This obviously adds to the weight issue in our country, but also I believe that money has a lot to do with that. What costs the most in the store? Fruits, Veggies, and other good for you foods. The least? potato chips, frozen pizza etc. . .As a single mom living on a small income, money is a big factor in what I serve my 7 year old son. . .that said, fruits and veggies are important and are on our table, but when I buy somthing for just myself for lunch–cheap is the way I go and almost always ends up being not healthy.

I agree that women should just speak up and say “Hey, it’s hard to have a body like mine, but it’s important to me” we as women would cheer them for it and young girls looking at them on tv, the net and in magazines would maybe hear the message and be less body obsessed and their may be less instances of anorexia, cutting, suicide and other horrible things young girls do to themselves today. . .

This is so true. I used to row competitively, which involves two intense trainings a day, like 2 hours each. And I never looked like that. I was fit as hell, and really thin, but I didn’t look like that.
My point is, I know what loads of exercise is, and how it makes you look. And it’s a long way short of how those women look.

Being able to forego some of these conveniences in favor of doing some things the hard way or working gym time into an already packed schedule and achieving the desired result of a physically healthier body is something to be admired. And that makes it all the more aggravating when these celebrities don’t own up to their hard work, especially when they have the ability to set aside time, money, and resources to do the work and look the way they do.

Last year, I lost 7% body fat (and no weight, ladies…just exchanged fat for muscle) in a 5-day-a-week hour-long women’s bootcamp that I did for 4 months. Loved the results. For the first 2 weeks, I was exhausted and hurt everywhere. Well, I started a new job and I’m back to square one. What did I gain: the knowledge of what it takes to get there and the confidence to know that if I want to put in the time and effort, even I can get the results. Never had results like that from a trainer, either… The best part was my triglycerides dropping like a rock, since it’s a pre-indicator for diabetes, and my fasting glucose moderating. I have one adult-onset parent so it matters.

So, she’s not only honest about working really, really hard, but pretty body-positive if you ask me. Such a better example compared to the Trista “Thin by New Year” article a few weeks ago.

I also take mild exception to the idea, much expressed here in different ways, that if fat people really did all the “right things,” we’d become thin people. I don’t think the reason people are fat is that — in this culture! — they don’t try hard enough to be thin.

I wish more of these people would be truthful on the effort that goes into it. Because it creates a stereotype that big people are lazy slobs who spend all their time eating and lolling in front of the TV, with the remote in one hand, soda within easy reach adn a bag of potato crisps on their laps.

It’s hard work, it takes time – that I don’t have at the end of a long day, there are many simple but to me important pleasures to give up – good food, time with family and friends.

There was this article I read of body weight as social status. The ‘effortlessly’ thin entertainer (usually a big lie) perpetuates the myth.