Quote of the Day - Anti-diets, Yoga Inspiration & the Jennifers

Let's focus on feeling good and Healthy around this Holiday Season, not panicking about the skinny. Like most holidays Christmas involves a lot of (fairly epic) food-porn. Families, friends, and loved ones all come together around the dinner table.

While there obviously isn't any need to overdo the feasting and slip into any extremes, there equally shouldn't be a need to spend the entire time feeling guilty or getting lost in a calorie-counting panic.

Balance, a healthy approach and a positive mindset can provide results for the long-run without having to feel like you've got to miss out in order to keep hitting those diet-targets (often un-healthy and un-maintainable - a great read on the health dangers of dieting and why most popular ones are not sustainable in the long run HERE). 

It's so easy to get lost under the pressures of the many backwards views of what a normal/good/perfect body-size is. Women in particular are incredibly guilty of fuelling each others insecurities as well as their own. The sad irony being that when this pressure goes too far the size-bullies frequently turn around and critique again, this time it's perhaps disconcertingly thin (clearly a win win). 

And while blaming the media (any Tabloid cover, any gossip show, most casting directors) is an easy out, the everyday ladies (and gents, looking at you too!) are just as guilty for furthering these questionable ideals. 

The 'it' actress and bad-ass leading lady of the moment Jennifer Lawrence has suffered her fair share of un-founded critique... Hearing friends and girls in general calling the (in reality gorgeous, slim and healthily toned, woman) actress chubby or a bit  too 'curvy' (without the positive connotation).  

This isn't by any means everyone's opinion though. A lot of people are standing up and hailing her as a much needed role-model for girls (of all ages) due to her outspoken, honest and healthy approach to weight, in particular as a woman constantly scrutinised in the public eye. 

So let's take a deep breath and remember to own it, work it and try to feel and stay healthy (a word often misused and misinterpreted) this Christmas. Without letting the outside world's pressures or insecurities becoming our own, find your own balance. 

For some inspiration check out Miss Aniston's own fave work-out tips from her Yoga instructor here. 

And one of my favourites, the Londoner's anti-diet, can be found here. 

xo