Another Kind of Cleanse: The Media Fast

There was a time when I used to subscribe to almost all the women's magazines covering fashion, fitness, and home stuff. I also regularly read all the celeb pubs like People, US, Star, and The Enquirer, for the pictures, of course. I'd also watch TV programs that dealt with fashion and lifestyles of the rich and famous. It dawned on me that consuming all that media kept me in the fashion and trends loop, but afterward it also made me feel inadequate and not pretty enough.

Moderation is fine, but when you read over half a dozen mags and watch countless TV shows all the time, you are bombarding your psyche with tons of messages from all those media outlets. As far as the magazines go, there is always an article about how to lose 10 lbs quickly, how to disguise your figure flaws, how to make "him" love you, and how to make yourself over.

Then, couple the beauty rags with the celeb rags, and you see what glamorous life you "don't" have, and wish you could experience. If you had the chance to walk down the red carpet, wouldn't you take it? Admittedly, I'd be all over it. Glamour can be intoxicating.

So, if you do find that you inundate yourself with all kinds of magazines, shows, and even blogs and websites, try a media fast for a few days, a week or up to a month to detox yourself from all those messages about what you should look like, what you could look like, or what our youth perfection media culture says you should look like. Ease into the media fast instead of going cold turkey. Start by cutting your media fix by 1/3 of what you normally consume. Do that for a few days, then cut another 1/3 and so on.

Do some journaling. At the end of your media fast, summarize how you feel. I bet you will notice a difference in how you feel about yourself for the better.

There was a time when I used to subscribe to almost all the women's magazines covering fashion, fitness, and home stuff. I also regularly read all the celeb pubs like People, US, Star, and The Enquirer, for the pictures, of course. I'd also watch TV programs that dealt with fashion and lifestyles of the rich and famous. It dawned on me that consuming all that media kept me in the fashion and trends loop, but afterward it also made me feel inadequate and not pretty enough.

Moderation is fine, but when you read over half a dozen mags and watch countless TV shows all the time, you are bombarding your psyche with tons of messages from all those media outlets. As far as the magazines go, there is always an article about how to lose 10 lbs quickly, how to disguise your figure flaws, how to make "him" love you, and how to make yourself over.

Then, couple the beauty rags with the celeb rags, and you see what glamorous life you "don't" have, and wish you could experience. If you had the chance to walk down the red carpet, wouldn't you take it? Admittedly, I'd be all over it. Glamour can be intoxicating.

So, if you do find that you inundate yourself with all kinds of magazines, shows, and even blogs and websites, try a media fast for a few days, a week or up to a month to detox yourself from all those messages about what you should look like, what you could look like, or what our youth perfection media culture says you should look like. Ease into the media fast instead of going cold turkey. Start by cutting your media fix by 1/3 of what you normally consume. Do that for a few days, then cut another 1/3 and so on.

Do some journaling. At the end of your media fast, summarize how you feel. I bet you will notice a difference in how you feel about yourself for the better.