In Pursuit of Health: Weight Vs. Total Fitness

This post brought to you by a friend of mine's wanting to lose weight even though she's at a perfectly healthy BMI. Granted, her choices are her choices, and she seems in control enough and to have a healthy enough perspective to not push any weight loss too far. However, when someone thinner than me (for the record, at around 140 pounds and 5 foot 1, I've just crossed into that "overweight" category) is dissatisfied with their body to the point of wanting to diet...I can't help but cringe inside.

I cringe because I feel that somehow we've lost sight of the true goal of health and have put the focus all on a number on a scale, which is a rather lacking (or at least limited) measure of health imo. I cringe because as a woman I see this obsessive focus on pursuit of the "ideal body" all around me. The distorted images are all around in the media, and while I think most people know that these ideals are 1) not attainable to most and 2) not even necessarily a reflection of a model's reality, we've still bought into the lie that a healthy body has to look a certain way.

There's something almost subversive about declaring acceptance for one's body as it is. If a woman (especially, but men can struggle with this too) says that, people respond like she is "letting herself go" and doesn't care about her health. But paradoxically, if we treat our bodies right, we will arrive at the weight that's healthy for us. And care for our bodies begins first with acceptance. I love the approach of Health at Any Size - the pursuit of health rather than thinness. I'd also like to give a shout-out to dietician Rebecca Scritchfield (a fellow JHU MA in Communications alum!) for embracing these ideals.

It is easier said than done. I admittedly would be happy to lose weight myself. It's not something I'm actively striving for, however. That is partially because when I do strive to lose weight, it doesn't happen, but when I don't (like suffering a mild depressive bought and losing my appetite) that's when I end up losing the pounds. I can't help but think that's not healthy. But yes, I would like flatter abs, a more toned back, and to be "safely" within the "normal" BMI again (all my weight goes to my mid-section, and of course my chest.

But what I am trying to strive for is health - health in all forms, mental, emotional, and spiritual included. Health to me means nurturing my body instead of trying to mold it into something it's not. It means being active and moving my body as it was meant to move. It means feeding it when it's hungry (no deprivation diets!) and fueling it with healthy, nurturing things. It means allowing myself treats, but recognizing that some of the stuff I put in my body is just empty, useless calories - I'm looking at you, Mountain Dew I gulped on an empty stomach for a quick caffeine fix the other day. It means getting adequate rest, allowing myself down time when I need it - not pushing myself beyond my limits in an effort to "master" my body. And when I treat my body right, I feel better, and, I believe, look better.

It goes against American ideals to say this, but so much about our bodies isn't really in our control anyway. I'm short and busty - this is the body I was given. While I can tone through fitness or diet to try to bring down my weight, that only goes so far. So I choose to embrace the body I was given, to nurture it into the fullness of health.

Goodreads Review: The Silver Linings Playbook

The Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

So Ken does movie reviews and I do the reviews of books-turned-to-movies...

I wanted to see the enormously popular film version of The Silver Linings Playbook starring Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, but of course never got around to it. But as soon as I discovered it was a book before it was a film, I put the novel on my reading list. I still haven't gotten around to seeing the movie, but the book is every bit as sweet and quirky as the movie trailers seemed. With his debut novel, Matthew Quick has created what is at one part love story, one part compassionate take on mental illness, one part look at the passions of Philadelphia Eagles fans, and all parts addictively readable story about the silver linings that aren't the ones we are expecting.

The novel's main strength is its narration, as it gets inside the head of a mentally unstable but endearingly optimistic and goodhearted man. When The Silver Linings Playbook begins, narrator Pat Peoples has just returned to his parents' house in New Jersey upon his release from what he calls "the bad place," a Baltimore mental institution. In the film, Pat's diagnosis is bipolar disorder, but the novel does not give Pat a diagnosis. It is obvious, however, that he is quite out of touch with reality, to the point of having no sense of how long he spent in the institution. Despite this and his tendency to outbursts of violence upon hearing Kenny G music, Pat is determined to better himself, and the trip Quick gives the reader inside this character's psyche is compassionate and respectful, humorous and at times hilarious without being condescending.

As the novel's title suggests, Pat is devoted to a philosophy of silver linings and unfettered optimism. Headless of what everyone around him says, his one goal upon returning home is reunion with his estranged wife, Nikki. But then he meets Tiffany, a recently widowed woman with demons of her own, who is set on changing Pat's life in ways he hadn't anticipated.

In his effort to woo back English teacher Nikki, Pat begins reading classic literature, from The Great Gatsby to The Scarlet Letter to The Bell Jar, and his interpretation of these novels according to his silver linings philosophy is in my mind a brilliant way for Quick to establish Pat's worldview and his mental state.

While we don't receive the same opportunity to live inside the heads of the other characters, they are equally easy to root for, or at times to want to scream at. Tiffany is sullen and foul-mouthed and yet obviously sensitive and vulnerable as well. Pat's mom is patient, strong, and compassionate, while his dad is temperamental and distant and bases his moods and treatment of his loved ones upon how the Eagles are doing. I even developed a strong picture of Nikki in my head through Pat's detailed stories and descriptions. Some characters, like Pat's therapist Cliff, who also happens to be an Eagles fan and his "black friend" Danny, seem less well-rounded and believable, but they too are memorable.

Non-football fans may not be interested in the large number of scenes in the novel dealing with the Philadelphia Eagles, but this serves to ground the book in time and place and makes Pat's character (although maybe not his over-the-top father's) seem more believable. The Eagles, win or lose, play as much of a role in Pat's life outside the mental institution as Tiffany does and as Nikki did in his old life.

As the novel unfolds, Pat slowly comes to grips with what brought him to the mental institution and with the new reality of his. While his story does not have the happy ending he was expecting, reunion with Nikki, it nevertheless affirms love and silver linings. It is not the conventional happy-ending-fairy-tale type story, but that's what makes The Silver Linings Playbook so refreshing, believable, and true.

I would rank the novel 4.5 out of 5 stars, but since Goodreads doesn't allow for half-stars, 4 stars it is.

View all my reviews

Father's Day Gift: Painted Ceramic Mushroom

I have realized that my need for creativity needs many more outlets, or rather, it needs to be put into practice more. Michael's Crafts (or really any craft store, Michael's just happens to be my most frequented) is a goldmine for the kind of crafty projects I wish I were doing more of. Holidays of all kinds, however, bring out my inner crafty girl for many reasons, the main one being that handmade gifts are usually both more affordable and more fun than their store-bought counterparts.

And so I made this painted ceramic mushroom garden thingamajig for a Fathers' Day gift. Perfect for my gardening lover dad, perfect for my budget and my need to be creative/crafty.

These whimsical ceramic mushrooms, along with owls, gnomes, and the like, are popping up wherever garden gifts and supplies are sold, but they are often upwards of $20, whereas a plain ceramic mushroom at Michael's was only $3.99. I already had acrylic paints, so I used those to paint mine. It's easy to customize with any colors/patterns you like.

That's really all you need to make a gift that is fun, whimsical, creative and personal for any garden/decorating lover in your life.