How do you feel about ‘The Biggest Loser’?
I do not watch this show on purpose as I find it very confronting, but it’s hard to avoid the adverts for it. Of course there are grossly obese people who have totally lost control of their lives and their eating, and, believe me, I am more than qualified to comment as an ex-fatty. But what troubles me is the indignity that the participants are put through in the name of reality television.
We all know, or at least suspect, that vigorous exercise is needed to peel off the weight, but is that any justification for exposing these poor people to the high risk of heart attack and crippling embarrassment? They will need counselling afterwards, but I believe they should have it before they embark on this obscenity of a show.
Self love is not best expressed by gobbling quantities of chips n chocolate! And it is a lack of self love that creates the problem in the first place. Not lack of money, not family habits, not lack of food information, not learned behaviour, just a pattern. The reward of looking good from not eating is simply not enough. Food is an expression of someone providing for us. Even if it is only the guy at the fast food outlet, unconsciously we are being given something we need.
Step back. What need? Clearly there will always be enough food in our society, unlike other countries. (It is not helpful for the starving millions in China for you to gorge your food and finish the plate)
How do you love yourself and make up for the various missing things in our lives? How do you sort out whether it was your mother and/or father who didn’t love you enough, or whether you have no satisfying job to go to? Maybe you’re trapped in a so-so marriage or other relationship. Maybe going to the fridge is easier than going for a walk. And does it matter which trigger has caused your self-destruction? The outcome is the same.
Overweight people have multiple factors at work and nothing is easy in this area. From the outside a couple of facts have to recognised:
- Stopping… eating… works. How do we know? Because all the lap bands, all the gastric by-passes, all the diet regimes and hunger strikes in the world all work the same way, i.e. less food is consumed, dramatically less food in most cases.
- Healthy food can still have too many calories/kilojoules. We are after less nutrition, not more.
- After the age of 50, wait for it girls, we only need one meal a day. We can afford to have a couple of low carb snacks but only one meal. Believe me.
The Maura McGill Theory is that there is no tribal survival value is giving valuable food to an older woman. Older men can still hunt. Young women can have more children, and children themselves have to eat to grow. But we old chicks have to recognise that we are supposed to sit at the back of the campfire and eat the scraps!
I know I’ve said some of this before but the Biggest Loser dramas on screen seem to me to make people, who are already suffering, into freak shows for the entertainment of the masses. Watching gross bellies wobbling in the surf, sweating in a gym, crying with shame and embarrassment, is truly obscene. God help them. How can their self esteem ever recover when they see themselves on screen? I already have trouble exposing my poor legs on the beach, but I would die with shame if I thought anyone would have it on YouTube for the rest of time.
How best to help this community-wide problem?
- Don’t make sugar and carbs into treats, either for yourself or your family, especially children.
- Have water first every time you reach for sugar. That will associate the fairly boring taste of water with the sugar/chocolate you eat afterwards.
- Even while the snack is on it’s way to your mouth, in your hand, say to yourself “I don’t eat chocolate/chips/whatever”. Gradually you will brainwash yourself, or self-hypnotise, and the result will be that your brain will win!
- Learn to walk for exercise. No handbag, no shopping, nothing on your mind, just enjoy the walk. Be present in the moment, as the new age-ers say. You never know who you might run into, or what you might notice; and if you are not by nature a walker, just start with 10 or 20 minutes to break yourself in gently. It is not a race, it’s pleasure we are looking for as a reward for change.
- Only weigh yourself naked, before breakfast (and after going to the toilet) but not every day. Once or twice a week is enough. We all have enough stress in our lives so there’s no point beating ourselves up as well as the outside world giving us a hard time.
And remember, everyone ages. Some do it well, some badly, but never lose your self respect even if your body shows the effect of time. Your soul is more important and yourself esteem will carry you through many a tough time.
Pray for those on the Biggest Loser!
Blessings
Maura
Vigorous exercise will help the weight go faster, but I followed Cyndi O’Meara’s 21 day weight loss, then kept it going, walked for 1 hour a day, and was pleasantly surprised to find the weight going at almost a kg a week. The Biggest Loser makes it look so hard that too many people will think it’s unattainable, or something they just can’t do. I’d love to see a program about pleasant lifestyle change, enjoying nutritional healthy food and fun activities, and slowly reaching a sustainable balance. (But that would be too boring for reality TV) Cyndi guide advises be good at least 80% of the time – that is sustainable.
Hi Maura
I allways enjoy your e-mails, wonder when do you find the time…?
About the Biggest Loser: I feel they all need to stay there and not be voted out. They all need the same chance or winning the most weight.
They should also concetrate more on showing what they eat 3 times a day and show less how they “stress” during “training”.
My dieet is the only one in the world that works. The name is the 3-D dieet.
(Dissipline, dissipline, dissipline….!)
Me and Rudolf are going Vegan, going to avoid Animal Proteien (for health reasons). (China Study)
How do you think about it?
My hot flushes are 99.99% gont since useing the trouches.
A few Bundaberg friends will be visiting you for advise – Menoupause ect.
Happy New Year to you
Rochelle
Bargara/Bundaberg
Lovely message and so true…. Hi my name is Eleni and at a dinner party new years eve a friend gave me your name…. I suffer severly from hot flushes, to the extend I DONT go out anymore, just too embarrased when the burn up feeling starts and i break up into a hot sweat… Im learning to live with it 3 years now, and have tried many things off the shelf etc…. some have reduced it a little but it still happens at times of anxiety….
My friend told me she went through a process of a blood test and her life so so totally different since 5 months ago… of course it sounds unbelievable that something can exist… Im not too sure what follows but as Im not so good with tech
Fabulous commentary Maura – I agree with every word of it. It breaks my heart to see to BL adds on TV again and all the judgement associated with larger sizes in our society. We all have our hang-ups – some are just more obvious than others. Self love is the only way to come to terms with excess weight – when we aren’t striving to ‘fill the gaps’ in our Soul with empty calories. Thanks again for your great tips.
Hi Maura, i totally agree with your comments about “the biggest loser” show, these people need professional help to get them on track not TV recordings! But one of the best things I read in your article was that women over 50 only need one meal and a couple of snacks per day. I always eat a good breakfast, some times it can be midday before I have a bowl of oats as I can start doing something and it is not until my stomach reminds me that I haven’t eaten yet. But then society has trained us to think 3 meals per day so that tends to be what I do! You have made me understand that over the age of 50 it is fine to not be ruled by expectation but by my body saying ok I need fuel today but on other days maybe not so much. I play golf up to three times a week and the other days I sit at a desk working. I would like to think this is the year I get up from my desk and just walk as you describe, to smell the roses, for health and relaxation rather than for any other reason ! I so identified with your comments about your legs and the beach, at the age of 17 my dad made a passing comment that I had legs like a footballer, I am 53 and I am still so self conscious of my legs…..time for me to worry about the real problems in life I hear people say, but deep down that comment sticks!
I always read your newsletters and while I also have your report on managing menopause I would really appreciate a list of doctors in Victoria who prescribe bio identical hormones as I have been to one and she is so exploitive that I stopped going to her. Please help me with some alternatives on how I can get a name of a doctor who will want to help because she/he loves medicine rather than the money they can make with this successful way of helping woman like me survive what is turning out to be a nightmare for me personally as I go through menopause.
Best regards and stay well,
Deborah A.
I could not agree with you more. Losing weight or keeping it off is about lifestyle not intense bouts of exercise and self denial. It is a way of living, it’s sugar that puts on weight not fat, 30 years of so called low fat eating has done nothing for weight loss in the community. People love a freak show, biggest loser, so that they can feel good about themselves. Losing weight and keeping it off is a holistic effort, it’s as much a mental and attitude effort as it is healthy eating.
I couldn’t agree more about this dreadful “show” Maura. How unbelievably dangerous and grossly irresponsible it is to take such overweight and unfit people out – into the desert this time around!!! – and over-exercise them. It staggers me. How no-one, to date, has suffered a heart attack is nothing short of an absolute miracle. I certainly don’t enjoy watching people humiliated in this way – it is simply cruel. And I can’t imagine how ageing it must be on the entire body to put it through such extreme stress. Surely a gentle and long term program of exercise (built up gradually) and a healthy, realistic weekly level of weight loss would be much kinder to the skin (more chance of it shrinking with you?) and the face. Who wants to look 20 years older thanks to rapid weight loss? This program will not be playing in my house!
Hi Maura! I agree with you that highlighting the misery of obese people striving to diet and exercise is not entertainment. Its another form of foyeurism – sick, sick, sick!