Paralyzed woman finishes marathon 16 days after start
A 32-year-old paraplegic woman using a robotic walking suit has completed the London Marathon, 16 days after the event began.
Hundreds of onlookers cheered a tearful Claire Lomas on Tuesday afternoon as she crossed the finish line on The Mall in central London, The Sun reported. Lomas, who was paralyzed from the chest down in a 2007 horse-riding accident, walked the 26.2-mile course using crutches and a £43,000 ($69,500) suit that uses motion sensors to help her move her legs. When Lomas shifts her balance, the ReWalk machine moves her joints forward, allowing her to take a step, the BBC reported.
Lomas, of Eye Kettleby, England, averaged more than 1.5 miles per day since the marathon began on April 22, following the official route. She stayed at a hotel at night and was driven to the spot where she stopped the day before, according to the BBC. Her husband, Dan Spicer, accompanied her the whole way, and her parents and 1-year-old daughter also were with her for parts of the walk.
“The support has been breathtaking and it feels fantastic to finally finish,” she said, according to The Sun. “I really didn’t expect this and I can’t quite believe it’s all for me. Everyone has been so supportive and I couldn’t have done it without them.”
I love this young girl & her mission! Really wish that Seventeen magazine had taken up her challenge (to be honest, I see it as a HUGE missed opportunity for them).
Every day I get messages from young girls begging for help to fix normal, everyday, common body ‘flaws’ (note: actually not flaws, but are perceived that way. Cellulite is no more a flaw than your ears are. It’s normal, common and something that 90% of women have: not that you’d know it from the way it’s represented in the media). Most young girls have no idea how SKEWED our notions of beauty are or how deep they’ve been internalized. Even though most teens women are aware of photoshopping practices, they still pine for the altered bodies they see everyday in magazines, ads, billboards etc.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a magazine that, even just ONCE A MONTH, promoted real bodies? As they are? With no digital alteration?
It’s not a perfect solution, but it is a step in the right direction. And you would think it’s not too much to ask (in fact, it may be just the kind of thing that boosts sales at a time when print media is struggling).
Excerpt via Modern Mom
Julia Bluhm, 14, has gotten more than 48,000 signatures for her online petition to “give girls images of real girls” in the pages of Seventeen magazine. The eighth-grader asked the magazine to commit to printing one unaltered photo spread per month.
In the petition written to persuade the editors, Bluhm wrote that girls are deeply influenced by the perfect images they see in the magazines and rip their own bodies and faces apart when they themselves fail to live up what they don’t realize are Photoshopped, airbrushed standards.
“Here’s what a lot of girls don’t know,” she wrote in the petition, “those ‘pretty women’ that we see in magazines are fake. They’re often Photoshopped, airbrushed and edited to look thinner, and to appear like they have perfect skin. A girl you see in a magazine probably looks a lot different in real life.”
“For the sake of all the struggling girls all over American, who read Seventeen and think these fake images are what they should be, I’m stepping up,” Bluhm continued.
A step in the right direction? Thoughts?
via Gawker
The heads of Vogue’s 19 international editions have come together to form a six-point pact which promises, among other things, to stop the practice of working with models younger than 16, or those who, at the editors’ discretion, are determined to be suffering from an eating disorder.
“Vogue editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the wellbeing of their readers,” Condé Nast International chairman Jonathan Newhouse said in a statement.
Beastie Boys Founding Member Adam ‘MCA’ Yauch, Dead at 47
Adam Yauch, better known to music fans as MCA of the legendary hip hop triumvirate Beastie Boys, passed away today at the age of 47 following a hard-fought bout with cancer.
Russell Simmons’ Global Grind confirmed the tragic news this afternoon.
So sad. Love & light to his family and friends.
Oy…
I’m not someone who likes to comment on other people’s appearance. Basically, I’ve taken a stance that if we want to help body image issues, we need to stop talking about people’s bodies all together. And while there are a TON of comments on this story that comment negatively on how this woman looks after years of tanning, you won’t find those kind of comments coming from me.
I DO have my own opinions, but I won’t focus on her appearance. Instead, I ask that we focus on health here. It’s enough of an issue on its own without resorting to name calling, right?
For YEARS, the downsides to tanning have been reported and cautioned. Despite a decline in popularity, MANY people still opt to fry their skin under the UV bulbs to get a healthy ‘glow’. There’s nothing healthy about it and tanning beds ARE addictive. It’s hard to break the habit and many people need more & more to get their ‘fix’. Skin cancer rates are CLIMBING and that ‘healthy tan’ desire from decades of beach babery is something we can now get with a spray or a bottle.
While the mother claims the child did not actually go under the lights, setting healthy examples for your children is not just a matter of what you tell them to do (or not do). It’s also a matter of being an example for them and making choices that mirror the lifestyle you want for them. Telling your child she’s beautiful, while simultaneously criticizing your body all the time can still send the message that bodies are things to be criticized.
Tan responsibly. Wear sunscreen outside. Get your glow from bronzers, spray tans and other non-cancer causing options. LOVE the skin you’re in.
Mom Taking 5-Year-Old Tanning Is Disturbing, But Her Tanned Face Is Even More Disturbing
Even WITH arms & legs, this would be quite a story. Let it serve as inspiration to overcome your own challenges, whatever they may be!
Via Gizmodo
Philippe Croizon lost his arms and legs in a terrible accident 18 years ago. Since then, he has trained to become a world class athlete. This summer, the Frenchman is going to swim between every continent in the world.
This video will make you laugh, inspire you, and make you want a fun pass at Caine’s arcade.
Ah-mazing!Laughing, crying, truly touched by this little boy with a BIG imagination.
On repeat. Wow. :)
Caine, I want a fun pass!
xo
Caine Monroy is a 9-year old boy who spent his summer vacation building an elaborate DIY cardboard arcade in his dad’s used auto parts store.
He’s about to have the best day of his life.
Caine dreamed of the day he would have lots of customers visit his arcade, and he spent months preparing everything, perfecting the game design, making displays for the prizes, designing elaborate security systems, and hand labeling paper-lunch-gift-bags. However, his dad’s autoparts store (located in an industrial part of East LA) gets almost zero foot traffic, so Caine’s chances of getting a customer were very small, and the few walk in customers that came through were always in too much of a hurry to get their auto part to play Caine’s Arcade. But Caine never gave up.
Psst- Caine’s got a college fund growing online, and after watching this you may be inclined to donate. Visit the site here for more pics & deets. http://cainesarcade.com
Believe me, I’m not ‘anti’-barefoot running (or anti-Vibrams for that matter). I have plenty of friends who swear by them and wouldn’t go back to normal running shoes. But I do know they are NOT for me: not everyone can or should force themselves to run barefoot.
The primary reason? We’ve spent our whole lives in shoes. Muscles, joints, tendons, ligaments and bones have been accustomed to moving with support. Removing that support isn”t as simple as retraining your body: not everyone will be able to and you can cause significant damage along the way. It’s true that some people adapt to barefoot running easier than others. But those that can’t adjust may be putting themselves in harms way.
A good rule of thumb for sorting through polarizing fitness controversy is to consider a middle ground. Some people are staunch advocates for barefoot running (and/or Vibrams). Others are flat out against it. Middle ground: it”s between you and YOUR body. Minimalist runners should consider the possibility that it’s not the best choice for everyone. Running shoe advocates should consider the possibility that some people may be better off adopting a minimalist training style. YOU shouldn’t feel pressured either way: listen to your body and make choices based on what’s best for YOUR makeup.
Read more about the study and its findings.
Your move, Noah. A Tennessee man says God told him to build the world’s largest treehouse. It only took 258,000 nails, 11 years and $12,000 to make!
Investors expected little from Lululemon when it began selling shares at $2 a pop in 2007. The maker of Wunder Under pants and other yoga women’s wear hardly seemed like a player in the competitive world of retail sportswear. Five years later, Lululemon’s stock has hit $76, and the company is valued at $10 billion — more than the clothing behemoth J.C. Penney. Last week, Lululemon posted a quarterly profit of $74 million, reported sales growth for the twelfth straight quarter, and, fittingly, opened a Boston store with a yoga class and dance party for 500 neon-clad guests. How did Lululemon become a $10 billion yoga empire?
Girl power! This is nuts!
While the verdict is still out as to whether or not children should be weight lifting (there are possible growth hindering side effects for some kids and the safety of the sport has been called into question), this seems to be an indication that it may be rising in popuarity! Children who do engage in weight lifting as sport should always be supervised & coached by a professional trainer, one who’s aware of the possible risks in training still growing bodies.
Controversy aside, this is still pretty bad ass. I get giddy seeing young girls break stereotypes & pursue sports that aren’t traditionally female dominated. Love this!
Congrats to Naomi! Won’t be the last we hear from her, I’m sure of it! Thanks Tasie for sending me the link!
Via Daily Mail
Naomi Kutin, 10, claimed the astonishing achievement after squatting 215 pounds - despite weighing just under 93 pounds herself.
She lifted the staggering amount - which weighs the same as Mike Tyson in his prime - in front of a packed crowd in Texas, USA.
‘She broke it on her second lift of three and didn’t waste her opportunity.
‘She went out there, took her chance and won the right to be a world record holder.’
Naomi - who was just nine-years-old when she broke her first world record - has been dubbed ‘supergirl’ by astonished powerlifters.
She has legions of fans around the world who track her progress through the internet.
And thousands of fans were present to witness the moment she broke her second record at the RAW Unity event - an invitational for elite powerlifters - held in Texas in January 2012.
Naomi, who only began powerlifting in April 2010, reclaimed the record taken from her by experienced pro Ana Geitner, 44, from Germany, in the 97 pounds weight category.
The Knesset has passed a new law banning the use of underweight models for commercial advertising. The measure is designed to prevent the idealization of emaciation and anorexia as a form of beauty.
“Today the plenum ignited a revolution in the way beauty is perceived in Israel,” stated Kadima MK Rachel Adatto and Likud MK Danny Danon, sponsors of the bill. ”This law shatters the ideal of anorexic beauty, which has served as a model for the country’s young people who have tried to imitate this impossible illusion and have suffered from eating disorders as a result.
“This law will send a message to teenagers that being thin is acceptable, but slimness has its limits, and there is such a thing as being too thin,” Adatto added.
Models with a body mass index (BMI) lower than 18.5 will not qualify to appear in advertisements in the State of Israel, according to the new law.
In addition, any ad in which airbrushing, computer editing or any other form PhotoShop editing is used to create a slimmer image for a model must state that fact, clearly.
The company that sells “pink slime” insists that the meat mixture is good for kids, but parents aren’t buying it.
In less than a week, Houston food columnist and mother Bettina Siegel collected 200,000 petition signatures, mostly of parents, who object to the meat mixture being served to children. She plans to present the petition to the USDA.
“The volume of signatures it’s received in such a short time clearly shows that parents just don’t want this stuff in their kids’ school food,” Siegel said. “But there’s also been a more general outcry among all consumers about the fact that this substance can be put into ground beef without any labeling of that fact.”
You’d think they would have taken steps to correct this when the findings were first made. But nope. Faced with the threat of having to put warnings on their packaging, the soda kings have opted to remove the potential cancer causer now. Better late than never?
I don’t like to be preachy when it comes to treats, and I won’t deny someone the occasional soda (occasional falls into the monthly category, or special occasions). But if you can’t go a day without one (or have several a week) do yourself a favor and go soda free for awhile. Even committing to 2 weeks is enough time to help kick the habit (if you’re a daily drinker) and find other, healthier options. Ditching soda is one of the best things you can do for your waistline. The empty calories don’t help, but the sugar is a problem too. Not only does it eventually cause an energy crisis (and crash), it can also stimulate cravings for more all day. The more soda you drink, the more you want to drink, and it can trigger cravings for other fatty, sugary, carb-y foods. People who ditch the stuff save more than just the calories from the can.
CRAZY!
Glad he’s okay, but this sounds like a nightmare he’ll never forget.
Surviving the water, the elements and… SHARKS? Nuts.
No need to say don’t try this at home, right?
Jan Lisewski, 42, was attempting to kite surf across the Red Sea when the wind stopped and his kite suddenly deflated, Reuters reported.
Stuck two-thirds of the way into his 124-mile journey from the Egyptian town of El Gouna to Duba in Saudi Arabia, Lisewski put out an SOS signal but got no response.
Facing nightfall and rough waters, Lisewski relied on energy drinks, water and the two energy bars he had with him to sustain him.
