I love this!!! Thoughts on the idea "Strong is the new Skinny"

This whole post by Fit and Feminist was a positive reading experience for me!  I am a firm believer in strength training and this post really resonated with me.  Here's the take home:

We don’t need a new “skinny.”  We don’t need a new beauty standard, nor do we need yet another physical ideal hanging over our every thought and move like a little black cloud of doom.  What we need to do is change the paradigm so that we value our bodies for all of the amazing things they let us do.  We need to expand our standards of beauty to recognize that beauty shows up in all kinds of bodies.  And we need to get over this idea that the most important purpose we serve on is to be beautiful for other people.  We have a right to have healthy bodies, to take up space, to have appetites, to cultivate our strengths in whatever form that may take.  Our time on this planet is precious and we will never, ever get it back, so let’s stop squandering it in pursuit of meaningless ideals we will most likely never attain anyway.  We deserve so much better than that.

Want to read the whole post?  Click here!

HT to Weight Maven for pointing me in this direction!

So you drink diet soda?

Y'all know I am fairly anti-diet soda.  But here's some information based on research (not just my paranoia):

New studies on artificial sweeteners: a puzzle

from Food Politics by Marion

FoodNavigator.com reports two new studies on artificial sweeteners.

The first report says that artificially sweetened sodas do not lead to increased sugar or calorie consumption.

Our study study does not provide evidence to suggest that a short-term consumption of DBs [diet beverages], compared with water, increases preferences for sweet foods and beverages.

If this result proves repeatable, it leaves open the question of why the prevalence of obesity has gone up in parallel with increasing consumption of diet sodas (which it has).

So how come diet sodas don’t seem to help people maintain weight, on average? We still don’t know.
The second report is about a study that links diet sodas to type 2 diabetes. In a study following 66,000 women for 14 years, it found both sugar-sweetened beverage consumption and artificially sweetened beverage consumption to be associated with increased type-2 diabetes risk.

How come? We still don’t know.

One thing seems pretty clear from such studies: diet drinks don’t appear to do much good for most people and aren’t any better for health than regular sodas.

Water, anyone?

I need you to watch this and tell me what you think!

Can't see the video? Click here!

(but then, don't forget to tell me what you think -- is this a more clear message than other PSA's you've seen?  Did it provide you with food for thought that you hadn't considered before? Did the video offend you?   Talk to me!)