A Message Of Balance

We'd like to take a step back this week and clarify our message, as it has often been misconstrued. In a word, the lesson we want to teach other women is balance. Like millions of other women, we wasted many years of our lives feeling confused and guilty about our bodies and what we ate. We read tabloid magazines at the gym, constantly comparing ourselves to skinny celebrities and striving to be perfect, and ultimately we became victims of the beauty and diet machine that sucked money out of our pockets and filled our minds with guilt, self-doubt, and conflicting information. We were not only scared to eat a banana (thanks, Dr. Atkins!), but we were missing out on precious, juicy moments of life by wasting our time feeling insecure. Some of you may think that this behavior should be categorized as an eating disorder, while many of you are probably nodding in agreement, having felt the same torment over what you put in your mouth and what you see in the mirror.

Whether you consider it an eating disorder or not really doesn't matter, because the sad truth is that body image "issues" are the norm for most women. We all grow up hearing, "Have a shake for breakfast, a shake for lunch, and a sensible dinner," and too many of us hear our beautiful mothers complain about hating their thighs. We also read interviews with seemingly flawless celebrities who admit to never feeling good enough, and this shows us that what you look like makes virtually no difference when it comes to self-confidence - women of all weights, shapes and sizes share the same problems when it comes to food and body image.

Luckily, a light bulb went off over our heads one day and woke us up. Through our friendship, we realized that this way of living and thinking was not only a giant waste of time, but it was also holding us back in so many other areas of our lives. We decided that we were going to stop letting these obsessions rule us, start enjoying our lives, and begin taking pleasure in things like cupcakes and pizza instead of dreading them. One clue that what we suffered from was not an actual eating disorder is that it was easy for us to find this balance. We were just normal girls who needed a friend to tell us, "You are sexy, you are beautiful, you are perfect the way you are," and we were this friend for each other. When we saw how dramatically our lives changed by making this simple attitude adjustment, we were inspired to become this same type of friend to women everywhere. And so we wrote How to Eat Like a Hot Chick to help other women feel beautiful and to encourage them to remove the guilt they feel about food. We wanted to stop teenage girls from hating their bodies and to change their internal monologue from "I am a fat pig" to "I am a Hot Chick!"

But our message isn't just to eat whatever you want and you will magically drop 20 pounds and feel hot. It is simply about balance. If you want to enjoy a bunch of chocolate-covered pretzels, then you should do it and not feel a shred of guilt, but in order to feel your best, you should cut calorie corners elsewhere--take the mayo out of your tuna, lighten up on the olive oil on your salad, and remember to exercise. Our goal is to encourage women to eat, eat with pleasure, and eat guiltlessly, all while making smart food choices that will make them feel even better.

We are not doctors. We are women who have experienced these problems and want to help the other women out there who need to read some uplifting words about how to squash negative thoughts about their bodies and sensible advice for balancing out their diets. And although some of you have a lot of fun ripping us a new one every week, we have also received dozens upon dozens of emails from women who have lost weight, let go of their obsessions with food, or finally feel "hot" for the first time in their lives. For those of you who are still complaining about the piece we wrote on hidden mayo, remember that that information helped other people lower their cholesterol and make room in their diets for ice cream cones - and if we can get one woman out there to eat ice cream without guilt, then we know that we've done our job, and one we can feel proud of.

Comments

[InformedSources]

I'm so impressed by this week's intelligent, insightful Lipper and Vincent post, I have totally fallen in love with this blog. I can't wait to read your next post, and the next, and the next, to discover all your good tips and fun ideas for achieving a balanced life!

[InformedSources]

Not.

[TOOO]

It's not just women - men, too, should take care of themselves. Well, ourselves. It's no coincidence that the US is the fattest country in the world. (Look around the next time you go grocery shopping!)

Being obese is NOT okay - you set yourself up for all kinds of health problems - heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, even cancer! (And that's just off the top of my head!)

Remember: it's the media that's pushing all that junk food and fast food on you. You don't need it, at all. Free yourself from all that fattening junk, and you will DEFINITELY feel better about yourself!

[Jonahson]

Lol! Eat to live ladies, not live to eat and you won't have those overweight problems or underweight diseases. That is balance.

[A3U]

I completely agree. I think balance is key to everybody's lives and I'm hard pressed to think of anything more difficult to achieve. Having an addictive personality I can veer from one extreme to the other and know that I'd be happiest somewhere in the middle. This isn't just something that applies to your diet either. It affects every aspect of your life. The balance of work and play, indulging in shopping in contrast to saving your money, being humble or assertive... finding balance can be a lifetime of searching but I have no doubt that it's a worthy pursuit.

You girls hit the nail on the head. And as far as I'm concerned, anyone giving you grief on the subject is most likely frustrated with themselves and looking for someone to blame. Losing weight or eating right isn't a crazy secret, it's just hard work to keep doing it. So much of what is in your books is very much common sense stuff, I just happen to like the way it's presented and find it easier to relate to. Good tips. Fun ideas. What's wrong with that?

Of course they could just see the pics of you two on the back of the book and start hating and bring the claws out. But that's not being a "Hot Chick", is it?

[InformedSources]

Too-shay!