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Marshall and Jamie Ann Allman Are Expecting Twins! Plus: Win an Afterschool.com Gift Certificate!

Having trouble viewing this newsletter? Click here | Add CelebrityBabyBlog@cbb.chtah.net to your address book November 20, 2012 twitter    facebook  News Photos Celeb Style Deals & Gear Due Dates & B-days Giveaways SO CUTE! Twins on the Way for Marshall and Jamie Ann Allman The couple announce their exciting news exclusively to PEOPLE Marshall and Jamie Ann Allman Are Expecting Twins! Plus: Win an Afterschool.com Gift Certificate!   Photo Special Gisele Bündchen's Cool & Glam Maternity Style Photo Special 6 Ways to Make Family Holiday Travel Easier Advertisement LOVE IT! Fiona Facinelli's Adorable New Haircut   Style Stylish Winter Gear for Kids WIN IT! Today's Giveaway: A Gift Certificate from Afterschool.com (a $100 Value!)   Style Mini Must-Have: Keeva Denisof's Cute Little Sister Hat

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Heart Breaking Eating Disorder

One of our Twitter followers tells her horror story of how losing weight destroyed her love life. 

Anonymous:I've always been a health nut. I mean I would eat pizza and drink sodas but I always worked out and tried to make healthy choices for the most part. Then my "first love" kind of chose someone else over me. It hurt but I moved on. The next guy I dated dumped me for some stick thin girl. That's when I started dieting more. I still ate as much as I needed to I just cut out sodas and only ate salads when I ate out, cross country helped too.  

Then I met Matt. I was so convinced that he was the most perfect person in this world and he liked me for me and I knew that, but that fear of him finding someone better was always in the back of my head. That's what started it. It was long distance, so before his visits I would replace dinners with a breakfast bar and sometimes skip lunch all together for about a week. At the time it was just a way to have a flat stomach when he got here, no big deal. Then I started weighing myself and noticing how quickly the numbers were dropping. Between visits from Matt and Skyping and taking on the phone and working and obsessing with the numbers on the scale and the nutrition labels, it got unhealthy.  

When the scale stopped going down, I stopped eating as much. It progressively got worse until I was at the point where I lived on chewing gum and water all days of the week and binged on Fridays, only because I usually spent the night with my friend and I didn't want her to worry about me. Then I'd feel guilty and starve again, nasty cycle. Everybody at school started spreading all sorts of rumors about how I threw up in the bathrooms after lunch (which is absurd considering I didn't even eat at lunch) people would ask my friends what was wrong with me.  They'd make skinny jokes and stare. I hated going to school.  Then guess what? Matt dumped me.  

I guess it was my fault. I mean I was beyond happy with him but because of my eating disorder I couldn't be open with him and I'm sure it pushed him away. Ever since we broke up I've been trying to get better but it’s ingrained into my brain now and eating is the hardest task for me. So no I would not advise any of my followers to lose weight like I did. I'm so against it. If I see a friend skipping meals I freak out it's horrible and I wish nobody would have to go through this. You don't just lose your food you lose the people you love.

Toddler Beauty Pageants

Below you will find a clip of a mother and her young daughter getting ready for a beauty pageant.  

Video: Child Abuse? Mother Forces Her 5-Year-Old Daughter TO Wax Her Eyebrows On "Toddlers & Tiaras"

Girls and boys can begin to enter beauty pageants at age 0.  The fact that babies and toddlers are competing against each other in beauty pageants, is a controversial topic.  The main issues that frightens people are sexualisation, mental health and self image issues.  

One of my concerns is the thought of what happens to the confidence of the child who does not win?  I was watching a toddler’s beauty pageant on TV and when the time for awards approached little girls were extremely sad, crying uncontrollably because they did not win.  This is a beauty competition, if a two year old girl does not win the competition that is telling the girl you loss because you are not beautiful.  I believe that all children are beautiful.  

Another concern I have: is this an appropriate way to teach kids about the true meaning of beauty.  Many people agree that the meaning of beauty has been distorted.  I also believe that understanding the true meaning of beauty is a challenge that can take many years and several life experiences to learn.  Beauty is not a subject that kids learn in school, their are many different interpretations for the definition of beauty and the topic of beauty has been evolving for generations.   As I transferred into each stage of my life my perception of beauty has shifted in several different directions.    So my point is that learning about beauty is a process, a journey and an adventure that we experience.  If learning the true meaning of beauty is a journey that can take years to learn then what makes people think their one year old has all the answers?  

This topic of children in beauty pageants can be a touchy subject.  If you disagree with this article please share your thoughts about toddler beauty pageants.  

You might also want to read: What is beauty?

Beauty Tip: Eyebrow Threading

Natural beauty methods can lead to longer lasting confidence than unnatural beauty methods.  One aspect that contributes to beauty is hair removal.  Today many different hair removal methods exist.  One common area both men and women remove hair from are eyebrows.    Traditionally waxing is one common method.  Now threading is growing in popularity all over the world.

Threading is a hair removal method which was originally popular in the Indian, Persian and Arabic cultures.  This method is preformed with only one piece of cotton thread that is winded in a way that removes lines of hair right at the hair follicle.  Since threading removes hair in straight lines, this method works best for eyebrows.  When removing eyebrow hair on men and women threading works extremely well since it can keep the natural shape of the eyebrows, only removing unwanted hair.     

Common problems occur with waxing is contamination of the wax, pulling of the skin, burns, redness, excessive pain, acne, skin damage, unnatural or uneven eyebrow shapes.  

Wax contamination is a problem that most people are unaware of.  People like to believe the wax their esthetician puts on their face and body is clean.  Even if the spa uses a different wax stick per client does not keep the wax clean.  What some people don’t realize is that for each area that a wax strip is placed the same stick is put back into the same wax that is used on everyone.  For only one person receiving a waxing service the stick is placed in the wax several times.  Would you want to eat from a dip that strangers have “double dipped”?  The only way the wax would not be contaminated is if the spa used several sticks per one person, which is a very rare practice.          

I recommend getting eyebrows threaded at an Indian salon because they are well known to be great at threading, you get to experience a bit of the Indian culture and the price is normally inexpensive.  It is easy to find these Indian salons in areas with a high Indian population.  At these salons you can expect to spend as low at $3 dollars and I recommend tipping 15%-35%.  

Threading is a great way to remove unwanted eyebrow hair because it is 100% natural, risk free, no chemicals are used, no contamination, no continuous pulling of the skin, less painful than laser and waxing, quick and inexpensive.  

      Below you will find a quick video demonstration of eyebrow threading.   If you have any questions about hair removal or anything to do with beauty and confidence, leave a comment and your questions will always be answered.         

Video Eyebrow Threading

Don't Regret Easter Dinner

It is that time of year again when families come together for Easter dinner and holiday celebrations.  Easter is traditionally celebrated with big dinners, wine, desserts and chocolate eggs.  Some people with certain health conditions or those who like to regularly eat nutritiously may face challenges when it comes to having so much variety of food, alcohol and sweets.  How do we survive the holiday without completely ignoring our health? 

We should be aware of the portion sizes we put on our plate and try to pick the healthy option.  It is Easter and some of us cannot resist a little bit of wine at dinner and what about the temptation for those chocolate eggs. 

I have some sweet news for you.  A little bit of good quality chocolate actually provides health benefits.  Chocolate is recognized to help prevent heart disease.  To get the full benefits this Easter holiday, look for chocolate that contains 70% cocoa.  Now we do not have to feel guilty about eating Easter chocolate, but only if we limit to a healthy amount of chocolate in order to receive the health benefits.  Too much chocolate can actually be harmful to our health.             

What about the guilt after you enjoyed some wine?  Red wine especially is known to actually prevent the risk of heart disease such as a heart attack, for moderate drinkers. 

The Easter Holiday is coming soon and we want everyone to have a safe, healthy and enjoyable holiday weekend.  So remember to make healthy choices without feeling guilty.  Watch the video below about the delicious benefits of red wine. 

For more information about the Easter Holiday visit: 
http://christianity.about.com/od/holidaytips/qt/whatiseaster.htm

Watch on YouTube

Health Is Beautiful

Why is health beautiful?  Last week we focused a lot on the importance of inner beauty and how much inner beauty actually affects outer beauty.    When we talk about beauty on the inside what does that really mean?  If beauty is pleasure to the senses then how can we be beautiful on the inside? 

I believe that inner beauty is having a positive, genuine, healthy and loving mind, body and soul.  This idea might sound so simple but in reality it is not.  If beauty is simple then why are there so many people struggling?  There are so many factors that are out of our control.  We cannot control the body we are born into.  We cannot control the genetics we come from.   We can’t control the country we are born into and our surroundings.  Life is challenging because there are so many things that we cannot control.  So how can we change if there are so many factors out of our control?  My solution is to work on the factors we can control which can actually influence the factors we cannot control.  So now we know that many things we cannot control affect our mind, body and soul.  My solution to affecting the mind, body and soul in a positive way is health.   Here is an example: if obesity is uncontrollably in your gene pool and becomes a challenge to deal with your weight then focus on what you can control which is your diet and physical activity. 

Health is a great example of how inner beauty affects outer beauty.  If you put garbage inside your body do not be surprised if you become unhappy about the way you look on the outside. My personal beliefs about health: Fitness and nutrition does not only have an impact on the body but also on the mind and soul.  The mind impacts the body and soul.  The soul impacts the mind and the body.  Health is beautiful so why would anyone not want to care for their health?