pregnancy
Scientific
We're Fat (Among Other Reasons) Because We're Bathed In Chemicals In The Womb
Why are Americans so fat? (If you need more sadness in your day, here's a sad graph that shows our scary fat trajectory). There are lots of obvious reasons. We go to Cheesecake Factory. We're addicted to junk. We don't walk as much as everyone else. We watch too much TV. And then there are all sorts of fascinating micro-explanations. We're fat partly because we eat bacon at night instead of in the morning. We're fat because we don't sleep enough. Well, today, there's another scary and interesting micro-explanation to add to the list: We're fat because our mother's eat pesticide-laced food while we're in the womb. What? Here's the research...
More...Overheard
Spin Class Pregnancy Confusion
The scene: Friday afternoon spin class. The players: Spin Instructor; Whackadoo
Instructor: Is anyone new, injured, or pregnant?
Whackadoo (sitting front and center in gray cotton biker shorts and a sports bra): I'm new.
Instructor gets off bike and proceeds to adjust Whackadoo's bike for her and tell her about hand positioning. A few minutes pass and class begins warm-up.
Instructor: Increase resistance to moderate, this will feel like your bike as a kid before you had gears.
Whackadoo: What if I'm pregnant?
Instructor: Are you pregnant?
Whackadoo: I don't know.
New York
Pregnant women can hula hoop!
I found this pretty impressive video on You Tube of a woman hooping at 35 weeks pregnant and Hoopnotica (where I got my portable hoop) makes a lightweight Prego-O Hoop, which was developed by the
More...Doh!
Bisexual Jillian Michaels: No Baby Gonna Mess Up This Body
Scandal! Jillian, inspirational host of the Biggest Loser and top fitness DVD seller in the known universe, rejects child birth on aesthetic grounds. Here's Jilian in recent Women's Health interview:
I’m going to adopt. I can’t handle doing that to my body. Also, when you rescue something, it’s like rescuing a part of yourself.
Our political correctness-o-meter is spinning wildly. Adopting: Cool! Adopting for fear of ruining six pack abs: Weird! You know you've cross some basic cultural fault line when both Fox News AND BeliefNet line up against you. Look, there may be some deeper feminist rationale at work here, or perhaps an admirable acceptance of vanity. Yes, a formerly obese girl (turns out Jillian was a fat teen) can do whatever she pleases with her body. In the same interview, (not yet online), 36 year-old Jillian also fesses up to liking girls and boys. So, maybe this is just her way of saying she'd rather settle down with a girl. Just as likely, it may be that she's not about to let anything come between her and a shot at being the next Oprah. (Her daytime talk show goes on the air right as Oprah steps down....)
Still, it seems to me that the great pleasure in being human is to use your body, not to admire it, or be admired in it.
Celebrity Fitness
Heidi Montag Can't Hug and Kourtney Kardashian Thinks Sit-Ups Can Keep Pregnant Stomachs Flat
Today, in upsetting/absurd celebrity quotes:
"I actually didn’t know [what it was]. I might be the first one to try it. It carves out your back a little bit.” — Heidi Montag on "On Air with Ryan Seacrest," describing a plastic surgery procedure known as a "back scoop," and explaining why she can't really hug people anymore.
"When I was pregnant, I didn't really do sit-ups, so I feel my stomach's the body part that changed the most." — Kourtney Kardashian in this week's Life & Style
Newslinks
Even if You Don't Become a "Garbage Disposal," You Probably Still Won't Look Like Gisele
"I did kung fu up until two weeks before Benjamin was born, and yoga three days a week. I think a lot of people get pregnant and decide they can turn into garbage disposals."
— Gisele Bündchen in April's Vogue
My Body
Latham Thomas on Pregnancy Cravings and Seasonal Raw Food
Latham Thomas is a certified holistic health counselor and the founder of Tender Shoots Wellness.
People come to New York to be successful, to be someone, or just to really be themselves, but in the midst of that it’s hard to maintain your health. There’s a different rhythm to the lifestyle here. I’m vegan and I eat raw food but I’m open that way. I believe in seasonality and really listening to your body. There’s a lot of extremes. Some people are really into raw, and that’s all they do. My thing is I don’t like to be extreme with anything. I like to move with internal rhythms. Your body calls you to have certain vegetables. When it’s freezing out you need root vegetables to ground you in this contemplative season. Mango slices and coconut water aren’t sustaining when it’s cold and you’re in New York City. The food that we eat informs us and gives us information about our environment. When you’re eating food from other places that’s out of season, your body is confused. It can’t tune itself to where it is.
More...Newslinks
European Doctors Say No to In Vitro for Fat Women
More pregnancy news. The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) has a new official position: If you're a woman who drinks too much, smokes, or is obese, the ESHRE says your doctor should refuse to provide you with fertility treatments. Or, that is, they should refuse to provide you with reproduction assistance until you lose weight, stop smoking, and agree to drink less during your pregnancy. Kind of uncomfortable to agree — whiffs of China one-child and Nazi master race, etc. — but still, kind of makes sense. If only because losing weight and quitting smoking have been shown to increase fertility naturally, so it's the least invasive form of treatment.
Unmodified
Padma Lakshmi Likes Herself Naked
Padma Lakshmi, boxing junkie, host of Top Chef, and ex-wife of Salmon Rushdie, is pregnant. FitSugar says she's also gained alot of extra weight, but that hasn't stopped her for posing naked on the cover of the latest Page Six magazine. We like Padma's attitude, fully acknowledging that it helps to be gorgeous, smart, and indirectly connected to literary greatness when you bare yourself to the world:
I like me better naked. I don't mean that in a vain way . . . When you put clothes on, you immediately put a character on. Clothes are adjectives, they are indicators. When you don't have any clothes on, it's just you, raw, and you can't hide.
Down with adjectives!
Medical
Diabetes Lurks Around Every Corner
Barring a major lifestyle change in America, the number of cases of diabetes in the country will almost double in the next 25 years, and the cost of diabetes care will spike from $113 billion to $336 billion per year. Doh! Healthcare reform is good, but what we really need are healthier Americans.
And while we're on the subject, heads up to those of you planning to procreate in the next seven days: Women who drink five or more sweet sodas in the week prior to getting preggers run a 22% greater chance of developing "gestational diabetes." (The basic incidence is about 6%.) Need to get in the mood? Lay off the Jack and Coke.