Happy Friday! Wow this week has flown by!
This morning I was so excited to try out my new Booty Camp Fitness DVD.
I started with the Cardio Quickie which was 19 mins plus a 5 min warm up and 5 min cool down. Then I did the BOOTY BOOSTER afterwards. I didn’t know this, but the DVD is actually two DVD’s for a total of 262 minutes. Yowza!
It KICKED MY BOOTAY!!!! Oh my gosh, I was panting up a storm doing the cardio portion and the Booty Booster was honestly the best booty workout I have ever done. I was cursing in my head and out loud!!!
It gave me a nice post-booty glow afterwards! :mrgreen:
Lunch took two minutes to prepare and it was a good thing because I was Hangry!
2 Minute Pumpkin Quinoa
Ingredients:
- 1 cup canned pumpkin
- 1 cup cooked quinoa
- 1/2 cup Almond Breeze (unsweetened)
- Sea salt and pepper to taste
- Shredded coconut to garnish
Directions: Mix together and add more salt if necessary. Heat and serve! I think this was the quickest lunch I have ever made!!!
Serves 1.
This is my favourite spoon. It is from Mexico where Eric and I got engaged!
What is that, an elephant??
I can’t stop.
Two delicious kiwis to keep the tropical theme going! A hefty dose of Vit C to keep those colds at bay.
Do You Feel Pressure From Your Job To Be Thin: Take 2
It is amazing how many women feel pressure to maintain or achieve a low body weight because of one’s JOB (see original post here). It is a bit scary actually when you think about how many hours a day we spend at work or in school.
A few themes in the comments stuck out for me:
Please note, I am not saying this is true in every workplace, I am just summarizing what some of the comments were in the original post.
1) Appearance focused jobs come with a lot of pressure to be thin. For example, jobs like fashion design, acting, retail, sales, health and fitness, etc. However, office jobs too can have a lot of pressure depending on the environment.
2) Women often feel pressure from other women, not men, to lose weight.
3) There is a lot of unhealthy diet/weight talk that goes on among women at work.
4) Healthy women are often singled out and made fun of because of their ‘weird’ eating or exercise habits.
5) Women often feel the need to reduce their attractiveness or increase it, depending on their environment. Many of you said you tried to downplay your attractiveness to be taken more seriously, or you used it to your advantage.
6) Many college environments have a ton of pressure to be thin and to ‘keep up with the Jones’
I often hear the saying that women are skinny for other women, not men. Do you think that is true? There tends to be this unspoken pressure that many women feel when they are in groups with other women. This pressure can escalate when women feel that things are at stake like a promotion at work or a higher grade in a class.
One reader put it very well when she asked, ‘Why do we do this to ourselves?’ I think it is so hard to get away from the negative situation, especially if others are constantly talking about dieting all day at work. How do you get away from your coworkers whom you have to talk to all day long?
At my old job, I had one coworker who would make fun of me every single day. He would often say, ‘All you eat is lettuce.’ in front of my boss and my coworkers. It was humiliating and not true, in fact, I never even used to bring salads for lunch (not that there is anything wrong with a salad, anyways!). Other days, he would tease me for eating TOO much. We all know that when you eat healthy (especially vegetarian or vegan) you need a lot of food to sustain your energy. I would pack large lunches because if I didn’t I would be starving all day long! My coworker often said things like, ‘Wow you are going to eat all that?’ and ‘Geeze are you still eating?’. It was a very negative situation day in and day out, even though I tried just to ignore it the best I could.
I eventually realized that no one can bring me down without my permission.
Here I was letting this guy get to me each day, when I knew that I was doing nothing wrong. I finally decided to stop allowing him to affect my mood. I just had to say to myself, ‘No more’, and each time it happened, I tuned it out and told myself something positive about myself inside my head such as, ‘You treat yourself amazing and you respect your health.’ I also realized that he probably said these things to me because he was insecure about himself. He ate fast food for lunch everyday and he probably felt bad about his own choices.
I think it is important for women everywhere to live for yourself, first. Don’t live for your coworkers who expect you to eat a diet yogurt for lunch with them everyday. Don’t live for your male boss who expects you to look a certain way.
Decide to live for YOU and you only. Make yourself happy. Treat yourself kindly. The better you treat yourself, the happier you will be, and the easier it will be for you to ignore the pressure. I found the worse I treated myself, the more I perceived the pressure to be around me. If I bought into the pressure, it was hard to escape. If I told myself that I was in control of how I perceived my environment, then it made it easier.
We can help ourselves a lot if we change our perception and surround ourselves with positive people, or even just positive thoughts.
What do you think? Are women thin for other women, or for men? Is it possible to escape the pressure that many of us feel?
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{ 17 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Angela,
Have you seen “America the Beautiful?” It’s a documentary about how focused on beauty and appearance our society is. Thought provoking and a bit disheartening.They focus part of the film on a 12 year old girl that who was basically chewed up and spit out by the fashion industry once she got to be age 14 or 15. Kind of horrific.
This is such an interesting thing. For me, losing weight has actually made me more insecure…is that possible?
When I was heavy, 100lbs ago, I was in my own world. Kinda like ‘us v. them’. However, as I have lost weight I have become more aware of how much more I need to lose. Finding myself comparing to the fitness regimes of those online, around me etc. Is my stomach as flat.
However, I am more aware of that. What you wrote ‘Decide to live for YOU and you only. Make yourself happy. Treat yourself kindly. The better you treat yourself, the happier you will be, and the easier it will be for you to ignore the pressure. I found the worse I treated myself, the more I perceived the pressure to be around me.’
I think it’s so true. The level at which you treat yourself, is really the level at which you deem the world to treat you and you give permission for.
Thanks for bringing this up. Thanks for following it up. Thanks for making me give myself a pat of the back.
p.s. I love quinoa.
This is an awesome post. There is so much to think on here!
I completely agree that women are skinny for other women. I have never heard a guy say “oh wow she’s so skinny! she’s the best looking woman i’ve ever seen!” Um no. Never. I’ve been told by countless guys that super skinny is unattractive. So no, I think it’s something we do to ourselves. how sad that is.
And about your co-worker who used to comment on everything, you are right – he was just insecure about himself. There are always people like that. my family does that to me sometimes but I just brush it off. I am who I am and I make the choices I make for myself, not to please someone else.
Great and inspiring post :)
Women compete with other women, yep! My husband and many other men have said there’s nothing more flattering on a woman than curves. Over the years, I’ve grown and realized that nothing I do now is for anyone but myself. I won’t workout or eat right to look better than someone else or be skinnier than my friend. I do these things to be the healthiest person I can be. Because I feel good when I live this way. I will validate my own feelings with my own progress…no matter what anyone else thinks. I turn 30 this year and I have a feeling that my thirties will be the best years of my life thus far. I finally love myself, my body and care about ME. I won’t let anyone else diminish that. Life. Is. Good. :)
I work in fitness – so I do feel pressure to look a certain way, i.e. “thin” and “fit.”
But this topic just made me think of a class I was in today. It’s a 3 month program at a local personal training studio. I’m a student in the class and it’s a group of 6 women. We took a class before picture today and the woman I went to stand next too made a fuss because she is significantly heavier than me. Really?!?! Aren’t we all here to just be our best and improve our health? I don’t single you out for your looks, why are you picking on me for being slimmer (and by the way, I used to be 200lbs+)?
I’ve encountered this sort of thing before – I got healthier and now sometimes get picked on by less healthier people for eating weird or exercising. My brother constantly torments me about eating tofu – which I actually don’t even eat.
I think people just pick on another person if they are not comfortable with themselves – or feel like they should be doing what you’re doing.
It can be annoying -but I know it’s insecurity and such.
I fully agree that women put more pressure on themselves to look good for other women.
I guess I never stopped to think that people made comments to me because they may be feeling insecure about themselves, or having some guilt issues over their Mcdonald’s lunch, while I sit there munching through a large bag of veggies.
OOOO I want this DVD!!
I have a coworker that always comments on what Im eating. Like you, I have no interest in being hungry all day long and so I bring lots of snacks. He always says things to me like “I thought you were on a diet why are you eating again?” Well, Im NOT on a diet, and Im sorry if you have a problem with me eating a kiwi, but keep it to yourself. I dont let him get to me though. The fact of the matter is that he’s an ass. Nothing will change that.
I definitely think we want to be skinny for other women more than for men. Lets be honest, men typically dont want women to be skinny. My boyfriend got super concerned when I lost weight “you’re not going to get skinny are you?” Its all a competition. We see other women and we want to look better than them, and thats not healthy.
When you did the other post on feeling pressure in the workplace, I could see how it related to the industry I am soon to be entering (public relations), but failed to think about where I am right now. I work in a supermarket, and as a service supervisor I work in a confined space with one or two other supervisors at a time. Off the top of my head, I can think of seven other supervisors (out of eleven) who are health and fitness minded. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – we will come into work and share stories of our workouts, provide motivation and a general health culture.
But for the females in particular, it is beginning to border on obsessive in terms of self image. None of us are overweight, but we are continually complaining about areas of our bodies we hate and how we want to lose weight. It’s as if the more into exercise one person becomes, the more we all amp it up. Then on our meal break we’ll get something from the bakery or have a chocolate and laugh it off.
This post has given me a wake up call. From now on I am going to love myself and my body. Exercise because I love the endorphins and fuel myself with foods that will keep me healthy. No more fat talk.
Thanks Angela.
Firstly, love your posts and the amount of thought you put in to them! I maintain the weight I am right now because I know that I look after myself and its a healthy weight. I wouldn’t say I maintain my weight for anyone else but myself.
It is true that women can be so catty when it comes to weight. At work I was standing talking in the office and a co-worker randomly walked up to me and said so everyone could hear ‘How are you so skinny? You skinny b*£%$?’. I guess someone could be saying that in a joking kind of manner but it kind of made me feel she was trying to make me feel bad about myself or something which was NOT going to happen.
At my work its almost the opposite. They are mostly bigger ladies and you almost feel pressure to stay unfit with them. To eat the bad foods they are eating. Funny how people try to keep you down with them.
I’ve never felt the pressure to be thin due to men. I think women are more judgmental about the appearances of other women. I definitely eat more now than I did when I ate a unhealthy diet, but none of my coworkers have made negative comments about it. But I consider nearly all of my coworkers friends, and we’re all very open & honest with each other. It’s not a negative environment in any way.
We usually eat healthy as a group at work. We all bring items to make salads or bring our lunches.
This was a really insightful post. I think the “who are women thin for?” question can only be answered when defining how thin is thin. If you mean just generally healthy-looking and slim, then I think a lot of the time women do aim to be thin for men because this is the type of woman that men are typically attracted to. But I think women who try to attain the supermodel, sickly skinny ideal are only doing it for other women. I don’t know any men who are attracted to women who look like skeletons, yet women constantly attempt to look that way anyway.
Mmmmmmmm, this recipe looks amazing! And it’s GF to boot! Thanks for posting Angela. I don’t know what it is about you and your awesome blog, but every time I read it, I am more compelled to go vegetarian!!! (vegan someday)
Hope you have a good week!
I know this is old now, but a lot of those points are so true! I am a female engineer, so most of my co-workers are male. They are always saying things like “Is that all you are going to eat?” and commenting on my eating when I try to eat healthy. Believe me- I eat a lot. I just like to eat frequent smaller meals, and I eat lots of salads. There definitely seems to be this feeling that you should LOOK healthy, but not seem to be trying to be healthy (or thin, or fit). The perception is that people who are obviously trying to be healthy are probably obessive and unhealthy about it, which is not true!
On the other hand, I can say that in my college experience, fitness, health and being thin were the last things on most peoples priority list. I can’t tell you how many people gained the freshman 15, or 20, EVERY year of school.
I have a question about the calorie count in your pumpkin quinoa recipe. I have not found a brand of quinoa with less than 150 calories for 1/4 cup serving. So if your recipe calls for 1 cup of quinoa, how can it be only 369 calories, which includes all of the other ingredients in that calorie count? Canned pumkin is 50 calories per half cup and the recipe calls for 1 cup–that’s 100 calories alone for pumpkin. Now add in the almond milk and coconut……Doesn’t add up.