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Today was one of those days where I woke up at 4am, fell back asleep at 6am, ignored my alarm clock at 6.25 am, and then ran to school at 7 am. Of course Starbucks is one of the only ways that I can function in an 8 am class (especially running on such little sleep), so on my way (running) I stopped at my second home. As I was adding sugar to my regular drink, an old man approached me about the cast on my nose. With the hat on.
Except this time, instead of judging or assuming I had a “nose job”, he told me that my cast shows my courage. He continued on to tell me about how when he was younger, he used to play rugby and got all bandaged up. His american accent baffled me, once he said rugby. Or perhaps it was his way of saying that I didn’t need the hat to cover my “bandage”. As my face is more-a-less frozen from the cast (no I did not get Botox), I half smiled and thanked him.It was a wonderful start to my day, and a gentleman’s random act of kindness.
Thankfully the splint is coming off tomorrow. So as they say “hope for the best but expect for the worse” HOPEFULLY it wont look swollen and podgy, but if it does, I have ice cubes. Well, prepared indeed.
So now your probably wondering what, and why the title of this post is “the thigh-gap trend”. The “thigh gap” first sparked controversy last month when users admitted that they would halt eating in order to achieve, the super slim thighs on models that they saw at fashion week. But New York personal trainer Matt Townsend suggests five exercises that can help tone the inner thigh, without resorting to starvation.
Following concerned news that the models have inspired young girls to extreme, and deadly diets, Townsend told the Mailonline, that “though our body primarily burns fat as a whole and doesn’t spot reduce, you can target which areas to emphasize a bit more.”
But while his workout might be healthier, having the legs of a Victorias Secret model certainly does not come easily. One must do 12-15 reps of each, of the five different exercises. These exercises include lunges, squats and the terrifying sounding single-leg Romanian Deadlift (how lovely).
There are now over 700,000 followers (on Facebook and Twitter) accounts, dedicated to the “thigh gap,” and the tweets were akin to the kind of messages usually limited to “thinspiration”websites or Pro Anorexia or “Mia” websites.
Susan Ringwood of the UK eating disorder awareness charity named “Beat” blames the advertising industry for photoshopping their images. She says: “Hardly anyone has a thigh-gap without being underweight, or not yet fully adult, yet most of the adverts we see show grown women with thighs that do not meet when they stand upright. Our bodies come in a wonderful variety of shapes and sizes — we need to be able to appreciate and admire them for what they are.”
Townsend is also adamant that starving is the worst action that one can take.”So many of these girls think they need to starve themselves to get skinny. While I agree that both dieting and genetics do play a role, much of the starvation aspects can be avoided with a clean diet and exercise. Not only that, you’ll feel fantastic the entire time and be full of energy — it’s a much more sustainable approach.”-Mr Townsend. If your curious to learn more about the workout, check out his Blog, and don’t resort to starving.
An image, found and “trending”on Tumblr. 