Leslie Goldman is the author of Locker Room Diaries: The Naked Truth About Women, Body Image, and Re-Imagining the "Perfect" Body (Da Capo, 2006, www.lrdiaries.com ), which was recently featured on the Today Show and in People Magazine. A regular contributor to the Chicago Tribune and columnist for Health Magazine, she has written for Women's Health, Marie Claire, People, Redbook, Fitness and more.

Blog Entries by Leslie Goldman

The Naked Truth Behind Binge Eating Disorder

1 Comments | Posted October 28, 2009 | 06:57 PM (EST)


Here in the blogosphere, we talk a lot about body image and eating disorders. About wildly airbrushed models and glamourized anorexia and bulimia and post-baby bods. But one topic we haven't lent much word space to is binge eating. Despite the fact that BED (Binge...

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Ralph Lauren Model: I Was Fired For Being Too Fat

19 Comments | Posted October 14, 2009 | 01:30 PM (EST)


By now you've surely heard about the Ralph Lauren photoshopping debacle. In a nutshell: Model Filippa Hamilton was digitally whittled and twisted into a comically carnivalesque Laffy Taffy of a human being. Website BoingBoing wrote about it in their Photoshop Disasters section, where writer Xeni Jardin...

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The Flat Belly Food You Don't Know About: Kefir

7 Comments | Posted August 4, 2009 | 10:07 AM (EST)


Men's Health Editor in Chief David Zincenko recently touted a product called kefir as one of summer's six essential flat belly foods. But unless you hail from Russia or really pay attention when perusing the yogurt aisle at the grocery store, chances are, you've never heard...

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July is Cankle Awareness Month

1 Comments | Posted July 8, 2009 | 12:06 PM (EST)


A year ago last month, a smartass teenager on the street informed me that I had cankles.

Not that I hold a grudge or anything, three hundred and ninety days later.

So it was with a combination if horror and elation that I recently read that July is...

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A Picture Worth 1000 words

Posted May 18, 2009 | 02:04 PM (EST)


Like many people, Starbucks is my home office. The walls of my favorite 'Bux are often decorated with brightly colored artwork for sale, with tags that read Arts of Life. I knew Arts of Life was a nonprofit group that helps adults with developmental disabilities to explore the world...

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How Bea Arthur Helped my Body Image

1 Comments | Posted May 5, 2009 | 02:15 PM (EST)


Golden Girls star Bea Arthur recently passed away, and the news, delivered over a champagne-and-sticky bun Sunday brunch, saddened me. Not because I was a card-carrying member of the Golden Girls Fan Club (though I do have a discreet "Blanche Devereaux Rocks" tattoo on my lower back), but because I've...

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Relying on the Kindness of Strangers

2 Comments | Posted May 5, 2009 | 02:00 PM (EST)


Last week, I spent about five days walking around with bandaged, slinged-up left arm, courtesy of carpal tunnel surgery. I'm a righty, so I thought I'd be in the clear, but it's amazing how quickly you realize you truly do rely on your non-dominant hand. Like when you go to...

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Going Upper Commando in Style

Posted April 24, 2009 | 05:24 PM (EST)


Victoria Beckham may refuse to fess up as to whether her soccer balls are natural or fake, but a recent jaunt through a Milan Airport confirmed one thing: Her nipple covers are...REAL!

This is by no means the first nip slip for V. Becks. Last year while...

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Scars Can Be Beautiful

Posted March 23, 2009 | 02:10 PM (EST)


I think Tahlia Brookins is the picture of all-encompassing beauty.

When she was just nine months old, Tahlia unknowingly pulled down the cord of an electric teapot, spilling boiling water all over her hands, stomach, and legs. She endured second- and third-degree burns over 26% of her tiny body....

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A Jewish Sports Illustrated Cover Girl? Oy Vey!

Posted February 16, 2009 | 12:00 PM (EST)


Jewish girls worldwide, it's time to break out the Manishevitz and raise a Kiddush cup: Israel-born supermodel Bar Rafaeli is the cover model for the new 2009 Sports Illustrated.

For a community of women not typically known for or represented in the media as glamazonian, stunningly beautiful...

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Scaling Back

Posted January 16, 2009 | 12:58 PM (EST)


For the past two weeks, my inbox has been inundated with emails from companies hawking New Year's resolution-themed weight loss pitches.

"Try our Cookie Diet for a slim and tasty new 2009!"

"Visualize yourself with our 30-pounds thinner camera!"

"New Year? NEW, THINNER YOU!"

Delete. Delete. Delete.

My resolutions...

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Look, Mom! I'm Blogging with No Hands!

Posted January 13, 2009 | 03:26 PM (EST)


Note: No hands were used/harmed in the process of writing this blog.

Modern-day technology has led to a slew of special 21st-century disorders, the likes of which have never before seen. Wii Elbow, Blackberry thumb, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, and Laptop Neck strike men and women in the prime...

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T-Day: 3,000 Calories and 229g of Fat. Me: I Don't Care.

Posted November 27, 2008 | 12:35 AM (EST)


Every year as Thanksgiving approaches, magazines and news reports pop up all over like so many turkey temperature buttons, telling us how to save calories at Thanksgiving dinner. Swap dark meat for white meat! A baked sweet potato for buttery mashed potatoes! A big scoop of DUH for a small...

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The Most Annoying Phrases on Earth

Posted November 17, 2008 | 04:29 PM (EST)


OMG, this list is, like, sooo amazing! Literally. (Not).

If that sentence made your head want to explode, you're in good company. Researchers at the University of Oxford have compiled a list of the Top 10 Most Irritating Expressions in the English language. You think it's annoying when someone starts...

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Am I Slowly Giving Myself a Heart Attack?

Posted November 11, 2008 | 12:32 PM (EST)


On Saturday, I had the chance to sit in on a lecture delivered by Oprah's cardiologist, Annabelle Volgman, MD. As Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Rush University Medical Center Heart Center for Women, Volgman knows women's tickers, and as she addressed our group of...

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Jewish Girls and Self-Destructive Behaviors: By The Numbers

Posted November 4, 2008 | 04:53 PM (EST)


Last month, I wrote about the link between Jewish women and eating disorders just before participating in a series of Jewish Women International's Brain Power for Girl Power Think Tanks in Chicago and Detroit. The conferences took an intergenerational approach to solving the problems girls of all religions...

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Oy, You Should Eat!

Posted October 27, 2008 | 04:30 PM (EST)


My cousin, Rob, recently visited my aunt at her New England home. She asked him a seemingly simple favor: Could he help with some yard work? But when it comes to Jewish mothers, there are no simple questions -- anyone who's ever had their mom look them up and down,...

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I Interviewed Jillian Michaels and Lived to Tell

Posted October 10, 2008 | 06:04 PM (EST)


2008-10-10-jillian20300.jpg

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to interview Jillian Michaels, a woman whose abs are sharp enough to shave my husband's face and who has, in the past, forced Biggest Loser contestants to bench press her. I'll admit, considering the persona put...

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Food Blogging: The Newest Eating Disorder?

Posted September 19, 2008 | 11:36 AM (EST)


whopper.jpg

This picture might give you a mouthgasm...but could it give you an eating disorder, too?

One of the first food-documenting blogs I ever read was For the Love of Oats. I remember thinking, "How on earth does this woman manage to make PB&J...

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How a Pro-Life VP Will Make You Feel Fat

Posted September 3, 2008 | 05:01 PM (EST)


I rarely, if ever, write about politics -here, or anywhere. You are far more likely to read a story of mine in Redbook about the first successful U.S. ovary transplant or an article in Women's Health about some wacky sexperimentation my husband and I undertook in the name...

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