Detox deshmox... nonsense
Ladies, there are some simple equations in life that we should all be very, very familiar with. The most important (besides the basic (and often-times hard-to-grasp) what I earn - what I spend = what I have left) will keep insanity at bay when it comes to worrying about weight (which we all do). Be cold and calculating with it. Strip away all the emotional stuff we attach to food and you'll find that:
Calories in - energy out = weight gain/loss/maintenance
Consume less calories than you burn (even if every single one of those calories comes in the form of cheese, chocolate or sticks of butter) and you will lose weight, guaranteed. No fancy foods necessary. No bank-breaking gym membership required, no pills, no special plans. Eat less calories than you use and you lose weight, which brings me to my point.
Yet another ridiculous (I know, there are many) article in the Daily Mail appeared yesterday about how Gwyneth Paltrow is a 'picture of health' because she's - quelle suprise - shed weight and her makeup artist has deftly placed some bronzer on her face and limbs. [As an aside, can I ask a question... is the only thing that merits putting a female in the press either losing or gaining weight?]
Of course, we all know thin does not necessarily mean healthy. I could blather on about it for ages but I won't. Believe the media and we should all look like stick insects. Consult Roman and Greek sculpture or, even better, anatomical guides for a more realistic ideal.
That sort of obsession... er, focus on controlling food leads to serious problems like eating disorders. Plus, it makes you insanely boring. Who wants to go to yet another dinner party with a girl who uses the reason that she's 'gluten intolerant' to touch nothing on her plate all night? That hardly shows a joie de vivre, does it? A dollop of goat's cheese on a bed of beets and lettuce with a glass of red wine is hardly bad for you. Unless you eat a truck load of it, your bum will not be expanding any time soon.
Want to regulate your weight in a healthy way? Do as the Japanese do (bless them and they're amazing eating habits) and eat until you're just 80% full. Brilliant.
Read the Daily Mail's article on Gwyneth's spartan regime, not fit for those who lead regular lives (although, I will admit that skin brushing feels good).
Celebrity, Detox, Gwyneth Paltrow, UK, Weight Loss in Beauty Op-Ed 
Reader Comments (3)
Read "French Women Don't Get Fat". The non-diet, diet book. Funny too. What it boils down to is eating seasonally (can't cook/won't cook? oh well, suffer the consequences), deny yourself nothing, but keep the portions small and MOVE YOUR ASS!
By the way, could you please investigate the current meaning of "curves"? From what I've seen lately, it means you've balloned up from a size 0 to a size 2. Marilyn Monroe must be turning in her grave.
Ali
Hi Ali,
I completely agree. There's this idea that it's someone else's problem, gaining weight, and not an issue of personal responsibility. The predominance of advertising for food, dieting, of fast food, of whatever should no be seen as holding blame. Kelly Brownell (a professor at my university) is a fantastic writer on weight and food issues and talks about instituting a Twinkie tax, which most people seemed horrified by. Why, I don't know... there are 'sin taxes' on virtually all other such goods (alcohol and cigarettes). Such a tax would help to slacken the free inundation of the market with ads promoting things that are knowingly bad for people and the goods in those ads, but people need to be responsible too. Take a 10-minute walk at lunch. If you can't resist eating a tub of ice cream at night, don't keep it in the house. Not only does it make you healthier it gives you more confidence to not feel so helpless and tied into a vicious cycle with food.
It seems that since the Andy Warhol Factory era, the size of acceptable and even 'curvy' women has been shrinking. I remember when Gisele first hit it big and the magazines were heralding the era of the curvy woman. Hardly. A 6 foot-tall woman who weights 120 pounds with (I think) fake breasts is not curvy. She is, by definition, a freak of nature, even if pretty. Those proportions are not the norm.
I think until the entire developed world gets a little less prosperous, thin will be in, so to speak. We want what we can't have and with such a cornucopia of food and whatnot in our world, it's much easier to be fat than thin, the complete opposite of just a few generations ago when a bit of meat signified what skin and bone does now: prosperity.
This is something that probably every women has on there mind. Gaining and losing weight is something that we all think we should do, we ask ourselves sometimes ' Am I too fat or too skinny? '. Its a common thing, especially with women. And plus its hard work changing your life style or food habits to gain or lose weight. But in the end all that work is worth working for...
Arnelle Guytano :)