the body project
980 calories yesterday. No exercise though, and no studying either. Just watched about 6 episodes of Star Trek TNG and ate broccoli and rice and vinegar and lemon-flavored water. I feel fat for not exercising. Scale was below 175 this morning though, which means I lost about 5 lbs. in about 4 days. I didn't even know that was possible, especially while eating meals that, albeit small, at least appear normal. For example, a Boca Burger (vegan) + bun = 190 calories. Ketchup, lettuce, and a pickle add about 20. Before you ask, it actually tastes really good, too. It's a miracle of modern food science. (Of course, everything tastes good when you're eating 1000 calories a day.)
Also re-skimmed the Body Project, which I haven't read since I was a teenager, young and naive and assuming that just because something was written by a woman with a PhD that it would necessarily contain information that wasn't 100% redundant, irrelevant, and/or triggering. Now I remember why it was so unmemorable: a chapter about girls getting their periods, another chapter about acne, a ton of random pictures in the middle including a skinny girl from the 70s and some beauty contests from the 50s and the requisite smattering of corsets. The cover includes photos of women and girls from various points in the last 150 years, but the largest (and only color) photograph is dead center, with the title over it, a flat, taut female stomach with a navel piercing. Since the book itself is all stuff that would make any girl who grew up later than 1975 say, "duh," the cover became the most memorable part. Sitting on my bookshelf when I was 13 it was a model stomach, disembodied, mocking me for never having possessed it.
The chapter about weight loss includes a tale of an anorectic teenager from the 1920s who restricted herself to 50 calories per day all summer. The anecdote concludes with, "she returned to school in the fall weighing 125 and feeling triumphant." Nowhere is it actually mentioned that the word for her "triumphant" weight loss of 30 lbs. in 2.5 months is "anorexia." The commentary just goes on to note that her story "feels modern," giving the weird implication that by restricting herself to 50 calories per day, this "triumphant" girl was somehow ahead of her time.
Also re-skimmed the Body Project, which I haven't read since I was a teenager, young and naive and assuming that just because something was written by a woman with a PhD that it would necessarily contain information that wasn't 100% redundant, irrelevant, and/or triggering. Now I remember why it was so unmemorable: a chapter about girls getting their periods, another chapter about acne, a ton of random pictures in the middle including a skinny girl from the 70s and some beauty contests from the 50s and the requisite smattering of corsets. The cover includes photos of women and girls from various points in the last 150 years, but the largest (and only color) photograph is dead center, with the title over it, a flat, taut female stomach with a navel piercing. Since the book itself is all stuff that would make any girl who grew up later than 1975 say, "duh," the cover became the most memorable part. Sitting on my bookshelf when I was 13 it was a model stomach, disembodied, mocking me for never having possessed it.
The chapter about weight loss includes a tale of an anorectic teenager from the 1920s who restricted herself to 50 calories per day all summer. The anecdote concludes with, "she returned to school in the fall weighing 125 and feeling triumphant." Nowhere is it actually mentioned that the word for her "triumphant" weight loss of 30 lbs. in 2.5 months is "anorexia." The commentary just goes on to note that her story "feels modern," giving the weird implication that by restricting herself to 50 calories per day, this "triumphant" girl was somehow ahead of her time.