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If you told me twenty-two years ago that not only would I be sharing a magazine cover with the lovely Maria Menounos of the Today Show (in fact, the way they designed the cover, I seem to be emerging from her jeans!) but be fit and trim while doing so, I would have fallen over laughing. Ah…how sweet it is when dreams come true.  And how wonderful to remember the day I finally decided changed my life for good and started on the path towards those dreams.

But back to the present! Yes, I’m a cover girl. What a thrill to be standing in the checkout line and seeing myself looking back at me from the magazine, First for women. And Maria Menounos and I have more in common than sharing a cover. We are both weight loss success stories. She, too, has released weight (in her case, 40 pounds) and has kept it off.

As Maria knows, keeping it off is sometimes the biggest challenge. That’s why we need an approach to weight-loss that goes beyond the same diet and exercise treadmill. We need to approach the issue holistically, with self-love, and understand the underlying issues that affect our relationship to food. Otherwise those pounds will creep right back on.

Everyday, I visualize a world where people no longer hate their bodies, make them wrong, feel nothing but appreciation for healthy food and no longer struggle with the scale.

It was such thrill to be interviewed and share my story for First Magazine. Not only did I release 100 pounds (and have kept it off for 22 years) I gained self-love – that’s the only way to create permanent change. My experience made me want to reach out to others experiencing suffering and frustration with their weight and body image. I was inspired to create OnePinky.com and my body image mastery course to inspire, support, and nourish others, while helping them achieve their weight loss goals and master their compulsive eating habits. It’s not just about the weight. It’s about loving your body, who you are, your entire self. But you have to begin somewhere and you need help and support to get to where you want to go. Twenty-two years ago, when I felt unlovable and knew I couldn’t live like that anymore, I started off by loving just one of my pinky’s. Appreciating and accepting that little part of my body allowed me to start someplace until I was able to love it all.

I do not take the ability to heal for granted. Everyday I wake up feeling a responsibility to serve others who need support and love. I was shown a path and want others to find a path for themselves to own who they are and love who they are.

That is the aim and goal here at OnePinky.com and we encourage you all no matter where you are on your path to start by accepting where you are and getting clear about where you want to go. You can get there and I am happy to hold your hand while you are on your journey.

I do not want anyone to have MY life. Quite the opposite. I want you to have YOUR life. The tools and techniques at OnePinky.com will set you on YOUR HEALING PATH and you will have a healthy, strong, powerful life and a body you love if that is something you want…and you can have happy…and my favorite definition of success is HAPPY!!!! –Laura Fenamore

This story proves that the power of creating our body image revolution lies in social media! Case in point: I met this wonderful, vibrant , fully alive gynecologist named Dr. Lissa Rankin on Twitter. Dr. Lissa is a gem, and one of those women who has mastered using both the left and right sides of her brain. She is amazing… did I tell you just how great I think she is? :)

Lissa has created a community called Owning Pink. (You may also know Lissa from her work with Betty Confidential.com and College Candy.com. )

She contacted me because she felt we were sisters of PINKY POWER - both dedicated to helping women learn to love and own their bodies. We simply fell in love and a lifelong friendship has begun - from one single Twitter post! Yes, Twitter!

Lissa is a huge OnePinky fan, and she and I will be holding a workshop in September in Northern CA (you cannot miss it) called “Owning Your Body” and we want all of our Owning Pink and OnePinky sisters to join us!

Listen to what Owning Pink and OnePinky gals have to say about these programs:

“The past year has been a journey of discovery for me. I learned more about who I am and how I want to live my life than I ever imagined was possible. Never had I dreamt that there was so much depth to the universe and so much simplicity all the same. I go through each day with the philosophy that ‘thoughts become things.’ Therefore I simply have to imagine what it is that I want for myself and my life, visualize it, feel it, put an action in place that corresponds with my desires and anything I want is truly possible.”
–Megan of Owning Pink

“The big mental shift I have had since the joining OnePinky.com is the glorious realization that my body is a temple. It is loving, efficient vessel that holds all that is me. After that, health is pretty much a given. Prior to OnePinky.com or attending one of free Laura’s teleclasses on the phone, I took everything about my body for granted. Now it is simply a priority and feel today that it always will be, even though I am still young. I am back to working out regularly because regular exercise and conscious eating are important to and for my temple. Emotionally, there has been an awakening of the knowing that I am beautiful just as I am. NOW. Period. All the time. This prompts me to continually affirm this in my mind and heart. As a result, I AM more Free, Open, Peaceful and happy about my body. There is less judgment, pressure and comparing myself to other women. Whatever path my body is currently on is the right one for me. The time for my heart and body is NOW. Thank you Laura. You are a love.”
–Jennifer of OnePinky

Body Love, Pinky Power… Body Image Revolution… a Love Fest… I am blessed… to live in a time when we can connect at such rapid rates… and blend and support and hold one another’s work and movements.

If you’d like to help get the word out about OnePinky on Twitter, please feel free to do so here! Or tweet @LissaRankin …

Pinky Power! Pinky Promise! Owning Pink! YES!

The Aboubakar family of Chad is our last family for World Food Week, and they paint a striking picture, spending only about $1.23 on food a week for six people.

You know those tearjerker commercials that try to get you to send money to starving children in Africa? Whether they give the money to the children or not, this does prove that “30 cents a day” really CAN make a difference, doesn’t it?

After all, with this family’s food budget, each person only gets about twenty cents a week.

Think about it… When we fork over our “pocket change” for an 89-cent burrito, we could actually be feeding most of this family for a whole week.

Would this be enough to feed your family? Do you think it’s enough to feed their whole family, truly? How much nutrition do you think this family gets—or do you think that they are malnourished at all?

As with every family, we’d like for you to answer this question: Have they spent too much—too little—or just enough, and why?

Comparing this family with all of the others we’ve looked at—as well as your own—do you think that as Americans, we really eat what we need, or a whole lot more? We already know that our serving sizes are blown out of proportion; what about our whole diets?

We’d love to hear your comments on the American diet, and to get your vote on which of the families we’ve profiled YOU think has the right amount of food. Cast your vote in the comments! Your feedback means alot to us. Your feedback counts…

Today, we’re in Bhutan with the Namgay family of Shingkhey Village. They spend about $5 on food a week—for 13 PEOPLE!

This is unimaginable for most of us. What on earth could you buy with thirty cents—which is how much this family spends per person for a full week? You can’t even get a taco for that much money.

Look at how much food the Namgays have for the week. Would this be enough to feed your family? Do you think it’s enough to feed their whole family of thirteen?

Imagine your family with this much food. How much would you have to ration? Would you have to share an orange for breakfast? Could you do that?

All of their food is from fresh sources, and there is no “fast food” in sight—how does this compare with your own family, or the previous families we’ve looked at?

As with every family, we’d like for you to answer this question: Have they spent too much—too little—or just enough, and why?

Do you even think this is enough food to survive on?

Let us know what you think in the blog comments, and be prepared for the most shocking numbers of all on Monday.

Meet the Ayme family of Ecuador. They spend about $31.55 on food a week—for 9 people!

That’s as much as some Americans spend on one nice meal a week—and it averages out to less than $4 a week per person! That’s like one prescription drug at Wal-Mart for most of us.

How much food would you be able to buy for $4? Maybe some ramen noodles and tea bags?

Look at how much food the Aymes have for the week. Would this be enough to feed your family? Do you think it’s enough to feed their whole family of nine?

All of their food is from fresh sources, and there is no “fast food” in sight—how does this compare with your own family, or the previous families we’ve looked at?

As with every family, we’d like for you to answer this question: Have they spent too much—too little—or just enough, and why?

Let us know what you think in the blog comments, and be prepared for some shocking numbers for the rest of the week.

Meet the Ahmed family of Egypt. They spend about $68 dollars on food a week—for 12 people!

I don’t know about you, but I doubt that even Jon and Kate Plus 8 could live on that much.

Look at how much food the Ahmeds have for the week. Would this be enough to feed your family? Do you think it’s enough to feed theirs?

Nearly all of their food is from vegetables or other fresh sources… how does this compare with the previous families? With your own family?

As with every family, we’d like for you to answer this question: Have they spent too much—too little—or just enough, and why?

Let us know what you think in the blog comments. And you’re in for a surprise if you think that this is the least amount of money people spend on food. Next week, the amounts will keep getting lower, and we’ll have to return to the question—how much is too much, or in this case, too little?

This is the Sobczynscy family of Poland. They spend about $151 on food each week for five family members, averaging about thirty dollars per member.

The Sobczynscy family seems to have bought a lot of fresh foods and vegetables. How does this compare with the rest of the families we have featured? Are your family’s shopping habits similar or different?

As with every family, we’d like for you to answer this question: Have they spent too much—too little—or just enough, and why?

Let us know what you think in the blog comments. The amount of food is going to keep getting less and less over this week and next. Our next family spends less than $100 a week on food!

This is the Casales family of Mexico. They spend about $190 on food each week, which is nearly half of what the Melanders of Germany spend—and they have an additional family member!

So far the Casales family has spent the least amount of money during our food study. The two big questions are:

Have they spent this money wisely? (Is it on junk or healthy food—and how does it compare with the families from last week?)

And, have they spent too much—too little—or just enough, and why?

Let us know what you think in the blog comments, and be prepared for the amount spent on food—and the amount of food that people buy for their families—to get less and less over the week. You won’t believe your eyes by Friday!

Meet the Melander family of Germany, who spends about $500 on food weekly.

While the Manzo family of yesterday has five members, they spend almost half of what the Melanders (a family of four) spend. Note what the Melanders spend their money on.

Which one has more healthy food? Which has more junk food?

Compare both of these families to the Revis family of Monday; is there a general pattern developing with European families versus the American one?

Of all three of these families, who do you think buys the right amount of food? Who has too much, or too little?

Please answer any of these questions and share your thoughts in the blog comments. Stay tuned for some shocking photos next week!

This week, we’re running a series of reports about how much food families around the world eat. Below is a picture of the Revis family of North Carolina, who spend approximately $342 on food each week.

Note how many bags of chips, fast food items, and sweets the family buys, and compare this to your family’s food intake. Are your kitchen’s contents similar?

Compare these items with the green and healthy foods here. Do you think this kind of food distribution reflects the ever-increasing obesity rate in America?

What we’d like for you to do is to try a little experiment. Try monitoring all of the food you buy this week and note what you buy. How much is fresh food? How much is packaged? How much do you spend on fast food, or food overall?

Do you think that this family has more than enough? What about your own family?

Is your food spending wasteful, or frugal? How can you modify what you spend on food to help you during this time of economic instability? Share your answers in the blog comments.

Send your notes and a picture, if you like, to Laura@onepinky.com and we’ll highlight them in our world food week special.

Check in on Wednesday to see how other countries compare with the United States. You may be surprised!