EaStER... The Re-Birth of the Son of God and of My BAD Eating Habits...

Easter is worse than Christmas for me. Sweeat treats, my cousin's amazing bridal shower, dinners, and REESE'S EGGS! How can a girl resist?

Easter was supposed to be my one ultimate cheat. I had it planned WEEKS in advance. Easter Sunday was the day I was going to allow myself to eat as many Reese's treats as I wanted... Crazy? I think so, considering I could pack away an entire peanut plantation if I really put my mind to it, but it was a dream of mine.

Long story short, my cheat day turned into a cheat weekend filled with turkey dinners, pasta al forno, ice cream cake, home made desserts, and REESE'S EGGS! I think I would have been able to handle all of the rest of it, but the eggs are like crack! It started out with the little wrapped ones, graduated to the personal size, then the big egg! Once you get that far, there's no turning back!

I had my fill of treats and was done with it Sunday night. I told myself that Monday was a new day. Party's over, back to reality! No problem, except when I woke up on Monday, my thoughts were consumed with Easter candy. I felt like I couldn't stop the cravings. All I could think about was eating junk. 

I once read that sugar is more addictive than cocaine...true or untrue? I cannot compare because I've only ever tried one of these, so all I have to say is good thing I've never tried cocaine because if I liked it half as much as I do the Reese's, I would be in deeeeeeep trouble!

So about a week went by where I ate less than perfectly before I snapped out of it... A WEEK! That's a biiiiiiig craving! My point in all of this is that sometimes it's really hard to get back on track. It's easy to allow ourselves the wonderful, decadent things in life... We all deserve it at least every once in a while! But it doesn't matter if it takes you one cheat day to be back on track, or 10... Just get back! Don't allow a few extra days of bad habits define you. Learn from your challenges and be better prepared next time! I know for myself, when the Reese's Pumpkins, Trees, Hearts, or any other little nugget of deliciousness shows up for the holiday season, I need to get my game face on to face off against it if I allow myself to indulge!

The things that we love to eat the most are sometimes the worst for us! So treat yourselves.... Get yourself a Reese's every once in a while, but beware... They're out to get you and they show no mercy! Be strong against your inner chocolate and peanut butter lover! Fight for your better body!! Don't let the Reese's of your life win!

For now, the tally is Reese's-1, Angela-0, but I'm looking to change that NEXT holiday season! Look out Halloween and the Pumpkins... I'm coming for ya!

A "Fat" Kid and a Stupid Mom

I want to start this off by saying that I will never EVER buy a copy of Vogue magazine in my life. I would say that I would never buy another copy of Vogue ever again, but I don't think I have ever purchased one to begin with, and maybe now I know why.

I was on Facebook one day, minding everyone else's business like you're supposed to on FB, when I came across a post from Jillian Michaels that asked that everyone read an article she had posted about a mother putting her 7 year old daughter on a diet, and to leave a comment about what we thought. So I read the article.

Let me first say that I do think that children should be fed a proper diet, which should be monitored and controlled by their parents. Kids don't even know how to wipe their own butts, let alone how to properly nourish themselves, so bravo to those parents who take the challenge and try to feed their children well balanced diets and attempt to avoid a lot of the regular junk that's out there. You guys rock! Teaching your children proper nutrition is just as important as teaching them their ABC's... Good work, awesome parents! Now I will tell you about this horrendous monster mom.

Dara-Lynn Weiss is a mother to a 7 year old girl. She wrote an article for Vogue titled "Weight Watchers," a chronicle of how she belittled her own child into losing 16lbs. At the age of 7, Weiss' daughter, Bea, was deemed "medically obese" at 4'4 and 93lbs.

When I was about to read this article, I really wanted to agree with it. I wanted it to be about a child who was put on a healthy diet by her mother. I wanted it to be about on how this woman focused on undoing the wrongs that she had taught her daughter diet-wise, in order for her to first become clinically obese. I was hoping that she would promote healthy eating, perhaps enforce a family fitness time or something, and I wanted it to end with the child having a new wealth of knowledge and wonderful new sense of self worth and pride for the fact that she had completed this challenge. If this is your hope, don't even bother looking this up.

This woman pretty much takes an innocent child, publicly humiliates her, teaches her how to eat if you're looking to be on a crash diet, massively restricts her calories, and teaches her how to starve herself, while also hating herself. She refers to her chld as "fat". I don't care who you are or what you think about this lady, that's down right mean. The word "fat" is a negative word. Here is an example of how this woman "helped" her daughter to lose 16 lbs.

I once reproachfully deprived Bea of her dinner after learning that her observation of French Heritage Day at school involved nearly 800 calories of Brie, filet mignon, baguette, and chocolate. I stopped letting her enjoy Pizza Fridays when she admitted to adding a corn salad as a side dish one week. I dressed down a Starbucks barista when he professed ignorance of the nutrition content of the kids’ hot chocolate whose calories are listed as “120-210″ on the menu board: Well, which is it? When he couldn’t provide an answer, I dramatically grabbed the drink out of my daughter’s hands, poured it into the garbage, and stormed out.

How would you feel if you were a 7 year old "fat" girl, who just had a drink ripped from her hands and poured in the garbage? I'm going to go out on a limb here, and say that maybe doing these things is not in this little girls best interest. Depriving a child of dinner and causing public scenes is not the avenue that should be taken. But it's Weiss we should all feel sorry for. She explains that “It is grating to have someone constantly complain of being hungry, or refuse to eat what she’s supposed to, month after month.” PLEASE, give me a break! In my opinion, (and I know I don't  have any children of my own) a mother shouldn't be starving her child. If the child is hungry, provide healthy options for her. If she slipped up in her diet, maybe it's too strict for a 7 year old. A mother should correct these behaviours instead of punishing them. It's absolutely outrageous to me that a person would just tell a 7 year old little girl that she's not getting dinner because she participated in a class assignment and ate some brie. I don't understand how she doesn't see the psychological damage this would do to a young girl.

Not only was this published in Vogue, someone has offered this woman a book deal! It wasn't humiliating enough for this poor kid to have her mother write about her being fat (which her mother called her in the article... not my words) but now she is writing a book about all of this and it will be titled, "The Heavy". I bet that's gonna be a big hit for your daughter's self image, Dara-Lynn.

After a year of what Bea describes as "hell," she indeed lost the 16 lbs that she was required to lose by her mother, and was rewarded with new dresses. She says of herself, "That's still me. I'm not a different person because I lost 16lbs."  Dara-Lynn however, disagrees. "That fat girl is a thing of the past." Talk about giving a child a complex! 

Perhaps if I was a psychiatrist I would be happy about this article. I would hope that when this little girl gets old enough she would come to me for therapy. I'm sure at this rate, she'll be racking up quite the bill!

In the end, Weiss comes clean about her own dieting history and self image and writes,  "I have not ingested any food, looked at a restaurant menu, or been sick to the point of vomiting without silently launching a complicated mental algorithm about how it will affect my weight. Who was I to teach a little girl how to maintain a healthy weight and body image?"

IS IT JUST ME, OR IS THIS MAYBE A LITTLE SHORT FOR A 7 YEAR OLD?

I can tell you exactly who you were, THE WRONG PERSON! Parents, let this be a lesson to you take responsibility and teach your children proper nutrition. It all starts at home, but please also remember to be kind to your children. No person deserves to be treated this way, let alone a little, sweet, innocent, impressionable child. Childhood obesity is a serious epidemic and weight issues will be something that your child will suffer with for a lifetime, so teaching proper nutrition is a really big deal. Be good role models and teachers and give them treats too! They're kids, they deserve it. Most of all, be positive... They're always watching! As far as this little girl goes, I hope that she will turn out to be alright and know that she's worth more than her weight on the scale.

Also, if you just read this, please, for my sake, DO NOT go buy this issue of Vogue and encourage this nonsense. I haven't read the entire article because I can't find it online and I refuse to support this garbage, but there are many excerpts from the article available, and if you must read it, I'm sure you'll be able to find it where it belongs. In someone's trash!

There it is! My opinion for the day! Enjoy, and comment freely!