The Zimbabwe born model Charlotte Carter was rejected by top London fashion agency for being too skinny.
Carter was told to gain weight if she wanted to work with Models 1.
The Model Health Inquiry recommended in an interim report in July that modeling agencies should have their models checked for eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia, but failed to call for women who were too skinny to be banned from London Fashion Week.
source: inquirer.net
Toxic days? Stressed out? Give yourself a break. Try these proven strategies for controlling stress (instead of letting stress control you). Take charge
"When I ask general audiences if they can control their stress level to make it work for them, no more than half say they can," says Esther M. Sternberg, M.D. "If I ask audiences of pilots or neurosurgeons the same question, they all say they can."
The difference is the amount of control these people believe they have over the situation. Pilots, neurosurgeons, firefighters, and others with high-pressure occupations are trained to use the stress response as a way to monitor their own behavior. When a pilot flies a plane through a storm, his heart races, his breath becomes shallow, and his attention is intensely focused on the job at hand. He experiences the physiological arousal that defines stress, but he doesn't label the situation as stressful. He's done this before. He knows what to expect. He's in control.
On the other hand, if you're a passenger in the airplane cabin, you're uncomfortable because the plane is bouncing around and you can't do anything about it. You feel stressed. "The trick in these kinds of situations is to make yourself feel, little by little, as though you're in control, to make an unknowable situation seem knowable," Sternberg says. Watch the flight attendant. He has the experience to recognize how much danger the plane is in. If he looks calm (and he probably does), you'll feel calmer.
If your work schedule sets your teeth to grinding, make a list of projects you need to get done and front-load it with tasks you can accomplish quickly. As you check off accomplishments, you'll begin to feel in control, and your stress will ease.
Try scheduling daily chores so that you can attack the most difficult ones when your energy level is highest. And delegate. Not just to coworkers but also to your children, your spouse, and your friends.
Give yourself time-outs
Of course, you can't control everything. Your child's schedule will inevitably conflict with your work deadlines. Bad weather will flood the picnic.
"We know that chronic stress has a physical impact on your body," Esther M. Sternberg, M.D., says, but if you interrupt stressful moments with calm ones, "you can lessen that impact." And it's easier than you think to get positive results.
If you have a series of crushing deadlines looming at work, take some R&R in between them. A weekend at the beach can restore your equilibrium. Distract yourself with something you find soothing: Cook, knit, or break out the watercolors.
And if you can't take off for the afternoon when you feel your stress rising at the office, just get out for a walk. Even a short stroll can make a difference.
Reach out, don't retreat
For women, fight or flight should probably be called "tend or befriend," because their response to stress is less about fighting or fleeing and more about turning to family and friends, according to Shelley E. Taylor, a professor of psychology at UCLA, and her colleagues.
Women have more intimate social networks than men do, and when they're stressed, they turn to these networks for support. They're more likely to seek out the company of other women and less likely to flee or to fight. A stress response moderated by a system such as tend or befriend, as Taylor reported in the July 2000 Psychological Review, might help explain why women live five years longer, on average, than men.
So indulge in the pleasure of family and friends. Invite old pals to a women's night out. Call your sister. Recent studies show that Americans are feeling more isolated; try to fight that situation. It may help you live longer.
Eat moderately and keep moving
The same hormones that boost your body's supply of available energy in fending off an impending threat also tell your brain that you need to replenish that energy once it's used up. The result: Your cortisol-crazed psyche sends you on the prowl for all-too-fattening pizza, potato chips, and ice cream in an effort to refuel quickly. If you're going through a stressful period, fight the urge to snack endlessly. Preferably, eat small low-carb, low-fat meals.
And try to exercise regularly. Working out counteracts the unhealthy buildup of body fat and dissipates the nervous energy that often drives you to that carton of ice cream. The exercise doesn't have to be strenuous. Walking releases endorphins that can soothe a jangled mind. And even half an hour a day can ease insomnia, which is both a symptom of stress and a stressor.
Practice mindful relaxation
Physiologically, relaxation is the opposite of stress. When you're relaxed, your breathing and heart rate slow and your mind clears. Mindfulness is a way to achieve this level of relaxation using a variety of techniques, including yoga, meditation, and simple relaxation exercises. Mindfulness quiets your chattering mind by teaching you how to observe your thoughts and feelings without seeing them as positive or negative. It trains you to use your breathing and an awareness of your body to focus on the here and now.
The basic relaxation response was first described in 1975 by Harvard Medical School researcher Herbert Benson. His approach has two steps: First, close your eyes and focus on your breath (that's the foundation). Second, choose a phrase, a word, or a prayer and repeat it to stay in the moment and be mindful.
"I use two phrases," says Bernadette Johnson, director of integrative medicine at Greenwich Hospital, in Connecticut. "'I'm breathing in relaxation and peace' when I inhale. 'I'm breathing out tension and anxiety' on the exhale."
Ideally, you'd begin and end your day with 10 to 20 minutes of regular relaxation exercise. But should you find your tension rising during the day, "take a deep breath, hold it for a count of four, and exhale for a count of four," Johnson says. "That's what we call a mini, and if it's built on a foundation of regular, longer relaxation exercises, you can tap into it whenever you need it."
If a thought or an emotion intrudes on your mindfulness and threatens to take you out of the moment, observe it but don't react to it. Think of it as a leaf floating by on a slow-moving stream.
Why did I snap at my husband?
Inhale. Let it glide on by.
I'm so afraid I'm not going to finish that report in time.
Exhale. Ah, another leaf in the swirling current.
I'm so stressed-out.
Inhale. Not anymore.
source: CNN living
With the use of greenery including red and green leaf lettuce, kale and over two dozen spears of asparagus, a full length gown made of veggies was made for Alyssa Milano.
"Gawing Gulay ang Buhay: Go Vegetarian!” was PETA Asia-Pacific’s sexy new campaign which aim to bring a new meaning to the words “natural beauty.”
Alyssa has posed on covers of hundreds of magazines-- including International editions of FHM, Maxim and Cosmopolitan.
Alyssa joins a growing list of celebrities who have punt the meat habit.
source: abs-cbnnews.com
In a study released Thursday said that leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone, may do more than just reduce one's hunger: it might also regulate one's fondness for food and thus figure high in overeating and obesity.
British researchers found that providing them with additional levels of the hormone appeared to diminish the amount of pleasure they associated with food, as well cutting their sense of hunger and increasing feelings of fullness.
The finding suggests that our enjoyment of food is partly biologically-driven and may ultimately explain why some people have to work harder to control their weight than others, the authors of the paper said.
According to a researcher in the department of clinical biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, more studies are needed to find out how these brain responses vary in people with weight problems in general.
source: Agence France-Presse
On yesterday’s news, Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim will go after food outlets operating without the necessary sanitary permits.
Lim said, "They have no business serving the customers kung wala silang permit. Pangalagahan natin ang kalusugan ng mamamayan."
There were reports about food establishments that haven’t been inspected, also some food outlets reportedly prepare and serve food near canals causing customers to raise their concerns over sanitation and health issues.
Lim is also waiting for an explanation from sanitation officers to explain why they fail to conduct inspection now that the election period is over.
A total of eight food establishments in Manila have been recommended for closure for failing to pass cleanliness standard since January of this year.
source: abs-cbnnews.com
Jenny Reyes, an ABS-CBN correspondent, was hospitalized after drinking a cup of coffee with rat droppings from a known restaurant last month in Manila.
ABS-CBN News reported yesterday about the incident that happened to their correspondent Jenny Reyes, who suffered from vomiting, fever and stomachache several days after she drank the coffee at the Chowking branch in Tutuban, Manila.
According to Reyes, she brought her family to the restaurant to eat on July 28. She noticed the rat droppings after drinking a cup of coffee. She then called the attention of the branch manager who claimed that those were just coffee beans, which she ordered an instant coffee.
The manager declined to issue Reyes a complaint report to prove that she was not making it up but she was able to convince the restaurant management to give her the cup for examination at Bureau of Food and Drugs (BFAD).
Meanwhile, BFAD confirmed after visual and organoleptic tests that those found inside the cup were indeed rat droppings.
Reyes was confined at the Perpetual Medical Center in Pamplona, Las Piñas and later Chowking management transferred her to the Asian Hospital and Medical Center in Muntinlupa City.
Doctors from the two hospitals said Reyes suffered from amoebiasis.
source: abs-cbnnews.com (Niko Baua)