While perusing Health Magazine, I noticed an advertisement for a womens product called Size 0.  I found it online at GNC along with the statement It's time to redefine yourself...Hot, Radiant, Alluring, Elegant & Beautiful! It's time for SIZE 0!  Does that mean a woman can only be hot, radiant, alluring, elegant, and beautiful if she is a size 0? 

Its time for a reality check.  A very small percentage of the female population in the United States has the small body frame to make a size 0 possible, or even healthy.  I have nothing against the few women that fit into the size 0 category but is it realistic to hold up a size 0 for the typical female to aspire to? 

I know many women greatly appreciate Doves Campaign for Real Beauty.  I highly recommend their short, eye-opening film on the evolution of how our beauty ideal became so distorted.  Ive seen slides before that reveal this very same thing, but the way Dove put it together has quite an impact.  It is just a minute or so long I promise you will find it worth your time.

I often meet people who want help in attaining an unrealistic ideal, picking at every perceived flaw on their bodies.  This goes hand in hand with the woman who wants to hire me to help her lose 30 pounds in 12 weeks, and considers anything less a failure.  A big part of my job as a coach is helping people to not only celebrate their successes, but to actually acknowledge them!  For some reason it is easier to highlight failures (the should haves), which completely overshadow whats going right. 

Of course one needs to identify whats not working otherwise results will remain elusive.  It is the use of that information that determines success: one can use it to feel bad and succumb to the Ive Blown It mantra, or use it to develop a new strategy and turn his or her actions into results.  Logic goes a long way in turning failure into learning and keeping our expectations in the real world.

Reality check: women are hot, radiant, alluring, elegant, and beautiful.  Period!