The Juicy Woman

The Message in My Applesauce: The Value of Slowing Down and Tasting Your Food

I woke up early this morning, around 5:00 a.m., actually feeling very hungry, or so I thought. For the past several months, I’ve gotten into a comfortable pattern where I tend not to eat breakfast until about 11:30. Back in the days when I was dieting, that was absolutely unheard of, I was always starving as soon as I woke up. Now I can go for hours without the first glimmer of hunger.

But today seemed different. I was hungry so I went downstairs to the kitchen and chose some Mott’s Cinnamon Applesauce from the refrigerator and spooned a few tablespoons into a small dish. Feeling a bit pressured to get my day started and finally finish the editing on my book;  without even tasting the applesauce, I ate the first bite very quickly with a kind of desperation. Then I noticed that I was really anxious and felt very pressured to finish the book. Separating myself from that urgency for a  moment, I wondered what would happen if I ate the next bite more slowly. I noticed that my thoughts instantly changed their quality and began to slow down as I began to more consciously and slowly savor the taste of the applesauce from the spoon. I noticed it was more tart than I would have liked.

As I sat there in a bit of daze, I asked myself, “Why do I want this now? It’s not even that good. It’s been so long that I’ve had an early breakfast, why now and what does this applesauce remind me of?

Carson Kressley’s Show How to Look Good Naked Helps Women Go From Loathing their Bodies to Lovin’ Em

Body obsession is a national pastime. Nearly 4 out of 5 women hate their bodies. As women, most of us have been taught to idolize the skinny models that adorn fashion magazines. We were also led into years of dieting dysfunction by our well meaning families and friends attempting to help us get healthier and to become more beautiful. As a result, we’ve learned to discount our best assets, ourselves.

I’ve been a fan of What Not to Wear for a long time but recently I’ve noticed that more often than not, they tend to do makeovers on women who are smaller than average size. They often do wonderful makeovers on larger women, but for the most part the plus size woman is just not getting enough love and attention nowadays from the fashion community at large.

Enter Carson Kressley, an openly gay man, who is a professional stylist and fashion designer to the stars. He is a former co-host of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and an actor whose delightfully playful attitude and  approach to empowering women and coaching them to love their bodies makes him the perfect host of Lifetime’s new show, How to Look Good Naked. I just love him.

Weight Watchers Makes False Advertising Claims Suggesting Their Program Embraces A Non Diet Approach to Lure New Clients

Weight Watchers is playing games with people’s heads. You’ve probably seen their new slogans, “Stop Dieting, Start Living.” If you’re a woman, like me who’s spent (wasted) years of your life on Weight Watchers in an attempt to lose weight using their programs, only to be disappointed in the end and to regain back the weight you lost following their system, then you will be shocked and appalled to hear that they have reached a new low in their marketing. They are claiming that their program is not a diet, because diets don’t work.

Evidently the breaking news that came out in April of 2007 with the UCLA long term composite study claiming diets don’t work has already spread like wildfire. Now it is commonly accepted by most people that diets really and truly don’t work. I guess even Weight Watchers has to agree that it’s a fact. After all, now it’s backed up by solid research.

The truth of the matter is that Weight Watchers is still a diet no matter what they claim to the contrary.