Month: January 2012

things i love thursday! (january 26, 2012)

/ lindsay / 4 Comments

Happy Thursday, Diet Coke addicts! We are so close to the weekend I can almost smell it, and it smells like joy and joyness. (Anyone? Charlie the Unicorn? Okay, that was lame.)

At any rate, outdated Internet phenoms aside, here’s why my week was awesome!

THINGS THAT MADE ME SMILE THIS WEEK:

  • Listening to music.
  • Making music.
  • Watching my friends make music.
  • Silly songs about silly things.
  • “Christ Jams.”
  • A busy, but fun week.
  • Jokes about red, satin shirts.
  • Nesting with my husband.
  • THE FACT THAT HAMLET HASN’T SPRAYED SINCE WE GOT HIM NEUTERED! Yay!
  • Helping people who in turn help us.
  • Lane!
  • Birthday celebrations and weird conversations with my friends.
  • Which reminds me: have you ever wondered what crazy things my friends and I say? Well, look no further than here.
  • Name suggestions for Durrenbaby via prayer requests from j-hi students: “I just pray that Durrenbaby stays healthy and strong… and that they name him after me. Amen.”
  • Lunch with Trisha and all the helpful Mom tips she has!
  • Lunch with Chelsea and the fact that she truly gets where I’m coming from.
  • A husband that takes care of me and the house when I’m too tired or too busy working to help.
  • Bonding with coworkers across the country.
  • The frequency of which Weird Al comes on my husband’s iPod.
  • Dance class, complete with 90’s music goodness.
  • Hearing people point out my baby bump. At first it was strange, but now I like it.
  • We got rid of our king size bed because  we couldn’t fit it and a bassinet in our room, so we downgraded to a queen, which sounds bad, but it just means we are that much closer. Aw.
  • Friends who are honest and vulnerable with me.
  • Bubble baths.
  • Admitting I can’t do everything.
  • Feeling valued.
  • Cats sleeping in weird places.
  • Dark chocolate.
  • And, last but certainly not least, sleep.

That’s all for me this week. What do you love?

my new life as a “plus-sized” woman.

/ lindsay / 5 Comments

It’s taken me several years to get to this place, but I’m pretty comfortable as a size 10.

I’ve been this size since the beginning of college and I know that it’s not the skinniest  size by any means, but it’s average-ish. It’s not model skinny or plus-sized. It’s right in the middle, I think, and I am happy there. A 10 is perfect for my body build. I feel comfortable. I feel healthy. I feel good.

But as my luck would have it, my days as a non-plus-sized woman are now over. And no, it’s not because I’m pregnant; at 14 weeks, I’m still rocking these snug 10s. It’s because that, according to the fashion industry, anything size 6 and up is now considered plus-sized.

What?

I’ve been buying size 10 clothes for the past eight years and never once have my clothes been labeled as a “plus size.” I’ve also never known any of my size 6 friends to experience this, either. Nor my size 12 friends, for that matter.

Do you know the last time I wore a size 6? You probably don’t because, well, you probably haven’t known me to EVER wear a size 6.

The last time I wore a size 6 was in the SEVENTH GRADE.

What would you do if your 13-year-old daughter stumbled upon the misinformation that her size 6 jeans meant that, despite the obvious fact that she wasn’t done growing or maturing or developing yet, she was already considered “plus-sized?” What is this nonsense?

Here’s a video of some CrossFit athletes (many of them a size 6 and above) giving their reactions to this ridiculous claim.

I don’t care if a size 10 is somehow now considered a plus size. That doesn’t matter to me. What matters is how healthy I am and how good and beautiful I feel. No arbitrary number conjured up by a twisted industry can steal that away from me.

overly photoshopped and blatantly untrue diet advertisements in japan.

/ lindsay / 6 Comments

Maybe it has something to do with being a naive, ethnocentric American (sorry, I’m a bit patriotic after last night’s politically charged television lineup) but I find myself frequently falling into the trap that says that self-image issues only span our borders and no one else’s. When I get on my soapbox, raise my fists, and go on verbal rampages against “society,” I’m usually referring to American society, because I really don’t know much else. (I mean, I did live in London for almost a year but that doesn’t really hold a candle to the other 25 I’ve lived in the States.)

All that to say, a good friend of mine sent me a link to this article about diet advertisements in Japan. Yes. You heard me right. Diet. Advertisements. In. Japan.

When was the last time you looked at a Japanese woman and was like, “Dang, that girl needs to lose some WEIGHT?”

I don’t know about you, but I honestly have never uttered those words. Maybe I’ve just been uncharacteristically lucky enough to only lay eyes on super thin Japanese people (I mean that in the nicest I hate you for being so naturally small but not really I actually love you and will you please make some babies because all of you are so adorable it’s too much to handle way possible) but I honestly feel as though the Japanese are just, on average, a smaller group of people than we Americans.

Ugh. I keep feeling like Im going to get a slew of, “You’re a big fat racist!” comments. I swear I’m not! I voted for Obama!

Anyway. None of this is the point.

THE POINT IS.

The pictures and numbers in the article. Holy hell.

If you’re like me, and you can’t read Japanese, let me do some translating for you.

The women in these ads (who are, as you can plainly see, the unfortunate victims of some of the most atrocious Photoshopping jobs I’ve ever laid eyes on) have apparently dropped up to 60.7 kilograms (which, if you are doing the math in your head and you’re a bit stumped, is about 133.4 pounds) in 60 days.

SIXTY DAYS? As in, TWO MONTHS? A hundred and thirty pounds in TWO MONTHS?

Does anyone believe this is at ALL possible, least of all HEALTHY?

Somehow, these diet ads are trying to convince their readers (who, by the way, ARE YOUNG GIRLS, of course) that these little women lost the equivalent of a eighth-grade-sized Lindsay in TWO MONTHS? And, furthermore, that they needed to lose that much weight in the first place?

I am speechless. If nothing else, this article proves that the diet industry is deceptive, evil, and (evidently) thinks we’re all just a drooling pile of schmucks who can’t tell the difference between an overly photoshopped toothpick and the normal-sized person she once was. While I thankfully have yet to stumble across an advertisement of this caliber in the states, it still puts me on alert to all other diet ads out there.

Remember what your good pal Lindsay has said about pictures in magazines: 99% of them are Photoshopped. You cannot believe what you see (or even read, in this case.)

Check out the rest of the article and scroll through the mind-blowing pictures here.

things i love thursday! (january 19, 2012)

/ lindsay / Leave a comment

Happy Thursday, everyone! We are mere hours away from the weekend and I couldn’t be more excited. This week has been a bit tough, but it was still great. Here’s why!

THINGS THAT MADE ME SMILE THIS WEEK:

  • Going out to dinner with Nikki and Chris. Hooray, carbs and friends!
  • Hearing Durrenbaby’s heartbeat again. Such a sweet sound.
  • The outpouring of love my husband and I received on Facebook and Twitter after going public with the pregnancy.
  • Spontaneous double lunch date with Zack and Sarah at Voodoo Dog, where I consumed arguably one of the tastiest burgers in my life.
  • Eating meat again, all for Durrenbaby.
  • Getting to Panama City to see Dayle, Zach, and their two-year-old boy Jasper!
  • Troll 2, AKA the WORST movie EVER.
  • Staying up way too late to have deep conversations.
  • Dayle and Jasper handing down a pair of little Chuck Taylors to Durrenbaby.
  • Waking up to the sounds of Jasper in his crib.
  • Delicious breakfast diner food.
  • Hearing Dayle excitedly tell all of her friends I’m pregnant.
  • Beauty and the Best in 3D!
  • Easy and delicious crockpot dinners.
  • Seeing Rupert Grint NOT be Ron Weasley for once.
  • Seeing my buddy Dayle lead worship. (See photo.)
  • Jasper trying desperately to say my name. (Jasper: “DaDa?” Zach: “Yes?” Jasper: *points at me and furrows his brow* “EEEEEEEEEEEEE?” Ha. Close enough for me!)
  • Extensive conversations about music.
  • Sweet surprises from my husband.
  • Nesting.
  • A trip to Gretna.
  • Our bible study potluck and weird phrases in Exodus.
  • Emily. Growing up too fast.
  • A second dinner with my husband and Lori.
  • New opportunities.
  • Finally (I hope) owning a cute cat that doesn’t spray everywhere.

And that’s all she wrote! What about you? What do you love this week?

STOP SOPA/PIPA.

/ lindsay / 2 Comments

I can’t black out my blog because I don’t know how (any web developers want to help a sister out?) but here’s the lowdown — we have got to rally against the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act.

If SOPA/PIPA get passed, this blog could be shut down. A lot of the images, articles, and other content I post on my blog are found floating on the Internet, and Internet censorship would therefore consider this blog a threat.

Do FBDC (and the entire Internet) a favor — call your congressman and tell him or her to stop SOPA and PIPA! You can also sign this petition.

tuesday tip — opinions are like…

/ lindsay / 5 Comments

Those of you who have been following my blog from the beginning know that it didn’t start out as a body image blog. It started out as a creative outlet for me to express my frustrations with working in the broadcast news industry. All of my coworkers who read it found it extremely enjoyable and supremely relatable.

All of my coworkers, that is, except for one.

That one coworker? Well. I can’t say anything nice about her, so I won’t say anything about her at all. (Thanks for the moral upbringing, Bambi!) But, upon finding my blog, she had a lot of things to say about me and none of them were nice. So, naturally, she pulled me into a closed edit bay and barked all of those horrible things at me while I stared at her in disbelief and sobbed.

After this confrontation I crumbled into a thousand pieces. My fragile self-worth fell in on itself. Coworker thinks I’m a horrible person? I thought. Well, then I must be a horrible person! At the time, I never thought I’d see the good in that situation. I thought it would forever remain a painful memory, another tell-tale entry in my Failodex.

The truth of the matter, though? That’s not what happened. While there was, no doubt, a world of trouble that came from that awful edit bay fall out, a whole heap of good came from it, too. That confrontation was the catalyst to me changing the focus of my blog to self-image and being a small part of a huge self-love revolution taking place around me. Because of that, I will be forever grateful to Coworker, no matter how horrible her opinion of me was/is.

There is a long-standing saying about opinions that, as crass at it is, is irrefutably accurate:

Opinions are like [butt] holes. Everyone’s got one and thinks everyone else’s stinks.

I don’t know who the genius was to first make this comparison, but he or she hits the nail right on the head. And, not only does everyone have an opinion, but everyone has an opinion about you. (Oh, and if you think it’s bad now, just wait until you get pregnant. My lifestyle choices and subsequent parenting methods have been criticized by countless people so badly already and my child isn’t even visible yet.)

At any rate, as much as I love the above quote about opinions, I’d like to modify it just a little bit.

TODAY’S SELF-LOVE TIP: OPINIONS ARE LIKE HEARTS.

It’s no secret that Coworker’s opinion of me was, dare I say, less than favorable. But don’t I know myself better than she does? Shouldn’t my opinion of myself reign supreme?

Yes. Yes it should. And the same goes for you.

Even though everyone has an opinion about you, the truth is that your opinion about yourself is the only one that matters. So the next time someone says something nasty about you, just remember this:

Opinions are like hearts. Everybody has one, but yours is the only one that keeps you going.

big news!

/ lindsay / 6 Comments

As promised yesterday, I’ve got some big news to blog about!

I don’t know if you’ve noticed (you probably haven’t, and that’s okay) but my posts have tapered off in frequency as of late. No, I haven’t totally been a slacker. I’ve just been afraid to blog because I’m so bloody honest and have the worst time keeping secrets.

But I don’t have to keep it a secret any more!

We’re having a baby!

8 Weeks

I am 12 weeks pregnant! As much as I tried to use my hatred for laundry as effective birth control, I am happy to report that I have failed. Dan and I are elated to be expecting our first child this July!

A lot of people asked if I’d be blogging throughout the pregnancy and yes, yes I will. But don’t worry — this blog is not turning into a mommy blog. I know that I’d lose probably the majority of my readership if I did that. Dan and I have actually started a separate blog on which we both post, so if you’d like to check that out, you can do so here:

http://durrenbaby.wordpress.com

Thanks for supporting me on this crazy new journey! I imagine my body image blogging is going to become a lot more passionate as I become a lot more round.

xoxox,
Lindsay and Durrenbaby

things i love thursday! (january 12, 2012)

/ lindsay / 1 Comment

Happy Thursday, my loves. Are you thankful today? If not, you should be. Life is wonderful, kids, and it’s great to be able to say that and mean it.

Here are all the things I love right now.

THINGS THAT MADE ME SMILE THIS WEEK:

  • Birthday fun times with the hubs. Bang bang shrimp, ice cream cake, and cuddles!
  • Three-day weekends.
  • Four-hour car rides by myself. (Well, plus my iPod and a Slurpee from 7Eleven, naturally.)
  • The fact that “7Eleven” doesn’t have a red squiggly line under it.
  • CHRIS, TAYLOR, AND CHELSEA! As well as the rest of the Watkins clan.
  • Organic Hawaiian cuisine.
  • “This soup smells like my Grandma…”
  • Shellack manicures.
  • Deep conversations about Jesus in the middle of a brewery.
  • Impressive beards and tattoos.
  • Art.
  • Watching the sun set on the bay.
  • Weasley and Ellis.
  • DIY glitter shoes.
  • Excellent finds at thrift stores. (Three pairs of jeans and six tops for $37? YES, PLEASE!)
  • Silly birthday party games.
  • “Honey, the fast you’re doing, there’s nothing in there about sex, right?”
  • Watermark Community Church in Tampa.
  • Tampa in general.
  • Grown up grilled cheese and monkey lattes.
  • Learning how to (finally!) manage my curls in a cute and low maintenance way! Thanks, Taylor!
  • Great friends.
  • Going for a (sort of) run!
  • (More!) grown up grilled cheese (brie and bacon! OMG!) with tomato soup at Libby and Rori’s house! So delicious.
  • Libby’s new music video. Stop whatever you’re doing (reading this blog) and watch it here because the song is beautiful and the video is hilarious.
  • Attending my first dance class since tearing my ACL last July. SO AWESOME!
  • Bubble baths.
  • Organic tomatoes.
  • Dinner dates with close friends.
  • Awesome happy news that I’ll blog about tomorrow!

That’s it for me. What about you? What do you love this week?

tuesday tip — don’t get mad; get talkative.

/ lindsay / Leave a comment

My husband has recently started pointing out my passion for justice. I didn’t know what that meant until I saw this article and immediately demanded an explanation as to why no one has arrested and/or murdered this Sarah Burge woman yet.

The article, in case you don’t feel like reading it, reports that Burge, a woman in Britain (commonly referred to as “Human Barbie” because of her obsession with plastic surgery) gave her seven-year-old daughter a gift certificate for breast augmentation on her most recent birthday and a voucher for liposuction at Christmas. Even more alarming than these so-called “gifts” is the fact that she’s also convinced her daughter that wanting these things is completely normal and that it’s okay to hate the way you were made and to do something unnatural and harmful in order to change.

When I read this article, I got mad. Really mad. And I don’t like getting mad. As a matter of fact, I feel guilty when I get mad, because (like I previously stated) I crave justice and start wishing terrible, horrible, no good, very bad things on these people. For instance, after reading that article, I had vivid visions of setting this woman’s face on fire and letting all of the plastic melt off BECAUSE THAT’S WHAT SHE DESERVES, but then I stopped myself, took a breath, and reevaluated the situation.

The truth is, the reason this story is news worthy is because it’s absolutely absurd and, thankfully, I’m not the only one who knows it.

TODAY’S SELF-LOVE TIP: DON’T GET MAD, GET TALKATIVE.

As easy as it was for me to get mad at this article and the wretched woman about whom it was written, what good does that do? Absolutely none whatsoever. If anything, it just makes me look like a crazy lunatic screaming at my computer screen and pulling my hair out.

If it’s not an article about a sick woman with a sadly misguided daughter, it’s an overly Photoshopped model in a magazine for young girls. Or an onslaught of diet commercials after the holidays. Or a group of teenage girls verbally bashing their bodies in a Hollister dressing room.

Take your burning anger over these things and turn it into a conversation — with colleagues, friends, family, little girls, whatever. Drawing attention to the fact that things like giving a seven-year-old girl a voucher for plastic surgery causes people to think deeply about the state of our society. And thinking can turn into questioning which can turn into change. The most dangerous thing we could do about all of this injustice in the world is keep quiet about it. We might not be able to take justice into our own hands, but maybe we could be the catalyst for reformation.

things i love thursday! (january 5, 2012)

/ lindsay / 1 Comment

Today is my sweet husband Dan’s birthday! He’s 26 today which, yes, means I’m exactly five weeks older than him. (Scandalous, I know.)

So, here’s a TILT list just for him! I love you, Dan! Hope your birthday is great!

Courtesy: Ashley Poole Photography

THINGS ABOUT MY HUSBAND THAT MAKE ME SMILE:

  • He’s the only guy I’ve ever been with who’s younger than me. Clearly, it’s the only way.
  • He loves cats just as much as I do (evidenced by the fact that the first thing he did on his birthday was watch cat videos on his cell phone.)
  • He proposed to me at a Sarah Mac Band show which, even before I even knew him, was the way I wanted to be proposed to and I NEVER ARTICULATED THIS.
  • He’s super cuddly.
  • He has really soft chest hair (I swear, it’s like unicorn fur or something.)
  • He has big ears that I pray get passed on to our children.
  • He worked his butt off to get his college degree (a double major, no less!)
  • He’s really smart. Like, really smart.
  • He always nails the answer for Final Jeopardy.
  • He always cooks for me.
  • When I have a bad day, he insists that I take a bath and let him do my chores.
  • He supports me in everything I attempt.
  • He has written me songs. As in, more than one song. And yes, they are on my iPod.
  • He’s an expert litter box cleaner.
  • He always gets up in the middle of the night to tend to the cats because he knows that if I get up, I won’t go back to sleep.
  • He probably would expect me to mention the cats at least three times on this list.
  • He wrote me a letter once when we were dating and I lived in London and signed it, “Your sexy American boyfriend.”
  • He challenges me (in the good way.)
  • He has the most contagious smile.
  • He has almost every song Weird Al has ever recorded on his iPod.
  • He scratches my back or gives me a massage whenever I ask him to without complaining. (I cannot say the same for myself.)
  • He plays guitar.
  • He’s a great writer (better than me, I think) and an avid reader.
  • He tries SO HARD to love me in my love languages.
  • He always wants to “fix” things that bother me.
  • He makes me laugh.
  • He loves me in spite of me.
  • He knows the real meaning of grace.
  • He is perfect for me.

Have a great day, my love. You are everything to me!

<3,
Your Sexy American Wife