A NEW LIFE?

Since I started this effort to get fit early this year, I have lost 61 pounds. I was watching a commercial for Jenny Craig (or one of those diet programs) and a woman who had lost about that much weight and looked to be about a size 4 was talking about how she loves her "new life."

Those of us who are very much larger and have a lot more than 60 pounds to lose to get to a healthy weight can look at that commercial and think - well, a lot of things!! One thing would be that we wish we had gotten started on the weight loss when we only had 60 pounds to lose!

My thought was that the commercial is misleading when it suggests that you get a new life if you lose weight. It is really unfair to advertise that way. You get a lot of fabulous benefits, not the least of which is better health and the ability to shop in the 12 fashion departments of the stores and not the tiny little 5 rack Plus Size section hidden in the far reaches of the store next to the Maternity Shop by the Ladies Room.

The reality is that your life goes right along with you on your journey to fitness and a better BMI. Hopefully you will be more energetic and take advantage of more opportunities. You will enjoy the benefits of better health and attractiveness. Spend more money on cute workout clothes and less on take out food. Go on long walks and hikes and bike rides instead of hanging out on the couch.

So the first 60 pounds lost has not given me a new life - but it has shown me how to go about living the life I am living better.

PHOTO OP

I, like many of us who struggle with our weight, shy away from having my picture taken. I just find that the image does not match how I feel I look. So I avoid it. Denial? Yes. Better than self hatred, though.

But I got curious this morning. I did pose for pictures during my daughter's graduation trip and I wanted to see how they looked compared with the last photos I have of myself, which happen to be from last summer. And 59 pounds ago.

The reason I was curious is I realize I do have this tendency to think I look "better" than I actually do. I was feeling very slim on my trip, then I caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror and was surprised to see how big I still looked. I still have a long way to go to get into a more normal weight range.

But there is no doubt that I look much better than I did last summer. I am much more fit. I remember when we went to Chez Panisse in Berkeley that I was huffing and puffing walking back to our car which was parked uphill from the restaurant. It alarmed my daughter and embarrassed me.

I hope by the time the next big event rolls around that I am even more happy to pose for photos with my family.

SLIM MODELS AND PLUS SIZE CLOTHES

As I mentioned in my previous post, I shop for my clothes by catalog and online a lot. I have noticed that very few companies actually use large models for their clothes. Mostly I see them in the smaller, boutique companies. Lane Bryant may use an extra curvy woman or two for their ads, but in their catalog, the clothes are on skinny women.

While there is big applause for the use of "real women" in some magazine lay outs and ad campaigns, in reality:

“We found that overweight consumers demonstrated lower self-esteem – and therefore probably less enthusiasm about buying products – after exposure to any size models in ads (versus ads with no models). Also, normal-weight consumers experienced lower self-esteem after exposure to moderately heavy models, such as those in Dove soap’s ‘Real Women’ campaign, than after exposure to moderately thin models.” According to a new study by researchers at ASU, the University of Cologne in Germany and Erasmus University in the Netherlands, which demonstrates a link between model sizes in advertisements and the self-esteem of consumers looking at the ads.

Apparently, seeing what we would really look like in the clothes makes us feel bad, so we would not buy them, we would rather have the fantasy that we look like the thinner models in the clothes. (Rather than actually getting fit and wearing the smaller size.)

The area where we don't mid seeing the large models? When we are viewing ads for weight loos programs and gyms - in other words, when they are the "Before" version.

It appears we need to work on more than our love for fast food in this country! Living in denial is a big problem - or is it living in a fantasy world?

WEEKEND WEIGH IN AND OTHER NOTES

The good news is that I logged my food for 5 days out of 7. The calorie counts have been high - averaging 1850 - so the loss of only 1 pound is to be accepted. I went to the gym 3 times this week.

I realized about half way through the week that the Splenda brown sugar I have been using on my morning oatmeal and blueberries has sugar in it. (It is not in the origional bag, it is in a sealed container...ooops.) Therefore I have not been completely sugar free.

My indulgence has been popcorn and mixed berries with Splenda. Yum.

This week - get the calorie counts down.