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What’s Your Locker-Room Body Image?

Posted by Katie Gutierrez Painter Categories: Advice, Celebrities, Editorials, Entertainment, Health

Dove campaign for real beauty Shortly before I got married last May, my amazing mom—who knew I’d been wanting to get back in shape—gifted me 20 half-hour sessions with a personal trainer. Fast forward five months. I received a call from 24 Hour Fitness; it seemed they checked their records and I still had 18 of my 20 sessions remaining. (Oops.) Did I want to come in and use them? Damn, I thought. But my summer of blissful post-wedding eating had taken a toll—ten pounds, to be exact—on my figure. I’ve always been pretty small, so that increase made a major difference in the way my clothes fit and the way I thought about my own body. So I said grudgingly, “Okay. I’ll go in tomorrow.”

Since then, several things have happened, all amazing in their own right. (1) I weigh the exact same as I did in September… but my body fat has dropped by 6%. I’ve gone from the “Acceptable” to the “Lean” range! (2) I’ve committed to participating in a triathlon in May… How did that happen? (3) I renewed my training sessions—twice—and am now in another class three days a week to prepare for the triathlon. All in all, I’m working out seven days per week—crazy! (4) I can do awesome man-pushups, and I feel strong and powerful. (5) My skin is clearer… a happy surprise, to be sure!

Of course, to be fair, half my pants still don’t fit, and I’ve been sore every day for, oh, five months.

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15 Little Ways to Live Happier and Healther—Starting NOW!

Posted by Katie Gutierrez Painter Categories: Advice, Entertainment, Fashion, Health, How To, Humor, Relationships

New Year's clock It’s the tenth day of the new year, and how many of us have already strayed from our resolutions? That may be because those goals we make each December 31 often revolve around breaking bad habits or spontaneously forming new, better ones. Who among us hasn’t vowed, at least once, to eat healthier, to work out three times a week, to drink less, to read more, to be spontaneous, and so on? While these resolutions may be noble, they’re also decidedly vague. (After all, doesn’t eating only one bowl of ice cream after dinner count as “eating healthier”?) So why not give yourself a chance to actually achieve your goals by making them smaller and more realistic? Below, 15 little ways to live healthier and happier—starting now.

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Health Bulletin #1: The disease that poses as a UTI—and affects more than 1 in 300 women

Posted by Katie Gutierrez Painter Categories: Advice, Editorials, Health, How To

blueberries I’ve been thinking about the best way to start blogging about health issues that really matter to women. And I decided that, in addition to product reviews, exercise and eating advice, etc., it’d be a good idea to spend some time each week focusing on a particular health threat. Why not start with one that’s close to my heart (and bladder)?

One lovely Sunday morning about seven or eight years ago, my mom cornered me before breakfast and asked if I could have gonorrhea. I sputtered and shook, furious that my own mother could think I had an STD. I told her that I hadn’t put in the dirty work for that one, and we awkwardly moved on. But the truth is, her question was valid. For about a year, I’d been getting frequent urinary tract infections (UTIs), but as of late, every test had come back negative. No bacteria, no infection; I was fine. Fast forward four years. I had just graduated from college and reached a sulky sort of resignation that I would simply always have “my” symptoms: stinging pain when I peed, urgent/frequent urination (often with nothing to show for my effort), and pain in my bladder/pelvic region. Then my grandmother said the two magic words: interstitial cystitis.

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When Should We Start Worrying About Beauty?

Posted by Katie Gutierrez Painter Categories: Advice, Celebrities, Editorials, Entertainment, Fashion, Health, Parenting

A pre made-over Anne Hathaway in The Devil Wears Prada

Now, clearly I love the beauty and fashion industry. I delight in it. But this wasn’t always the case. Back in high school, I was the girl who took pride in arriving to class with her hair in a messy wet bun, wearing only lip balm and a snug t-shirt with drawstring pants. Vans were my footwear staple. I considered myself independent, a little bohemian, and I looked scornfully at the girls with smoky eyes and straightened hair. There was also, I’ll admit, a little bit of envy. In their fashion, their stilettos that clacked across the beige tiled hallways, those girls had what I didn’t: sex appeal.

Last night, I watched The Devil Wears Prada with my 12-year-old stepdaughter. She is uncommonly beautiful, with no trace of the awkwardness I suffered at her age. She is smart, perceptive, and a budding fashionista. (The night before, she’d killed thirty minutes by trying on half a dozen pairs of my shoes, then texting all her friends back in Seattle about her newfound love for high-heeled boots.) But as we watched Prada, she’d declare, “Ugh! I have such a big butt!” or “Look at all this baby-flab over my hips! You don’t have any of that!” or “I’m confused. How come my thighs touch when I’m standing up? That’s not right, is it?”

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