It’s a well-known fact that The Demoiselles is focused, above all, on maintaining and promoting a positive body image.  But in the wake of fad diets and fat fashion, how do you define “positive body image”?   It’s a source of constant discussion, and during our many (and we mean many) conversations about the best way to present the idea of a positive body image, we kept returning to the same common denominator: health.

Mental health, emotional health, physical health: all three are crucial components of a positive outlook, including positive feelings about your body.  None of us are perfect in all three of these areas, us included.  We’re just two twenty-something women – like many of you – and we certainly don’t know it all.  (Case in point: sometimes we eat an entire box of macaroni and cheese in a sitting. Physical health? Please.)  But we certainly want to know it all…and we definitely don’t want to do it alone.

That’s when we had an idea. It’s something that would not only be a drastic change for The Demoiselles, but perhaps one of the coolest opportunities we’d ever have the ability to facilitate.

What if we got a bunch of girls, in ages ranging from 19 to 26, from 5’0″ to 5’10″, with almost every body type imaginable, all with different health goals…and asked them to document their progress along with us? Well, you’d have the new project we simply call “Getting Healthy“.

These girls, the both of us included, are committed to posting once per week about their goals, their health (mental, physical, emotional), their discoveries and their obstacles in the journey to become healthy.

You can find these posts (to begin next week!) under the “Getting Healthy” tab at the top of the page.  Additionally, because this is such a gigantic operation, we’ve created a new RSS feed specifically for the “Getting Healthy” category, which you can find by clicking here:

To keep The Demoiselles from getting too cluttered, we’ve decided to keep all Getting Healthy posts off the front page of the site, but if you’re subscribed to the main RSS feed – don’t worry! You’ll still get updates.  So add us to your feed reader! We promise you will not be disappointed.

Starting Monday, you’ll begin seeing introductions from each of the girls: their goals, their struggles, and even *gasp!* full body photos. As you get to know everyone, we encourage you to support, suggest, and interact with us, because we all know how amazing support can feel during a life change. Moreover, we hope that you’ll join us and make your own strides towards health – either privately, or in posts and Flickr photos along with us.

This is a huge life change for each of us, hopefully for the better.  What’s the biggest life change you’ve ever made?