Shape, Fitness, and Self all kind of rub me the wrong way. Self is OK, but generally I notice that (for me) none of these magazines are really that helpful, and if anything, they tend to make me feel like crap. I am really getting tired of seeing airbrushed models in bikinis and endless recommendations for beauty products. I feel like these are fashion magazines posing as being more health/fitness oriented.

end of rant!

I haven't tried Shape and Fitness, but Self and Health drive me nuts because all of the exercise models are always practically naked. Who wears workout clothes like that? Put some clothes on those poor women. Health recently ran an article on finding your "happy weight," which was about finding a weight that perhaps wasn't as low or skinny as possible but is a weight that you can maintain given your lifestyle. Funny but none of the models in their other articles were at their "happy weight;" they all looked anorexically skinny to me.

I love love love Cooking Light. I love their recipes but I also love the fact that their exercise models wear real clothes. And I can't weight for the promised feature on active vacations.

Martha Stewart just does not get eating light. I subscribe to both Everyday Foods (it was free) and Living (more for the project ideas than the recipes) and almost all of her so-called "light" or "healthy" recipes are too high in calories for me. She uses way too much oil. I always shake my head and think, "oh Martha, you're never going to keep the weight off with recipes like this."

What?! I've been reading all the wrong magazines!

Seriously, it seems like most mags are just thinly disguised vehicles for advertising, the goal of which is to make a person feel inadequate in some way so as to prompt buying behavior. Intentional or not, I think there are some very unhealthy messages acting on people's psyches through mass media. I can do without that kind of sabotage. (insert tin-foil hat wearing smiley here)

Magazines are bad for this. Television is worse. I'm not suggesting people cut themselves off from the world, but it doesn't hurt to be selective about what you feed your head. They say the insidious thing about advertising is that everybody believes they're immune.