Weighing The Facts

Inspirational Recovery Quotes: Choices

Life's not about expecting, hoping and wishing, it's about doing, being and becoming. It's about the choices you've just made, and the ones you're about to make, it's about the things you choose to say - today. It's about what you're gonna do after you finish reading this.

Mike Dooley

This bright, new day... complete with 24 hours of opportunities, choices, and attitudes… a perfectly matched set of 1440 minutes. This unique gift, this one day, cannot be exchanged, replaced or refunded. Handle with care. Make the most of it. There is only one to a customer.

Unknown

We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.

Randy Pausch

The doors we open and close each day decide the lives we live.

Flora Whittemore

It is our choices that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

Joanne Kathleen Rowling

Once you have started seeing the beauty of life, ugliness starts disappearing. If you start looking at life with joy, sadness starts disappearing. You cannot have heaven and hell together, you can have only one. It is your choice.

Osho

Every passing minute is another chance to turn it all around.

Cameron Crowe

Every morning when I get up, the first thing I decide is: What do I want? Misery? Blissfulness? What am I going to choose today? And it happens that I always choose blissfulness. It is my choice, it is my life.

Abdullah

Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You are a product of your environment. So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective. Analyze your life in terms of its environment. Are the things around you helping you toward success - or are they holding you back?

W. Clement Stone

You have many choices. You can choose forgiveness over revenge, joy over despair. You can choose action over apathy.

Stephanie Marston

We can try to avoid making choices by doing nothing, but even that is a decision.

Gary Collins

In a minute there is time for decisions and revisions, which a minute will reverse.

T.S. Eliot

It's choice--not chance--that determines your destiny.

Jean Nidetch

Destiny is not a matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: it is not to be waited for; it is a thing to be achieved.

W.J. Bryant

You have a choice. Live or die. Every breath is a choice. Every minute is a choice. To be, or not to be.

Chuck Palahniuk

I discovered I always have choices and sometimes it's only a choice of attitude.

Judith M. Knowlton

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.

H. Norman Schwarzkopf

While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequences of our actions.

Stephen R. Covey

Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples, don't count on harvesting Golden Delicious.

Bill Meyer

We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.

Thomas Merton

There are always two choices. Two paths to take. One is easy. And its only reward is that it's easy.

Unknown

Decisions become easier when your will to please God outweighs your will to please the world.

Anso Coetzer

What we call the secret of happiness is no more a secret than our willingness to choose life.

Leo F. Buscaglia

Remember, there are no mistakes, only lessons. Love yourself, trust your choices, and everything is possible.

Cherie Carter-Scott

The artist is the only one who knows that the world is a subjective creation, that there is a choice to be made, a selection of elements

Anais Nin

Until a person can say deeply and honestly, "I am what I am today because of the choices I made yesterday," that person cannot say, "I choose otherwise.”

Stephen R. Covey

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.

Theodore Roosevelt

When you have to make a choice and don't make it, that is in itself a choice.

William James

Every human has four endowments- self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... the power to choose, to respond, to change.

Stephen R. Covey

Good decisions come from experience, and experience comes from bad decisions.

Unknown

When one bases his life on principle, 99 percent of his decisions are already made.

Unknown

A true hero is not someone who thinks about doing what is right, but one that simply does what is right without thinking!

Kevin Heath

We can let the circumstances of our lives harden us so that we become increasingly resentful and afraid, or we can let them soften us, and make us kinder. We always have the choice.

Dalai Lama

There is no value in life except what you choose to place upon it and no happiness in any place except what you bring to it yourself.

Henry David Thoreau

Choices are the hinges of destiny.

Attributed to both Pythagoras and Edwin Markham

If you limit your choices only to what seems possible or reasonable, you disconnect yourself from what you truly want, and all that is left is compromise.

Robert Fritz

Indecision becomes decision with time.

Unknown

To live is to choose. But to choose well, you must know who you are and what you stand for, where you want to go and why you want to get there.

Kofi Annan

Life is change. Growth is optional. Choose wisely.

Karen Kaiser

You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think.

A Course In Miracles

Do not plant your dreams in the field of indecision, where nothing ever grows but the weeds of "what-if."

Dodinsky

Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.

Tyron Edwards

There are two primary choices in life; to accept conditions as they exist,

or accept the responsibility for changing them.

Denis Waitley

When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels.

Unknown

In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Using the power of decision gives you the capacity to get past any excuse to change any and every part of your life in an instant.

Anthony Robbins

We must all suffer from one of two pains: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.

Jim Rohn

There comes a time in the spiritual journey when you start making choices from a very different place. And if a choice lines up so that it supports truth, health, happiness, wisdom and love, it’s the right choice.

Angeles Arrien

... everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms … to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

Viktor Frankl

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Happy Memorial Day 2011

Always in our prayers
Never forgotten
Forever grateful
Mrs M

Recovery Quote Of The Week: May 10, 2011

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could become.
Charles Du Bos

pic source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/4112231176/

Happy Mother's Day!

The sweetest sounds

to mortals given
Are heard in Mother,

Home, and Heaven

William Goldsmith Brown

Happy Mother's Day!

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It's International No Diet Day 2011!

International No Diet Day is today!

Created in 1992 by Mary Evans Young, a recovered anorexic, International No Diet Day's intent is to raise awareness of eating disorders and to combat the diet industry.

"I started INDD in the spring of '92 following two things. The first was seeing a television programme where women were having their stomachs stapled. One woman had split the staples and was in for her third op[eration]," she explains. The second thing that inspired INDD was, " a young girl of 15 committed suicide because 'she couldn't cope being fat.' She was size 14 (12 in US)."

Mary Evans Young knew someone had to stop the "bloody madness" and decided it would be her. "Desperate to keep the anti-diet/size acceptance concept in the public eye," she sent out a press release entitled, "Fat Woman Bites Back," and the media paid attention.

Are you putting your life on hold until you lose weight?

International No Diet Day was established to challenge the cultural attitudes and values that contribute to chronic dieting, weight preoccupation, eating disorders, and size discrimination. Participants will wear light blue ribbons symbolizing the day's goals. These include:

1. increasing public awareness of the dangers and futility of dieting, weight loss surgery, and obsession with thinness;

2. affirming that beauty, health and fitness come in ALL sizes, and everybody's right to eat normally, enjoy physical activity and emotional well-being;

3. helping change the way people of size are perceived and treated by society.

"When you love your body, you are most able to share its pleasures with those who light your heart."

Huitaco

click for: The TOP 10 Reasons NOT To Diet

Did you know that dieting is a 50 billion dollar industry?

Statistics show that those who diet are five times more likely to develop an eating disorder than those who don't.

The act of restricting food intake, and viewing certain foods as "bad,"make food the enemy.

More often than not the weight lost from dieting is often gained back, bringing with it several additional pounds.

The sense of failure from this has also been known to lead to eating disorders.

Cycling weight loss and weight gain compromises health, too; blood pressure increase, decreased stores of necessary good fats, and increased risk of developing several diseases and other health issues.

Dieting forces your body into starvation mode. In order to conserve energy your body slows it's normal functions.This means your natural metabolism actually slows down.
Dieters often lack important nutrients such as calcium which is needed for strong bones and to combat osteoporosis.

Dieting often leads to unhealthy and dangerous attitudes towards food. Restriction, being the nature of dieting, places negative values on certain foods such as too many calories, too much fat, etc. The tension and stress of struggling over our food choices puts food in the position of enemy. A child/teen exposed to these attitudes in a dieting parent, sibling, or friend has an increased risk of developing an eating disorder. Anorexia and Orthorexia are two eating disorders to commonly result from dieting.

I finally realized that being grateful

to my body was key to giving

more love to myself.
Oprah Winfrey

Take The INDD PLEDGE!

(printout available)

check out INDD's Goals

Some Interesting Stats:

Women and Men:

The average American woman is 5’4" tall and weighs 140 pounds.

The average American model is 5’11" tall and weighs 117 pounds.

91% of college aged women have dieted in an attempt to control their weight
25% of American men are on a diet on any given day
40-50%% of American women are on a diet on any given day

Children:

42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner
81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat Over 50% of 10 year old girls wish they were thinner
51% of 9 -10 year-old girls feel better about themselves if they are on a diet
46% of 9-11 year-olds (and 82% of their families) are sometimes/very often on diets
90% of female high school juniors & seniors women diet regularly though 10%-15% are over the weight recommended by the standard height-weight charts

Overall:

95% of all dieters will regain the weight they lost in 1-5 years
35% of dieters will progress to pathological dieting.
20%-25% pathological dieters will progress to partial or full-syndrome eating disorders
Those who diet moderately are 5 times more likely to develop eating disorders than non-dieters
Those who diet severely are 18 times more likely to develop and eating disorder
1% of teenage girls & 5% of college-age women become anorexic or bulimic
Between 90% and 99% of reducing diets fail to produce permanent weight loss
15 percent of young women in the US who are not diagnosed with an eating disorder exhibit substantially disordered eating behavior and attitude
8 million people in the US suffer from an eating disorder
In your lifetime 50,000 people will die as a direct result of their Eating Disorder
The current media ideal of thinness is achieved by less than 5% of the female population
Americans spend more than $40 billion dollars a year on dieting and diet-related products (That’s roughly equivalent to the amount the U.S. Federal Government spends on education each year)
Quick-weight-loss schemes are among the most common consumer frauds
Diet programs have the highest customer dissatisfaction of any service industry
Girls develop eating and self-image problems before drug or alcohol problems
Drug and alcohol programs are in almost every school, but no eating disorder programs
A recent survey: only 30% out of 250 randomly chosen women 21-35 years of age had normal bone mass. It was concluded that women are so afraid of gaining weight from eating dairy products

For more information check out:
Diet Myths and Eating Disorders

Need HELP?

**Eating Disorders Help: Hotlines, Organizations, and Websites

**Males With Eating Disorders Help: Hotlines, Organizations, and Websites

Share Your Eating Disorders & Body Image Poetry & Writings

Would you like to feature your eating disorder and/or body image poetry or writings on Weighing The Facts?

Writing is a very powerful tool for many with Eating Disorders and an excellent way for others to relate and be inspired. Do you have a poem(s) and/or writing(s) about your struggles, experiences, or recovery with your Eating Disorder and/or Body Image that you'd like to share with others? Weighing The Facts would like to feature your writing here so that others can relate, find support, and encouragement towards recovery.

Participation may be anonymous or credited, whichever you feel comfortable with. Poems/writings must be your own work. If you're interested in participating please contact me at Mrsmenopausal@yahoo.com.

Thank you.
Mrs. M

*Check out the wonderful poetry and writings of those who have shared on Weighing The Facts. They can be found in the sidebar drop down menu "submissions."

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Recovery Quote Of The Week: May 2, 2011

At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.
Thich Nhat Hanh

pic source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplyshutterbug/4775278765/

The Healing: So Much To Gain

Lyrics, music, production by Hurricane (Dorothy Hodge)

Lyrics:
The Healing

I'll drive to the beach to draw symbols in the sand
the waves come crashing in, fulfilling dreams at my command
dark colored auras are turning purple and pink
and my restless thoughts are calming down as I start to think

I am healing my self from the pain
I am healing for myself, I have so much to gain
I am healing my self from the pain

I'm writing letters for the things I cannot say
memories left lingering are the ones I'd hope would fade away
now the years are passing by, and I'm starting to grey
avoidance all these years have left me where I am today

I am healing my self from the pain
I am healing for myself, I have so much to gain
I am healing my self from the pain

if the phone is off the hook, or I'm not answering the door
if I dont seem like the person you once knew before,
I'm resolving things inside myself so I wont have to face them anymore

I am healing my self from the pain
I am healing for myself, I have so much to gain
I am healing my self from the pain

In The News: Eating Disorders April 2011

Award-winning video was a result of teen's battle with anorexia

The black-and-white video scenes fade in and out slowly, teen girls at school and home, the words reflecting their thoughts: "Would they like me if I was thinner?" "Why can't I stop?" "Can this really kill me?"
Savannah Dickson knows those thoughts all too well.
Two years ago, when she weighed 82 pounds and was suffering from anorexia, doctors gave the Lexington teen three weeks to live.
After two months of in- patient treatment and continuing long-term counseling, the Tates Creek senior is healthy and hoping her award-winning video will help others find their way to recovery.

Read in full: Award Winning Video

An 18in waist and size three feet: Former anorexic's life-sized Barbie reveals bizarre - and dangerous - proportions of famous doll

She's been a favourite with young girls for decades. But a life-sized Barbie is being used to demonstrate just how unhealthy the doll's proportions would be on a real woman.
The mannequin, which stands 5ft 9in tall, has a 39in bust, a tiny 18in waist and 33in hips. Even her feet would be disproportionate, at a tiny U.S. size 3.
Galia Slayen, who made the model, revealed that a real woman with the same dimensions would weigh just 110lb, giving her a BMI of 16.24 - a figure associated with eating disorders.

Read in full: Former Anorexic's Life-Sized Barbie

Demi Lovato Blames Bullies For Eating Disorder

Demi Lovato is convinced childhood bullying is to blame for her battle with an eating disorder, because she endured years of taunts about her weight.

The 18-year-old singer/actress was admitted to rehab last year to deal with a number of issues, including anorexia and bulimia, self-harming and bipolar disorder.

Lovato has been candid about the emotional and physical stresses she has faced and she has now revealed her problems began when she was targeted by bullies as a child.

Read in full: Demi Lovato

Mystery around South Korean model Kim Yuri's death

On 19th April 2011, the media reported that supermodel Kim Yuri committed suicide by ingesting poison. Recent autopsy reports, however, have proved that it was neither a suicide or a homicide.

On April 20th, the Kangnam Police reported, “There were no signs of damage or wounds internally and externally, nor were there signs of poisoning. The media reports of her death being a suicide are completely false.”

Read in full: Mystery Kim Yuri death

Claims plus-sized models 'encourage obesity'

First models were criticized for being too thin, now it seems they're too fat.

An Italian researcher says the fashion industry shouldn't promote plus size models because it will encourage women to gain weight.

Luca Savorelli claims thin models are good because they encourage women to be thinner and allowing plus size models to become the norm could encourage obesity.

"Obesity and being overweight is the problem of western society," Mr Savorelli says. "So what's going to happen here if we don't balance well?"

Read in full: Claims

Recovery Quote Of The Week: March 10, 2011

He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.
Raymond Hull

See sidebar drop down menu for more Recovery Quotes Of The Week and Inspirational Recovery Quotes

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Body Image: My Own Worst Enemy

Looking back, I don’t remember a time that I liked my body or felt comfortable in my own skin. Somehow, early on, I came to the conclusion that my appearance fell far short of anyone else around me. My friends were thinner, prettier, and much more confident than I could ever hope to be. While they relished a new outfit, a skimpy summer bikini, and the physical changes that come with maturing, I was consumed with doubt and a deep feeling of inadequacy. I always felt fat. Always. I still do. I look through pictures of my childhood and staring back at me is evidence of a normal sized kid looking very uncomfortable at being caught on camera. There are pictures that show weight fluctuations but nothing that, in my opinion now, required much fussing over.

My mother was a dieter. She was always trying to lose weight and she never hesitated to take me along for the ride. I attended weight watchers with her. I attended overeaters anonymous with her. I counted calories with her. I learned the many evils that food presented and how its misuse was evident on thighs, tummies, and even the width of a wrist. I don’t recall it all in great detail. For some reason it comes back to me in bits and pieces with a word here, an action there, or the recollection of a disapproving look. I don’t think that my mother’s intent was to make me feel bad about my body, or insecure about my worth. At least I hope not. I think that she was uncomfortable with her own appearance and dealing with insecurities of her own. Inevitably, it managed to spill over into my life, wiggle its way in and, as time went on, I made it my own.

My self-talk became brutal. It carried a punch and I used it daily to beat down any chance of a positive self-image. I became my own worst enemy. Not only were those brutal words being said inside of my head, they began to spill out of my mouth in an attempt to save myself from humiliation. "After all", I'd tell myself, "how much can someone hurt you with their words if you’ve already beaten them to it?" I wouldn’t know the full impact of that for many years. I’m not sure that I know it now. I did become more informed, eventually. With that came awareness, and with awareness came remorse. I felt such an overwhelming sense of loss. A sense of loss for the person I could have been and the life I could have had, had I learned early on what truly mattered, what truly made a person worthwhile. A sense of loss for the person I could have become if I had learned to appreciate myself, physically and otherwise.

Remorse is fine and dandy if you pay attention to the lesson learned, put it to good use, and let the rest go. Letting go takes practice and understanding. Remorse doesn’t benefit anyone as a constant companion. What I’ve come to realize is that somewhere down the line I have to let go and move on. I have to make for myself a present (and a future) filled with what I wished-for for my younger self. It’s in my hands. I’m responsible for giving it to myself.

It's taking time. Little by little, I’m kicking out the negative stuff that’s roamed freely in my head for so long and I’m making room. I’m working hard to fill up those voids with more positive, understanding, self-appreciative, and loving thoughts. My intent is to make them permanent residents of my being. This is perhaps the biggest and most important personal challenge I will ever face. The most difficult, too. Still, I don’t care how hard it proves to be, or how long it takes me. After all these years I finally understand how important it is and that I can do this. I’m worth it. I am worth it.

E.M.

You can find more reader submissions in the sidebar drop down menu.

Click here to share your ED/Body Image poetry, writings, or story.

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Inspirational Recovery Quotes: Self-Respect

Every time you suppress some part
of yourself or allow others
to play you small, you are
in essence ignoring
the owner's manual
your creator gave you
and destroying your design.

Oprah Winfrey

Be noble minded! Our own heart, and not other men's opinions of us, forms our true honor.

Friedrich von Schiller

Never say anything about yourself you do not want to come true.

Brian Tracy

The soul that is within me no man can degrade.

Frederick Douglass

Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life.

Golda Meir

The conquering of adversity produces strength of character, forges self-confidence, engenders self-respect, and assures success in righteous endeavor.

Richard G. Scott

Think highly of yourself, for the world takes you at your own estimate.

Unknown

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves - there lies the great, singular power of self-respect.

Joan Didion

I will give thanks to thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well.

Psalms 139:14 Bible

The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.

Brian Tracy

The willingness to accept responsibility for one's own life is the source from which self-respect springs.

Joan Didion

They cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.

Mahatma Gandhi

Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life.

Joe Clark

Respect yourself if you would have others respect you.

Baltasar Gracian

To preserve an unclouded capacity for the enjoyment of life is an unusual moral and psychological achievement. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the prerogative of mindlessness, but the exact opposite: It is the reward of self-esteem.

Nathaniel Branden

I have often wondered how it is everyone loves himself more than the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than the opinions of others.

Marcus Aurelius

A bar of iron costs $5, made into horseshoes its worth is $12, made into needles its worth is $3500, made into balance springs for watches, its worth is $300, 000. Your own value is determined also by what you are able to make of yourself.

Unknown

No one can disgrace us but ourselves.

Henry Wheeler Shaw

The greatest success is successful self-acceptance.

Ben Sweet

Self-empowerment - that's learning to respect other people's music, but dance to your own tune as you master harmony within yourself.

Doc Childre

Not respecting yourself is the same as committing suicide at a slow rate.

Unknown

The great thing in the world is not so much to seek happiness as to earn peace and self-respect.

Thomas Huxley

I am as my creator made me and since He is satisfied, so am I.

Minnie Smith

An individual's self-concept is the core of his personality. It affects every aspect of human behavior: the ability to learn, the capacity to grow and change . . . . A strong, positive self-image is the best possible preparation for success in life.

Joyce Brothers

Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got.

Janis Joplin

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.

Andre Gide

A person's worth is contingent upon who he is, not upon what he does, or how much he has. The worth of a person, or a thing, or an idea, is in being, not in doing, not in having.

Alice Mary Hilton

You start to look at it with a deeper respect and I think that deeper respect for what you do builds more self-respect.

Jimmy Chamberlin

Our value is the sum of our values.

Joe Batten

Blessed are they who heal us of self-despising. Of all services which can be done to man, I know of none more precious.

William Hale White

My work will be finished if I succeed in carrying conviction to the human family that every man or woman, however weak in body, is the guardian of his or her self-respect and liberty.

Mahatma Gandhi

Self-respect is the cornerstone of all virtue.

John Herschel

Trust yourself, then you will know how to live.

Johann von Goethe

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.

Frederick Douglass

Self-worth comes from one thing -- thinking that you are worthy.

Wayne Dyer

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to one’s self.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Would that there were an award for people who come to understand the concept of enough. Good enough. Successful enough. Thin enough. Rich enough. Socially responsible enough. When you have self-respect, you have enough.

Gail Sheehy

Every man has a property in his own person. This nobody has a right to, but himself.

John Locke

Never violate the sacredness of your individual self-respect.

Theodore Parker

Whatever good things we build end up building us.

Jim Rohn

Respect your efforts. Respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power.

Clint Eastwood

It is easy to live for others, everybody does. I call on you to live for yourselves.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.

William J. H. Boetcker

He that respects himself is safe from others; He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Women who set a low value on themselves make life hard for all women.

Nellie McClung

Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when we suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it.

Alfred Whitney Griswold

It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered shows infirmity of character.

Dale Turner

You must be true to yourself. Strong enough to be true to yourself. Brave enough to be strong enough to be true to yourself. Wise enough to be brave enough to be strong enough to shape yourself from what you actually are.

Sylvia Ashton-Warner

Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world. Yet from this lesson thou will learn to avoid the frog's foolish ambition of swelling to rival the bigness of the ox.

Miguel de Cervantes

The confidence which we have in ourselves gives birth to much of that which we have in others.

Francois de la Rochefoucauld

No man who is occupied in doing a very difficult thing, and doing it very well, ever loses his self-respect.

George Bernard Shaw

Self-respect is a question of recognizing that anything worth having has a price.

Joan Didion

I am a feminist, and what that means to me is much the same as the meaning of the fact that I am Black: it means that I must undertake to love myself and to respect myself as though my very life depends upon self-love and self-respect.

June Jordan

To have that sense of one's intrinsic worth, which constitutes self-respect, is potentially to have everything: the ability to discriminate, to love and to remain indifferent. To lack it is to be locked within oneself, paradoxically incapable of either love or indifference.

Joan Didion

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies with in us.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Perhaps the surest test of an individual's integrity is his refusal to do or say anything that would damage his self-respect.

Thomas S. Monson

I have no right; by anything I do or say, to demean a human being in his own eyes. What matters is not what I think of him; it is what he thinks of himself. To undermine a man's self-respect is a sin.

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Without self-respect there can be no genuine success. Success won at the cost of self-respect is not success for what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own self-respect.

B. C. Forbes

Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on.

Maxwell Maltz

Let the river flow and you will be liberated. Let yourself go with current and you will find yourself. Let the wind so blow and you will be able to break yourself free very much like a ripened fruit of self-respect that sheds itself away from the tree of dependence. Let yourself be blown away humbling as a fallen petal and you will find yourself above the lowly dust of ground, to finally discover the truth of your existence for yourself.

Saba Hasan

There can be no failure to a man who has not lost his courage, his character, his self-respect, or his self-confidence. He is still a king.

Orison Swett Marden

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Weighing The Facts Is 3 Today!

Weighing The Facts turns 3 today

and I'm counting my blessings.

I have had the pleasure of meeting

so many amazing people through this blog

and the eating disorder and body image communities.

Whether you're a friend, subscriber, passerby,

guest, and/or have contributed by

sharing your poetry, stories, or comments...

I just wanted to let you know

how much I appreciate you

and to take a moment to say

Thank You!

MrsM

Eating Disorders Awareness Week: Did You Know......?

Did you know that ...

Americans spend more than 40 billion a year on diet and beauty products
The average American woman is 5'4" and 140 pounds
The average American model is 5' 11" and 117 pounds
The current media ideal of thinness is achieved by less than 5% of the female population
more than 50% of 10 year old girls wish they were thinner
8 out 10 women are not happy with their reflection
8 million people in the US suffer from an ED
90% are women/girls
10 to 15 percent are male
15 percent of young women in the US who are not diagnosed with an eating disorder exhibit substantially disordered eating behavior and attitude.
Approximately 50 percent of anorexics will develop bulimia or bulimic behaviors.
90 percent of women with eating disorders are between the ages of 12 and 25.
Approximately 60 percent of those with an eating disorder that seek treatment will recover.
Without treatment up to 20 percent of those with serious eating disorders will die.
80% of children are afraid of being fat

In your lifetime 50,000 people will die as a direct result of their Eating Disorder.

Click here for:

* Eating Disorders Help: Hotlines, Websites, Organizations

picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/royblumenthal/2574833687/
information compiled from the following sites:
http://www.eatingdisorderinfo.org
http://www.anred.com

Recovery Quote Of The Week: February 23, 2011

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

*See sidebar menu for more recovery quotes of the week and inspirational recovery quotes.

picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/safetylast/3541609127/

Light a Virtual Candle: NEDA Week

ALNEDA (The Alabama Network For Eating Disorders Awareness)

is once again hosting their

Virtual Candlelight Vigil

for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2011.

You are invited to light a candle in honor of individuals

who have had their lives touched by an eating disorder.

Celebrate recovery or show support for those still struggling.

The colors of the candles and what they represent are:

White: Remembrance ( for someone who has lost their life to an ED)

Silver: Support (for anyone struggling with an ED)

Gold: Celebration (for someone in recovery or who has recovered from an ED)

You can light a candle here.

Click here to see the lit candles.

pic source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/magnera/3984413077/

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week: Let's Get Started

Eating Disorders affect 1 in 5 women

and more than a million boys/men.

NEDA Asks That You Do

Just One Thing

to spread awareness about eating disorders.

What Can You Do?

NEDA:

Everyone Can Do Just One Thing
Video Resource List
NEDA's Partner Orgs check them out for some excellent resources, information, and inspiration.
Sign the No Weigh Declaration
Join NEDA's first annual "Virtual Walk," and spread awareness by posting, tweeting, blogging, talking, and walking.
Check out NEDA's Tool Kits

Speak Up and Reach Out

If you're keeping your ED a secret please reach out and tell someone.
Share your story, struggles, and successes with others.
Find support in your community, online, friends, and/or family.
Seek professional help.

ED Resources and Information

please see sidebar drop down menus for more info/links/resources

NEDA Video PSA Contest: It's Time To Talk About It

National Eating Disorders Awareness Week is right around the corner and NEDA is having a Public Service Announcement Video Contest. Want to use your creativity and experience to help spread the word and have a chance at some great prizes, too?

Submit an original PSA for a chance to win one of three exciting prizes, including a trip to NEDA's annual Benefit Dinner in New York City, cash prizes, your PSA featured at NEDA's annual conference and more!

What you can win:
1st Place Grand Prize:
Airfare to/from New York City (domestic only).

Two NYC hotel nights.

One ticket admission to NEDA’s 10th Anniversary New York Benefit Dinner.

$200 prize/travel money.

PSA will be shown at the Benefit Dinner.

PSA will be featured on NEDA’s website and made available to media outlets.

PSA will be featured at NEDA’s annual conference in Los Angeles, CA, October 2011.

2nd Place Prize:
$100 in cash.

PSA featured on NEDA’s website.

PSA will be shown at NEDA’s annual conference in Los Angeles, CA, October 2011.

3rd Place Prize:
$50 in cash.

PSA featured on NEDA’s website.

PSA featured at NEDA’s annual conference in Los Angeles, CA, October 2011.

Find out more about the contest.

pic source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/blhphotography/413048219/sizes/z/in/photostream/

info source: http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/programs-events/video-contest.php

Recovery Quote Of The Week: January 19th, 2011

Life isn't about finding yourself. It's about creating yourself.
George Bernard Shaw
click picture to see larger version.

See sidebar menu for more Recovery Quotes of the Week and Inspirational Recovery Quotes.

pic source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/56695083@N00/4470486685/sizes/l/

News: Eating Disorders Recently In The News

Addictions & Answers: Behind the insidious 'art' of anorexia

NY Daily News

BILL: Now that Christmas is over, the lose-weight ads are all over TV. My feeling is all diets work if you stick to them. But the flood of January advertising to "sculpt your body back to a thinner you" must sound very seductive to the anorexic-prone.

DR. DAVE: Did you see the news stories about Isabelle Caro, the 28-year-old French model who posed naked for international anorexia awareness two or three years back? She died last November after battling the eating disorder herself for almost 15 years.

BILL: Doc, why is IT so often a female disease?

DR. DAVE: Bill, that's another dangerous myth —that men have some immunity. Jeremy Gillitzer was an A-List male model with a perfectly sculptured body and Hollywood good looks. He recently died of anorexia –frail and emaciated at 38, weighing just 66 pounds.

BILL: Can't these people just look in the mirror and see something is radically wrong?

DR. DAVE: That's like saying to a meth addict, 'Can't you see you're killing yourself, why don't just stop?'

Read Addictions and Answers in full here.

Study Refutes Myth That Eating Disorders Affect Whites Only
Business Week

FRIDAY, Jan. 7 (HealthDay News) -- Among Native Americans, women are more likely than men to develop eating disorders, a new study finds.

The researchers also found similarities between Native American and white women in terms of binge eating, purging and ever having been diagnosed with an eating disorder, according to the report published Jan. 6 in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

"This commonality between Native American and white women refutes the myth that eating disorders are problems that only affect white girls and women," study leader Ruth Striegel-Moore, a professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn., said in a news release from the journal's publisher.
Read Study Refutes in full here.

Third annual Bristow race in San Dimas brings attention to eating disorders
sgv tribune

SAN DIMAS - Jackie Bristow's legacy is growing fast, and continues Saturday with another race through San Dimas.
Now in its third year, the annual Jackie Bristow Memorial 5K Run/Walk begins at 8:30 a.m. at the San Dimas Civic Center. Organizers raise funds and hope to bring attention to serious eating disorders in honor of the race's eponymous twin sister.
Bristow died Jan. 1, 2008, at age 19, from complications of anorexia and bulimia. Her death devastated her family, especially her twin Wednesday Vail, who shared Bristow's struggles with eating disorders.
Read 3rd Annual Bristow Race in full here.

Four-year-old children in Ireland treated for anorexia
Irish Central

Children as young as four-years-of-age are being treated for anorexia in Irish eating disorder clinics.

Doctors have warned that the age of children presenting with disorders is getting younger and there is an increasing demand for services.

The founder of the Marino Therapy Centre, Marie Campion said she has seen patients as young as four presenting with cases of eating disorders.
Read 4 year old children in full here.

Isabelle Caro, model in anti-anorexia campaign, dies
USA today

PARIS (AP) — Isabelle Caro, a French actress and model whose emaciated image in a shock Italian ad campaign helped rivet global attention on the problem of anorexia in the fashion world and beyond, has died at the age of 28.

Caro had said she began suffering from anorexia when she was 13, and she weighed about 59 pounds (27 kilograms) when the photos that made her famous were taken.

After a 21-year-old Brazilian model died from the eating disorder, Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani produced a 2007 campaign for an Italian fashion house that plastered newspapers and billboards with a naked picture of a spectral Caro looking over her shoulder at the camera, vertebrae and facial bones protruding under the slogan "No Anorexia."

Read Isabelle Caro in full here.

sources sited and linked above