The Beautiful/Handsome You

How annoying is it when you meet someone you haven't seen for awhile and the first sentence out of their mouths isn't 'how are you?'...it's more like...'wow, you gained weight' or 'wow, you lost weight'.  Why is our identity so hinged on our weight??
Recently, I watched a documentary about young girls in a particular African country who are of marriagable age.  They are sent to 'camps' with other girls where they are force fed over 10,000 calories per day whether they can sustain the intake or not.  The objective is to make them as obese as possible, because if they are as fat as a cow, their prospects of marriage are so much higher (obesity translates to wealth and fertility in some cultures).  These young girls suffer from diabetes, kidney failure, heart disease and a plethora of other health conditions as a result of this force feeding.  If they do not eat, they are beaten.  Conversely, here in the United States, although obesity has been steadily on the rise for the past 10 years, the 'ideal' body image is close to that of a starving dog. 

Here's Your Healthy Tip of the Day:  Beauty truly is in the eye of the beholder.  Healthy lifestyle - diet, exercise, rest and happiness from within is what  makes a beautiful/handsome person.  What do you see when you look at yourself in the mirror?  Write in annonymously and share with the group.
For the remainder of this week, I'm going to focus on eating disorders and will post various sites where, if you or someone you know has an eating disorder, help is out there for you.