‘HOW TO MAKE THE JOURNEY FROM SELF-CRITICISM TO SELF-LOVE’
Today I am joining the blog tour with Helena G Donald, actress and founder of GirlUnfiltered. Helena has written a book entitled ‘Learning to Love the Girl in the Mirror:A Teenage Girl’s Guide to Living a Happy and Healthy Life’
Helena’s mission ‘is to inspire girls to love and value themselves so that they feel empowered as they journey into the wonderful world of womanhood. Still in her early twenties, Helena relates easily to teenage girls and understands what it’s like to be in their shoes.’
I have an extract for you all today which will give you a small insight into the very important message of this book….
Ditch the Diet and Eat to Be
Happy and Healthy!
How does the word “diet” sound to you? Just the word alone for me conjures up feelings of emptiness, hunger, and lack. It makes me think I’ll be depriving my body of something it desperately wants and needs. Urgh. However, in today’s society, we’ve been programmed to think that this is the way to lose weight, remain slim and/or “be healthy.” But that’s totally mixed up. The shocking truth is that dieting can actually make us gain weight! Yes, you read that right.
Doctors at the University of New Mexico have found that when we starve ourselves and deprive our bodies of essential nutrition, we cause an upset in our hormonal system that actually causes us to hold onto weight. This is supported by recent research at the American Dietetic Association, which found that teenagers who diet are three times more likely to be overweight five years on than teenagers who don’t diet.
Does this shock you? To be honest, if someone had told me this a few years ago I would have been shocked, but by the time I discovered the science behind it all, I already knew from my own experience that this was true. The scientific explanation completely backed up what my own experiences had been— it just felt like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle were finally coming together to reveal the bigger picture about my relationship with food.
What Happens to Our Bodies When We Diet?
When we diet or have a very low-calorie intake over a period of time, our bodies go into something called “starvation mode.” This is a wonderful survival mechanism that nature very kindly gave to our prehistoric ancestors to keep them alive during times when there was a shortage of food. What has that got to do with us today in the twenty-first century where food is available 24/7 for most of us?
Well, quite a lot, really! You see, the part of our brain that is responsible for our survival hasn’t caught up with our lifestyle in the modern world. Our primitive brain doesn’t understand that we would choose to deprive ourselves of food and nutrition just because we want to lose weight. In other words, it doesn’t understand the concept of “dieting.” As far as our brain is concerned, if our body is not getting the calories and nutrients it needs to function properly over a period of time, then that must mean that there is a shortage of food and we are in danger of starving to death. So, in a desperate attempt to keep us alive for as long as possible, our brain does two things:
- It sends a message to our body telling it to slow its fatburning rate way down in the hope that our existing fat stores will last until more food becomes available.
- At the same time, it releases the hunger hormone (ghrelin) to motivate us to eat—or, in the case of our prehistoric ancestors, to go out and hunt or forage for food!
Isn’t it amazing what our bodies do to keep us alive? Just think: if our ancestors hadn’t had this survival mechanism, we might never have been born! We’ve got to admit that Nature
knew what she was doing when it came to our ancestors, but where does that leave us today if we want to lose weight? It’s certainly not great news if you’re thinking of doing it by dieting, as I, and millions of others, have found out.
When we diet or otherwise deprive ourselves of the nutrition we need, after a while our body stops burning fat. And, as you will know if you’ve ever done this, you also get very, very hungry! That’s because of the hunger hormone telling you that you need to eat. Now, if you listen to your body at this point and you eat a healthy meal that gives your body the nutrients it needs to function properly, all will be well—just like when our ancestors found food in our distant past.
Book Blurb:
This book is for every girl who has ever looked in the mirror and criticized her own reflection; for every girl who has ever compared herself negatively to others; for every girl who has ever thought of dieting; and for every girl who is already struggling with negative body image issues and unhealthy eating habits.
Learning to Love the Girl in the Mirror is a “must read” for any teenage girl. It’s packed full of self-empowering and self-loving tools that will leave you feeling Supergirl confident.
In a world where advertising, celebrity culture and social media reign, it’s becoming more and more common for young girls to have some form of negative body issue or eating disorder. This is not only harmful and dangerous on a personal level, it’s also destructive and disempowering for womanhood as a whole, and it’s got to STOP now!
This is Helena’s brutally honest story of how she overcame the battle with her own body and went from miserable and self-hating to absolutely loving the skin she’s in! Still in her early twenties, Helena completely relates to her fellow young women in the most loving and supportive way. Helena’s mission is to inspire young women that it is possible to love and appreciate your body in a completely healthy way. This book is packed full of the tools that will help any young girl to do exactly that.
You can follow Helena on Twitter @Helena_G_Donald
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