Re: Oprah - You're right, Robin, but I do think having a personal chef who plans and cooks every meal for you AND someone who does the grocery shopping AND a trainer who plans and supervises your workouts probably does make things a bit easier.
Just my two cents.
That's all true, but have you seen the food service that is provided on location at movie and TV sets? I have a friend that worked in craft service for films and the food provided on the sets includes lots of bad choices (the food is for crew, which doesn't have to maintain an unrealistic weight, as well as the actors). And then there are all the social events involving food and alcohol. They may have a chef that cooks for them, but celebs still eat out a lot, probably more than we do, and still have to struggle with making the same healthy choices we do. They still have to choose to pass up the doughnuts and chips, just like we have to choose to pass them up. It's not like they live in a bubble where those foods are available--when they are working, they probably have to look at them every day on the craft service cart. Knowing how hard it is to maintain my weight with my lifestyle (I rarely drink, rarely eat out, and no one brings loads of high fat/high sugar food to my office), I often wonder how celebs are able to maintain their weight. It must be a constant struggle.
Oprah has all those things and still struggles with her weight. Not only that, but Oprah, and all the other celebs, have to struggle with their weight publicly. Imagine if some tabloid ran pictures of you every time you gained a few lbs back. It's a lot of pressure, more than most of us deal with in our struggles to maintain our weight.
Then there is the fact that the standard they are held to is higher than for the rest of us. At 5' 4", 116 lbs, and around 22% body fat, I'm pretty thin, but if I were a celebrity, I'd have to lose at least another 5 lbs, possibly 10 lbs.
Besides, personal chefs may be out of reach for most of us, but you don't have to be a celebrity to have a personal trainer or a nutritionist--both those services are available to anyone at relatively reasonable prices (especially when you consider what you are getting for your $$). I've had a personal trainer for three years now and there are lots of other people at my gym that use the personal trainers, and none of us are celebrities or particularly wealthy.
I think the post was about stereotyping that "all overweight people eat cake and doughnuts".
Which is my point. So just because Charlize Theron says *she* gained weight by eating potato chips and doughnuts, why would that make someone jump to the HUGE conclusion that that statement means all fat people eat potato chips and doughnuts????
The job of the paparazzi is to glorify celebs and make the rest of us feel horrible. It's nothing more than an industry out to make money, not friends, and they've figured out what works. Anger and hatred are much more popular in today's media than they should be! Why else would reality shows like The Real World, ****'s Kitchen, American Idol, etc. (which all showcase people getting into god-awful arguments) be so popular? People enjoy being ticked off at each other. They like feeling resentful, jealous, and just plain malicious. The TV shows and magazines talking about how "easily" and quickly celebs lose weight are just giving their readers something else to feel angry about. And you know what... people buy it.
We're all beautiful chicks here, inside and out. We have determination, focus, and willpower. We can recognize what we should eat and how we should exercise; we can recognize that it's a way of life, not just a diet. We can let snide comments from acquaintances, family, and "friends" go; why let snide comments on TV or in a magazine bother us?
The job of the paparazzi is to glorify celebs and make the rest of us feel horrible.
Horse hockey. Do you buy or read People Magazine? Or Entertainment Weekly? Do you watch the E network? Do you watch or read anything that reports on any celeb? Then you are creating the market for the paparazzi who are just doing the job they get paid for. The job of the paparazzi is to get the photos that sell to the millions of people who will buy them.
Blaming the paparazzi for the insatiable appetite for information on celebs that many people have is like blaming the pizza for making you fat, instead of taking responsibility for the fact that you are the one eating it.
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Why else would reality shows like The Real World, ****'s Kitchen, American Idol, etc. (which all showcase people getting into god-awful arguments) be so popular?
Because people watch them. If people didn't watch them the ratings would drop and the networks would find other shows that would bring in the ratings.
WE - the collective we who watch reality TV and buy celeb magazines and watch the celeb news networks - are the ones who "glorify celebs". Not the photographers, news shows, or whatever who are just pandering to the taste of the masses.
I don't watch those shows. And, I don't care what anyone else does or says regarding weight loss or weight gain. Oprah, Charlize, who cares? Those are professionals--their lives have nothing to do with mine.
All I care about is what I'M doing about MY weight. That's the only thing I can do anything about.
I didn't sit around and eat potato chips and donuts to gain weight. BUT, I didn't say no to potato chips, and I didn't say no to donuts. I said yes to many many foods without even thinking about the consequences. Now I have to deal with that.
People who reach stereotypic conclusions about what others do, based on TV shows and mags... Well... they probably need to get a life!
You know, I have to admit I pretty much DID eat cake and cookies and potato chips all day long. LOL. See, I was perpetually "going on a diet starting Monday" (always the next Monday of course), so I was always in the mode of stuffing in the worst food I could think of because I was "giving it up soon". But the "giving it up" thing never actually happened, of course.
This was an excellent diet for a sumo wrestler, not so excellent for me.
I did this throughout the entire month of December 2007, when I got in to "I need to lose weight!" mode all out of the blue. My diet that month pretty much consisted of ice cream cake, ice cream, cake, lasagna, frozen macaroni and cheese entrees, and potato chips. Helped me put on the extra 10 lbs I had to lose come January when I finally got serious. *D'oh*
I probably didn't explain the show well enough to get my point across. It was a bunch of D-list celebrities/comedians making fat jokes while they counted down a list of celebrities to reach the best celebrity slim-down of all time. If you had seen the show, perhaps you would have felt similar to me that it was perpetuating stereotypes. All I was trying to get out was a little miff. I don't sit on my *** all day and eat cake. I would never want to trivialize how complex weight-loss can be for some people, as the show was doing.
I gained 40 lbs eating potato chips and cake.
I lost 20 lbs eating potato chips and cake.
It all comes down to numbers : calories in < calories out to lose weight. Many variables here, such as one tablespoon of oil or two, exercise amount, even metabolic rate is a variable that has to be accounted for. And no, we don't have the time or money or energy to really break it down to these numbers. All we do is estimate. But the better you estimate, the more you are able to control your weight.
I think talking "bad foods" and "good foods" is really very misleading. Nuts are high in calories but they are healthy - so are they bad or good? Is having a piece of cake on your child's birthday indulging in "bad food" ? I think that if you eat cake you have to compromise somewhere else, but I can't be so quick to judge my foods as bad or good.
But I don't care what Charlize says about how PEOPLE gain or lose weight. It's different for everyone, and I'm only competing against myself. There's tons of people out there, from celebrities to relatives, to discourage us and make us feel bad about ourselves, so it's our job to encourage ourselves and surround ourselves with people, reading material, tv shows, etc. that are encouraging, ignoring the rest.
You are entitled to your opinion. I really don't think you meant it to cause issue for other people. I tend to agree with you. You really can't turn on your TV without being faced with all the pressures to be thin. I watch news programs everyday, and you really can't avoid it.
You really can't turn on your TV without being faced with all the pressures to be thin. I watch news programs everyday, and you really can't avoid it.
Ahh, you see the news programs are another story all together. They're usually saying how dangerous it is to be overweight for ones health. Which to me is a whole other matter entirely then "Hollywood".
Nevertheless, those news items used to freak me out. I couldn't turn on the radio, the TV or open a newspaper without hearing how unhealthy it is to be overweight and to lead a sedenatary lifestyle. It was worse when my kids were in the room. I felt so bad that they had to hear that and then worry about what their mom was doing to herself.
I'm telling you, those news items were always on my mind. I truly believe that is one of the reasons I finally woke up and did something about my weight. I think the more there are of them, the better.
I don't think anyone was saying celebrities didn't work hard to stay thin and in shape, I think the post was about stereotyping that "all overweight people eat cake and doughnuts". It didn't seem to me to be a bunch of us attacking celebs, just stereotypes.
im sure as **** id look as good as jennifer aniston....
if i had a personal trainer, dietition and cook....
how cool would that be....
pretty expensive i imagine tho....
n at least we get the satisfaction of saying we did it all by ourselves!....
I said yes to many many foods without even thinking about the consequences. Now I have to deal with that.
