My Name

I just want to clear something up real quick. James is not my real name. It is an alias I use to protect my identity. I would prefer if my parents don't stumble onto this blog by searching up my name. I just wanted to clear that up because I received a message about someone asking my about my identity.

Underweight Models Banned in Israel to Fight Anorexia

Wow, I have been updating a lot.

In the world of eating disorders, there are somethings being done to combat the growing problem.

Skinny underweight models are a thing of the past now in Israel. Starting in 2013, model's BMIs cannot be below 18.5. Anything below 18.5 is considered underweight. Models now have to produce medical records three months prior to a photo shoot of catwalk show. Also, the bill that was passed in March of last year stats that advertisement that are digitally altered to make the model look skinny must be identified. 

The information above was gathered from this website.

When I heard about this new law, it felt like music to my ears.  Finally, a country is doing something about the growing problem of eating disorders brought on by the media. Things like extremely thin and photoshoped celebrities should not be the meaning of beautiful.

Here is an example of what photoshop can do:





In the article, it says 5% of Israelis suffer from an eating disorder which is a relatively high number. This probably meant that body image was more important to the Israelis government than maybe the American government.

Overall I am happy with what Israel has done. I really do hope that other countries will catch on. We have to protect not only our children, but ourselves from this type of manipulation.

Stressed Out

This post is going to be very personal.

Right now I am so stressed out because of my friend Erin. I just want to say we are not dating or anything, we are simply friends. In September of 2012, I started to notice that she kept making comments about people’s weights and about how fat she thought she was. I was worried so I tried telling her that she was beautiful and didn’t need to lose weight. She didn’t believe me. I thought/hoped that it was just a phase.

I believe in November she asked me something that felt like a stake through the heart. She asked if I had any tips to lose weight. Yes I do have a lot of weight loss tips but are they safe? No! For god sakes my heart has almost stopped on more than one occasion! Immediately I gave her a hug. I can’t tell you how sad I felt. I am not joking when I say that I almost cried. I want no one to ever endure the torture that I went through. Erin is such a sweet, lovely girl and she does not deserve something evil like Anorexia.

After she asked me, I asked my mom for advice. I told her I was afraid that Erin was developing an eating disorder. My mom waved it off and told me that is her business and not to worry about it. Well what she said was not what I did. I started to watch her during lunch and noted that she ate smaller portions than she did the year before.

A few days later, I decided to talk to my teacher Mr. Anderson. Mr. Anderson knows that I have been struggling with an eating disorder for over a year now. I told him that Erin had asked me for weight loss tips and that she kept saying how fat she was. He promised that he would talk to Erin and not mention my name.

Call my paranoid, call my crazy but I don’t care. Anorexia took so much from me and I want no one to ever go through the hell I went through.

James

*Names have been changed to protect the individuals privacy.

New Year’s Resolutions

Yay, it’s the New Year. That means… resolution time! When I set goals, I try and make them easy to achieve. That way, I will stay motivated.

So here are my resolutions:

• Get down to 100lbs by December 31, 2013.
• Shrink my waist down to 27 inches by December 31, 2013.
• Eat less than 1000 calories every day.
• Update this blog at least once every other week.
• Get A’s in all my classes.

One more thing, happy holidays!

Stay strong

James

Dealing with Hunger Pangs

Let’s face it, hunger pangs suck yet they are almost always with us. The growling feeling of hunger and its demand for food isn't the best feeling in the world. Most people deal with it by eating. Anorexics like to do it differently.

We deal with it by:

• Chugging a glass of water
• Drinking something with caffeine in it (caffeine is an appetite suppressant)
• Punching our stomach
• Rolling up into a ball

Yum! Doesn't that sound fun!

Okay this is sort of a really random post.

Stay Strong

James

How I 'Became' Anorexic

I wish I could say that I just ‘became’ anorexic but that’s not the case. But I do know when I first ‘met’ Ana.  I was ten years old, and I was well fat. I wanted to lose weight and got the great idea of not eating and over exercising. Luckily this never happened, it was only a thought. But when I was twelve, I turned those thoughts into actions.

My family was very negative about my weight and would make mean comments. I guess you could say I just wanted to make them proud. Usually I only ate around 500 calories a day and worked out for about three hours. I lost about twenty pounds. I started to black out as well as faint almost daily. At the time my parents thought it was just harmless loss of baby fat and commented about how good I looked. This just fueled my eating disorder. I started a stricter diet but that led to binging. At the time I didn’t gain any weight.

When I started school my friends also commented about my body. But, then they saw what I ate. My friend said it looked as if I was anorexic but I knew she was joking. Even though I didn’t think I was anorexic, I researched it anyways. That’s when I realized I was anorexic; almost all the symptoms matched. I was nervous and eventually told my parents. They were not that educated on the subject so they did not seek help. Anyways I didn’t need help. I was able to recover in February of 2012. I gained back all the weight I had lost.

I got depressed about my weight again and I had a relapse. That was June of 2012. In July of the same year, I created this blog to aid me with my weight loss. Now it is October of 2012 and I’m still trying to lose weight.

All I have to say is, ‘Sticks and stones may break my bones but worlds will cause me to starve myself.’ Think before you say.

Stay Strong

James

Weight Loss Shows for Motivation

One of my huge motivations for loosing weight would have to be watching weight loss shows. Most of the time I am quite mean and laugh at how overweight they are. I know that's mean, so I do not recommend anyone else doing this. When I watch these shows, I learn more about weight loss, although I am already an expert.

One of my favourite weight loss shows is "X-Weighted Familes". It is a Canadian weight loss show so I am not sure if it is available in the USA. It tracks a overweight family on there journey to loose weight. Here is the link to watch episodes online.

Another weight loss show I like is "Supersize vs Superskinny". It is a British television that deals with extreme diets. An extremely overweight and underweight swap diets for a week. It gives you motivation by watching overweight people and gives you thinspo as well. Also it talks briefly about Anorexia in each episode. They usually follow a few of them during there journey to recover. I usually just skip that part.

Here is my favourite episode:

There are many more weight loss shows that I watch but these are deffinately my favourite.

Hope this helps

Stay Strong

James

Male, Straight, Anorexic

What is my sexuality? I am STRAIGHT! It is a fact that gay men are three time more likely to delelope anorexia then straight men but this does not mean that every male anorexic is. When someone finds out about my eating disorder, the first thing they assume is that I'm gay. Well I'm not. Here is a nice article talking about male eating disorders and how sexuality relates to them.

Well I do not have that much to say. People automatically assuming I'm gay has got on my nerves. I just want to express that. If you read this, please note that if you are a straight man with an eating disorder, do not worry. You might be in the minority but nothing is wrong with you.

Stay Strong

James

Anorexic Food Pyramid

So true.

'I Beat Anorexia' Shirts

I was at the beach a few days ago looking at the funny t-shirts. You know the ones like, 'I'm with stupid' or 'Its good to be the king'. That is when I saw this shirt:

Immediately I was outraged. This shirt was obviously a joke and I respect that but it is promoting an eating disorder as nothing serious and as a joke. Eating disorders are not a joke, they are a matter of life and death. 20% of anorexics will die of complications to the illness while only 40% truly recover. Things like this are why there is so much prejudice.


When I came home I decided to do a little bit of research. I searched up 'I Beat Anorexia' and this is what I found:

As you can see, the man wearing the shirt is relatively large (the nice way of saying he is obese). This either means that people who do beat anorexia have to be the exact opposite, obese or that eating disorders do not have to be taken seriously.

It might be funny if you wear it to the movies but if you meet an anorexic with that shirt on... all I can say is good luck.

So that basically concludes my short rant of the day. Oh and a quick life update, I got twitter. Here is the link. Please follow me! I sound desperate now...

Anyways,

Stay Strong

James