goals.Instead, they show us Naomi Campbell, Nikki Taylor, and other popular models,telling us that this is what you should go for. As the well-known Body Shop slogansays, "There are three billion women who don't look like supermodels and onlyeight who do." Yet millions of women skip meals, skip dessert, and treat food astheir enemy just to look like the impossibly thin women on the covers of today'smagazine.Even those who love and support you might be accidentally leading you into hurtfulbehaviors. When you see a parent or loved one going on strict diets or exercising alot, you might feel that what they are doing is normal. You might even beencouraged then to diet and exercise as much as they do. While they think they aretrying to teach you good habits, they might actually be teaching you to do thingsthat hurt your body.If you look in any nutrition book, you will find something about Recommended DailyAllowances of vitamins and minerals. Now, look at the labels on the food you eat.Often, when you go on diets, you eat foods that are low in the nutrients you needlike calcium and iron. These things keep you energetic and strong. Your body doesnot work as well without them. While calories might seem bad to a dieter, when youhave less calories in your diet, and less nutritious food, you are really taking out oneof the things your body needs to store energy.So what do you do? While it is hard to change your body, it is easier to change yourbody image. Counseling, for one, is very important. To change the way you seeyour body, you need to understand why you feel the way you do. Are you just aself-critical person, or does someone you know make you feel bad about yourself?It takes work to look at a model in a magazine and realize that she is probablyairbrushed, meaning that photographers and artists used computers and programsto erase any blemishes and often to add certain shapes to her body. Those girls onthe covers of magazines may not have the...
