by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

I know I totally agree with Nancy’s Rock Hard Abs Gym Rant, posted here a few days ago. What I read in pregnancy books during both my pregnancies bears out the theories posited there. Women’s bodies are meant to have curves, they are meant to carry more fat, they need more reserves of fat, for the rigors of childbirth and the incredible pressure placed on the body creating and nurturing new life within our own bodies.

When a woman is pregnant she is often described as ‘glowing’; ever wonder why? Continue Reading…

by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

Are you one of those people who view all things fat with suspicion and an absolute conviction that it must be bad for you? Well, banish that thought! There are many reasons that the human body absolutely needs a requisite amount of fats which can only come from eating healthy and eating well.

And while I am certainly not saying that you should have a fat-rich diet and get fat, having a healthy , balanced diet that puts a few curves on you, is actually a good thing, because it means that you look as nature meant you to, and it also means that you are healthy because you’re eating well.

Did you know that 60% of the brain is made up of fats, the lungs need fat not to collapse, the eyes, nerves, even the heart needs certain fats for its very functioning! Now since I am not an expert at all of this stuff, I thought I would put together a reading list, which gives you some comprehensive information about which fats are good for you and why: Continue Reading…

by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

To be perfectly truthful, I was somewhat ambivalent about the concept of size acceptance because for me what is implicit in the term ‘Size Acceptance’ is being obese, and more perniciously, being unhealthy and doing nothing about ill health by simply accepting it. But what has clarified my concepts on this subject is a visit to this site.

Size acceptance is not about accepting ill health or obesity. It is about respecting yourself, about recognizing that people of all sizes can be fit and it is about making healthy food choices and benefiting from them. With this accent on a goal of good health and positive self esteem, the size acceptance movement suddenly began to make a lot of sense to me. Continue Reading…

by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

In recent times, there’s been a lot of column inches and TV minutes devoted to the newly thin Kareena Kapoor, one of India’s top actors. Apparently she decided she wanted to be uber slim for her action role in the movie Tashan, and she has been at pains to tell everyone that it was yoga (and nothing extreme or surgical) that was behind her ‘transformation’. Her journey to size zero has been rather too well documented by the media. Continue Reading…

by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

Unpleasant, negative, unfair, bad things happen to all of us as some or other point in our lives. At times like this, it is easy to feel overwhelmed, upset, distressed and ask that perennial question, “WHY ME?!!” The fact is, it’s not just you, it’s everyone at some or other point; fact is and to coin a phrase, “SHIT HAPPENS!”

It is what you choose to do with this unwanted negativity in your life that makes the difference. Do you proclaim yourself the victim and resign yourself to your fate with whining ill grace or do you choose not to (in the words of Dylan Thomas) “go gentle into that good night” and do you “rage, rage against the dying of the light”? Continue Reading…

by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

Have you ever given a thought to what are the important numbers in your life? Which are the numbers that hold meaning, and I am not talking telephone numbers and address numbers and prosaic stuff like that. I mean other numbers that tend to exert more influence in our lives: waist size, dress size, weight or the number that comes up when you stand on the weighing machine.

Do these numbers hold you in thrall? Do they manipulate the way you behave, dictate your priorities in life? If so do you think that they should? Should they be of such consequence, of such magnitude in your life as to eclipse all the other more important numbers? Continue Reading…

by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

I used to hate all the passport photos or driver’s license photos that I ever posed for; I always thought I looked awful in them. Then I realized that I could look great in those photos by the simple expedient of smiling! And sure enough this last picture I posed for, I was fully satisfied with, simply because I was smiling in the picture.

I really think that a smile is something that makes anyone instantly sexier and more attractive. It is like a secret sexy weapon that you can use at will to floor just about anyone. Continue Reading…

by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

If you are a regular reader here, you probably read the rant about Barbie dolls and our views on the subject. It was the comment made on Nancy’s post, the body shop “love your body” ad, “…I wish real Barbies looked like that” that really set me thinking that we all send out a message to our kids by the kind of toys we give them to play with and if a Barbie doll is the toy of choice then what is the message that sends out.

Anyway this is not another rant, this is a tribute to the creators of the Big Beautiful Dolls concept. These are dolls that I really don’t think I mind my four year old playing with. This is a cute, curvy cuddly looking doll and sends my child the message that it’s OK to be REAL woman, and that it is not necessary to aspire to some unattainable supermodel size. Continue Reading…

by Reena Daruwalla, guest writer for Nancy Hayssen.com

Yes I know, there is no such word as ‘curvifier’, but isn’t that basically what corsets used to do (or still do)? The minute you say the word corset what immediately comes to mind is the scene from Gone with the Wind where the nanny is tightening the stays to Scarlett’s corset trying to make her already hourglass figure even more hourglass like!

Continue Reading…