It’s Slimming

Good morning!

My special breakfast this morning was a Green Monster Parfait!

Green Monster Parfait

Ingredients:

2 cups spinach
1 large banana (reserve 1/4 of banana)
1/2 scoop Vega Choc-o-Lot powder
1 tbsp chia seeds
1 cup almond milk
1/3 cup Power House Glonola

Directions: In a blender, blend the spinach, 3/4 of the banana, Vega powder, almond milk, and chia seeds. In a large glass add a few tbsp of the glonola. Now add a large layer of the Green Monster followed by another scoop of Glonola. Finish with remaining GM (you might have some leftover) and top with the 1/4 of banana (sliced) and Glonola.

The Green Monster Parfait was ok, but not wonderful. I think I had high expectations for it and I’m not sure I liked eating it with a spoon.

After tasting my granola again this morning, I concluded that I overcooked it! Whoops.

I guess it is possible to screw it up after all. ;)

I would suggest cooking it for no longer than 10 minutes on each side and not letting it get as dark as I cooked mine.

I also concluded that the clump factor is missing in this recipe.

Checkout my ‘old’ Glonola version…

Choco-Carob:

Total clump factor!

However, the original Glonola had too much clumping and stuck together too much. Maybe I can find a happy medium with both recipes?! :)

I think I am going to make another recipe integrating the original recipe with this one. I will have to tweak it a bit more….you know me, I am picky with my recipes!

[source]

Are you ever out in public and you hear a conversation going on and you can’t believe what you are hearing? That was me the other night. I was at a department store looking for a gift for a girlfriend and I passed a group of 3 girls who were looking for back to school clothes. They couldn’t have been more than 9-10 years old.

Girl #1: ‘I need to get some new jeans. All of my jeans at home are fugly.’

Girl #2 & #3: ‘Yea same here.’

The girls were browsing through a couple racks of jeans and holding pairs up as they went along.

Girl #2: ‘I like these ones. I might try them on.’

Girl #1: ‘Those jeans are not slimming at all…they are too light and light colours make you look FAT.’ She scrunched up her face in disgust.

The girl quickly threw down the pair of jeans, as if they had some sort of contagious illness.

Girl #3: ‘I agree, you have to get the dark wash. You will look skinny in them. Dark colours are slimming’

‘Here, try these on. I have this pair and they make your butt look awesome.’

She handed Girl #2 a pair of dark wash jeans to try on.

Then I decided to stop being a creeper and I left the scene.

But, I was sad in my heart for these girls.

They couldn’t have been more than 10 years old and they were already concerned about having jeans that made them look skinny.

I remember being around 11 years old when my disordered eating started to develop. While I admit I didn’t know about slimming jeans (or even had a general fashion sense aside from neon and snap-on bracelets), the feelings were still very real.

It is important that we do not dismiss young girls when they talk about weight or slimming jeans or wanting to look thinner because when you are going through it it, you are like a sponge that absorbs every comment, every magazine ad, or every commercial on TV. Your surroundings are telling you to be ‘skinny’ and to wear ‘slimming’ clothes and so that is what you do.

Our weight-conscious culture seems to infect whatever it touches with messages that you aren’t good enough the way you are and that you need to change your body or wear slimming pants. These messages are hard enough to dismiss when you are an adult let alone an impressionable young girl who is fighting to fit in at school and to find out who she is.

I couldn’t help but wonder as I walked around aimlessly in that department store: What can we do for these girls?

I think two big ways that we can have an impact are 1) Educating about a positive body-image at home and setting a proper example for our kids, perhaps with a great tool like Operation Beautiful. and 2) Introducing special Body-image classes (for girls and boys) into the school curriculum. I don’t think this topic gets enough attention in the school curriculum even though the issue is pervasive and affects all aspects of a student’s life.

Have you ever overheard a similar conversation or perhaps were in a conversation when this was going on? What can we do for young girls who are developing a poor body image?

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Liz @ Tip Top Shape

14 years ago

That is so sad. I think I became aware of weight a bit earlier than most but definitely not at 10 years old! You should be enjoying your childhood then not worrying about buying flattering jeans. I mean…you’re ten. That is just ridiculous and very, very sad.

CathyK

one way to help young girls with their body image is to be a personal example to any young girls in your life. whether we realize it or not, or want to be or not, young girls look up to us and admire us, as ” special and important people” in their lives.
different topic, quick story: angela i stopped drinking diet coke a couple weeks after eric did. he was partly my inspiration (talk about role models!). NO cravings, all was going great…until about 10 days ago when i REALLY started to want a diet pop. i relate it all to a couple stressful weeks…anyway, i caved today and bought a coke zero. took one sip and….BLECH! it was SO syrupy and sweet! i poured the rest out. best $2.25 i ever wasted. i am so relieved! anyway, hope eric is still pop-free, too, and that his lifestyle change in that regard is going well!

Jodie

I have a 4 year old daughter and I hope she never has to deal with disordered eating like I did. I try to focus on our food making us strong and giving us energy. Or on the other hand if we are choosing not to buy sweets, like other people might be, we talk about how those foods don’t give us energy for playing all day and we need energy. I hope I can always keep the focus on health and doing and eating things to make us feel strong. I know when she gets into school things will be different and I will keep doing my best to stay positive and be a good role model.

It is frightening as a mom to a beautiful little girl. It makes me want to hide her away from all of the world some days.

Gree

Ugh, as a mom to a little girl this makes me so sick to my stomach. I know in our family we try to focus on good healthy food and how that makes your body feel and how exercise makes your body feel. That and making sure you talk to your kids about body image and health, that matters…especially when you start from a young age.

Leah @ Why Deprive?

I think its important to lead by example. Although I would never dream of blaming my mother for any of my past issues, shes been on a diet my whole life, so it seemed normal to me.
Actually, one of my first memories is from when I was maybe 5, we were at the neighbors house and she was talking about her daughter, who’s probably 5 years older than me so she would have been ten at the time. Anyhow, I remember her saying something about how helpful her daughter was because she would get up and say “we need to go on a diet today mom”.
Even at 5 I can remember wondering why someone so young would go on a diet. Diets were for old people in my mind.
I just think its so sad how obesessed we’ve all become with weight. It isnt the only thing in the world. There is SO much more to life that people are missing out on because of this obsession with being “thin”.

Allison

It’s sad, but I’m convinced that most of those attitudes are learned at home — from mothers, big sisters, aunts, etc. I was just as exposed to all the media messages as my friends were growing up, but I attribute my (mostly) healthy and sane outlook towards weight, eating, and working out to my mom. Even though she never really sat me down to talk about that kind of “girl stuff,” she led by example, staying active herself, signing me up for every sports team I wanted, and never pressuring me about how I looked or how much I weighed.

I’ve noticed, though, that SO MANY girls/women use those speech patterns, suggesting that their clothes make them look a certain way. When I realized this a few years ago, I started trying to consciously change my comments, from “I look good in these jeans” to “These jeans look good on me.” ;) *I’m* the one wearing my clothes, not the other way around!

Jade

Last year I was at the pool with my three-year-old daughter. She is very tiny and petite. There were three girls, who couldn’t have been older than 11-12, looking at her and one of them said, “She is so thin!” and the other one said, “I’m so jealous!” I hope that they were joking, but I really don’t know. It kind of blew me away. She’s three years old! That kind of talk bothers me a lot. My younger sister went through that with her friends a few years ago, all of them thinking they were “so fat!” when they were not at all. I hope I can instill a positive body image in my own daughter.

Lisa (bakebikeblog)

It is conversations like those that break my heart. I was actually only saying to Mr BBB the other day that I have never felt more ‘free’ with my body image than I do right now – and it pains me to hear others bemoan, belittle or hate their bodies. I think that is why movements such as Operation Beautiful are just so very very important – in terms of challenging how you see yourself, and to challenge the norality of comparing yourself to others.

Jen

One of the most interesting things that I can remember doing at school that really opened my eyes was in sex education classes… we split into groups of boys and girls, and then had to make a list with all of the things that you would want in a boyfriend/girlfriend, both physical and personality related.

The boys put on theirs that they wanted someone who wasn’t really skinny, who ate normally and who didn’t slap on loads and loads of makeup every day – until that point, I’d thought that unless I was super skinny, perfectly made up and pretended that i wasn’t hungry and didn’t like eating in front of boys, I would never be able to have a boyfriend.

I’m aware that this exercise could have gone wrong in several ways (or been offensive as it is if you were a naturally skinny person) so I don’t think it’s necessarily a good idea, but I do think that it’s important that girls understand that other girls their age (especially when they’re teenagers) generally are not happy with their own bodies, and quite a lot will lash out at others to make themselves feel better, and that you shouldn’t take things like that to heart.

The things that I remember which made me feel bad about how I looked or start to develop disordered eating were being called a whale when I was about 13 (when I wasn’t fat at all….) and another person coming up to me and my friend and calling us Jenny fat and Abi ugly (which I realise now is ridiculous, as Abi is in no way ugly, and I was not fat!)… I think it’s important to realise where those insults are coming from, and that they probably have little to do with how you actually look.

Jillian @ Reshape Your Life

I have been one of those girls… And reading this made me sad. Young girls shouldn’t feel this way. There is too much pressure on young girls to be skinny and perfect.

I agree and love your idea of having body image classes!

Heidi

This post hits so close to home! My little sister in law has been saying for the past few months that she needs to lose weight and then just recently she said she’s trying to get down to the same weight as her older sister. Both these girls look fabulous! They’re both healthy, very active, gorgeous girls. I never know what to say to her, so I just tell her she looks great the way she is, she doesn’t need to lose an ounce. I know it’s not getting through. I can’t see how this girl can think she needs to lose weight, but I know it’s from what she sees of other people. Her mom is always talking about how “fat” she is, but she’s no where near overweight and I just recently lost about 20-25 pounds after having my baby girl. I’ve told her it’s not very healthy for her to be trying to lose weight at her age as she’s only 13. I wish I could help her, but I don’t know what else to do except be a good example and stop with the fat talk(which I have! There’s no way I will talk like that now that I have kids… But I think I need to talk to my mother in law about it too :( )

stacey-healthylife

Both granola’s look good. I’m making some as soon as I can find the time. :)

Julie

One time, in American Eagle, this woman was shopping when her young daughter (maybe 11-12) and everything she tried on, she asked her daughter “does this make me look fat?” and “I have such huge thighs” and let me just say, this woman’s body was rockin’. Her daughter was just like, “No! You look so thin…” Broke my heart to watch this woman teach her daughter to objectify herself like that.

I don’t have kids yet, but my Mr and I already have started to focus on “health” instead of “thin” or “muscular” in our house. We eat healthy, whole foods and exercise because it makes us feel good to be strong and healthy. I could probably lose 5 lbs and better fit into the american standard of beauty but it is more important to me to be free of worrying about calories or cardio than it is to have a six pack. Free from guilt over food, free from guilt over skipping a workout, eating nutritious, delicious whole foods and working out to feel good because I like they way I feel when I’m healthy.

I personally believe that a healthy body STARTS with a healthy mind and healthy attitudes.

Larinna @ iheartspandex.com

I love how personal this post is! When I read your blog everyday, it always gives me inspiration to follow my dreams and reminds me of why I should be healthy. Thanks for the daily inspirations!

Heidi - Apples Under My Bed

so sad, isnt it?! i wrote a post on this a week ago. it is SO common, it is heartbreaking.

on the other hand, the birdseye photo of your green monster parfait is brilliant!

Heidi xo

Dominique

A couple of younger women (by maybe a couple of years at most) where having a similar conversation just today. I was sitting beside them during a morning break and one was offering the other chocolate cake but the other declined in fear of getting fat! But both these girls are rather slim–even slimmer than I am and I’d consider myself average or slim. I couldn’t believe it. As I sat there eating my oatmeal and drinking my tea, I could only imagine what they’d be saying about me behind my back.

I really wanted to say something to them, about how NOT fat either one of them are and how talk like that is ridiculous, but I hardly know either one of them since we don’t work in the same department. I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing.

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