Weight is one of those topics that keeps popping up on the board. It’s also an issue that I have been struggling with lately. I found this in a book called, “A Woman’s Book of Life” by Joan Borysenko, PhD. It has helped me put a lot of things into proper perspective lately.
This is what the book has to say:
“A 1995 study at the University of Arizona found that 90 percent of white teenage girls were unhappy with their weight. These girls cited the statistics of a supermodel (5’7″ and 100-110 pounds) as the ideal height and weight. Since the average American woman weighs 143 pounds, and fewer than one quarter of American women are taller than 5’4”, as my children often say, “Something is wrong with this picture”.”
There’s more:
“Models in my mother’s generation weighed only 8 percent less than average; today’s models weigh nearly 25 percent less. In 1951 Miss Sweden was 5’7″ tall and weighed 151 pounds. In 1983 Miss Sweden was 5’9″ tall and weighed 109 pounds. And although models have grown thinner, the average American woman has gotten heavier since the fifties, creating an enormous discrepancy between the real and the ideal.”
My thoughts: while some of us are struggling with losing weight and others are struggling with gaining, maybe it helps to focus on the real instead of the ideal.
Cindy
Anonymous
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