Body Acceptance Reminder of the Day

July 4, 2012 by 2 Comments

I don’t spend much time  on YouTube.  Truth be told, maybe once a year I’ll find myself curious about what’s being said about my Daily Special/Pretty Imperfect/Elastic Waist videos, and I’ll look at the comments.  Inevitably some of the comments say something like “You’re fat and stupid.”

Somehow, it always seems that fat and stupid always go together.  Anyone ever notice that?  In terms of Internet trolls, I have a pretty thick skin.  Let’s face it, if you spend your time insulting people you don’t know behind the privacy of a screen name chances are there isn’t much else going on in your life.

Well, I have a new hero.  A friend of mine posted this video on Facebook and I immediately fell in love.  What we have here is a video blogger who is standing up against her trolls.

While  ”Why does it hurt you, if I don’t hate myself?” is most definitely the message to take away from this.  What initially piqued my attention was the part where she reminds us not to judge where a person is on there journey by what they weigh.

I’m a health writer, but that doesn’t negate or diminish my roots in the weight acceptance movement (Elastic Waist, the start of my writing career was a site focused on body and weight acceptance–and the sometimes body insecurities we face while trying to find that acceptance).  I am one of those people who believes you can be overweight and still be healthy. Hell, I am not a skinny girl, but I do exercise five days a week and eat a reasonably healthy diet.  I also eat cake sometimes.  And french fries.  Because, you know, I’m human.

Neither am I one of those people who refer to curvy women as real women.  Skinny women are real women too.  Women are women, and women, in my humble opinion are fan-friggin-tastic no matter what size or shape they come in.

Men are great as well, but the majority of my readers here are ladies, and women, by far, are judged more based on their appearance than men.  Not to say men don’t have their own pressures, but it’s rough out their, especially on the Internet, for us ladies.

This has been an Independence Day reminder to love yourself, regardless of your size.  If you want to change that size, go for it, but your self-worth is not a number.

Kim

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Speaking of Music…

April 11, 2011 by 1 Comment

This. Is. Awesome.

Tom Jones and The Cardigans (The Cardigans, you know Love Fool, ‘Romeo and Juliet’, late 90s awesomeness) singing ‘Burning Down the House.’

Wait, was that cool, or did I just prove my own point?

Kim

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Live and in Internet Color

February 24, 2011 by 2 Comments

I have a whole new appreciation for chewing.  Chewing. Chewing. Glorious chewing!

I’m sure you’re all tired of reading about my cleanse, but are you tired of watching about my cleanse?  Because I made a video!  This is all a part of my New Year’s Resolution to get back into Webshows.  Now, those of you that remember from the Daily Special and Pretty Imperfect days, well I had a professional production crew behind me on that one–so it’s not like that, at all.  This little video is just me, a flip cam, and my laptop…still I’m pretty impressed by my meager technological prowess.  I even made a YouTube Channel for The Kim Challenge, so I can start posting more videos!  Hopefully I’ll get better at this thing as the year progresses.

So if you’re cable is out, or you’re just wondering what my voice sounds like…check it out: I’m animated on the Internets!

Now on to the food, the real food, the non pureed food.  I feel like I need to reach out to every infant I know and tell them what a great thing they’ve got to look forward to!  Chewing, all the cool kids are doing it.

Seriously, you can tell you love food when you wake up multiple times in the night wondering if it’s time to chew yet.  I kept things simple, mainly because Organic Avenue sent me an email telling me I could have fruits, salads, and steamed veggies.  No dairy, nuts, grains, or legumes, and no meats.  I improvised a little with dinner because I didn’t want another salad, but I feel like I’m still within my cleanse breaking boundaries.  They didn’t send me any instructions for tomorrow so I’m thinking I can start incorporating other foods back in.  You know, now that my stomach remembers how to move and stuff.

As I said in the video (but my guess is that not all of you are going to watch it, so I’ll repeat it here) while this experience certainly wasn’t as easy, enlightening, or magical as I was anticipating, now that I have some distance from it I can certainly see the benefits.  My body really does feel clean inside.  Kind of empty,  but empty in a good way, in a way that makes me want to only fill it with good things from now on.  I’m also down 6lbs, which is a nice little ego boost even though I’m pretty sure it’s just water weight.  Speaking of water weight, a major bonus of this experience was feeling like I lost a lot of bloat I didn’t even realize I had.

I’m glad I did it, but I don’t ever want to do it again.  I don’t usually go for the ‘extreme’ version of anything diet related (mostly because at heart I’m a total extremist and I don’t want get to that crazy obsessive head space I definitely occupied when I was younger), so this was a little outside my comfort zone.  Sometimes going outside ones comfort zone is a good thing, but I think next time I’m feeling like trying a detox I’ll go for a slower more food based version.

Have you ever done a detox, extreme or mild?  What was your experience?

Fruit

Fruit

Salad

I think I might have gone a little overboard with the veggies.  I was really excited.

Soup

I made a simple cauliflower soup which was basically just organic vegetable broth, cauliflower, onion and garlic all pureed for tasty/easy to digest goodness

Kim

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DVD Review: Dance Your Ass Off Workout

November 13, 2009 by 1 Comment

Dance Your Ass OffA few months ago I had that dewy glow that only comes from coming from THE BEST AEROBICS CLASS EVER, which of course was the Dance Your Ass Off classa la the East 59th Street Crunch.

I don’t think I’ve ever liked anything as much as I liked that class, not even Santa Claus, and that dude’s got sway.  Needless to say, I was pretty psyched to get my greedy lil fingers on the new Dance Your Ass Off Workout DVD.  Could it be that I was about to have that euphoric sweat drenched feealing in the comfort of my own home?

No.  Definitely not.  This DVD sucked, don’t buy it.

That’s harsh, but it’s true.  I’ve done a lot of Exercise DVDs in my life, so I feel like I have a fairly large scope to judge from.  The absolute worst home workout I’ve ever done was the Weight Loss Hula Workout, but this one was a close second.

The DVD is sectioned off into three sections: Disco, Latin, and Hip Hop.

Section one was without a doubt the worst.  The only good thing that really came out of this was that the guy leading the section will forever be known as DISCO JESUS, seeing as how is name is Jesus and he teaches disco and that’s how the title page comes up.

I would not make out with Disco Jesus, Disco Jesus is all over the place, he’s really excited and really jumpy but he’s not actually doing anything.

Disco Jesus burns more calories talking than he does moving.  If you’re really into pointing, you’re going to really like this section, if not, fastforward to the Latin section.  I’m pretty sure DJ has exercise tourettes, and is constantly saying weird catch phrases like “Easy Dance” (which occurred approximately 30 times in a 10-minute segment).

He also likes to single out poor Ruben (this seasons winner), and ask him how he’s doing every 45-seconds.  Ruben, not knowing what to say keeps saying “I’m dancing my ass off.”

In a word: Awkward.

Section two is led by Latin Hilary.  Latin Hilary is definitely the most likable of the three instructors, albeit totally boring.  This section pretty much amounts to standard Latin dance walking, and a couple of Cha-Cha’s.  All legitimate, and she teaches them well, but there is hardly any real movement in this section.

The third section is taught by Hip Hop Lisa, who incidentally is the shows choreographer.  This is actually the only section of the DVD that I actually felt like I was working, and Lisa’s body is sick (sick in a good way).  Lots of elbow throwing and hyper extended torsos and large leg movements make this quite possibly the only part of this DVD worth doing.

It is worth noting that Kristin Jacobs, who I reviewed recently for her own Hip Hop DVD, was one of the background dancers.  While I liked Lisa’s section, it was only 10-minutes long, if you’re looking for a more substantial dance workout I’d definitely head Kristin’s way.

The Dance Your Ass Off Workout is $9.99 on Amazon, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

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Exercise DVD Review: Crunch-Yoga Body Sculpt

January 20, 2009 by 6 Comments

crunch-yoga-body-sculpt

Ladies and gentlemen we have a winner.  A new favorite yoga DVD for me, and perhaps for you!  I’ve mentioned many a time over the years that I am not the most yogafied person.  I understand the importance of it.   I know that it’s great for stretching and strengthening your body, but I’ve never been that into it. I’ve always done it more out of obligation to a well rounded routine than a deep and serious love of yoga.  That out of the way I LOVED THIS VIDEO and I will definitely make it my go to yoga video.  I had fun doing yoga, and I hate yoga. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Fitness, Reviews, Videos