:30 p.m. — really puts a damper on my fitness routine.  During my eating disorder recovery, I made a personal commitment to only engage in physical activities that I enjoy – biking, rollerblading, hiking, powerwalking, gardening, etc.  So far, it’s worked fabulously for me with only one niggling problem: Most, if not all, happen to be outdoors activities.  For me, the benefits of exercise justify the means, so the past few weeks have seen me back at my company’s on-site gym, scaling the Stairclimber to Nowhere while devouring magazine after magazine in an attempt to keep my mind from exploding from the insanely boring monotony.  I was perusing my latest edition of Time the other day when I read this rather ironically amusing tidbit in the mag’s 10 Questions feature with Al Roker.  Roker, as you might recall, is the formerly rotund Today Show weatherman (and new fiction author) who underwent weight loss surgery years ago and unlike other stars (ahem, Star Jones), has been very public about his weight loss struggles.

Looking back, would you go through [gastric bypass surgery] again or try another method to lose weight?

Yes, I would go through it again, because I tried every other method. But I’m not an advocate for gastric bypass. It’s dangerous surgery; 1 in 200 people dies from complications. It’s a very complex decision that people have to make for themselves, not because somebody on TV made that decision.

I should note that I support a person’s informed decision to have weight loss surgery even though I’m wary of the often underplayed serious health risks of such procedures, so I thought Roker’s response to be an appropriate one given that he is one of the most famous of “success” stories.  Then I read the next question…

Any suggestions for the rest of us on keeping the weight off?
It’s an amazing secret: if you eat less and exercise more, you will either maintain your weight or lose weight. It’s crazy. I’ve just discovered this.

So, Al tried “every other method” to lose weight EXCEPT eating less and exercising more?  He just now discovered this “amazing secret” even though it’s been widely regurgitated now since the late nineteenth century?  Really?   I’m sure reducing his stomach to the size of a thumb and amputating and rerouting parts of his digestive tract so that he can’t absorb calories and nutrients has absolutely nothing to do with him maintaining or losing weight.  Nope, just eating less and exercising more.  That’s it.  *Headsmack*

Look.  I’m not saying that eating less and exercising more won’t result in weight loss.  I lost 175 pounds in a year during my eating disorder by following virtually that same recipe, albeit by taking it to extremes.  What I am saying is that for many people, the simplistic calories in/calories burned equation simply doesn’t always parlay into any significant or lasting weight loss.  I maintain an ever-growing list of more than a dozen peer-reviewed studies from the past two decades that show that virtually every attempt to make fat people thin without risky surgery has failed completely and utterly — very few manage to keep it off.   At most, even WLS makes fat people only less fat and even then the weight regain rates among those who go under the knife are high.   Why doesn’t “eat less, move more” work?  Twin studies and adoptive studies show that the overwhelming determinant of your weight is not your willpower; it’s your genes.  Just as people are now taller than ever, so too are people now fatter.  And as Gina Kolata details in Rethinking Thin, studies show that fat people who lose large amounts of weight often see their normal-functioning metabolisms crawl to the point where they are clinically in starvation mode.  There are other forces at play, too.  For example, new studies coming out are finally confirming what so many people who take antidepressants have suspected for years: that many psychiatric medications carry weight gain as a side effect.

I don’t have many regrets from my eating disorder days.  Sure, I would love to have that time back for more constructive goals and I am sorry for the strain my disorder placed on my family, friends and coworkers, but I realize now that I was suffering from a psychiatric illness and so I try to focus on staying well and moving forward.  I do have a few regrets however, one of which are the false hopes I gave to those who sought me out for weight loss tips and advice.  As I dropped size after size, so many family members and colleagues approached me, imploring and begging me to share with them my “secret” for weight loss.  I wasn’t about to tell them that I exercised for hours on end each day and ate nothing for days and even weeks at a time before exploding into an all-out binge fest that left me cradling the toilet and calling Poison Control because the Ipecac hadn’t come back up.  No, instead I chirped brightly, “Oh, I just eat less and exercise more.”  I hated the lies I told them, but I hated the lie I harbored even more.

I’ve since maintained a weight loss of more than 30 percent healthily in the past five-plus years — without amputating my digestive system — and what I have discovered is this:  Maintaining a weight loss is hard and it’s not so easy as eating less and exercising more.  I eat a healthy diet and workout several times a week and yet the specter of weight regain always hovers at the periphery.  Despite doing everything “right,” I’ve still had an unexplained weight gain of about 25-30 pounds in the past four years.  Does it worry me?  Sure, but only because of my lingering psychological hangups about weight and not for my actual physical health, which is stellar, according to my doctor.  There are still times when I will run into someone from my past who knew me at my highest weight and they’ll ask for weight loss suggestions or for my “secret.” I don’t tell them that I eat a healthy, low-glycemic vegetarian diet, make fitness a priority and indulge in chocolate whenever the craving strikes because while that may work for me, there’s no guarantee that it will work for them. My advice, hard-earned and time-tested, is always the same: “Obsess less, enjoy more.”

While still sadly lagging in both range and affordability, plus-size clothing has come a long way from the shapeless elastic pants and sack-like tops usually reserved for fat teens and women (find great plus-size fashion tips and reviews at Pretty Pear or Young, Fat and Fabulous).  Yet there still seems to be a relative dearth of similar fashionable options for the 6 million overweight kids in the U.S. who are too large to fit into mainstream youth offerings.  According to one report, the girl’s plus-size apparel market is a $3.2 billion market that is only 16 percent served!  Capitalism, it would appear, is no match for fat-stigma.

Now a new company hopes to fill that gaping void in the children’s clothing market with fun, age-appropriate designs and sizing to fit both average and plus-size girls ages 5-12.  The mission of RealKidz Clothing is to “enhance girl’s self-esteem by providing them with age-appropriate clothing they look good in and are excited to wear.“  RealKidz founder Merrill Guerra was inspired to start the business after experiencing frustration in finding clothing for her own plus-size daughter.   Just check out some of these adorable designs:

I normally dislike the labeling of “real” in describing women because it all too often dismisses naturally slim women, but in the case of RealKidz, it’s entirely appropriate.  The RealKidz K-I-D-Z Sizing Model is designed to fit Slim (K), Average (I), Above Average (D) and Plus (Z) girls ages 5-12.  This system ignores industry standards and takes a much more granular approach to sizing, which, according to Guerra, “moves as close as you can find in the industry toward tailor made.”  And because the clothes are primarily sold in home-based parties (and online), girls are able to see and try on clothing in the comfort of their own or a friend’s home.  The pieces are pricey for children’s clothing, ranging from $24 for a pair of capris and $34 for a flare top, but not unexpected for a new and independent clothing line.  RealKidz is also developing an online social network group that would allow parents to “share their challenges, suggestions and joys” and also provide information from experts in fields that affect childrens’ health.

I’m sure this start-up will have the lunatic MeMe Roths of the world picketing at its virtual doors for somehow “promoting” obesity by allowing fat girls to wear something other than a potato sack, but I’m betting that it’s met with more positive reception than negative.  Even if childhood obesity is the raging public health and national security crisis it’s purported to be — despite statistics that show it hit its plateau years ago — fat kids need clothes too and othering them with a lack of options and styles only serves to further erode what are often already fragile self-esteems, which can not-so-ironically lead to even greater weight gain and health problems.   Bravo, RealKidz, bravo.

Need a quick self-esteem pick-me-up?  Check out this video campaign by Desdemona. Writes the artist: “Too Big for My Skin is not just a poem. It’s a mind state. It’s an international campaign that invites you to leave your response to the video in the comment section or to submit your very own video response. It’s about positive body image, acceptance and strength. It’s about finding your voice and speaking. Join us in the campaign. More is to come!”

Read the full lyrics here.

French-Swedish supermodel Filippa Hamilton is thinner than 99 percent of American women, but she’s still not thin enough for Ralph Lauren.  After legally threatening the website Boing Boing for posting a horribly digitally altered Ralph Lauren advertisement of Hamilton in which the model was Photoshopped to give her an impossibly skinny body (”Dude, her head’s bigger than her pelvis”), the fashion house admitted to Extra, “Oops, our bad.”

Here’s the image, originally posted on Photoshop Disasters for obvious reasons.  Photoshop Disasters also received a similar threatening letter and took the image down.

Ralph Lauren issued the statement: “For over 42 years we have built a brand based on quality and integrity. After further investigation, we have learned that we are responsible for the poor imaging and retouching that resulted in a very distorted image of a woman’s body. We have addressed the problem and going forward will take every precaution to ensure that the caliber of our artwork represents our brand appropriately.”

Quality and integrity?  There are many, myself included, who would argue that Ralph Lauren’s normal “brand” caliber presents very distorted images of women’s bodies on a daily basis, but frankly I doubt the company cares much or at all.  Jenny Lauren, the niece of Ralph Lauren, developed a serious eating disorder as a teen — her disorder, like others, was complex in nature, but she admits in her deliberately titled memoir Homesick that fashion and her family played a “huge role” in affecting her “psyche” — and even now as a mostly recovered adult, still suffers mentally and physically from it.  Violent bingeing and purging caused Jenny’s colon to herniate so that her small intestines dropped to the space between her rectum and vagina, sparking a lifetime of living with chronic pain and ailments.  Her search for relief has taken her from the Mayo Clinic to a spiritual healer in Brazil, from the East Coast to Tucson, Arizona, and she suffers still.

Ralph Lauren doesn’t seem to care that his upscale rail-thin images contributed to his niece’s eating disorder and subsequent debilitating ailments; why should he care about all the other girls (and boys) who develop eating disorders in attempts to look like the digitally slimmed models gracing his catalogue and website?  The only reason the company objected to this ad is because it went too far and made the brand an object of ridicule and not aspiration.

Here’s five new-to-us blogs we love.  If you aren’t reading them already, go have a look.

• Operation Beautiful:   Operation Beautiful is simple: all you need is a pen and a piece of paper…  So says site editor Caitlin, who’s on a mission to leave positive, body-affirming notes in public spaces and invites you to do the same.

• The Manfattan Project: “A collection of photographs of stylish everyday people in New York City. These people are beautiful, they are well-dressed, they are confident. They are also, without apologies or contradictions, FAT.”

• Men Get Eating Disorders Too: Okay, so it’s technically not a blog, but the site does feature personal stories and inspirational articles all penned by men with eating disorders in an effort to dismantle the gender stereotype keeping so many men from seeking help for their disorders.

• More of Me To Love: The site’s mission is to “promote and spread the healthiness and happiness that you deserve through our welcoming community, certified experts and empowering programs. But More of Me to Love is more than the sum of its parts: it’s a lifestyle of living better and loving yourself.”

• The Plus Runner:  Blogger Sallie has completed 12 half-marathons and another dozen triathlons and she’s done it all in sizes ranging from 16 to 22.  Her goal is to “encourage more future runners, walkers, hikers, to hit the road, and redefine your life as an active person.”

Know of any other awesome blogs or websites?  Post ‘em in the comment below.

Daniel Engbar hits the nail on the head in his latest column for Slate: “Glutton Intolerance: What if a war on obesity only makes the problem worse?”

These data points suggest a rather simple approach to America’s obesity problem: Stop hating. If we weren’t such unrepentant body bigots, fat people might earn more money, stay in school, and receive better medical care in hospitals and doctor’s offices. All that would go a long way toward mitigating the health effects of excess weight—and its putative costs. But there’s an even better reason to think that America’s glutton intolerance is a threat to public health and the federal budget. Recent epidemiological research implies that the shame of being obese poses its own medical risk. Mental anguish harms the body; weight stigma can break your heart.

Engbar then delves into an interesting theory behind many of the so called obesity-related diseases.  Victims of chronic stress or depression tend to maintain higher levels of inflammatory chemicals, or cytokines, in their bloodstream, which can increase one’s risk of heart disease, hypertension and diabetes.  As it turns out, fat people often have unusually high cytokine levels, which as epidemiologist Peter Muennig argues, are caused by the stress and shame of being fat — the more abuse you take, the worst the disease.  And the current anti-obesity rhetoric, Engbar says, only fans the social stigma flames.

…there’s plenty of evidence that body-shape discrimination plays a role in human disease outcomes. Shortness, for example, is associated with an increased risk of coronary heart disease, diabetes, and early death—as well as lower wages and fewer long-term relationships. For some reason, though, the health effects of being short are worse for men than they are for women. Could it be that the social consequences of height and weight go in opposite directions?If anti-fat bias can affect our bodies, then it’s worth considering how an all-out war on obesity plays out in terms of public health. When we reach out to poor communities and educate them about the risks of being overweight, we are, in effect, exporting the weight stigma that happens to be most prevalent among rich, white people.

We’ve worked hard to frame excess weight as a major health risk and a drain on the economy. The motivation is generous enough: Anti-obesity rhetoric encourages people to eat less and exercise more. But what if it also encourages discrimination? If that’s the case, a war on obesity would come at a significant cost to the fattest Americans—in terms of lower wages, less education, and more stress-related illness.

Exactly.

In a move similar to that of Glamour, Germany’s most popular women’s magazine, Brigitte, announced that it will no longer use professional models in favor of “real women” in an attempt to combat an unhealthy standard of size-zero models its says has alienated readers.  Andreas Lebert, Brigitte’s editor-in-chief, said that the bimonthly magazine will, starting next year, feature a mix of prominent women and regular readers in photo spreads for everything from beauty to fashion to fitness.  Lebert said the move is in response to readers saying that they are tired of seeing “protruding bones” from models who weigh the same as a prepubescent girl.

But unlike Glamour, which has committed to featuring plus-size models, Brigitte isn’t “going to become a magazine for plus-sizes,” said Lebert.   Because, “real women,” apparently, only come in sizes 4-12.  Read an English translation of the magazine’s call for models here.

You know who else uses “real people” in its ads?  Wal-Mart.  I hate to give any kudos to the union-busting retail bully who sells both women and the community it robs jobs from short, but I do have to admire the diverse everyday kinds of people it features in its print and television ads.  There was a print ad not too long ago for bras that featured a group of women a’ la Dove-style, but also included women who were old and wrinkled and actually plus-size.  The Nivea spot Wal-Mart is currently running on television shows a plus-size black woman and (who I assume to be) her husband sitting on the couch watching TV and eating popcorn.  The woman wears probably a U.S. size 20 at the least, and her husband can’t take his hands off of her.

The owner of one German modeling agency told The Associated Press that she believed Brigitte’s ban on models was simply a marketing gag that wouldn’t last once readers began clamoring again for “beautiful, aesthetically pleasing” people.  Yet Wal-Mart, with its regular people marketing blitz, trails only Exxon in annual revenues.  Sure, the demographics are different for Wal-Mart and Brigitte and people would continue shopping at Wal-Mart even if it did no advertising at all, but the fact remains that the super center dynamo knows both its clientele and how to best reach out to them — it doesn’t throw a half-billion-dollars a year at its advertising strategy for nothing — and it does this by thumbing its nose at the “advertising is aspirational” mantra with direct appeals to the Regular Joes and Janes who shop at its stores.  It’s this same appeal to consumers that motivated Glamour to diversify the models it features and that has now pushed Brigitte to move in the same direction.

What with Vogue’s public condemnation of fashion designers, the backlash received by SELF for digitally slimming Kelly Clarkson, the British Parliament debating regulation of airbrushed images, Glamour’s new commitment to body diversity and now Brigitte seeking out “real people” for its ads… it certainly seems like the dominoes have been set in motion. Here’s hoping they tumble rapidly.

The “Naked Fat Women” edition of Glamour is now out in what the fashion mag’s editors promise will be an “extraordinary dialogue on body image.”  But, as those same editors remind readers, Glamour has been on the cutting edge of body acceptance since the early 1990s — they’ve put Queen Latifah on the cover twice and “frequently feature other fuller-bodied celebs and models.”  Is anyone else as dubiously surprised as I am by this?

Glamour now promises to do the following:

A continued commitment to showing a wide range of body types—and, of course, racial diversity—in our pages, including fashion and beauty stories.

A promise to give the best plus models not just work, but the same great work straight-size models get, partnering with top photographers, stylists and makeup artists. Because a generous helping of fantasy, in our view, is fabulous—as long as it’s extended to women of all sizes.

An ongoing celebration of the so-called imperfections, from nose bumps to gap teeth smiles, that make us all unique.

Enthusiastic support for any designer who manufactures chic clothes we can photograph on full-bodied models. Isn’t it time for changes like these? Reality, after all, is everywhere.

What do you think?  Is this just lip service or has Glamour truly seen the body acceptance light?  Do you think we’ll see any true size 20-plus models featured in its pages anytime soon?