The Weekly Hope

    This isn't exactly a follow-up to my previous post with this title (it's been quite some time since I wrote that post), but I have a homework assignment that asks that I post positive-body-image encouragement on social media and this is as close as I get!     For context: I've been taking a Nutrition class this semester, and one of the major themes we're exploring is body image and how negative body image has become a huge problem for many, many people. Here are a few things I've learned:     As of 2016, 86% of women were dissatisfied with their appearance. A common method of dealing with this dissatisfaction is dieting, but it turns out that diet culture is extremely unhealthy, because it encourages a cycle of restricted eating followed by binging, followed by restricted eating out of guilt, followed by binging, around and around and around. Diet culture leads many people to gaining more  pounds instead of losing them, and also contributes to depr...

    I've touched on the topic of body image and beauty standards a little on my other blog, but because Hats, Boots, & Chocolate is more of a writing blog now than a place for uplifting messages, this blog has been repurposed from happy news stories to encouragement in general--and I want to start with the girls.     In this day and age, women are presented with a monumental challenge. Between billboards, advertisements, social media, television, and so on, we are faced, every day, with the standards of beauty upheld by the world. Supermodels pose for us in a variety of fashions and styles, and we are encouraged to keep up with the current trends however we can.     The implications given to us seem to be that, if we don't conform and do everything just like the supermodels and celebrities, then we aren't really "beautiful" or "popular" or "good enough".     I have strong opinions about this, and these opinions of mine have been getting mol...