I bet that the smoking is heavily encouraged in the modeling industry as an appetite suppressant. Smoke-free environments would probably go a long way to helping models eat.
You're right, the fashion industry is not likely to do much until consumers start punishing the companies who are most guilty of promoting eating disorders. Personally, I find it especially apalling that so many of the designers foist these anorexic waifs on us unnecessarily. Designers like Gucci trot out and tart up the Size 0s as a means of selling handbags (leather goods are where the real profits lie in fashion). After all, you don't need a 22" waist to pose next to a purse. So....Why don't we boycott Gucci. At least until they feed their models more than just nicotine and booze!
I bet that the smoking is heavily encouraged in the modeling industry as an appetite suppressant. Smoke-free environments would probably go a long way to helping models eat.
Bookworm | Homepage | 01.13.07 - 6:55 pm | #
Coffee does the same though, and with better benefits.
Folks from the Third and even Second world countries know what hunger is. They can't be barfing up the food because instinctually, they know that food is precious. It is rather more than taking things for granted in the West. I say that because fitness is a survival tool, just as discipline is in war. Those who can act correctly and rationally when hungry, will either learn to control their hunger or simply become ravenous idiots. It is not so much that people get more food and get larger, it is that people in the First World rarely have ever been required to control their basic instincts on the road to survival.
And that is just the ability for a person to control hunger. We haven't even gotten into the other stuff yet, like clothes. Fashion is an artificial constraint and environment, designed through arbitrary decisions. Therefore it is not about health, because health is survival orientated while fashion is not.
You see some of these people's arms, and I'm like "I would not want you to cover my back in a fight, dear".
You don't have to have the upper body strength of Arnold, but you at least have to have enough to lift your own body weight. It is that simple dichotomy, the difference between practicality through survival and artificiality through arbitrary fashion senses that truly separates out the pack.
Society is almost schizoid in a way, Laer.
Meaning, the more civilized we become, the less we know about basic survival traits and motivations. A young girl, instead of focusing on building up strength, endurance, and flexibility to overcome life and death challenges, focuses instead on getting thin and weak for public consumption.
There is something very decadent and stagnant about that kind of path reflected in society.
I've heard many times that people talking about losing weight because they would "look better" in the office or whatever. And I'm like, your motivations are totally wrong for the challenge at hand.
No wonder people fail so much at "diets" and whatevers. If their motivation is to "relieve" stress at the office or in front of the mirror, then they are not harnessing their base instincts to their conscious goals. How many people have had to finish a project while they are constantly hungry, because they can only get food after they are finished working? Too many people in America and the West, are unable to control their base instincts, they are unable to surpass their limitations and force their instincts to obey their Will instead of obeying the will of their instincts.
The point is that those who are motivated by survival and winning, overcoming challenges, will have a far better chance of completin
Man, that was inspirational. I want to lose my extra weight for looks AND health (not because I anticipate having to take on any Huns any time soon), but I like the idea of building character by creating a better relationship with food.
You read about that fight with the Choir boys? Wish I was there, looked like somebody and their gang needed their kneecaps broken.
These people go out and have fun. But there's always a survival component folks forget about for some reason.
Sure, most men want to have definition in their muscles and that ripped look (low body fat) to the muscle groups, but as I have witnessed there is a problem with motivation. There is just more motivation to doing one handed pushups and strenghtening of the abs, simply because by combining the twist in your torso with your triceps, you can drastically increase the power of any heel strike to an opponent's sternum. A person just being motivated by looks will be very often disappointed, since it is not easy getting the body fat to a low enough level for highly defined muscles to show through.
But with functional strength, you see constant gradual improvements.
Working out the legs is also important in case you had to run somewhere fast. But in terms of offense, leg muscles allow quicker stepping motions in battle. Quicker stepping motions means higher power in strikes that have an upwards vector to it, as well as the ability to retain balance easier when one leg can support your entire weight easily.
But all of this is chaff to the winds, without the proper mental motivation and framework. The mind comes first, then the body. That's why people trying to work out to lose weight are perhaps, not in the right state of mind.
Health is a form of function. Having a body that is ready to perform all manner of functions without maintenance problems. Such things as running, for example. A person trying to improve his cardio system because of a threat of heart attack, is motivated by a survival reflex, and thus will have a higher chance of success and project compeletion in my view.
I personally keep in my mind to what purpose I am exercising my triceps and calves for. This context allows for easier mental processes. I don't have to ask myself, "what benefit am I seeing, or what purpose is all the pain and sweat for".
This means of course I deprioritize working on the biceps. Not because I don't care, but because I don't plan on going mountain climbing any time soon. And I definitely don't plan on "grappling with anybody" in a fight. Hell on pullups, but there just isn't as much motivation there to train that segment of the muscle group if I am not gong to use it. I'm sure that applies to many people who work out. But most people, I think, don't think about these things. They have a schedule, and they'll go with it. I like to get something deeper and more indepth as a personal philosophy.
You should write a book!
Plenty of books by Matt Furey on the subject. Picked up some good exercise tips from him via his newsletter.
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