since NJ is having techinacal difficulties, i am posting this here as well. Leslie is a health writer and author of ne of my favorite books "The Locker Room Diaries". She has done so much for women's self confidence and I am thrilled she agreed to this interview. Also, check out her ivillage blog, the Weighting Game.
1)I loved the locker room diaries, but can you tell me
a little bit about the purpose of starting "the
weighting game" blog?
A: First, thanks for loving my book! Is that why we're conducting this interview at your local YMCA in the buff? Kidding. But really, it was such an adventure to write Locker Room Diaries and has opened many doors, including speaking at colleges, awesome magazine writing opportunities and, of course, The Weighting Game! I took over the blog from another body image writer about 10 months ago
(February is our one-year anniversary...I'm registering at Lucy Yoga Wear, Victoria's Secret and Z Gallerie). When I started, I'd never even blogged before - I've always been a bit hesitant to jump on major tech trends, which explains why I'm still jamming to my Debbie Gibson cassette tapes instead of CDs and absolutely cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to TiVo. But I found that, with the Weighting Game forum, I was able to express my voice and connect with awesome women from around the country - the globe, even. If something happens in my everyday life or I hear about something body image- or weight-related in the news, my first thought is always "Oh, I've GOT to wrote about that on iVillage!" It's comforting to read others' responses and realize, "Hey, I'm not alone in this crazy, image-obsessed world." Plus, I've met quite a few fantastic women who have become my friends, not just readers.
2)How would you describe your eating style,
vegetarian, vegan, mostly low fat, indulgent,or are
you up for anything?
A: I'm boring in that I tend to have the same thing for breakfast pretty much every day (two packets of oatmeal with brown sugar and cranberries, fruit, egg whites if I've cooked 'em that week and an Americano). Dinner is usually salad with lots of veggies and some kind of meat, like salmon or chicken, plus whatever I can scarf off my husband's plate. But I LOVE this stuff - I truly do crave oatmeal when I've`ben away on vaycay for a week. How weird is that? I should`be the Quaker Girl! I don't do strictly "low-fat" or "low-cal" and I've never considered going low-carb (see #6). But I do pay attention to what I put in my mouth and tend to choose lots of fruits and vegetables, skim milk, kefir, lean meat and an ample amount of candy and dessert to balance it all out. Let's put it this way: I'll gladly splash balsamic vinegar on my salad if it means I get to order something called a "Chocolate Lavaflow Cakegasm" for dessert.
3)What's your gym/workout routine like?
A: About five days a week I'm at the gym. If you read my blog, you know I have recently become obsessed with working out in the morning, early - like, 6am. I do about 30-40 minutes of cardio 4 times a week, a power yoga class on Sundays and lift weights a couple times a week. I'm all about my guns - love my biceps. Now, they can't actually DO much - opening a jar of pickles can be difficult for me. But I CAN bang out 12 full-out push-ups and if you ask my to flex, I will do so, anywhere, anytime, be it at the mall, at a wedding, in McDonalds or in a house of worship (I understand these places may all be one-and-the-same).
In the summer, I really love running outside for about 30 minutes. If a sassy lil running skirt is involved, so much the better. And if Maneater by Nelly Furtado comes on my iPod, watch out! That song makes me fly.
4)What's the most suprising thing you've learned about
women's relationship with food when researching your
book?
I found it really interesting to interview women in their 60s and 70s and discover that so many of them struggled with their body image and with food from a very early age - it's just that, in the 1940s and 50s, "anorexia" or "BDD" weren't really discussed. It was all sort of swept under the carpet.
The boobs chapter was my favorite to write because (a) I am obsessed with my own and will talk about them at any juncture and (b) it surprised me just how unhappy so many women are with their breasts. They're too big, too small, too hard to work out with, too saggy, need to be implanted, etc. It bums me out just writing about it right now. But women also totally opened up to me about their breasts - they had so much to get off their chests (heh heh. Heh.) Together we dug deeper and explored the underlying issues surroung boobs, like sexuality, power, becoming an adult, motherhood, the whole shebang.
5) do you have a favorite food product (for example
not "eggs" but rather "kashi go lean" or "garden
burgers")?
A: Are you asking me which items I'd like to be a corporate sponsor for? I have no shame, so here are a handful of namebrand items I eat almost everyday:
Honey Bunches of Oats Cereal
Progresso Lentil Soup
Luna Bars (lemon zest) and Kashi GoLean bars (chocolate pretzel)
Lifeway Low-fat Pomegranate Kefir
McDonalds Fruit and Yogurt Parfaits
Fake crab (brand unknown)
Diet A&W Root Beer; Sierra Mist Free
Cool Whip Lite
Cadbury Creme Eggs (once a year!)
Swiss Miss Hot Cocoa
Sour Patch Kids, Raisinettes
6) whats your food vice?
Candy, chocolate, sugarsugarsugar. I am obsessed. It actually reached a point where, when working in an office environment a couple years ago, I would top off my healthy, oh-so-virtuous oatmeal and fruit breakfast with a handful of mini-Snickers and mini-1000Grand bars. Just because they were there! My dentist has actually asked me to stop eating so much candy, which I kind of don't understand because doesn't that mean less work/money for him? Hmm...quandry.
7) Ok, and as with all reviews, i need a random one
for kicks, which three celebs would you invite (if you
could) to a dinner party (alive please)?
I will not allow anyone to make me feel ashamed by my first answer: Britney Spears. I loved her from the moment she danced across my screen and have long wanted to BE here, shaking my booty at the MTV VMA awards and singing in front of milions of people. I know she's down-and-out lately, but I just couldn't pass that shiz up.
Madonna would be up there - I am just so in awe of her career.
The third? Oy, yoy, yoy. Deepak Choprah or Andrew Weil?
PS Can Brad Pitt, circa Fight Club, serve us our dinner? In boxer-briefs? Puh-leeeeze?
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