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• They Say: Day Camp and Cheese Fries

  Today marks the last day of school in my Northeasterly neck of the woods. While my oldest is celebrating because she can sleep in -- I swear that I am raising a hibernating bear, I did my little dance of joy because I wasn't going to have to pack another flippin' lunch for two+ whole months. Speaking of lunch, experts caution that summertime is the right time for all kids to put on weight.   Read More... Posted Jun 25 2008, 11:00 AM by Adrienne Martini with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: childhood obesity, weight, summer, Tara Parker-Pope, they say, day camp

• Gasp! Childhood Obesity Not Exploding

  Hey, remember how a little while back we were told childhood obesity was a horrific epidemic ravaging the land? And then every thirty seconds or so a study and accompanying news story would appear, saying that juice or distant mothers or text messaging was one of the causes? (Side note: News outlets almost always use one of maybe three pictures of overweight kids for these stories. I do hope those kids are getting royalties or something.) It seemed like you almost couldn't go a week without at least one "such-and-such is contributing to the fattening of our youth" story appearing somewhere. Well, now there's more news in the kid and weight front. Apparently... Read More... Posted May 27 2008, 07:10 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: kids, food, health, research study, racism, nutrition, childhood obesity, diet, overweight, weight, experts, activity, sedentary, poor, disparities, economic

• Best of FameCrawler: Week of May 9th

  Hello, Harlow! Sheyla Hershey's Got Big (Size FFF) Dreams Nicole Kidman: DUMPED Elisabeth Hasselbeck's Post Baby Bikini Bod! Secrets of How Celebrity Moms Lost Their Baby Weight Britney Finally Gets Her Boys Oh My God That Britney's Shameless: Oops, She Did It AGAIN? Pregnant Posh! Beckham Baby on the Way! Sarah Jessica Parker's Pregnancy News! Laura Fay Is N.Y. Rep. Vito Fossella's Baby Mama Posted May 09 2008, 04:00 PM by Whit Honea with | with no comments Filed under: kids, celebrity, baby, parents, dads, pregnant, Britney Spears, strollerderby, family, moms, secrets, diet, boobs, boys, body, Brazil, Keith Urban, Nicole Kidman, breasts, victoria beckham, david beckham, elisabeth hasselbeck, weight, movie, gossip, posh, famecrawler, joel madden, nicole richie, sarah jessica parker, hair, Hershey, Baby Mama, stars, best of, harlow, bikini, vito fossella, laura fay, swimsuit, sheyla hershey, post-baby, 34, hello, lyrics, sex in the city, cooter buger, lionel richie, n.y. rep, fff, spice, huge boobs, dumped, shave, implants

• Controversy: Weight, For Beauty Queens And New Moms

  In this corner, Brooke Burke, gorgeous celebrity mom who still looks fab in a bikini after four babies!  In this corner, Chloe Marshall, first "overweight" contestant to compete for the title of Miss England! Okay, ladies, we want a fair fight here, so no eye-gouging, no hair-pulling, no raising false expectations, hawking useless products, or encouraging young girls to eat themselves into a diabetic coma. Let's get ready to RUMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   Read More... Posted Apr 11 2008, 11:01 AM by asflutz with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: fat, dieting, weight, brooke burke, chloe marshall, nature/nurture

• Should an "Overweight" Beauty Pageant Contestant Be a Role Model for Young Girls?

  Monica Grenfell is horrified. Why? Well, see, this year's Miss England contest has a fairly unique finalist: Chloe Marshall, a size 16 (about a size 14 in U.S. sizes.) Seventeen-year-old Marshall has been quite outspoken about wanting to be "an ambassador for curves" and demonstrate to young girls that it isn't necessary to be a size zero. She says she eats healthy food and exercises regularly. Grenfell, however, is a dietician and she hopes Chloe doesn't win. "It would send an appalling--and very dangerous--message to other young women that it's OK to be fat." She adds that Chloe is a terrible role model and says charmingly, "Who on earth does she think she's kidding? What she's demonstrating isn't bravery but a shocking lack of self-control. Instead of flaunting her figure, Chloe ought to own up to the truth. She is fat and she got that way by over-eating." Nice. Grenfell makes the point that we don't have an anorexia epidemic, we have an obesity epidemic, and that the last thing girls need to hear is that it's okay to be overweight because it puts you at risk for health problems like Type 2 diabetes and heart attacks. Mmm hmm. Well... Read More... Posted Apr 04 2008, 05:02 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 31 comment(s) Filed under: health, teens, girls, media, diversity, beauty pageant, exercise, research, daughters, eating disorders, weight, body image, messages, self esteem, obesity epidemic, chloe marshall

• Your Girls Can Be "Bimbos" Online!

  Sometimes you see stuff and think, "Is this fer real?" When I read about the Miss Bimbo game, I kept thinking, "Oh, in a minute they'll say the game is for adults." But no, in fact the majority of the 200,000 players are between the ages of 7 and 17. But let me back up: There's a virtual "fashion" game for girls where they get a "Bimbo" and have to navigate her through boob jobs and diets and so on to make her the coolest bimbo of all. Girls can dress their dolls in sexy outfits for clubbing, and are encouraged to keep them waif thin through diet pills and plastic surgery. Niiiice. Most of the accounts I read focused on the weight and cosmetic horrors of the game, but I personally was more disturbed by the fact that... Read More... Posted Mar 25 2008, 07:02 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 7 comment(s) Filed under: health, teens, internet, girls, diet, daughters, online, self-esteem, plastic surgery, eating disorders, weight, sexism, virtual reality, body image, boob job, dolls, computer games, misogyny, sugar daddy, self image

• Firefighter's Wife: I Killed Him Because He Called Me Fat

  Ah, the New York Post. Where would we be without you? This isn't exactly "Headless Body in Topless Bar," but its close. Here's the scoop: in December of 2007, Janet Redmond-Mercereau called 911 and reported that her husband, Staten Island Fire Marshall Douglas Mercereau, was dead. Two days later, the Post referred to her as "the elephant in the room" because of suspicions that she had murdered Douglas because of "humiliating fat jokes he made at her expense."  Read More... Posted Mar 23 2008, 07:00 PM by Brett Singer with | with no comments Filed under: Murder, law, weight, scandal, lawyers, firefighter, ny post, fdny, Douglas Mercereau, new york post, staten island, fat jokes, Janet Redmond-Mercereau

• Girl Scout Cookies--Now With Calorie Burning Tips!

  Hey, guess what? The Girl Scouts are going to start putting out cookies in 100 calorie packs. That's okay, right? I mean, that's like one Samoa per package... Oh, but wait: The 5 Resolutions Blog just alerted us that the packs are also going to have tips for girls to burn calories. Well, thank god, because I so want my daughter to know exactly how to obliterate the potential weight she might put on from those Thin Mints. Never to young to start counting calories, right? Sigh. Think I'm overreacting? Well, the packages say things like... Read More... Posted Mar 14 2008, 05:06 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: activities, nutrition, sports, obesity, girls, media, diet, self-esteem, weight, body image, calories, Girl Scouts, gymnastics, 5 resolutions blog

• Newsflash: Public Weigh-ins Not So Comfortable

  Turns out, women tend not to like being weighed in public. Oh wait, you already knew that. Because you hate it too! The side effects of public weighings  -- and we're talking at the doctor's office not reality shows -- may be causing more than moments of humiliation or heads whipping around to give you the once-over.   Read More... Posted Mar 02 2008, 09:32 AM by Madeline Holler with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: body, weight, body image, body dysmorphoa, weight gain

• Weekly Check-Up: Messy House Making You Fat?

  Hmmm, is it just a coincidence that two of the first things to go when many people have kids are standards of house cleanliness and, well, the ass? Oh please. Apparently one of Oprah's special friends believes an untidy home can keep you fat. "Clutter expert" (do you need a Master's degree for that) Peter Walsh says he was stunned to discover that when people got organized, they also started making healthy food choices. I suppose a skeptical person could point out that our society's current fixation with obesity might make "it helps you lose weight!" a key selling point for all kinds of stuff, like, say, a book on home organization, but we can't find our skeptics under all these piles of papers and empty fast food containers.  So, how exactly does clutter keep you heavy? Well...   Read More... Posted Feb 28 2008, 08:31 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: nutrition, Oprah, fat, organization, overweight, cleaning, weight, experts, housework, weekly check up, clutter, real you, obese, healthy food choices, clean house

• Parents and Teens Don't Recognize Weight Problem

  Yet another study found that parents of overweight teens don't identify the kids as being overweight, and the kids don't see a problem either. There's been a whole slew of these "parents don't know kids are fat" things lately. When both groups were asked if they thought the adolescents, who all have type 2 diabetes, were "very overweight, slightly overweight, about right, slightly thin, or very thin?" only 41 percent of the parents and 35 percent of the kids reported 'very overweight', even though 87 percent were considered overweight by accepted standards. The researchers say this is a problem because recognition of a weight problem is the first step in making lifestyle and diet changes. But, well, I gotta cry "bullshit" on this one. Frankly, I still do have some trouble accepting the premise that in this weight-obsessed society, the teenagers involved don't have any idea they might be overweight, even if the parents are blind to it. But... Read More... Posted Feb 19 2008, 03:32 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: health, research study, parents, teens, obesity, overweight, disease, eating disorders, weight, diet and exercise, adolescents, type 2 diabetes

• Strollerderby Playdate: Doggie Style

  Show of hands - how many moms looked at their post-baby belly and immediately started to sob? How many were doing the same thing a year later? How many are making peace with how things in the boob-and-belly region are now? How many of you find keeping your hand in the air is aerobic exercise enough? Read More... Posted Jan 24 2008, 01:29 PM by Adrienne Martini with | with no comments Filed under: yoga, chocolate, baby weight, weight, playdate, mojitos

• Phobic Kids Fear Fat

  Thin is in, and even kids know it. How could they not? The messages are undeniable, and they're everywhere, even in their own homes. After all, kids are fatter than ever before, right? And there's been a huge outpouring of time, energy, and money into programs to save our fat kids from getting fatter. But there's also the flip side, that all this fat-o-phobia is turning regular-sized kids into mini stick insects. Read More... Posted Jan 21 2008, 07:26 AM by Karen Murphy with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: parenting, kids, fat, fat kids, anorexia, weight, eating disorders in kids

• Don't Say This Stuff To a Pregnant Woman

  People like to go on and on about how pregnancy makes women crazy (knowing wink) but in fact, I think it must have some sort of impact on people in the vicinity of the burgeoning mama, perhaps a hormonal contact high of sorts. My evidence for this theory is the sheer number of dumbass things people say and do to pregnant women. It's like all social filters fall away and people feel real comfortable in commenting on things like weight and sex--not to mention the grabby manhandling of the belly. The Poop tackled some of the ways significant others can "open mouth, insert foot" but we all know strangers and family are equally guilty of the obnoxiousness. Judging by the comments, weight and size remarks... Read More... Posted Jan 15 2008, 09:34 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, Sex, the poop, weight, advice, pregnant women, stranger danger, comments, irritating people

• Unpopular and Fat: A Scientific Fact

  Which came first, the social isolation or the excess pounds? A new study looking to, I don't know, dredge up the deeply buried insecurities of grown women and/or convince parents to homeschool their kids has found that the less popular a girl perceives herself to be the more weight she'll gain during the teenage years. Conjuring images, no doubt, of the lonely sophomore eating a pint of ice-cream in a darkened kitchen while her cellphone never rings. Ugh! Read More... Posted Jan 08 2008, 01:43 PM by Madeline Holler with | with no comments Filed under: research study, teens, middle school, diet, weightloss, weight loss, popularity, weight, overweight children, diet and exercise, mean people, weight gain, isolation, overweight teens

• Be All Healthy In Pregnancy and Your Baby Might Grow Up To Be A Cowboy. Or Healthy. One of the Two.

  I'm sure there are many pregnant women out there thinking to themselves, "Should I eat well, exercise, and take care of this little life growing in my womb, or should I only eat Pringles and sit on my behind all day?" If so, there's a piece here that might tip the scales. Turns out that eating well in pregnancy might not only result in a healthy baby, but might also help your child grow up to be a healthy adult. Why, Rachel made a list of reminders for herself should she ever get knocked up again: "1. leave off crack smoking, 2. stop running more than 15 miles per day in the 8th month, and 3. avoid kickboxing and bikram yoga." And I told myself, "Froot Loops over JD and Coke is not a nutritious breakfast." See, we help with the hard choices here. But one thing I want to point out... Read More... Posted Sep 13 2007, 02:08 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: nutrition, weight, health and kids, pregnancy and delivery, diet and exercise

• Trimming Your Mummy Tummy, the Witty British Way

  A friend of mine once swore that her weight issues were a direct result of being raised to clean her plate. When she had children of her own and swore she'd never lay that trip on them, she found herself cleaning their plates instead, and the next thing you knew she had fifteen pounds she couldn't shake. It took her forever to figure out where they came from and why the treadmill wasn't helping. Me, my kids eat like birds and I only put three bites on their plate at a time in order to avoid having to throw anything out. But I'm not immune: if they snub half of their cookie because it's oatmeal and not chocolate chip, I'm gonna eat that. If I put out a bowl of Goldfish for a playdate, it's a sure bet I ate half the bag while I was waiting for our friends to arrive. This, according to British experts as well as pretty much every parenting magazine I have ever had the misfortune to read, is not good. But fear not: you can trick yourself out of all the bad snacky habits that you risk forming when you live in a house of kids, and form some better habits along the way, and maybe say goodbye to that half-bag of Goldfish that's spilling out over your waistband. I must say though, the upside of Bay Area parenting is the pressure to feed your children primarily "good" snacks, which tend not to be very appetizing to me. I can't remember the last time I ate an organic fruit-and-cereal bar in order to save it from the bin, and I'd rather have bamboo shoots shoved under my finger nails than eat Booty. If I would just commit to buying the vastly inferior Annie's Bunnies instead of the delicious and oh-so-salteriffic Goldfish, I'd probably be muffin-top free and ready to rock.   Posted Jun 27 2007, 09:01 AM by Patti with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: healthy eating, fitness, exercise, weight

• Strollerderby Playdate: Attack of the Fitness Blogs, Part Deux

  We had so much fun playing with the fitness bloggers last week, so let's make another date. Dude, that baby weight is so coming off! Well, at the very least there's folks to commiserate with when it stubbornly sticks. Nothing better than sitting on your behind and reading about healthy living. By the way, you may have heard the term "fat bloggers" for people who chronicle weight loss stories or just write about nutrition and stuff. I'm campaigning to change the term to "floggers". The Diet Blog always breaks down the fads and fictions that circulate in the health world. Vet through them before you start the "Only-Parsley-and-Chicken-Breast" diet. Back in Skinny Jeans would never tell you to do anything she wouldn't do herself. Crabby at Cranky Fitness never fails to crack me up. Someday we'll eat cake together. If you feel like watching some folks just like you do some really extraordinary things, visit the Ice Chamber blog. Plus there's lots of sweeties there. Or check out the great craziness at Straight to the Bar. Superhuman people doing the impossible.   Posted Jun 15 2007, 07:02 AM by Kelly Mills with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: health, nutrition, fitness, weight, strollerderby playdate

• Courtney Love Gets Welcomed Back Into the Fold by Celebrity Parents

  There are very few sins that can get you kicked out of the superstar parents club: stints in rehab won't do it, dressing your kids inappropriately gets the green light, and even neglecting to properly restrain your little angels is no big thing. However, parent Courtney Love really slipped up when she committed the ultimate celebrity sin: she gained a lot of weight. Now all that sordid business is behind her, and she’s dropped almost 50 pounds. The red carpet mamas and papas wasted no time welcoming her back into the fold. Gwyneth Paltrow, a.k.a. Moses and Apple's mama, enjoyed a nice meal of maybe one raw piece of asparagus and a sprig of organic parsley with her at the restaurant Cut. They bonded over yoga, the weight loss workout of the stars. As a fitness fanatic, I have yet to see anyone shed pounds with lightening speed by doing sun salutations. Perhaps "yoga" is actually the secret celebrity code word for gastric bypass? Even TomKat, presumably out on date night, stopped by to gush about her weight loss triumph. The Tom half squeezed Love and said, "You look like a movie star!" (Hey, wasn't his wife going to be one of those before she married him?) I assume the Kat half beamed her glassy-eyed smile and said, "I love my life, I love my child, I love my daughter, I'm not even the slightest bit unhappy or suffocated or brainwashed. Happy, happy, la la la. No need to rescue me from this golden prison, no sir..." Does anyone know if Courtney is still sober? Is she taking good care of Frances Bean? Who cares! She's really thin now. That's all you need to know. Take this lesson to heart, Tori Spelling, there's no excuse for holding onto the baby weight.   Posted Apr 25 2007, 05:06 PM by Kelly Mills with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: celebrity moms, gwyneth paltrow, Courtney Love, celebrity parents, weight, TomKat

• Another Reason for an Eating Disorder: Gaining Extra Weight During Pregnancy Can Get You a Fat Kid

  As if women didn't have to worry about their weight enough already. (sigh) Now a study is showing that women in the study who gained the recommended amount of weight ran four times the risk of having a child who was overweight at age 3, compared to women who gained less than the advised amount. Not excessive amounts of weight, not obese women having children, not women with crazy cholesterol issues or high blood pressure - just mothers that gained the recommended amount of weight. I feel sick. Not just morning sickness or bulimia kind of sick either. Why do they keep doing this to us? As soon as we take one step forward we tell women not even to gain weight when they are growing another person IN THEIR BODY? Be prepared parents. Your daughters are all going to binge and purge or end up like my friend that would eat one life saver for her daily nourishment. I don't know about you guys, but I'd rather have a kid that was slightly overweight at 3 than one felt like she had to diet while she was pregnant. Maybe I'm overreacting, but probably not.  Posted Apr 03 2007, 05:52 PM by Sarah, Goon Squad Sarah with | with 11 comment(s) Filed under: pregnancy, eating disorders, weight