Take Your Power Back!

Society and the media play a significant role in developing eating disorders and body dysmorphia. It’s more common now than ever to judge their worth by weight. Your happiness is also given away by giving your power to a number on the scale. Suddenly your entire life revolves around maintaining a certain weight or losing a certain amount. It can interfere with friendships, hobbies, and work and drain vitality. If you weigh yourself every day and are influenced by the number on the scale, you are setting yourself up for an unproductive day.

Avoid Stepping on the Scale

Start by choosing not to weigh yourself every morning or any time during the day. Simply retire your scale. Think about how it makes you feel bad or how it encourages disordered thinking or behaviors throughout the rest of your day. By retiring your scale, you are taking your power back. This is an act of self-love instead of self-hate.

Practice Self-Love

The scale becomes inconvenient when you fill yourself up with love and confidence. If you tell yourself you look good while looking in the mirror, you will feel good. If you continue to do what makes you feel your best, you won’t want to take out your scale. Your weight is simply a number. It does not define your accomplishments or how genuine and caring you are. It does not define your goals or what you enjoy doing. Instead, revolving your days around your scale makes you miserable by taking away the goodness in your life.

Make A Daily Self-Care Routine

Ask yourself what you need more of. Self-care should be part of your everyday routine. Make sure you are thinking positive thoughts about others and yourself. Do you need more time to relax? Do you need more hours of sleep? Or do you need more hours to do what you love, like visiting a museum, journaling, reading, walking in the park, or hanging out with your friends? Be good to yourself. It’s the best course of action to start living your healthiest and happiest life.

The Health Effects of Drinking While Pregnant

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders occur when a mother ingests alcohol while pregnant. This act severely harms the baby physically, mentally, and emotionally. These are long term effects that the baby will endure up until adulthood. The only way to prevent these issues to avoid all alcohol during pregnancy.

DRINKING ALCOHOL WHILE PREGNANT

Drinking any amount of alcohol during pregnancy can lead to miscarriage, premature baby, undeveloped limbs, behavior problems, learning disabilities, sensory disabilities, heart defects, meltdowns, hearing problems, autism, vision problems, and hyperactivity.

LACK OF ADEQUATE NUTRIENTS

Drinking alcohol while pregnant will prevent the fetus from becoming nourished with adequate minerals such as Vitamin D, Omega-3s, and B6. Omegas are essential for a healthy brain. A deficiency of Omega-3s can result in lupus, mental illness, vision disorders, hyperactivity, and behavioral disorders. B6 deficiency can negatively affect personality traits, damage cells, cause seizures, and weaken the immune system. Vitamin D prevents depression and improves sleep patterns. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to mood swings, joint pain, and high blood pressure.

HOW IT AFFECTS ADULTHOOD

As the child grows up, they may find it difficult to control their emotions, have poor reasoning skills, face memory problems, have difficulty socializing with others, and possibly struggle with alcoholism. The child may now seem intrusive, hyper, and unable to learn in school. It may also deter them from employment.

RECOVERY

Though there is no quick fix to any of these side effects, there is always hope for recovery.

Those suffering from FADS have strengths as well. They can be athletic, friendly, artistic, helpful, generous, determined, non-judgmental, and hard workers. By focusing on their strengths, and helping them work through their individual conditions, they can learn to function better.

Cognitive therapy can be beneficial for people with FAS. Exercising such as running is known to improve memory and enhance cognitive function which may have been impaired. Exercise can be used as an additional treatment to therapy.