skinny

Realizing that people are willing to forgo the four dollars for a 700 calorie mocha for a dollar-fifty cup of coffee with milk that has much less calories, Starbucks will be adding a new beverage to their already long list of drinks. Welcome the “Skinny," a nonfat Latte made with sugar-free syrup. Starbucks is also adding a new sugar-free syrup flavor — Mocha — to the current selection of Vanilla, Hazelnut, Caramel, and Cinnamon Dolce.

Why is this cool? Well the tall (12 fl. oz.) Caffè Latte or Caffè Mocha ordered with sugar-free syrup, steamed nonfat milk, and foam contains only 90 calories. If customers replace their daily tall Starbucks Vanilla Latte with a Skinny Vanilla Latte they would save 700 calories and 35 grams of fat per week! Swapping out a daily, tall Caffè Mocha (made with 2% milk and no whip) for a Skinny Mocha would save 550 calories and 30 grams of fat per week. This means that Starbucks has finally taken the guess work out of figuring out how to get a yummy coffee without tons of calories. Look for the Skinny to be hitting Starbucks nationwide starting January 2008.

Source

Women are made to feel awful about their healthy size. Who could blame them with all the super thin models and celebrities glorifying their bony frames? When we go shopping, the latest fashions of tight leggings and skinny jeans are no help. Of course, smooth-skinned size zero plastic mannequins, reminding us that we could never look like that, are modeling them.

Of course, in our hearts, we know we wouldn't want to anyway, because we know how models get to size zero. These stupidly thin fashion dummies contribute to the perception that skinny is the only way to go, which in turn contributes to eating disorders. Well I can tell you that starving myself is not on my list of things to do.

Madrid and Milan banned ultra-thin models from their fashion week runways late last year, and this year the Council of Fashion Designers of America announced guidelines designed to help models eat and live more healthfully (wa-hoo!).

I was happy to find out that Spain is also taking a step towards banishing this unachievable standard. I didn't know this but about 1 in 5 Spanish women between the ages of 13 and 22 suffer from an eating disorder.

One step Spain is taking is to get rid of the super skinny mannequins in clothing stores. All mannequins will be replaced with ones that are no smaller than a size 6. They are also planning on dealing with the issue of sizes. In one store a size can fit you just right, but in another store, that same size can be too tight. So all sizes will become standardized in all stores.

Spain is aiming to make the standard go from unreal and unhealthy, to a standard of healthy beauty. Italy is becoming interested as well. I'm hoping that these recent moves made by Spain will encourage all of the world's countries to make the change to support healthy women's bodies.

Liv Tyler recently talked about dieting and motherhood. She said, "I've been on a diet my whole life." Being in the public eye, she spent years worrying about her weight, that is, until she became a mom.

Many women can relate, comparing themselves to skinny models, and forever being on a diet and working out to shed pounds. The thing is, models are getting skinnier, so women think they need to too, even though it's unhealthy for their bodies and their self-esteem.

Liv Tyler doesn't agree with it. She said,"I definitely think the girls look too skinny now. I'm friends with Helena Christensen and Linda Evangelista, and I remember Linda telling me that when she was a model (in the '90s), a sample size was a 6 or an 8. Now a sample dress size is a 0 or a 2. That's pretty alarming. There's a lot of pressure on the models. It's not healthy. I can't even imagine what that's like."

I'd like to find inspiration in Liv's thoughts and in her sister, Mia Tyler. She's a gorgeous and sexy plus-size model who's healthy and confident. It's great to see celebrities who represent real women. You know, for all of us who'll never have a model's strict BMI, not because we can't, but because we know it's unhealthy.

Source

In light of National Eating Disorders Awareness Week from February 25 - March 3, and because another model, Eliana Ramos, has passed away from anorexia, I am overwhelmed with so many feelings. I'm angry with the media for making girls think that thin equals beauty. I'm also sad for people battling eating disorders, and for the families who've lost loved ones.

It's not just models and actresses who feel the pressure to be super thin. The young girls and women of the world who see magazine covers think that that is the norm, the expected.

The average female model weighs up to 25% less than the typical woman and maintains a weight at about 15 to 20 percent below what is considered healthy for her age and height.

Some models go through plastic surgery, some are "taped-up" to mold their bodies into more photogenic representations of themselves, and all photos are airbrushed and altered by a computer designer before going to print (in fact this photo, I think, might even be manipulated to make the model appear even thinner for some pro-anorexia site).

These body types and images are NOT the norm and are unobtainable to the average individual. But unfortunately, the constant force of these images on society makes us believe that we should all look emaciated and rail-thin.

We need to remind each other and ourselves constantly - especially young girls - that these images are fake. Being healthy and having a healthy body image is what it's all about.