Because of practices like the above, many women (and men!) are left striving for unachievable body shapes, and spend their lives miserable with their bodies. Beyond Chocolate drew my attention to the below, which is open for signing until 23rd December 2009 (Sign Here.):
“A proposal for a new compulsory hour per year in the PSHE curriculum that will deal with the problems teenagers face when it comes to their appearance. The lesson will attempt to tackle confidence issues early so they don’t have a chance to develop, so young people in the UK will not be held back by their lack of self esteem and self belief. The lesson content will be created by a team of experts and psychologists and will include preliminarily:
talks from outside experts
making teens aware of the techniques magazines and fashion houses employ to make models/celebs look unrealistically perfect
challenges to help the teens not to obsess so much about appearance and not to use as much make-up/fake tan;
tips for body confidence collated by psychologists
This is an incredibly important campaign, as nothing is being done in our schools to counter-act the incredible swelling in the UK of media exposure and its consequent negative influence on teenage self esteem. Your backing would be greatly appreciated.”
This weekend I went on a “Beyond Chocolate” weekend in London, and despite being late to both sessions, I got a huge amount out of it. Saturday was a “Healthy Eating” session, and Sunday was a “Body Confidence” session, which was particularly challenging! I’d ummed and arred about attending the course, as although the course seemed good value (and I’d read the book), it was a lot of money. I decided to go for it, and had a very interesting and challenging 2 days… most of which I’m still digesting (mentally, although my stomach is enjoying savouring Green & Black’s chocolate ice cream with a bit of cream on top – usually I’d just eat the whole tub, but I had about 1/3, and so yes, there’s still plenty to look forward to!). I’d already pretty much decided I was going back to River Park, so I signed up to that today too – be mostly looking to go to classes, the treadmill is just so DULL – so much to see outside, why would I want to stand on a machine – but classes, however, good social time!
Are you unhappy with your body but fed up with constant dieting? Would you like to lose weight without depriving yourself of the food you love? Beyond Chocolate is a radically different approach to weight loss. Serial dieters for years, Sophie and Audrey Boss finally overcame their weight problems when they discovered the key to success: break free from the diet mentality and learn how to listen to your body so that you can make food choices that really work for you. This book sets out a new, liberating approach to establishing a healthy and satisfying relationship with food, and a positive body image. Based on extensive research and workshops for women with weight issues, Beyond Chocolate will help you to:
Eat whatever you want without feeling guilty
Lose weight and not worry that you’ll put it back on
Sophie and Audrey Boss are sisters in their 30s * Following years of struggling with their weight until they uncovered a permanent solution, they founded a support group called Beyond Chocolate. They are passionate about their message and have experience of working with women of all ages and backgrounds * Sophie is training to be a counsellor * Sophie and Audrey are based in north London, UK
Sophie
Audrey
Beyond Chocolate YouTube Channel. Sophie on Twitter.
Very much looking forward to seeing how this is all going to be integrated in the new site which is launching in the next couple of weeks, and seeing how Audrey develops Kitchen Fairy!
