Is Energy Work the Solution?

I have not written anything in a while and this will be very brief. Many of us have full lives, taking on many roles in society and never slow down, unless we are forced to. That happened to me on May 30th 2015 due to a car accident. I was not at fault and was […]

Body Image Myths and the Last Accepted Prejudice

A lot of us spend a lot of time consuming media from all directions. Print, online, video, audio. We are bombarded with messages about how we are supposed to look. For women, the pressure to achieve the ideal female body image is powerful. All-around we are shown images of hyper-slim, either tall or petite, large […]

Beyonce, Thank You for Making Feminism Cool Again

If you saw the 2014 VMAs, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Beyonce closed the show and brought the house down with an incredible performance. It was everything from avant garde, to provocative, to unabashedly sexy, to touching. Besides her obvious, and stunning talent and beauty the underlying message was loud and clear, “I […]

How Can We Eliminate Fat Chat Forever?

I’ve wondered about this since I was in eighth grade. I stood in the lunchroom after school waiting for the bus by myself. None of my few friends were on a late bus so I was alone. Carla* sauntered up with Kerri*, who had the same birthday as me. I was wearing my brand new […]

Body Mass Ineptitude

A number of states have already implemented body mass index, or BMI, testing in schools. When Michelle Obama launched her “Let’s Move!” campaign, she proudly noted that they were partnering with the American Academy of Pediatrics to work on BMI testing. Use of the BMI has become so commonplace that I don’t think most people […]

Theories Detached: The Perpetual Outsider Within [pow]

“We write about and teach about race, gender, and sexuality. We write about class. However much of our writing is a description and analysis of issues. We write more about theory than we do about practice. It is has simply been easier to do theory than to put into real-life practice what we declare as […]

Overcoming Fear of Fat

I recently read a great post on the importance of fat in our meals.  Fat is a critical nutrient that is vital to our health. But my first thought when I read the title was that the post was about fear of fat on our bodies.  Because that’s what drove the fear of fat in […]

Media Literacy, African American Women and HAES

Greetings and Salutations, My name is Dr. Angela Prater-Mensah and my PhD is in Communication Studies with a focus on Media. I was invited to join We Are the Real Deal Blog after speaking at BEDA’s National Binge eating conference. My educational background, life path and struggle with body image and disordered eating will inform […]

If I Don’t Like Me, Can I Take Care of Me?

Originally posted October, 2009 when Marsha Hudnall, RD, MS first joined the WeAreTheRealDeal site. Marsha has taught hundreds of women how to live the HAES (Health At Any Size) lifestyle through her decades of work at Green Mountain at Fox Run, a women’s retreat where she serves as owner and director. Read Marsha’s blog at […]

True Beauty Podcast — Truth about FAT

Graciously re-posted from Judy Ciacci and Anne-Sophie Reinhardt created these cool episodes on the True Beauty Podcast. In this episode of the True Beauty Podcast, Judy and Anne-Sophie share the truth about the word fat with you. The go into the real meaning of it and what we imply when we say it to ourselves or to […]

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