Barbara at Refuse to Regain had a great article about how many womens' magazines advise simply "walking away the pounds"! like it's that simple. If that's all it took, a little walking, we might all be slender. Barbara also pointed out the craziness of the covers - weight loss tip + decadent dessert.

http://refusetoregain.com/.a/6a00e55...6c62cbd970c-pi

I posted this because I just LOVED that montage of magazine covers!

I see these magazines every month. (And use to see way too many of them at my old job which involved actually going page by page through all sorts of magazines.) And I just laugh. Every single time I see them. I laugh. I have to.

The clerks at grocery stores probably think I'm crazy.

I had to show this to my husband. He came to peer over my shoulder and immediately spotted the connection between the covers, without my saying anything. "I don't think you can walk THAT off!" he says, pointing at the ultra-decadent chocolate cake

These magazines have always made me angry. I finally got rid of my sub to womens day- not only was it almost the same magazine every single month - but the pages of desserts right after the latest diet and exercises just drove me nuts.

Those women's mags, their right hands don't know what their left hands are doing. I saw an article in one of them once on women (more mature women, not teenagers or 20-somethings) with anorexia, complete with one horrifying photo of a woman who wasted down to 48 # before she managed to regain control -- I tell you she'd gotten past the points of looking like Heroin Addict and Holocaust Survivor to Starving African, eeeewwww -- and then once you turned the page at the end of the article there was an ad "Next month: Walk yourself thin"! I wish they'd remember one thing: "thin" is a body type, some people will be lucky enough to get it and keep it but others never will no matter how hard they try, and they should quit using "thin" as the ideal to shoot for and use "fit" instead!

My MIL (90 and tiny!) buys Woman's World and passes it on to me. Every week there's some new, improved, awesome, easy way to lose weight, followed by pages of calorie- and fat-laden recipes that require tons of pre-packaged, processed ingredients. I page through them for the curiosity value!

I think they generally reflect the dichotomy we see in our society in general. You're supposed to look great, be a great cook, be organized, etc. If you made (and ate) all the stuff in their ads and recipes, you certainly would have a hard time in the weight maintenance department. I agree that they tend to repeat over & over again. But I admit that I'm a magazine junkie & avidly read a lot of them. I also pick up magazines that I don't subscribe to at the gym or the library and peruse them. Sometimes I actually read something new & useful. I really need to cut down on my subscriptions though. Evidently a lot of people are. Meredith Publishing here puts out a lot of popular magazines (Better Homes & Gardens for one) & they are laying off people.