Today Coco Rocha wrote an interesting article about how models like herself who are "6 inches taller and 10 sizes smaller than the average American woman" are considered fat and are pressured to lose weight, even at very young ages. With media standards like this, how is anyone supposed to have a healthy view of themselves?!

Yesterday, Angela at Oh She Glows wrote a post about her clothing size being "Size Healthy." This post was in response to a question she received from "Ask Me Anything" asking what size and weight she is.

Angela responded: "I don’t know my weight. I go by how my clothes fit and it surprisingly works well. They start to get tight and I reel in the party in my mouth a little bit."

I love this! She has such a great attitude that I think every woman could benefit from using a little more often.

It's true, it really doesn't matter what the number in your pants is, it matters how you feel in them!

In the past, I have gone through periods in which I have lost weight very quickly. I felt amazing because the differences in my body were so stark. I would get dressed up and leave the house feeling like a million bucks.

It's ironic though; usually I would lose even more weight and those clothes would be too big. Eventually, I would gain weight back and be back in those same clothes and it was a totally different feeling. It had nothing to do with the actual size of the clothes, and everything to do with how I felt about myself.

Many experts try to put a number on "healthy" with BMIs or healthy weight ranges for a height. In actuality, it all comes down to you.

You know how you are feeling. Do you generally feel lethargic? Tired? Depressed? This is your body telling you something is wrong.

If you are feeling good and doing what is right for you and your body then you feel good!

And "fat talk" is all in your head. Everyone is beautiful!


I took some pictures of my re-sized clothes for Angela's Size Healthy Contest. I never knew how hard it was to write on your tags until now... also, most of my clothes did not have tags I could write on!



So I pulled out my favorite jersey which actually displays my size to others (!) and I re-sized it to a perfect Size Healthy. :)

I love making my own dressings at home. Most dressings found in pretty much any grocery store you go to have all kinds of unnecessary ingredients. You can find a few types that are healthy, but usually they fairly expensive.

The simple solution is to make your own dressings at home!

I love Annie's Goddess dressing just as much as the next foodie, but the price for the small bottle is just not worth it to me. I also LOVE tahini and any type of dressing (hummus!) involving it, it's a great binder for a quick and easy dressing you can make up in the bottom of your salad bowl as needed: whisk together some vinegar, oil of your choice, tahini, salt and pepper, top with greens and mix!



Tahini, made out of sesame seeds, is a nutritional powerhouse containing tons of important nutrients along with healthy fat and protein!

I searched around on the internet for a good recipe and came up with a great one on recipe zaar. A few little tweaks, and it came out perfect.

Recipe:

2 tablespoons plain olive oil

1/4 cup sesame oil (toasted myself!)

1/2 cup tahini

2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/2 cup hot water (more volume!)

5 small green onions (white and green parts)

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons shoyu (soy sauce)

4 frozen garlic cubes

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

Blend all together in blender or food processor! And bottle it up - old glass nut butter jars are great for this!

I have always been the type of person that needs some thumping beats to keep me motivated during a workout. This was definitely the case with running!

When I began to train for my first 1/2 marathon a few years ago, I would often read over at Runner's World that a lot of runners just like to listen to the sounds of nature, or slow songs, or even chat with a friend. I could never believe how they could keep up their motivation much less have enough breath to talk!

Well, after training for several months, I finally experienced what longer distance runners do - your cardiovascular ability finally catches up and you are no longer so out of breath that you that you need something to distract you. I could run with or without music and it was great! I found I could pay a lot more attention to my surroundings too! However, I became injured and lost that.

A few weeks ago I was skimming over the Lululemon blog (I'm a Lulu addict!), and I found a great post about running with audiobooks. I have always enjoyed reading, but with my busy schedule I simply didn't have time.

During the evenings and weekends, I would rather watch TV or movies with the bf for some "together" time rather than sitting in a different room with my nose in a book. I brought back audiobooks during my commute because I found that its a great way to turn something I don't like into something I look forward to!


You can get audiobooks for free too! I never knew this, but at the recommendation of my mom, I went online and found that most libraries have online digital collections that you can "rent" and download.

I use the R.E.A.D.S. online website for TN - if you search for your library, they should have a website for downloading audiobooks as well. All you need is a library card number! It's so great!

I decided to follow the advice of the Lulu post and try out my book while I was on the treadmill. I was skeptical, but Twilight is pretty addicting after all, so I figured it would be ok.

To my surprise, the minutes went by even faster than normal. I am now a running audiobook addict!


Can't wait until my next run to find out what happens with Bella and Edward!! :)