Fat Bride: Who Cares?

Today I was reading some posts by various bloggers about weight gain. I have to say that right now, this minute, I don't give a crap what I weigh. I am so much more relaxed than I used to be while dieting. Dieting really does make people crazy. One of my friends is naturally thin, but recently went on (and off) a diet. She had never dieted before and was amazed how obsessed she became with food. We were talking about how food is all a dieter thinks about. She said she felt cranky and hungry all the time. Both of us agreed we'd rather be fat and happy than thin and grumpy.

My wedding day is fast approaching (37 days left) and I still haven't found a dress! I have been my usual obsessive self, buying and returning several dresses so far. I am freaking out about having everyone stare at me on my big day. My mom keeps assuring me that no one ever speaks poorly about the bride at her wedding, but I am still nervous. My fiance is very fit and I don't want everyone to look at me and think he could have done better. I'm having major anxiety about this. I have always been hyper aware of everyone's opinion of me. In some instances, this has served me well (i.e. job interviews). In others (i.e. wedding day) it is pretty cumbersome.

So, if I'm okay with my weight then why do I care if other people will be okay with it? Maybe I'm not really okay with it, but I feel like I am.

Total Gastric Bypass

If you haven't already been to cartoonist Natalie Dee's website, then you are missing out on a lot of good times.

Pink Gets Intervention From Concerned Friends

Pink, Alecia Moore, lovingly refers to her obliques as "tranny abs" in a recent edition of Allure magazine. There is a one page layout consisting of "10 Lessons" we can learn from Pink on how to be as fit as her. I'm not sure why this article hasn't gotten more publicity because it contains some alarming quotes from Pink. Allure sets up the "10 Lessons" by stating that Pink "jogs for an hour and does another hour of yoga each day."

Lesson #1: A Little Obsession Doesn't Hurt
"I'm very dedicated to staying in shape when I'm on tour. In fact, last year my crew staged an intervention to try to get me to stop going to the gym so much." It's possible she is being sarcastic, but the context this quote is presented in the article implies that she is serious. The title of Lesson #1 plays into the idea that it is normal and healthy to be obsessed with how you look. It may be prevalent, but that doesn't make it healthy. Allure should know better, especially since they talk about Hilary Duff's diet obsession in the same issue.

Lesson #6: Accept Your Personal Quirks
"It would be nice to stretch myself a few inches...I wish I looked more feminine...I wish my legs weren't so muscular...there's nothing more beautiful than that feminine, curvy shape with the pouch in the middle. But that's not how I am." Actually Pink, that is how you are. Or at least how you would be if you didn't exercise so much you had a fitness intervention. Why does Allure think it is okay to call this lesson "Accept Your Personal Quirks" when the quotes following it are anything but? Allure should have called this lesson, 'Pick Apart Your Body'.

Lesson #7: Make (and Break) Your Own Rules
"Mostly I eat lots of greens, tofu, and fish...I allow myself one piece of cheese with one cracker a day...You do have to cheat now and then." I hardly call that cheating. Even the use of the word cheating indicates that she is constantly restricting food. Once again, Allure tries to make Pink seem healthy by saying she is not super anal about following rules. But, she is.

This article is just another example of magazines playing to our insecurities. Buyer beware.

Hilary Duff Bounces Back From Crash Diet

In the May edition of Allure, Hilary Duff admits that she was "obsessed" with everything she ate a couple years ago. Some of you may recall her complete transformation from bubbly, blond Nickelodeon star to a skinnier, sexier brunette. I'm not saying she was sexier because she was skinny, but she was trying to promote a new image by wearing...ahem...less clothing.

The Allure interview gives Hilary a great platform to talk about body image. Unfortunately, she doesn't use it very well. Like Jessica Alba , she claims that she wasn't "sick", i.e. had an eating disorder. But, she did say that her dieting got out of hand and she had a negative body image due to tabloids calling her chubby.

It does seem as though Hilary is at a healthier weight, but it's clear that she doesn't think she had a problem. Wake up, Hilary! If you are "obsessed" with what you eat, lose massive amounts of weight, and think you look like crap then you definitely have a problem. Just think of all the girls she could help if she said dieting was no good. If she pointed out that she did have a problem, then girls would think dieting is not normal. Instead, she is relaying the message that having disordered eating patterns doesn't mean you are "sick".

Toddlers Need More Junk In Their Trunk

This is the picture that launched a thousand posts about a month ago. Many posters were praising Angelina Jolie for not restricting the food choices her children make. I think this is funny because if it was a picture of an overweight celebrity feeding her child junk food, everyone would be up in arms. Just shows how we associate good mothering with thin mothering.

Nevertheless, Angelina might have the right idea based on a toddler diet investigation in the UK. This article details the investigation of several nurseries in the UK. Reporters discovered that nursery employees are using adult "healthy guidelines" to prepare meals for their youngsters. This has led to 80% of children in nurseries receiving portions that are too small. Read more about his fascinating report at Junkfood Science.

Benjamin Franklin Is My Homeboy

"The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results."
-Benjamin Franklin

Remember this the next time y0u want to go on another diet.

Neutralize Your Number

NotDieting subscriber, Miss Mabel, has discovered a weight loss TV show that might be of interest. She agrees the title is hideous, "I Can Make You Thin". But, the creator has Four Golden Rules which encourage body awareness:

1. Eat whenever you are hungry
2. Eat only what you want, never what you think you ‘should’
3. Eat consciously and enjoy every mouthful
4. Stop when you even think your body is full
   

The only thing I would watch out for is doing these things just because they might make you thin. Weight neutrality is an important part of having a positive body image. If you are following the Four Golden Rules and are still plump, that's okay!

Many of us are form an almost spiritual attachment to a specific number on the scale. The waiting game can put your life in a constant state of inertia. When you focus on a number, instead of the way your body feels (hungry, full, tired, energized), then you will never be happy. Whenever I would reach my magic number I would feel happy for a day, and then become increasingly afraid of losing it.

The main reason I think the Four Golden Rules are important is because they encourage you to be aware of your body, which is the exact opposite of what dieting teaches us to do.

Note: I don't have cable, so if anyone watches this TV show please send me a report along with your opinions. Thanks!

Update: I just watched some clips of the show on YouTube and still agree with the Four Golden Rules, but disagree with the format of the show. What do you think?

May I have another fiber biscuit?

The cookie diet is my new best friend. Not because I'm on it, but because it has provided hours of laughter upon researching it. The "magical ingredient" in the cookies is fiber. If you've ever been on Weight Watchers, then you know all about the importance of adding it to any and everything.

There are two main cookie diets out there. The Hollywood Cookie Diet has a more visually pleasing website, so that's where my research comes from. If you subscribe to this diet, you will be allowed four cookies a day: two for breakfast and two for lunch. Decadent, I know.

The catch to this diet is that you need to eat a "sensible dinner". How the hell is that supposed to happen if you're eating four fiber biscuits a day? Of course, the blame for not following this diet lies on the dieter. If you can't eat a sensible dinner after a day of near starvation, then what kind of a person are you?

Me Want Cookie!

NotDieting.com subscriber, Paul, writes:

At my place of work the "cookie diet" is spreading like wildfire...
well more like a zombie infestation. Its quick results seem to be
almost overwhelmingly attractive to a scarily large percentage of the
women I work with. I keep waiting for the day that me and a few close
friends are barricaded in my office while the zombies are pounding on
the door trying to get at us! "Cooookiiiiiieeeee....
Coooookiiiiieeeeee..."

I feel your pain. I think you should hide everyone's cookies and see what happens. Watch the video below to see what happens when Cookie Monster can't find his cookie (at the disco).

Ferosh Fat

I can't believe I haven't dieted for 22 straight days! I feel pretty good most of the time, but it's hard to stop the negative chatting in my head about the way I look. Whenever it starts, I stop it right away. I never want to diet again.

I'm still sorting through my reintroduction to "forbidden foods". At first, all I wanted to eat was cereal and ice cream. Now, my body is craving more balanced meals. I'm even starting to yearn for celery and carrots! I'm more conscious of feelings of hunger and fullness. I used to want to eat a ton of "forbidden foods", but now I'm stopping when I feel full. I definitely eat past the point of fullness from time to time (hello, PMS), but I'm getting better at listening to my appetite.

Feed Drew!

VOGUE 2008 Photoshoot

ELLE 2005 Photoshoot

In the recent issue of Vogue (April 2008), Drew says that she lost an additional 15 pounds in 2007. Why additional? Because in a 2005 interview with ELLE, Drew said she lost 20 pounds. At the time, she reported her 2005 weight loss to her exercise routine. “I use a StairMaster, go to Pilates classes and run regularly. I run as far as I can." However, she recently attributed her 2005 weight loss to her abandonment of a vegan lifestyle.

As a result of her 2007 weight loss, she weighs between 110-115 lbs and wears a size 4. In 2005 she said, " But I’m not about to go down to a size zero. Don’t worry about me because I would never fall prey to all that bulls**t.”

Let's do the math:
2004 - 150 lbs. (about size 10)
2005 - 130 lbs. (about size 6)
2007 - 115 lbs. (size 4)

Seems like she's well on her way to a size 0 to me...

Desperate Dieters

"Not eating is a constant struggle. It's like they pay me not to eat. It's a living hell," complains hungry housewife Marcia Cross.
Source

If it looks like a diet, and smells like a diet...

I am so sick of diet companies trying to re-market their old rules and regulations as lifestyle changes. Jenny Craig's VP of Marketing, Todd Parker, claims their new marketing strategy is to promote a "very different campaign, focused on a healthier lifestyle, not on getting onto a specific dress size." The spokesperson leading this campaign will be none other than Queen Latifah. Wait...what?

Queen Latifah has been a long time supporter of size acceptance. "It's good for regular girls because the meter [for beauty] has been a slim white girl. Beauty is not just a white girl. It's so many different flavors and shades. [In Hollywood] we've definitely gotten better with body type. It used to be just me!" she stated in an interview with People last year. I guess now the beauty meter has embraced the idea of a slim African-American girl as well. Hooray.

"Queen Latifah joins forces with Jenny Craig to communicate the importance of how small lifestyle changes, in the areas of diet and exercise, can have positive effects on overall health." Following Jenny Craig is not about implementing small lifestyle changes. One of my friends joined Jenny Craig and spent $400 a month on their food. She learned nothing about how to eat in the real world. The diet was incredibly strict and if she strayed from it at all, she had to report it to her Jenny Craig counselor in their weekly confessionals.

When I joined Weight Watchers, they promoted it as a lifestyle change, which I completely fell for. Counting POINTS in WW and eating Jenny Craig's sodium-laden cuisine are both highly restrictive forms of eating. The POINTS system is so complex that a good portion of each weekly meeting is spent on clearing up misunderstandings about them. My meeting leader subscribed to his WW lifestyle change so much that he asked his host (for Thanksgiving) to submit all the recipes she would prepare in an email to him. Then he calculated the POINTS for each specific dish. What a fun guest! There is nothing better than having to prepare a menu report for a friend to analyze before they attend your gathering.

WW and Jenny Craig are both diets. Before you subscribe to either one, be honest with yourself about that.

Photo by Matthew Jordan Smith

Media, Schmedia....

Some of you may be thinking: who is this crazy nut that is not dieting for one year?

Well, this crazy nut is 28 years old and has spent more than half her life on a diet. In fact, this is the first time since I was 12 that I have been NotDieting for any period of time. Since the age of 12 my life can be placed in two categories, dieting and overeating after the diet.

Strangely, I have never been overweight. I remember reading my mom's Vogue magazines when I was 7 or 8 years old and hoping, praying that one day I would be as beautiful as the models in the picture. I thought they must have perfect lives, filled with happiness and love. My own mom always told me I was beautiful and gave me lots of love, but the glossy pages were too seductive.

I don't blame the magazines themselves. I'm sure there are plenty of young girls who have glanced through the very same pages I once did without feeling completely inadequate. Aren't there? Anyway, I often wonder what would happen if I hadn't been exposed to media that glorifies physical perfection. Well, my skin would be pretty pasty because I'd have to live underground in order for that to happen! Today it is more prevalent then ever and equally dangerous.

I, too, like to live dangerously and I suspect that if you have made it to the bottom of this article, so do you. Let's blow this diet pop stand together and have a life filled with happiness and love, our way.

Did She Really Get Over Her Eating Disorder?

Over the past few years, more and more celebrities are coming forward with their eating disorders. In general, the media applaud these women for their heroic efforts in conquering their demons. It is great that this causes more people to focus on the topic of eating disorder, but it has a dark side as well.

For instance, Jessica Alba revealed she had an eating disorder in the September 2001 issue of Glamour magazine. She believed her eating disorder was caused by the intense training regime she followed in 1999 to prepare for the Fox series Dark Angel.

"I got obsessed with it," Alba admits. She goes on to say, "A lot of girls have eating disorders, and I did too. I got too thin...now I'm concentrating on being normal."

Let's talk about that last word "normal". She insinuates that her eating disorder is far behind her, yet in the same article she says she won't do a nude scene because she is insecure; she is 5' 7" and a size 4; and "I bicycle, work out on an elliptical machine and walk uphill at a hard heart rate of almost 180 for an hour every day. I do some boxing and kicking, too, but since I work for 14 hours, I can't do much more."

Ummm...I'm pretty sure that you don't need to do anymore. It is clear that Alba still suffers from body image issues. And she is still very thin. She says she comes from a family of overweight people, so how is she staying so thin?

It is common for celebrities to say they had an eating disorder, which makes us think that the way they look now is healthy and normal. This is simply not the case. Just like Alcoholics, people diagnosed with eating disorders are always "in recovery". Traces of disordered eating habits and exercise routines may remain for a very long time after the first stage of their initial treatment is over. It is dangerous for celebrities to promote themselves as healthy, normal eaters and as role models for eating disorder recovery when in fact they are not.

Will Being a Vegan Make You Thin?

Alicia Silverstone credits her Vegan lifestyle as the cause for her massive weight loss post Batgirl. She claims she no longer has to worry about her weight since she cut out meat and dairy products. Silverstone became a vegetarian in 1999 once she became aware of the violent way pigs in farms were treated.

Conversely, Drew Barrymore announces that the reason she has been able to keep off the 20 lbs. she lost in 2004 is because she gave up her vegetarian diet. She claimed her meat-free diet was a giant carbfest.

So, which is it? Does meat make you gain or lose weight?

Why Can't Kate Moss Get Pregnant?

According to British media, Kate Moss desperately wants a child. So much so, that she is grasping for straws. One straw happens to be Gwyneth Paltrow. When Paltrow was trying to conceive, she reportedly followed a mystery fertility diet that helped her become pregnant.

Here's a thought, maybe the problems Moss and Paltrow had getting pregnant were directly linked to their extremely low body weight. Previously, Moss and Paltrow were both linked to the crazy diet Cate Blanchett follows.

Even Oscar-Winners Feel Fat...

Dr. Nish Joshi is responsible for Cate adhering to a strict, 21-day diet of soy products, grilled chicken, turkey, brown rice, steamed vegetables, green tea, lentils, beans, olive oil and fish, except swordfish, tuna or seafood, which have heavy metals, such as mercury and lead. Remind me never to go to her house for dinner.

Cate Blanchett is notoriously hush hush about her diet/fitness routine. However, her self promoting diet doctor is not. Canadian Living has posted a troubling interview with Dr. Joshi. In it, he reveals that, "It's not about becoming thin or dropping dress sizes." Really? We're pretty sure that if that ultra-restrictive diet actually made people bigger, it might not be as popular.

Allegedly, the 5' 8.5" star used to be a size 12. Clearly that is no longer the case.

When can I buy a size -3?

Kate Dillon (Plus Sized Model)

Model Facts:

In the 1990's a sample size was 6 or 8.
Now it is a 0 or 2.
Today, a plus size model must be at least 5'9" and a size 12, but can go up to a size 16 if taller.

Actress Speaks the Truth!

In the March, 2008 issue of Eve, Julianne Moore admits, “I still battle with my deeply boring diet of, essentially, yogurt and breakfast cereal and granola bars." Yuck!

"I hate dieting. I hate having to do it to be the “right” size. I’m hungry all the time," she continues.

“I think I’m a slender person, but the [film] industry apparently doesn’t,” she said. “All actresses are hungry all the time, I think.” Maybe she should follow Anne Hathaway's advice.

I think it's funny that Julianne was quoted in the U.K. edition of Eve. I doubt she would ever admit to such deprivation in a U.S. rag. In the U.S., for some reason celebrities feel like they need to prove they are not on a diet. In some ways, I like Julianne a little bit due to her frankness. I wish other celebrities could admit they don't maintain their taut physiques from "healthy" eating.

Update: Julianne is livid over the interview published. "I just saw it and I said, `I didn't say this stuff.' I think I made a couple of jokes about dieting and actresses and whatever." Hmmm...I wonder what the writer has to say about this.