The Biggest Loser is STUPID

image: realitytea.com

I used to watch the reality show Biggest Loser from time to time. I liked watching the challenges, and I'll admit I got a little choked up at all the transformations, heart-wrenching stories, etc. I was cheesier when I was younger.

In fact, BL was on the TV in the birthing room when I had my first child. I suppose I enjoyed seeing other people grunting and not looking cute and fluffy, because Lord knows, I was not so cute and fluffy at the time.

Anyway, there were always things that bothered me about that show, and the more I learned about diet and exercise, the more I grew to despise it, and now I officially can't stand it. I can't even watch it for five minutes. If you like, me no judgey, but I'm going to tell why:

I hate how they make exercise look like torture. You do not need to vomit to have a good workout. You do not need to walk on treadmills for hours on end. There is almost no joy in movement communicated to the participants on that show. They seem to do the same old same old all.the.time. Why not water aerobics? Ballroom dancing? Or even... barre?! (You knew I was going to say that.) Really, there are so many different ways to move your body. I don't understand why they persist with rope slinging, kettlebell swinging and treadmilling over and over and over. Not to mention the fact that many of these activities are really tough on the joints, and when you're dealing with the morbidly obese, joint issues should be a huge consideration. Not to mention all the emphasis on processed diet food and calorie counting. It makes me crazy.

But today I read an article in the New York Times that made me hate this show even more. It's called 'After The Biggest Loser, Their Bodies Fought to Regain Weight.' The article is heartbreaking. It chronicles the punishing regimes to lose weight fast, and the regain experiences of contestants on the horrible show's season 8, nearly all of whom regained almost all the weight they rapidly lost this stupid show.

And it's not just the season 8 contestants. If you search 'where are they now' type articles, you'll find many, many, many BL contestants have regained all or most of the weight they lost. It's just that the season 8 contestants were studied by the National Institutes of Health. They found that all the contestants had significantly slower metabolisms after participating on the show. This means they now burn far fewer calories at rest than they did before. This means they MUST eat FAR fewer calories than would be expected for people their size.

Also, since they lost so much weight so rapidly on The Stupid Show, their hormones are messed up. The contestants were found to have almost no leptin, which is one of the hormones that governs the hunger response. After regaining some weight, their leptin levels increased, but not to the previous levels they had enjoyed before The Stupid Show. This means these poor people were HUNGRY ALL THE TIME. Of course they gained the weight back! Who can resist the siren song of HUNGER?

Ok, I really need to go do some laundry, but could we please just get over the number on the scale? Please? It is SO NOT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING. SO NOT. These people would have been so much better off if the emphasis had been on small, sustainable changes, like moderate, enjoyable movement. Like eating WHOLE REAL FOOD. Like focusing on other health markers, such as blood pressure, blood sugar, heck, just ENJOYING LIFE MORE.

Even this article reveals that people are still hung up on weight, even though the maniacal focus is what seems to have permanently damaged their bodies.

The only winners of The Stupid Show are Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels, who have become household names and made money hand over fist from yelling and screaming at people. It certainly wasn't the contestants, nor the millions of people who have watched this show and tried to emulate the results. Enough.

Can we please finally get this stupid show off the air?

Don't Shut Me Up: Why We Need to Allow Respectful Dissent

I stepped into a bit of a hornet's nest today. The internet variety, I mean.

I belonged to a closed Facebook group devoted to the Firm, a 1980's workout video series that developed a cult following, of which I was a proud member.

The Firm was created by Anna Benson, who pioneered the integration of heavier weights in women's workouts in an era when weights were not the done thing. Women feared lifting anything heavier than a Campbell's soup can would make them 'bulky.' Anna said, 'pffft' to that and developed a series of truly wonderful, if not kinda 80's cheesy, workout videos that got me into fitness and truly changed my life. I will always be grateful to Anna for her creativity and vision. Anna ended up selling the Firm and they are still going, but in my opinion, the new Firm is nothing like it was in Anna's glory days.

However, Anna wrote a book sometime in the 1990's called Firm for Life.

It got generally pretty terrible reviews on Amazon, but I was such a Firm junkie that I bought it anyway. I ended up agreeing with terrible reviews. I did not find the book helpful, and I did not like Anna's attitude toward appearance or her treatment of other fitness professionals. I recall she even went so far as to call exercise pioneer Jack LaLanne's skin 'crepey.' She lectured us on the importance of politeness, then comes out with that? Mean girl, maybe?

The take-away image I got of Anna was that she was shallow, catty and entirely too image-conscious. Maybe she wasn't like that really, but that's how she came across to me, and a lot of other people. But hey, nobody's perfect and Anna put out a good workout back in her day so I can get over it. I just didn't need to know her views on grey hairs ('for heaven's sake--cover those greys!'), thong underwear ('so important because we wouldn't want panty lines!') or her book list that would help me develop my 'Firm spirit.' I didn't see what that had to do with workouts and healthy eating.

So, what does this have to do with hornets?

Someone on this Facebook group asked about the book. 'It got really bad reviews--what does everyone think? Should I buy it?'

Oh, the responses were glowing!

"The book is so wonderful!"

"I loved it!"

"I'm so glad I bought it!"

I'm thinking, really? So I chimed in with my thoughts. I didn't like the book. (I might have described it as 'terrible.') I didn't think it was useful, I thought Anna came across as mean-spirited and shallow. I said I would probably have felt uncomfortable around her because I don't get regular manicures. I emphasized that while I loved the workouts, I could have done without the book. I said if you find it for a bargain price, check it out. But I wouldn't pay $35 on eBay. Or something along those lines.

Whoa. Cue hornets. While the person who asked the question seemed to appreciate my comments, others decidedly did not. I was called a 'Debbie Downer' and basically accused of being a negative troll. The group used to be 'fun and inspirational,' and now here I had the temerity to criticize Anna. No one had ever said such awful things about Anna before.

I was, quite frankly, agog. Someone asked a question, and I gave my opinion. Someone was making a purchasing decision, so I gave her my honest appraisal of the book. I was told, "We don't say bad things about Anna. She changed our lives." Did I mention Anna died a few years ago? 'We don't say bad things about the dead. People who knew her read this.' But, I reasoned, "someone wanted to know if she should spend money on the book, would it be a worthwhile purchase? Are we not allowed to answer 'no' to that question? Are we supposed to be all sunshine and roses??"

"That would be nice," I was told.

One hornet told me I should go start my own group if I wanted to say negative things about Anna.

Oh. Ok.

The whole thing reminded me of a blog post I read recently entitled 'The Worst Advice My Mother Ever Gave Me." What might that be? Author Deb Rankin said it was that parenting classic, 'if you don't have anything nice to say about someone, don't say anything at all.'

She writes:

Encouragement and positive words are great, but the advice is dangerous for several reasons. Breaking the connection between emotion and communication makes one lonely and isolated, because no one knows the real you. Suppressed thoughts will come out, not always in healthy ways. Finally, the world needs people brave enough to speak out against evil and bad behavior.

I'm willing to bet Deb's mother (and mothers across the globe) mean for us to avoid unkindness and gossip, and I'm all for that. But I think Deb makes some good points. Sadly, the internet has become a breeding ground for bad behavior. All you have to do is click on the comments link to any number of articles to read nasty, rude, obscene remarks people make. "You stupid [insert expletive]! You don't know your [expletive] from your [expletive]! I hope you rot in [expletive]!" There is no place for that in a civilized society, and I truly grieve when I see some of what is written.

However, my comments were not of that ilk. They were pointed, but rational. I provided examples to support my opinions. And in fairness, the hornets were not nasty. But to shut down reasoned discourse, to halt a sensible dialogue just because we don't like what someone is saying... that's sad, too.

When we write, we put ourselves 'out there.' We have to expect that people might not like what we say, they might not agree, but I for one welcome respectful dissent. Muscles don't change without resistance. People don't change without challenge.

After some reflection, I decided to 'unjoin' the Facebook group. It was clear the members didn't want me there, and I don't want to be part of any group where I get a smackdown for thinking critically and expressing a dissenting opinion. It's just too... well... cultish.

What do you think? By all means, share. Respectful dissent is welcome!

Why 'All About the Bass' is 'Rude'

Recently a CD got stuck in the player in our car. On a longish trip. Oh dear. Music is very important on road trips with small children. You can have only so much meaningful conversation with a 6 and 3 year old before someone starts melting down. You need music.

So we were left with the radio. News is out. It's not long before there is a story on Jerry Sandusky or some other horrible thing that we don't want to discuss with small people. You need music. And so, our children were exposed to Meghan Trainor.

allaccess.com

If you're not familiar with Meghan, she is the artist behind the hit song All About the Bass. From the moment the small people heard it, they loved it. *LOVED IT.* And I can dig it, it's a fun song with a good beat. If you don't have small people around, have a listen--with lyrics:


At first, I kind of liked it, too. I listened to some of the words and I was heartened. Trainor speaks of appreciating your body: 'every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top.' She also slams the all-too-common practice of photo-shopping images, which we've talked about before. Well, that's just great. I love that.

Then it goes downhill. She sings:  "My Momma said don't worry about your size/boys they like a little more booty to hold at night."

What?! Since when is 'what boys like' the goal of any teachable moment? I'm tempted to shout to the backseat--"you boys better not be holding onto anyone's booty!" But I think better of it. The last thing they need is another word for 'bottom.'

There is further talk of 'skinny bitches' and I'm ready to change the station, but there is mutiny in the backseat. The only reason I consent to letting the song play out is that the small people never get the lyrics right. "I'm bringing booty back" comes out as "I'm eating fruity crack."

We dodged a bullet on that one.

Next on the list is Rude, a story of a man going to ask for the hand of his beloved. The father totally shuts him down and he defiantly claims he's going to 'marry her anyway.'

I tell Darling Son #1, "I don't like this song."

"Why not, Mommy?"

I begin ranting thus:

"Well, it's about a man going to ask the woman's daddy if he can have his blessing to marry her. And that's a very nice way to honor the daddy. But the daddy says, 'no,' and I don't think it's very wise to say he's going to marry her anyway. I mean, she's a grown woman and can make her own decision, but let me tell you, son, that's not a good way to start off on the right foot with your in-laws."

Did I mention he's six? Well, you can never start too young.

"You know, Daddy went to talk to Nana and Grandpa before he asked me to marry him and if Grandpa had said, 'no way,' Daddy would have rationally ascertained Grandpa's objections and addressed them until Nana and Grandpa were on board with the whole thing. That's because Daddy is respectful and isn't just going to railroad Grandpa. That's why they get along to this day and we can all eat Thanksgiving dinner together in peace and harmony."

I look back in the rear view mirror and DS1 is giving me a blank stare. "Umm. Mommy? Can I just listen to the song."

Oh. Ok. I'll comfort myself with some fruity crack.

A few days later, the Darling Husband comes home from work and says, "I heard that song the boys like on the radio. The All About the Bass song. It's horrible." I KNOW! And so after dinner, the DH fixed the CD player and we're back to listening to Thomas the Tank Engine songs in the car.

Pass the fruity crack.

The Scam that is Gatorade and Other Facts about Electrolytes

Recently, a bottle of this vile liquid appeared in my too-small refrigerator:

I won't say who put it there, but let's just say his name rhymes with 'Rarling Rusband.'

Seriously, though, I don't like to pick on the Darling Husband, because he is really quite a wonderful husband. He doesn't even mind that I periodically blog about another man.

My bitterness towards the Gatorade in the fridge is not simply that refrigerator real estate is precious, more that the contents of Gatorade are beyond lamentable. However, the DH anticipated heavy sweating during an outdoor work event, and so purchased the vile liquid. And so, we had a civil yet spirited debate about electrolyte replacement which resulted in DH requesting some of my world-famous exhaustive internet research^tm on the subject, to which I happily consented. Here is what I learned:

What are electrolytes?
Electrolytes are minerals in your bodily fluids--blood, urine, etc. Sodium, calcium, potassium, chlorine, phosphate and magnesium are all minerals that contain an electric charge. Zing! How exciting! You need electrolytes to maintain your body's natural processes. These minerals are part of the transfer mechanism of fluids, nutrients and waste. They're essential to the nervous system and muscle function. We typically get an appropriate balance from our food, and usually it isn't something we need to think about much.

How are electrolytes depleted?
Electrolytes typically become imbalanced from sweating. When we sweat, we lose water and primarily sodium. That's why sweat tastes salty.

What happens (and how do you know) if your electrolyte levels are imbalanced?
Thirst! It's the first sign most people experience that indicates a need to restore balance to your system. I found quite a list here on the various types of electrolyte imbalances. These can be very severe situations, but most people notice thirst, dry mouth, and abdominal cramping when things start getting serious.

Who is at risk for electrolyte imbalance? 
Chances are, not you. Seriously. Unless you are an endurance athlete exerting yourself for several hours on a hot summer day, you probably don't need to implement a specific protocol for electrolyte replacement. Just drink some water and eat something whole and real. And the same applies to your children.

I say this as a heavy sweat-er. I've told you before how prone I am to sweating. Other people will be fresh as a daisy and I'll be drenched. But the duration of my workouts is typically about an hour. Simply drinking water and eating a healthy balance of real, whole food is perfectly sufficient for me and most exercisers. I've never been into sports drinks, mainly because I don't like to drink my calories. And sports drinks (even the best ones) contain sugar--the point being to get everything into your bloodstream quickly. But for most people in most situations, drinking sugar is a particularly bad idea. Sugar was designed to come in fibrous fruity packaging, which slows absorption. So no matter how sweaty I've gotten, I've just drunk water, and here I am! All these years, alive and well.

Gatorade and similar sports drinks make me crazy. Why? Because they are FULL OF CRAP. Look at the ingredients list on the bottle of one variety:

CRAP. High-fructose corn syrup, artificial colors, 14 grams of sugars in only 8oz. Sports drinks like Gatorade and Powerade used to contain brominated vegetable oil, which is linked to all kinds of serious health problems, but manufacturers have very recently bowed to public pressure and removed that nasty stuff from their formulations. Still, these drinks are nasty. The only good thing they do for you is replenish electrolytes and there are better ways to do that if you need it.

Apart from being vile, these drinks really push one of my buttons, and that is... wait for it...

Crap masquerading as health food
Gatorade was created back in 1965 at the University of Florida to replenish electrolytes in it's athletes. Given that Florida in summer might as well be one of Dante's circles of hell, athletes training in Florida would certainly require an electrolyte replacement strategy. But Gatorade has since morphed into it's current vile form and it is being marketed to children, many of whom spend their days sitting in front of an X-box or at most, exercising to a Wii in an air-conditioned home.

I'm not throwing stones here because my children are currently watching Veggie Tales while I rant on my blog, but at least they're not drinking Gatorade.

In 1985, the Gatorade Sports Science Institute was founded and wow, what a great marketing ploy that was! They might do some decent things there... I don't know... but they also spew lots of crap. Like insinuating the body's own thirst mechanism is insufficient. One of the reasons sports drinks sell is that people are told their bodies' own ability to sense thirst is unreliable, so chug some Gatorade! From what I've read, most people can just drink to thirst. If you're concerned, drink a little more.... more water, that is.

They've also tried to convince us that real, whole food is somehow insufficient to nourish us, and that is CRAP. Can I say crap any more often in this post? I don't think so. Hopefully I'm being clear. A friend of ours used to work in marketing for Gatorade. He told me he always suspected 80% of the people who bought it didn't even need it.

Now please remember, I'm just the barre mom. I like to read about health topics and I share what I learn with you, along with my colorful commentary and spicy rants. You may indeed need an electrolyte replacement strategy.

If sports drinks are vile, how can people balance electrolytes without all the crap?

Here is a great set of recipes I found from the Food Babe:

Image credit: foodbabe.com

I did a cursory search of 'electrolyte replacement drink recipes' and found quite a few others. I've never made any myself, because as I've mentioned, I don't think I need them, but maybe I'll make one for the DH the next time he feels so inclined. Honestly, the purchase and consumption of Gatorade is pretty much the only thing DH has given me to complain about. Though he might rue the day he said, 'hey dear, maybe you should start blogging!'

And so, thus endeth the Gatorade rant. Amen.

Judge Not: Why We Need to Get Over What Other People Are Eating

I got a little fiesty this week. A fitness person I just started following on social media (not anyone I've blogged about) posted the following:

I know it's "easy" to feed kids French fries but I am gonna go out on a limb and say if you put poor effort in helping your kids eat healthy you're gonna get undesired results. We are away and almost without fail every kid is eating fries and burgers or pizza at every meal. Not because their parents don't believe in feeding them spinach but because it's too easy to give them the crap and too much effort to teach them how to enjoy a piece of grilled chicken and vegetables. Invest in long term health for your kids for the sake of their future!

I was irritated.

Do I disagree that kids should eat healthy food? Of course not.

Do I think we parents need to resist the urge to take the path of least resistance? Do we need to teach our children to cultivate a taste for things like 'grilled chicken and vegetables'? Sure.

Do I think the state of 'kids meals' in restaurants is generally lamentable? Absolutely.

Am I just a grammar snob who's annoyed when people write 'gonna' instead of 'going to?' Fer shur.

But what really ticked me off is the idea that this person is looking over at other people's plates and making sweeping generalizations about their parenting based on what their kids are eating at one meal. The assumption that if you're letting your child eat French fries and pizza, you must just be too lazy to bother exposing them to other foods.

Treat Exhibit A: Light saber popsicles made with the dreaded juice.

For some reason when you have a child, everyone seems to feel the right to judge what you're doing. I live in a glass house (or at least, I did before I had kids), so I'm not throwing any stones, but really, why do we do this? Why do we think we can form negative opinions about total strangers from a brief snapshot in time?

The last time I got my knickers in a twist about this was after reading an article about parents needing to be more present with their children. The author walked past a playground and saw a few mothers talking on their phones while their children played. How awful that these mothers should be attached to their phones while their precious treasures are socializing with other children or learning to amuse themselves! The author felt it was a missed opportunity to bond.

Please. We don't know ANYTHING about these allegedly opportunity-missing mothers. Maybe they're stay-at-home moms who are with their children all. day. long and were using the twenty minutes available to them to return a few phone calls or check email.

Am I projecting here? YES. I am.

Bonding with the Darling Son #1 while making cupcakes. At least I wasn't on the phone...

Now of course, many of us spend too much time buried in our screens. And many children are not eating balanced diets. But let's not sit around like Judgey McJudgersons and make assumptions about people we don't even know.

Honestly, I really don't care. At least, not that much. This is one of the nice things about being in my 40's. I get much less worked up about what other people think. So why am I ranting? Because I think parents get dumped on way too much. People probably judged just as much years ago, but at least then they had the decency to talk about you behind your back after you left the school bus stop. Now it's plastered all over the internet. It adds to the parenting anxiety with which so many people struggle.

If the fitness person who posted the above went on a little rant about kids meals in restaurants and how vegetable-deficient they are, I'd say a hearty amen. I usually have to negotiate a veg for my kids, and if I can't (and I almost always can), then I order for them from the regular menu. As I've mentioned before, my kids are fabulous eaters. We eat the vast majority of our meals at home, so when we go out, it's a TREAT. Yes, I make them eat a veg, but I also let them eat burgers and French fries and sometimes even--wait for it--sugary desserts!

Which brings me to my main point. (I know, sometimes it takes me a while to get there, but I always do in the end.) I was going to update you on my sugar fast.

I'm pretty much done with it. After about three weeks with absolutely no sugar (not even fruit), I started reintroducing sugars into my diet. I'm eating fruit and drizzling a little bit of maple syrup on my yogurt. The great thing is that I'm satisfied with far less sweet than I used to have. If I have too much, I feel AWFUL. I mean, seriously awful, so I'm careful to limit my sugar. And I'm tasting sweetness in things I never thought of as particularly sweet, which is delightful.

I'm back to enjoying sweets, but in much greater moderation than I did before. The other night we had company and enjoyed delicious grilled burgers on sprouted wheat buns, homemade mango salsa and chips, sweet potato fries, green salad with beets and chevre, beer and a divine chocolate peanut butter gelato. It was wicked good. The food police could look at that meal and lament the omega-6 fatty acids, the carbs, the presence of wheat and too much fructose. Whatever. It was yummy and festive and summery.

Anyone want to judge? GO AHEAD.

Goldilocks and the Three Bras

Recently we enjoyed a visit from a friend I call my sister wife. Of course, she is not actually my sister wife. That is not how roll here at Chez Hsiang, but we love her so much that if we were the plural marrying kind, she'd be the one. (Of course, I might not like her so much if she were 'married' to the Darling Husband, but none of us really like to think out the particulars of that scenario.)

Anyway, Darling Sister Wife has recently discovered the delights of fashion. She's getting all into clothes and make-up and other girlie stuff. I think I've mentioned before that I'm not super girlie. When you have only brothers and sons, the if-you-can't-beat-'em-join-'em mentality kicks in. If I were a Spice Girl, I would definitely be Sporty. No doubt about it.

But DSW just kept nattering on about clothes and style. She even sat me down to watch What Not to Wear. Oh dear. I could do a nice spicy rant on that show and maybe someday I will, but I'll admit it did get me thinking. Apart from cute workout-wear (of which I have a LOT), I really don't have any sense of style.

So this week, I purged my closet. I'm donating just about everything. The vast majority were at least ten years old, vestiges of my pre-kids/working/exciting urban-Euro life. It all still fits (barre! no sugar!), but it's a little passe. So I'm starting afresh. And it kind of freaks me out, because I despise shopping and I really don't know what I'm doing, so I've been watching more What Not to Wear. Gah.

From this, I have been reminded of a key fashion essential: the bra. I'm going to try to remain calm.

OH MY GOOD GRIEF, WEAR A BRA!!!

The thing I'm finding really shocking is how many women are apparently roaming the earth not wearing bras. Are you kidding me?? People, please--for the love of God and all that is holy, WEAR A BRA. Bras are an essential foundational garment.

One sweet WNTW victim, God bless her, was wearing low-cut tops without a bra. The only thing keeping her from a total wardrobe malfunction was--wait for it--DOUBLE-STICK TAPE!!!

And don't just wear 'a' bra, wear one that FITS. Here is a most excellent tutorial on bras from Trinny and Susannah, the UK version of What Not to Wear (just watch the first five minutes):


If you kept watching, you learned what to do about arms. Well, I can tell you what to do about arms--exercise. There is a lot exercise can do for your arms. But boobs? No. Boobs are glands. There is nothing you can do for boobs. Some people will tell you working the pectoral muscles will help, but it's lie. You need a bra.

So I did a little research on bra-fitting. Here are a few things to keep in mind about bra-fitting. Follow these tips and hopefully no one will point and stare at you with their mouths agape, like so:

• Does your bra ride up your back? If so, the band size is too big. Either adjust the hooks, or it's time to go down a size.
• Do the cups pucker or gap? Again, it's too big. Go down a cup size.
• Do your breasts spill over the cup? Or do the straps dig into your shoulders, even after you've adjusted them? Then the cup size is too small.
• When shopping for bras, the band should fit firmly on the LAST hook. Why? Because bras stretch out over time, thus you can pull it tighter using the other hooks as it begins to lose some of it's elasticity. This little nugget was a revelation to me. I never knew exactly where to hook it when trying on, but now I know. Yay for exhaustive internet research^tm! 

If you fill out the cups nicely, and the band remains parallel to the floor, and your boobs sit mid-way between your elbow and shoulder, then your bra fits just right! And of course, there should be no need for double-stick tape.

I'm filing this one under 'Public Service Announcements.'

I Have a Skin-over-Bone to Pick with Lindsey Vonn

About a month ago, American skier Lindsey Vonn participated in a benefit fashion show for cardiac health. Vonn took to the catwalk in a fetching red frock. On crutches.

Vonn was on crutches, because last year she fractured her tibia, among other owwies. She exacerbated those injuries in December, rendering her unable to participate in the Winter Games at Sochi. Which is very sad for Vonn and I feel for her. To put in all that work and not be able to go the Olympics... That's a wicked bummer.

Vonn's appearance made headlines, not for the crutches, rather because of disparaging comments she made about professional fashion models. She said,

"It may look good in a magazine but it's not actually healthy. And girls who are that skinny are actually fat. You can see the cellulite on their legs and on their butts," she said. "You know I have cellulite too but I go to the gym and I try to eat healthy. I think that's a better model for girls to look up to than skinny people who need to eat more."

Oh dear.... where do I start? {clearing throat... Rant: enter stage left} I see her point, but I get really frustrated when women pick on each other. Vonn's comments reminded of a Middle School girls' locker room. "OMG, did you see that skinny girl's cellulite?!" It's just not kind. It's not helpful. And it's not fair.

She added, "I've been to a lot of photo shoots and I see these girls that are just really thin. They're not healthy. They don't work out. Health — that's one of the reasons I am out tonight. Just in general staying active and being healthy is important," Vonn said.

Umm... is anyone else finding it ironic that a woman on crutches, who has enough hardware in her body to set off the airport metal detectors from the parking lot, is really the best person to be getting preachy about health? Yes, there are different ways to define 'healthy,' but a big reason I exercise is hopefully to avoid having to install one of these when I'm old:

I would find it hard to believe that Vonn's myriad injuries from her physically punishing sport aren't going to have long-term consequences on her health and well-being. I recognize there's a difference between skiing hard and trying to whittle yourself away to almost nothing (assuming that's what models are doing), but it's the fashion industry that needs to take the heat. I can't get behind slamming the models themselves.

Indeed, there are some alarming reports coming out of the fashion world--stories of models thinking it's perfectly normal to faint from hunger, editors admitting to having used Photoshop to plump up hollowed cheeks, soften visible ribs, add color to wan skin. This is what best showcases designer clothes? Really??

I wish the models would all say, "Bag this, let's get a pizza," but many of them won't, because they know there are thousands of eager, hungry girls (and yes, I mean girls) waiting in the wings to take their place. They're just doing what they have to do to be successful.

In the same way, winning skiing gold medals at the Olympics requires a certain all-out-leave-nothing-on-the-slopes kind of performance. And that can spell injury. I get that. She's doing what it takes to be successful at what she does. Which is skiing. And the 'skinny fat' models are doing what it takes to be successful at what they do. Which is modeling. 

I'm not justifying starvation, but why not call out the industry as a whole, instead of the models? If the editors, the designers, the Fashion Week organizers said, "Enough. We're not doing this anymore. We're taking things in a different direction," there would be change. But until then, the models are just doing it what it takes to win runway shows and magazine spreads. Just like Lindsey Vonn does what it takes to get down the mountain as fast as she can. They may have more in common than they think.

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Ok, so those are enough deep thoughts for the day. In other news, I'm travelling to NYC on Saturday, March 15th to participate in Physique 57's Barre Crawl! Yes, people, a class at each of Physique's three NYC studios. Before you (and I) completely freak out, the last one is a stretch class. Still, I'll be doing a Mat and Mixed-level back-to-back.

I'll be Instagramming photos throughout the day, so follow me @momsatthebarre to see my first ever selfie! 

Ditch the Scale?

I can't tell you how many articles I've seen lately encouraging me to 'ditch the scale.' Tons of them.  And they all use the word 'ditch.' Does no one have a thesaurus?? I do. And I'm going to make full use of it in this post.

Not that I'm cracking on the articles, necessarily. There are some great reasons for giving the scale the old heave-ho, both physical and psychological.

On the physical side, there are some very cogent arguments for scrapping the scale. The main, and most compelling, being muscle. If you're strength training, you're building muscle, and muscle weighs something. (While we're on the subject, I feel the need to point out that muscle does NOT weigh more than fat. Really, I hear that all the time and let's just think about that for a second.... a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat: a pound.)

Muscle is, however, more dense than fat. See?

So a pound of muscle takes up less space than a pound of fat. That's why it's possible to weigh the same, but wear smaller clothes. You may be eating well and building muscle and scale weight remains the same (or might even tick up a bit), but your body composition is changing. You have more muscle and less fat.

Dieters who do not strength train often lose muscle mass along with fat. You might congratulate yourself on a 20lb. weight loss, but when you realize some of that was muscle, the party's over. That lost muscle is also going to slow down your metabolism. Increasing muscle mass pays dividends, but many people still get discouraged when they don't see the scale number going down. If that's you, then please, shelve your scale. It's got a hold on you, but it's not giving you the whole picture.

And that brings me to the psychological side. A lot of people get really hung up on their weight, and often choose their ideal weight very arbitrarily. I've know women in their late 40's who want to weigh what they did when they were 25. Never mind the fact that they were poor graduate students living in a fifth-floor walk-up in Alphabet City with six other girls subsisting on ramen noodles. Were they healthier and stronger at 25? No. They were just thinner.

I heard of a woman wanting to weigh X because it's lighter than her sister, another wanting to weigh what she did on her wedding day, even though she was so thin from having stressed out about the wedding and hadn't eaten in three weeks. And I've been there. At one point in my life, I wanted to weigh 125lbs., simply because that sounded like a nice number to me. If I weighed 125 lbs., I'd be downright scrawny. For me, that's an absurd number not based in any kind of reality.

I know people who step on the scale, and if the number they see is 'too high' in their minds, it ruins the day. If this is you, please, deep-six your scale. (See? Aren't synonyms fun?) Your weight is so not the sum total of your worth as a person. The state of your soul is undeniably more important than the number you see on a scale, a measuring tape, a body mass index chart, etc. Sometimes you'd never know it from our culture, but it's true.

Despite all these great arguments for jettisoning your scale, I still have mine. I've arrived at a peaceful place with my scale. It lives in my closet and from time to time I'll step on it and see what it says. If it's higher than usual, I don't panic. If it's lower than usual, I don't rejoice. Whatever I see, I plug it in to the rest of the data pertaining to my physical self. Because I really just see my scale weight as information. That's all it is. It's information, just like my cholesterol numbers, my blood pressure, my height, my age, my degree of flexibility, etc. (And yes, my cholesterol, BP and other numbers are more significant than my weight!)

Some scale detractors tell you your weight is 'meaningless,' which is ridiculous. It's not meaningless--it means how heavy I am. It's certainly not the whole picture, but it's part of it. We just have to put it in it's proper place. If you can't do that right now, then sure, get rid of it. But I don't think we need to discount weight altogether.

Recently I saw a news report about a family that had quite regrettable eating habits. The wife said something I found compelling--"I don't know what I weigh. I don't ever weigh myself. I don't need a scale because I know I'm overweight." Her doctor finally cajoled her onto a scale. It turns out the number was even higher than she expected. She was not heavier because she had been hitting the weight room. She was heavier because she had been eating three times her daily caloric needs in processed convenience foods and she felt lousy. In her case, not weighing herself was the result of denial. And once she saw the scale weight, along with a host of other numbers (cholesterol, blood pressure, waist circumference, etc.) she had a more complete picture of her state of health. It motivated her to make positive changes.

Are we really going to say that wasn't valuable? It's just not the only thing that's valuable. I believe in cultivating healthy habits, ones you can live with, and then see where the needle on the scale falls. The scale, the blood pressure cuff, the cholesterol numbers, the measuring tape.... they're all tools we can use. The key is to use them, not let them use us.

What about you? What are your thoughts on the scale? Enquiring bloggers want to know!

On Fat and Care Bears

It's 4.30am and I can't sleep, so I finally decided to get up, brew some Peet's and talk to you about fat. Aren't you glad?

One of my big pet peeves is the assumption so many people make that exercise is all about losing fat weight. Someone actually once said to me, "Why do you exercise so much? You're not overweight."

I can think of about one hundred thousand reasons to exercise that have absolutely nothing to do with the number you see when you step on a scale. Ok, so maybe I'm exaggerating a little on the 'one hundred thousand' part, but there are a LOT. In fact, to some extent, exercise can actually hinder fat loss efforts. Here's why:

1. Exercise can make you hungry. I was actually a little nervous to start heavy weight lifting again, because the last time I did it (P90X, if you must know), I became so ravenous after workouts, I wanted to eat my hand. I had a very, very, very hard time eating with any sort of moderation and ended up puffy. Strong, but puffy. Those weren't really the results I was going for, but I will say it was nice being that strong. Intense endurance cardio can produce a crazy, hard-to-control hunger, too. Now, I believe in eating when you're truly hungry, but the crazy-hungry I'm talking about can lead to binging. When I was doing P90X, I'd hoover anything that wasn't nailed down, and some of it wasn't the most... shall we say, nutrient dense? Happily, I have not noticed any particular uptick in my appetite since I've been doing Drop Two Sizes, but sometimes you have to play around with your exercise routine to see what works.

2. Exercise can get you to hoard fat. Certain types of intense exercise can actually raise your body's cortisol levels. Cortisol is the hormone your body produces under stress, and excess cortisol can slow your metabolism and cause you to hold on to body fat. It's very important to remember that God designed our bodies to live. When our bodies sense threat, they are going to do whatever it takes to keep us alive, and having fat stores is really helpful for surviving.

3. It is really easy to eat what you just burned in a workout. This is a painful truth. I typically burn between 300 and 400 calories per hour of exercise, according to my heart rate monitor. Sometimes I'll get close to 500, but that's the outlier. Do you know how easy it is to eat 400 calories? I can do it in about 30 seconds. Just hand me a spoon and a jar of Skippy Natural and start the clock.

That is a HUGE problem with exercise and it's purely psychological. In our zeal to get people off the couch, we have grossly oversold the weight loss benefits of exercise to the point that people think they can eat whatever they want as long as they workout. EEEHHHH. Wrong. I don't mean to be harsh, but it's true. I say this with Care Bears in my heart.

I'm going to rant about this for another minute, so bear with me. (Keep looking at the care bear if you feel like I'm being too mean.)

There is a point in Physique 57 Thigh and Seat (which is excellent, btw. You knew I was going to say that) where sweet little Shelley Knight is massively hurting me. My thighs are on fie-yah and she tells me I can 'eat whatever I want for dinner.'

IT'S A LIE. I love you, Shelley. Truly, I do. You're cute as a button, but you're also probably twenty-five and maybe at your age you can, but I CAN NOT. Repeat after me: I can not eat whatever I want for dinner.

So let's say, for argument's sake, that you are actually twenty-five and can, at this point in your young life, eat whatever you want for dinner without gaining weight. That's super and I'm happy for you. But really, if you don't deal with those unchecked Nutella binges soon, they are going to bite you in the bum. (Again, Care Bears. In my heart for you.)

Ok, clearly I'm a little fired up on this one, but really, people tell me all the time to eat more than I need to because I work out. "Oh, go ahead. Have that cookie. You exercised." Now, I'm not down on cookies. I eat them from time to time and enjoy them and I think you should, too (or whatever food it is that you enjoy) but don't do it 'because you exercise.' Do it because it's a special treat. Not because you exercised, ok?

I hope I'm being clear.

4. Lastly, lots of people think a hard workout entitles them to sit around for the rest of the day. "Oh, I don't need to take the stairs. I worked out today." Please, take the stairs. Sure, there is a season for elevator use. I have a button-pushing two-year-old, so I'm there, but there is a lot to be said for taking the stairs. You'll get way more steps on the Fitbit and it will increase your NEAT (see my last post) and thus, your blessed metabolic rate. If your workouts wear you out so much that you are shattered for the rest of the day, you might want to take it down a notch. Sometimes less is more.

Despite all of that, I do find exercise can be really helpful in weight control, but it's really important to be aware of the above. If you have fat to lose, consider these things.

I'll talk about the 'pros' and 'how-tos' of exercise for fat loss later this week, but it's now 5.30 and the small people are stirring. Yes, we are that kind of household. Before I go, I want to say one more thing: I titled my last post, 'Oh, to be Amish...' just because I envy all the steps they get. I would really never want to be Amish. I'm not just saying that because I get to watch Netflix. Oh, that crushing law under which they live... all those rules... yikes. I wouldn't mind hanging with them for a few days, though. For the steps... that and I hear their food is really yummy. I just wouldn't eat too much of it, even though I'd be getting a lot of exercise.