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The fitness fad that’s completely bonkers.
“But I’m not fit enough to navigate fire and 10,000 volts of electricity.” That’s a sentence I found myself howling down the phone the other day when a friend called me to see if I wanted to take part in an event called ‘Tough Mudder’. If you haven’t heard of it [read more]
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‘My fat, beautiful body’.
Without fail at noon on every Friday, 30 minutes before my beginner ballet class starts, a mixture of fear and dread ooze into my mind. It starts when I think of getting dressed for class. Despite a well-stocked closet, I am never content with my choices. I spend 20 minutes scouring my [read more]
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A very personal story from Meshel Laurie
I had such a stressful day yesterday – I was up at 5 to co host The Circle, which was fantastic fun as always. I know a 5am start seems crazy for a show that starts at 9am, but there’s a lot of hair, make up, meetings, and script writing to be done before Paul [read more]
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Gwyneth Paltrow’s must-see interview.
Gwyneth Paltrow has spoken candidly about her battle with postnatal depression after the birth of her son Moses in 2006. Appearing on US TV Show The Conversation – which is produced by Demi Moore – 39-year-old Gwyneth said she wanted to talk openly about postnatal depression to help others who were suffering. Gwyneth’s interview starts [read more]
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“My fantasy body would change my life”
I am going to assume that I was not the only little kid, teenager, or, adult to fantasize about what it would be like to live in a body that wasn’t the one that I was living in. The body that I imagined myself in was effortlessly thin. She was so gorgeous, [read more]
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The before baby bucket list
First comes marriage. Then comes the baby. Except when there’s a list. When on our honeymoon my husband presented me his baby bucket list, part of me thought he was stalling. And a part of me worried I’d declared vows to a man who didn’t want children. It was a long [read more]
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Doctors are evil. Hold on, what?
BY MIA FREEDMAN Is there a more offensive term than ‘birth rape’? If there is, I haven’t heard it. ‘Birth rape’ is the extraordinary name some women use to describe a birth that involves medical ‘intervention’, even when it is done to save the life of mother or baby. I’m confused as well as [read more]
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My story: Early Onset Parkinson’s Disease
Kate 9/11 means the day terror came home to roost doesn’t it? It does to me as well; but before those mind-blowing images appeared that day, I had a terrifying experience of my own – I woke up and my body no longer functioned properly. That day was my own personal Ground Zero. My name [read more]
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This is why I commit random acts of self-sabotage.
by RICK MORTON I’m at war with myself and have been since the day I was born. The problem is, I’ve discovered, that certain parts of me disagree with my own success. It’s a messy to-and-fro, a bloody war of attrition based on this pervasive, brooding idea that I just [read more]
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It’s life or death. What would you do?
A few weeks ago on Mamamia, we ran a post about alternative therapies (you can read it here) including homeopathy, iridology, reflexology, kinesiology, healing touch therapy, aromatherapy and energy medicine. Recently, the efficacy of alternative medicine was thrown back into conversation after the tragic death of Jim Stynes. Through his three-year battle with cancer, Jim [read more]
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The reality of Autism
There is a certain silence to Autism. Not in the raging meltdowns my brother will have that wake the neighbourhood at 5 a.m., but in the way the progression of the disability puts glass walls around not only the autistic individual but also the family that journey with the sufferer. Autism is an isolating disability. [read more]
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“Botox ate my face”
Botox? If you’d asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would’ve shaken my head. Not because I have anything against the stuff. If that’s your bag, baby, then you go for it. It’s just… I’m 26 years old. I don’t need botox. No one my age does. Right? Right. But when I randomly bumped [read more]
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Should grief be considered a mental illness?
When my mother died over a dozen years ago, I remember my dad telling me his doctor had prescribed an anti-depressant for him. I don’t remember if my dad even filled it, but his reaction—which I shared—was that it seemed absurd to prescribe an anti-depressant for something so thoroughly normal and expected in his situation [read more]
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Google is not the same as science
BY MIA FREEDMAN There isn’t enough room in this newspaper to list all the things I don’t know. There’s not even enough room in Wikipedia which – if if were an actual book – would take you 123 years to read. Recently though, there’s been an explosion of people with a wildly inflated sense of [read more]
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‘When there’s only silence…’
We first heard the motorbike as we sat down at the table, revving up and down the street. We paused and listened as it reached the end of the road and turned around. We held our breath as it paused at the intersection. We counted as the rider worked through the gears in quick roaring [read more]
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Bigorexia: when too muscled isn’t enough
We know women are affected by body image issues. But of course they’re not alone. Why would they be? Men are surrounded by taut bodies and rock-hard abs as much as women are surrounded by small hips and shrinking waistlines. But the difference is mostly in one factor: women want to [read more]
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The people who never throw things out.
Courtney Love’s hoarding habits killed the cat. Or so her daughter says. Frances Bean, said in a statement to the courts (when she was filing from a restraining order from her mother in 2009) that the family’s beloved cat died after it became entangled in piles of fabrics, paperwork and mounds of trash. That information [read more]
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The pro-life vigil coming to a city near you.
UPDATE: After calling the clinic in Sydney, we’ve decided to visit on Monday instead of today, when only staff will be present. We’ll still be live tweeting and will post about the delivery next week. When two friends in the UK noticed a group of pro-life supporters outside their local abortion clinic silently maintaining a [read more]
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“Does that make me crazy? Probably…. “
This week has been a very interesting one. So, first off, I’ve always been a little bit different. Always had trouble living life on life’s terms. I have always been afraid, always been thin skinned, always taken things personally. Always been afraid of being alone, always been bullied, always been sure there was something wrong with [read more]
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This is what sick people want to hear
A few months ago, Mamamia Publisher Mia Freedman wrote about the things you should and shouldn’t say to someone battling a dire health situation. “Everything will be OK” fell on the list of things not to say, while “no need to write back” landed on the list of things you [read more]
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“Things have to change around here”
My friend Nelly made me laugh the other day when she said that childbirth made her accept that she is an animal. You see Nelly, like myself is a head-dweller. We agreed that neither of us has ever felt particularly connected to our bodies. We were the girls who couldn’t tell [read more]
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“This is what Valentine’s Day means to me”
Valentine’s Day generally evokes images of romantic love involving dinner dates, flowers and chocolates. It’s a florist’s delight and most likely a restaurateur’s nightmare with all those irksome table-for-two bookings. For me it’s a little different. For many years, Valentine’s Day never factored very high on my list of important days. Yet it has now [read more]
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“This is how I learnt to survive”
So here’s the thing. Once something is over, like, say, the years during which my Dad sexually abused me and my mum let him, it’s not really over. The nightmares, the fear, the rock-bottom self-esteem, the self-harming urges. The obsessive-compulsive door-locking. These stay. Until you can’t live around them any more. At least, that’s how [read more]
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‘I gained weight and I like it’
There are some things I stopped wearing when my belly stopped being flat. Tight dresses, for one. I used to have a skintight gray knit dress that I thought was the hottest thing in the world. I gave it away when I gained weight. I hit my heaviest weight ever (again) back in November and I’m [read more]
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10 reasons NOT to get Botox
Cosmetic injectables used to be just for movie stars, but now they have gone decidedly mainstream. Considering a little jab? Read this list first. 1. It makes you look older Botox and fillers give you a recognisable look: smooth forehead ala Kylie and Nic; trout pout ala Meg Ryan and Courtney [read more]
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The reverse bucket list
Many people have a bucket list of things they’d like to see and do before they die. But I just can’t get enthused about the concept, especially now when I’m still grieving for my dad. Dad was an energetic, noisy, vibrant, “young” 64-year-old who expected to live for at least another [read more]
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Random acts of kindness
Mamamia reader Ivy writes: Over the weekend, my sister relayed a story that brought tears to my eyes. It was a timely and powerful reminder of the overwhelming beauty of human kindness. I wanted to share it. My sister is 29 weeks pregnant. She also confesses to being ‘a little hormonal’ right now. In other [read more]
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The best (or worst) boss you ever had?
When Facebook eventually goes public to raise some $5 billion in the largest net share offering in history, it’s not just co-founder Mark Zuckerberg who stands to gain. Rumours are flying that one third of the company’s 3000+ employees will become instant millionaires. Or, more accurately, some will become instant millionaires and others will become [read more]
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“I’m fat today, how are you?”
You know when you are having one of those days and you feel like everyone is staring at you, judging you and making comments in their minds about how you look? I have that every day. And those comments? Not just in their heads. For the past eighteen months I’ve been volunteering in a remote [read more]
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Ever been this broke?
The call came from a mattress company and the mission, should we choose to accept it, was simple. We forsake a mid-week evening and attend a thoroughly informative night of people trying to sell us a mattress and they give us a free meal. Ordinarily this would be an impressively simple choice: I would not [read more]