chaos in oneself

overthrow

I'm struck by diet ads. To be precise, I'm struck by some new television diet ads for two companies: weight w@tchers and slim f@st.

First, slim f@st. The ad is for a new protein meal replacement bar. Same old stuff. Predictable: decapitated bodies, dancing around seeming happy and active. Except. Except for the bodies pictured. They aren't super skinny or athletic. These bodies are rounded with actual stomachs. The kind of body that I had 10 lbs ago. Not overweight. But not the "after" diet image to which I am accustomed.

Next: weight w@tchers. This commercial seems like a take-off of the Curve$ commericals that I like. In the WW commercial, a voice over talks about how (I butcher these "quotes" due way too much partying in high school and college--aka memory loss) "there a is place where you are not the only one who knows what it's like to be the fattest woman in a room, who has tried to change and failed.....come to this place and watch yourself change." The images at the beginning of the voice over are of a not too fat woman walking around alone in a black (sleeveless!) dress, a woman trying, but giving up on exercise (and so forth, I forget the rest). As the women embrace the WW lifestyle, we see a happy woman playing with her children, another one swimming along in her bathing suit, and so on. The commercial ends with a group of women, all in white suits, stepping out of what looks like a party, laughing and talking. The catch: again, no real before and after shots. That is, the "happy" women at the end of the commercial do not look any different than they do at the beginning of the commercial. Similar to the slim f@st commercial, these models are hardly fat, but they aren't your typical "after" images.

What's going on here? Do these two commerical signify a radical feminist overthrowing of the diet and exercise industry? (of which I buy into, I know, I know). Why aren't we being sold thin images of success? Are these commericals implying that we have to redefine what it means to succeed on a diet? Or am I projecting because I finally admitted to myself today that I don't want to get back on my diet program and proceeded to berate myself for "quitting"? (More on this in a future post.) The WW commercial suggests that the real change that occurs is internal, not external, in that the weight of the models doesn't change. What changes is the way in which the characters understand, or see, themselves. They aren't the fattest woman at a party anymore because they know that there are lots of other fat women at the party. OK, I think that the message is supposed to be more uplifting than that--more like, they don't care or love themselves anyway or are working on changing that behavior or something.

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Monday: 30 mins on the arc-trainer. A lifetime shopping with friends. No vegetables. No binges either.

Tuesday: 45 mins run/walk. Real, real tired. Lift: at home. Upper/lower. 3 heavy sets. Walk in afternoon. Significant PMS. I'll let you fill in the blanks.

I fear that I will have to buy new pants soon. But I'm too much of a coward to get on the scale and face the recent weight gain. Honestly, I really don't want to change. I don't want to limit what I can eat. So I'm not going to.

posted by chaos @ 7:00 PM