I will admit up front to having never watched the Biggest Loser. After seeing the premise and a few clips, it was enough to make me a rabid anti-Biggest-Loserite.
You take people suffering from debilitating weight problems (and the crushing lack of self-esteem that comes with them) and have them workout half of every day and starve themselves on fat-free food the rest of the time, with the exact methods every single nutritionist on the planet decries as the worst things you could do to your body: focusing specifically on losing numbers on a scale, in order to claim to be the Winner? She lost 60% of her body weight in 3 months. That is insanity being awarded six figures on national television.
But it was this article, more specifically, the conclusion, that caught my eye today that made me so, so terribly sad.
"With her new outlook -- and body -- Frederickson "can't wait to do everything," she gushed. "So go out and make friends and take people up on offers to go for coffee or to the movies and just really embrace every moment of life and not hide anymore!"
It echoed a sentiment I'd just heard a few days ago here.
Jill Strasburg basically said the same thing. Yes, she lives with daily pain, constant nausea, and now infertility, but she would still have most of her stomach removed again just to be thin, because, you see, only when she was thin could she "experience" life.
"I would do it again tomorrow. And the reason why is because before the gastric bypass I didn't go out places, I didn't have friends, I didn't put myself out there, because I was so uncomfortable in my body. And so when I made that decision that I was going to accept this life that I gave myself, I started to put myself out there and I started to have experiences. I gained a confidence that I never thought possible."
No. NoNoNoNoNoNoNo.
What is wrong with our society that any woman who owns a body larger than "we" are comfortable with must starve, maim, and kill herself in order to feel confident enough to *gasp* be seen living her life.
Sickening. And so very sad.
You take people suffering from debilitating weight problems (and the crushing lack of self-esteem that comes with them) and have them workout half of every day and starve themselves on fat-free food the rest of the time, with the exact methods every single nutritionist on the planet decries as the worst things you could do to your body: focusing specifically on losing numbers on a scale, in order to claim to be the Winner? She lost 60% of her body weight in 3 months. That is insanity being awarded six figures on national television.
But it was this article, more specifically, the conclusion, that caught my eye today that made me so, so terribly sad.
"With her new outlook -- and body -- Frederickson "can't wait to do everything," she gushed. "So go out and make friends and take people up on offers to go for coffee or to the movies and just really embrace every moment of life and not hide anymore!"
It echoed a sentiment I'd just heard a few days ago here.
Jill Strasburg basically said the same thing. Yes, she lives with daily pain, constant nausea, and now infertility, but she would still have most of her stomach removed again just to be thin, because, you see, only when she was thin could she "experience" life.
"I would do it again tomorrow. And the reason why is because before the gastric bypass I didn't go out places, I didn't have friends, I didn't put myself out there, because I was so uncomfortable in my body. And so when I made that decision that I was going to accept this life that I gave myself, I started to put myself out there and I started to have experiences. I gained a confidence that I never thought possible."
No. NoNoNoNoNoNoNo.
What is wrong with our society that any woman who owns a body larger than "we" are comfortable with must starve, maim, and kill herself in order to feel confident enough to *gasp* be seen living her life.
Sickening. And so very sad.
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