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24. Lessons from the Fat-O-Sphere by Kate Harding and Marianne Kirby: Quit Dieting and Declare a Truce with Your Body
I read this a couple days ago, but put off reviewing it, because unlike brain candy fiction, it requires some real writing and explanation on my part. Especially because it's a book and a concept that a lot of people seem to have fairly skewed perceptions of.
That said, I really, thoroughly enjoyed it. Not a ton of new information if you read Shapely Prose and The Rotund (the blogs of the two authors), but lots of good stuff.
The basic premise is that diets don't work long-term for any but a tiny minority of people and that they create more health problems than they fix (if they fix any), and that the beating your self-esteem takes from continual weight obsession is just not helpful. There are studies and statistics to back this up, and the authors encourage readers to check out their sources and come to their own conclusions. For me, it doesn't take much convincing. I've seen my weight drop or go up inexplicably, or stubbornly refuse to budge when I'm doing everything "right" based on whatever diet I'm doing at the time. And, hang around any dieting message board, and you will hear from people who are following the plan and not losing. Usually, they get encouraged to cut more calories, exercise more, ad infinitum. Or they're eating the wrong foods, which, depending on your diet, could be absolutely anything, except maybe celery. People who are dieting talk a lot about tricks to keep yourself from plateauing--cut calories, but not too much, or give yourself a couple days where you eat "normally" to convince your body it's not starving,or bump up the calories a little but exercise like a fiend. It's a pretty commonly accepted fact that when you try to lose weight, your body will fight you every step of the way. Which is part of why the subtitle is about "declaring a truce with your body." The point is to avoid fighting a war against yourself that you can't win and that will just make you miserable.
Another issue the writers point out about dieting is that having foods be forbidden just makes them more attractive, and having things that you are "supposed to" eat makes them less desirable. And it's the same with exercise.
Now, this is where a lot of people get hung up. They see "Don't diet or try to lose weight" and they think that the writers are encouraging everyone to be sedentary and live on Twinkies. That's totally not it. Instead, they're encouraging a concept called "Health At Every Size" which is about doing healthy things for your body *regardless* of whether they change your weight. Doing them for their own sake, because they make you feel better. They talk about paying attention to how you feel when you eat--eat what you want when you want, stop when you're satisfied. Add new and interesting veggies to your diet. Try new things.
When you start eating intuitively, you will probably eat a fair bit of "unhealthy" food. Though one of the things the authors talk about is that we have a really skewed idea of what's "healthy." You'd think from what you hear and read that eating ice cream is about equivalent to pouring battery acid down your throat. But it does have actual nutrients, like calcium. Even fat is a nutrient (one that's required for your body to process vitamins A, D, E, and K). And sometimes you crave "bad" things because they have nutrients that your body needs. So, instead of fighting with your body, you give it what it wants. At first, that will include a lot of junk food because it's finally "allowed." And if you've dieted forever, the idea that you can eat whatever you want will, at first, involve cheeseburgers and donuts and everything you weren't allowed to touch before. But eventually, the novelty wears off. If you're allowed to have pizza for breakfast and a box of Twinkies for lunch, you might do it a couple times because you *can.* But you will probably feel like crap that day. Or start craving strawberries, or zucchini, or rice. And eventually, you end up eating a pretty balanced diet, because you're paying attention to your body, which will generally tell you what it needs. That's much better than denying it for as long as you can, then eating everything in sight because you're *starving.*
One of the things they stress is to not get wrapped around the axle about doing intuitive eating "right." Basically, you treat it as a learning experience. And not every meal has to be the perfect thing that your body wants. Sometimes it's what's there and what you feel like making. And sometimes you have to compromise with the other people you live with or go out to lunch with or what have you. But the main point of intuitive eating is throwing away all that OMG PANIC about having to eat the "right" foods. And freeing up the time and mental energy that goes into obsessing and counting calories to do more worthwhile things.
This is something that I've been trying to adopt for myself. I was still doing Weight Watchers when I started reading Shapely Prose, but as I learned a bit about intuitive eating, I tried to incorporate some of those concepts. The "screw this" point for me came when I'd eaten very little in the way of lunch because there weren't a whole lot of Core Plan options at 7-11, where I'd snagged lunch. I think my meal consisted mostly of fruit and veggies, and maybe some almonds or a cheese stick. And, as is expected, I felt like crap. So, I decided that for dinner, I would eat whatever I felt like my body needed. I ended up going to Chipotle and getting a steak burrito, and it was heaven. Bang, I instantly felt better. By "diet" standards, it was horrible. White rice, tortilla, too much fat, too many calories. But it's also a balanced meal. And those calories....yeah, those are the same calories I shorted myself the rest of the day. And for someone whose blood sugar was probably in the toilet, and who hadn't gotten a ton of protein or iron that day...it was just what the doctor ordered. And having beans and meat and veggies means protein and complex carbohydrates that will keep my sugar from spiking and then plummeting. So, this was the point where I thought, "Hm...dieting, I feel like crap. Listening to my body, I feel much better. Maybe there's something to this."
The book advocates the same stance toward exercise as it does toward food. Rather than looking at exercise as something you "have to" do, find a form of movement that you enjoy. Maybe it's yoga, maybe it's swimming, maybe it's dance. But find something and do it. If you try something and don't like it, don't consider it a failure. Just try the next thing. It's kind of like dating. Maybe yoga isn't "the one," so you break it off with yoga and go give bellydance a call. And remember that you're doing this because it's fun and it feels good. If you miss a day, it's not something to beat yourself up over. And, if it's something you do for its own sake, when life gets in the way one week, you'll find yourself really looking forward to it.
That's another principle that speaks to me. I like exercise. I love yoga, I love bellydance. I don't mind treadmills or exercise bikes even if I have some good music or something to watch (or a bike game where I can ride a virtual trail or chase dragons). Because the motion burns off stress and puts me in a calm state. And I like lifting weights---it makes me feel all buff and powerful. It's cool. And taking walks is great. If my ankle's up for it, I will happily walk half a mile to get lunch rather than drive there. And although I started parking my car further away from the building for exercise, I discovered that I like it. It gives me a couple minutes to relax, to breathe, to get in a good frame of mind for the day, or to calm down after an annoying workday. But I *hate* exercise for the purpose of weight loss. Once it becomes somthing that I "must" do to make my body an acceptable size, that just sucks the joy right out of it. When i was going to Curves, I used to skip my "weigh and measure" days or come in on a day when I wasn't planning on working out, just to get that out of the way. My theory was "Why would I want to spoil a perfectly good workout thinking about my weight?"
The awesome thing about doing these things for their own sake is that you won't give up on them if they don't make the scale move. I've heard a lot of people who were dieting give up on the healthy foods they were eating or the exercise they were getting because their weight plateaued. Which is a shame. This book encourages you to find more lasting and significant motivations for healthy behavior than the numbers on the scale.
Another key concept of the book is to be a really critical consumer of media and to limit your exposure. Both authors noted that when they stopped watching much TV, their self-esteem shot up. Because they weren't continually comparing themselves to women whose job it is to be thin and who are perfectly made up every time you see them. They also strongly suggest avoiding women's magazines (one of the reasons I chucked my subscription to Cosmo, the other reason being that a lot of the things I was reading it for (okay, mainly the sex tips) started to get repetitive). Magazines are even worse than TV because you can't Photoshop television. Nobody looks like a model, including models. And seeing that all the time creates a very skewed view of what you're "supposed to" look like. They also talk about critically reading and analyzing articles about weight and health. What does the study really show? Does the data support that? Does the headline match the article's content, or is it an exaggeration to draw attention? Oh, and who funded the study?
The book is geared pretty heavily toward women, which makes sense. The expected standard for thinness and the amount of distortion in the media is *way* higher for women's bodies than it is for men's. And it's also largely women who are encouraged to diet, diet, diet.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. The writing style is awesome--funny and no-nonsense, very personable and easy to read. And there's a ton of resources--all the sources the book cites, as well as a bunch of other informative books, blogs, and articles.
I read this a couple days ago, but put off reviewing it, because unlike brain candy fiction, it requires some real writing and explanation on my part. Especially because it's a book and a concept that a lot of people seem to have fairly skewed perceptions of.
That said, I really, thoroughly enjoyed it. Not a ton of new information if you read Shapely Prose and The Rotund (the blogs of the two authors), but lots of good stuff.
The basic premise is that diets don't work long-term for any but a tiny minority of people and that they create more health problems than they fix (if they fix any), and that the beating your self-esteem takes from continual weight obsession is just not helpful. There are studies and statistics to back this up, and the authors encourage readers to check out their sources and come to their own conclusions. For me, it doesn't take much convincing. I've seen my weight drop or go up inexplicably, or stubbornly refuse to budge when I'm doing everything "right" based on whatever diet I'm doing at the time. And, hang around any dieting message board, and you will hear from people who are following the plan and not losing. Usually, they get encouraged to cut more calories, exercise more, ad infinitum. Or they're eating the wrong foods, which, depending on your diet, could be absolutely anything, except maybe celery. People who are dieting talk a lot about tricks to keep yourself from plateauing--cut calories, but not too much, or give yourself a couple days where you eat "normally" to convince your body it's not starving,or bump up the calories a little but exercise like a fiend. It's a pretty commonly accepted fact that when you try to lose weight, your body will fight you every step of the way. Which is part of why the subtitle is about "declaring a truce with your body." The point is to avoid fighting a war against yourself that you can't win and that will just make you miserable.
Another issue the writers point out about dieting is that having foods be forbidden just makes them more attractive, and having things that you are "supposed to" eat makes them less desirable. And it's the same with exercise.
Now, this is where a lot of people get hung up. They see "Don't diet or try to lose weight" and they think that the writers are encouraging everyone to be sedentary and live on Twinkies. That's totally not it. Instead, they're encouraging a concept called "Health At Every Size" which is about doing healthy things for your body *regardless* of whether they change your weight. Doing them for their own sake, because they make you feel better. They talk about paying attention to how you feel when you eat--eat what you want when you want, stop when you're satisfied. Add new and interesting veggies to your diet. Try new things.
When you start eating intuitively, you will probably eat a fair bit of "unhealthy" food. Though one of the things the authors talk about is that we have a really skewed idea of what's "healthy." You'd think from what you hear and read that eating ice cream is about equivalent to pouring battery acid down your throat. But it does have actual nutrients, like calcium. Even fat is a nutrient (one that's required for your body to process vitamins A, D, E, and K). And sometimes you crave "bad" things because they have nutrients that your body needs. So, instead of fighting with your body, you give it what it wants. At first, that will include a lot of junk food because it's finally "allowed." And if you've dieted forever, the idea that you can eat whatever you want will, at first, involve cheeseburgers and donuts and everything you weren't allowed to touch before. But eventually, the novelty wears off. If you're allowed to have pizza for breakfast and a box of Twinkies for lunch, you might do it a couple times because you *can.* But you will probably feel like crap that day. Or start craving strawberries, or zucchini, or rice. And eventually, you end up eating a pretty balanced diet, because you're paying attention to your body, which will generally tell you what it needs. That's much better than denying it for as long as you can, then eating everything in sight because you're *starving.*
One of the things they stress is to not get wrapped around the axle about doing intuitive eating "right." Basically, you treat it as a learning experience. And not every meal has to be the perfect thing that your body wants. Sometimes it's what's there and what you feel like making. And sometimes you have to compromise with the other people you live with or go out to lunch with or what have you. But the main point of intuitive eating is throwing away all that OMG PANIC about having to eat the "right" foods. And freeing up the time and mental energy that goes into obsessing and counting calories to do more worthwhile things.
This is something that I've been trying to adopt for myself. I was still doing Weight Watchers when I started reading Shapely Prose, but as I learned a bit about intuitive eating, I tried to incorporate some of those concepts. The "screw this" point for me came when I'd eaten very little in the way of lunch because there weren't a whole lot of Core Plan options at 7-11, where I'd snagged lunch. I think my meal consisted mostly of fruit and veggies, and maybe some almonds or a cheese stick. And, as is expected, I felt like crap. So, I decided that for dinner, I would eat whatever I felt like my body needed. I ended up going to Chipotle and getting a steak burrito, and it was heaven. Bang, I instantly felt better. By "diet" standards, it was horrible. White rice, tortilla, too much fat, too many calories. But it's also a balanced meal. And those calories....yeah, those are the same calories I shorted myself the rest of the day. And for someone whose blood sugar was probably in the toilet, and who hadn't gotten a ton of protein or iron that day...it was just what the doctor ordered. And having beans and meat and veggies means protein and complex carbohydrates that will keep my sugar from spiking and then plummeting. So, this was the point where I thought, "Hm...dieting, I feel like crap. Listening to my body, I feel much better. Maybe there's something to this."
The book advocates the same stance toward exercise as it does toward food. Rather than looking at exercise as something you "have to" do, find a form of movement that you enjoy. Maybe it's yoga, maybe it's swimming, maybe it's dance. But find something and do it. If you try something and don't like it, don't consider it a failure. Just try the next thing. It's kind of like dating. Maybe yoga isn't "the one," so you break it off with yoga and go give bellydance a call. And remember that you're doing this because it's fun and it feels good. If you miss a day, it's not something to beat yourself up over. And, if it's something you do for its own sake, when life gets in the way one week, you'll find yourself really looking forward to it.
That's another principle that speaks to me. I like exercise. I love yoga, I love bellydance. I don't mind treadmills or exercise bikes even if I have some good music or something to watch (or a bike game where I can ride a virtual trail or chase dragons). Because the motion burns off stress and puts me in a calm state. And I like lifting weights---it makes me feel all buff and powerful. It's cool. And taking walks is great. If my ankle's up for it, I will happily walk half a mile to get lunch rather than drive there. And although I started parking my car further away from the building for exercise, I discovered that I like it. It gives me a couple minutes to relax, to breathe, to get in a good frame of mind for the day, or to calm down after an annoying workday. But I *hate* exercise for the purpose of weight loss. Once it becomes somthing that I "must" do to make my body an acceptable size, that just sucks the joy right out of it. When i was going to Curves, I used to skip my "weigh and measure" days or come in on a day when I wasn't planning on working out, just to get that out of the way. My theory was "Why would I want to spoil a perfectly good workout thinking about my weight?"
The awesome thing about doing these things for their own sake is that you won't give up on them if they don't make the scale move. I've heard a lot of people who were dieting give up on the healthy foods they were eating or the exercise they were getting because their weight plateaued. Which is a shame. This book encourages you to find more lasting and significant motivations for healthy behavior than the numbers on the scale.
Another key concept of the book is to be a really critical consumer of media and to limit your exposure. Both authors noted that when they stopped watching much TV, their self-esteem shot up. Because they weren't continually comparing themselves to women whose job it is to be thin and who are perfectly made up every time you see them. They also strongly suggest avoiding women's magazines (one of the reasons I chucked my subscription to Cosmo, the other reason being that a lot of the things I was reading it for (okay, mainly the sex tips) started to get repetitive). Magazines are even worse than TV because you can't Photoshop television. Nobody looks like a model, including models. And seeing that all the time creates a very skewed view of what you're "supposed to" look like. They also talk about critically reading and analyzing articles about weight and health. What does the study really show? Does the data support that? Does the headline match the article's content, or is it an exaggeration to draw attention? Oh, and who funded the study?
The book is geared pretty heavily toward women, which makes sense. The expected standard for thinness and the amount of distortion in the media is *way* higher for women's bodies than it is for men's. And it's also largely women who are encouraged to diet, diet, diet.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. The writing style is awesome--funny and no-nonsense, very personable and easy to read. And there's a ton of resources--all the sources the book cites, as well as a bunch of other informative books, blogs, and articles.