Death and Beauty

I was watching Fox News this morning and they were talking about how every year people talk about losing weight as their New Year resolution. As a result they had a personal trainer named Michael Watkins on to talk about how you an do some real quick workouts in your house or apartment. The point to this story was that you don't need to go to the gym to stay in shape. He talked about getting a medicine ball to do crunches, do push ups, and squats. He said if you only do a few minutes per exercise you can end up doing a 20 minute workout and never having to leave the house.

The anchor, Ann Sterling then asked what one should do when you get in a rut and just don't feel like working out. Watkins suggests finding a buddy to workout with beacuse that causes you to be accountable. Since people hate disapointing their friends you will be much more likely to show up for the workout. The other suggestion he gave was to be realistic about your goals. That way you will not beome overwhelmed.

Realistic goals are important. Not only when it comes to working out, but also when it comes to eating. Another story that made headlines today was the death of French actress and model Isabelle Caro who died at the age of 28. Caro had been the international symbol for her struggle with anorexia nervosa, more commonly known as anorexia.

Caro's skeletal and controversial billboard advertisement.

Caro was well known for being featured naked in what was considered a "shocking 2007 campaign to highlight the ailment", according to an article on aol.com. Caro was featured on Jessica Simpson's television documentary series called The Price of Beauty. Caro's story apparently brought Simpson to tears.

The billboard campaign that Caro was a part of was endorsed by the Italian Ministry of Health and was shot by photographer Olivero Toscani. The billboard ran in Milan during Fashion Week. At the time that the photo was taken for the billboard Caro was reported to weigh only 68 pounds and was 5ft 4in in height. The intent of the billboard was to raise awareness within the fashion industry about eating disorders. Fashion designers were not happy about the billboard, thus the controversy.

Among some of the big names to raise an uproar about Caro's photo was Giorgio Armani who challenged that their is not a connection between anorexia and the fashion industry.

"Even people who take no notice of fashion get anorexic," said Armani.

Some more big names that had something to say about the billboard was Designers Dolce and Gabanna, they blame eating disorders on a "psychological ailment" and claim that anorexia has "nothing to do with fashion."

No matter what side of the fence you stand on in regard to fashion and anorexia, the one thing that can not be denied is how serious of a problem it is. I know being thin and comfortable in your own skin is important, but it is not worth risking your life. Please make healthy decisions. It's not about getting skinny, it should be about getting healthy. Anorexia and eating disorders are a disease and anything, but healthy. Caro was only 28 and that is very young. She had a whole life ahead of her. I turn 24 in just a few days and I can't imagine being dead in four years. It's really sad :(

Reports of Caro's death was announced yesterday, but according to her acting coach she actually died due to her eating disorder on Nov. 17 while she was working in Tokyo.

The new imagination diet

The mind is a wonderful and mysterious thing. While browsing through the Fox news Web site I happened to stumble across a new scientific study (very new, like as of this Thusrsday new) published in the Journal of Science. Basically the study suggested that the more that someone imagines eating a candy bar for example before they actually do the less they will eat. Also the more they concentrate while actually eating the candy bar as opposed to focusing on other tasks they need to do such as the laundry the sooner they will realize they are full.

This is because of something known as habituation. The example in the arcticle is that of the first bite of a burger, people get much more excited about the first one than they do of the tenth bite because of habituation. This process is compared to boredom. Simply put, your brain senses that it has "been there, done that, and it's just not going to get excited about that particular stimulus anymore." Habituation is also one of the things that causes people to stop eating. "Feelings of fullness kick in too late to slow people down during a meal, so they rely on psychological processes and outside cues to know when to put down the fork," said Carey Morewedge, a Carnegie Melton University psychologist.

This study was quite contradictory to other studies out there that are similar to it. All of the research on cravings suggest that instead of making people want to eat less, imagining food did quite the opposite, it made them want to eat more. What Morewedge and his colleagues were intrigued to find was how imagined cues may or may not affect consumption. "Imagination can elicit the same physical responses as real-life experinece," according to Morewedge.

In the study half of the participants were told to imagine themselves eating 30 M&M's and then imagine putting 3 quarters into a washing machine. The other half was told to imagine putting 30 quarters into a washing machine and imagine eating three M&M's. The groups were then asked to eat M&M's out of a bowl in preperation for a taste test. What they found was that those who imagined eating the 30 M&M's ate less than those who only imagined eating three. This was because three was not enough to spark habituation, but 30 was. Since that group had imagined they had already eaten so many of the bite-size snacks they were not compelled to eat as many in real life.

"Merely thinking of a food does increase our appetite for the food, but if we perform the mental imagery that would accompany its actual consumption, this kind of thought actually decreases our desire for the food," Morewedge said.

Researchers are now looking into this type of research in much more detail. If you want to know more about this study feel free to read the article yourself. I myself am very curious about it. Just think, if we could think about eating something before we do and that in itself could cause us to eat less, how easy would that be. What do you think about this study? Do you think it's possible? I would like to see what is found in later and followup research personally before putting this to the test myself...lol. Any thoughts?