Author: daisy

Old Stories

The first article I found is “For those struggling with eating disorders, Johanna Kandel gives hope and shares her story”. It is written by Staci Sturrock and published on Palm Beach Post on June 27, 2011. This article is about a girl’s fight with eating disorders. When Kandel was 12 years old, she desperately wanted to earn a part in a production of The Nutcracker. Unfortunately, she was not cast in the show.  Although the adults explained it was because she simply looked too young, she believed it was because she was too fat. Her diet became more rigid and her exercise regimen became stricter. Eventually, her eating disorder robbed her of the dancing career she dreamed of. She struggled for 10 years and finally recovered. She grows the Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness. In order to provide assistance to those struggling with eating disorders and to promote positive body images, the group has produced several fashion shows featuring models of all shapes and sizes. I also want to write a story about how people struggle with eating disorders, so this article really helped me a lot.

The second article I found is “Low fat or high protein: which diet really works?”, which is written by Vicki Edgson and published in The Times on April 14, 2012. The article is based on a research conducted by scientists at Harvard Medical School. The scientist believed that the magic formula for weight loss is “lower fat, more exercise” and recommend people to eat good carbohydrates. The article also explained why the lower-fat approach work and suggest people keep eating fat and don’t buy things such as ready meals that have hidden fats in them.

The third article I found is “Slim or curvy – what shape do you prefer?” It is written by Ann Fotheringhamt and published on Evening Times on April 10, 2007. The article used several surveys to reveal a trend that curves are back and those skinny role models are being replaced by their more voluptuous counterparts. Also, the article interviewed several women to say what do they think. This article can help me to know the previous trend so I can make a comparison between before and now in my article.

Interview Transcript

Interviewee: Zixuan Wang, a clinical psychology P.h.D student at George Washington University, a licensed psychologist.

1. What are eating disorders?

Eating disorders are characterized by abnormal eating habits such as bulimia and anorexia. Eating disorders are mental illness but can also seriously damage physical health

2. What are causes of eating disorders?

There are lot of factors can cause eating disorders, and the factors cause bulimia and anorexia are different. The anorexia may be caused by excessive dieting, while the bulimia may be caused by excessive pressure. Also, if parents have eating disorders, their children are likely to have eating disorders as well.

3. Do you mean eating disorders are related to genes?

No, there is no scientific research prove that eating disorders are genic diseases. It just what

statistical data showed.

4. Can you explain more about anorexia and bulimia?

The fear of gaining weight and a strong desire to be thin is one of causes of the disease. In this case, people with anorexia refuse to eat anything or just eat only small amounts of food because they are afraid that if they eat food, they will be fat. In some cases, the patients force themselves to vomit if they eat food.

Bulimia is another kind of eating orders, characterized by eating a large amount of food in a short amount of time. It is often accompanied with anxiety disorder. When the patient feel anxiety, they may can’t help eating food and eating can help them to release the feel of anxiety. The anxiety can also caused by the worry of shape, the fear of being fat, and the desire to be thin.

Some people only have anorexia or bulimia but some people may have both.

5. From a psychological point, why some girls are not satisfied with their body and try to use excessive dieting to lose weight?

First, excessive dieting does not necessarily relate to lose weight. Some people go on diet just want to control their weight. It reflects their desire of control. In several cases, we found that if children have very powerful or controlling parents, they are likely to excessive dieting because they feel that the weight is thing they can control. They get satisfactions through excessive because they feel they finally can control something.

But you’re right, some people, especially girls, go on a diet in order to lose weight and get the ideal shape. Talking about why girls want to lose weight, peer pressure is one incentive. If a girl see another girl who is slim and popular, she may also want to be slim. She wants to get attention and she wants a close relationship.

The social idealization of thinness is another factor. Influenced by media, for example, the model and actress on TV, many women wrongfully think that they are beautiful only when they are thin.

Thus, because these and some other factors, many girls become feel upset, unsatisfied, shame or self-discrimination about their body.

6. If the desire of losing weight has caused mental illness, like eating disorders, how to treat it?

I will recommend a 1- on -1 psychotherapy. First, we need to know why the patients feel unsatisfied with their body, then use cognitive therapy to help patients to change the thinking model, to better know and accept themselves. We can help patients to analyze if they have a negative emotion, what outcome will produce while what if they have positive emotion. The basic idea is to lead them to establish a right view. The group therapy can also be a useful way, to gather patients together to share their experiences and encourage others.

7. Normally, how long the therapy will take?

It depends on patients’ situation. At least, it needs 2 or 3 months.

The Fitness Magazine

BY XIRUI DAI

Launched in 1992, Fitness is a United States-based women’s magazine, focusing on health, exercise, and nutrition. In 2005, Fitness launched its official website. There are rich resources, including articles and videos, focused on workouts, diet, healthy tips and beauty on its website.

http://www.fitnessmagazine.com

Where I’m At

BY XIRUI DAI

I used to be a very active person. My father always told me how important it is to have a healthy body and he required me to do exercises every day, like running, swimming, and playing badminton. Swimming is what I enjoyed most. I learned swimming when I was 5 years old and I went to swimming every day in the hot summer. I was good at running as well. When I was 12, I won the first prize in women’s 800 meters and 1500 meters race in school sports meeting.

However, things changed when I went to high school. The lack of sleep caused by heavy homework made me feel exhausted every day. Also, as I entered puberty and developed physically, I felt shy when wearing the swimming suit.

When I went to college, I began to care about my appearance and I wanted to be skinny. I tried to do slimming exercises for 1 month but it didn’t work, so I gave up and chose fast and eating diet pills. Totally I lost over 20 pounds in 1 months.

I finally got the shape I want, but things went wrong with my body: I started to get sick frequently; sometimes I felt dizzy when I stood up; even walking and climbing up stairs could make me out of breath; my heart beat over 120 times per minute.

One of my friends knew my situation and she warned me that I had to stop this unhealthy lifestyle. She recommended me a lot of articles and books about how to built a healthy weight loss plan. These articles helped me to know how to do exercises effectively and how to eat less but eat nourished. Now, I find myself fell in love with exercises and fitness.

I know there are lots of girls worrying about their figure and may use wrong way to lose weight,  just like what I did. Thus, I hope I can help these girls by writing healthy and fitness articles.