Weight Loss
WhenI started this column, I vowed I wouldn’t write about my weight. Or diets. I figured if you’re female, you have enough going on in your own head. If you’re male, well, you don’t need it confirmed that we’re all bonkers.
But I’m not one for self-imposed rules. And with so many young women seeing body image as the greatest concern of their lives, I don’t think ignoring it is going to help. So, let’s talk about weight. We’ll start with mine.
For the past few years, I’ve had no idea what I weigh. I’m a words, not a numbers girl, so rather than curse the scales, I’ll realise my thighs feel a bit flabby, or – as has been the case this autumn – my jeans are a bit tight.
Continue reading "I’d rather climb a mountain than stick to a “diet”" »
There was some interesting opinion ping-pong going on between The Punch and the ABC’s The Drum opinion site this week. On The Punch, dietician Susie Burrell advised ditching friends who “drink too much, eat too much and are overweight” and who encouraged the same unhealthy habits in us.
Over on the ABC site, an outraged Lydia Jade Turner, clinical director at BodyMatters Australasia, hit back at Burrell’s take on obesity point for point.
The two made interesting reading, and I was happily making my way to the end of Turner’s piece when one sentence gave me pause. She stated: “The best thing we can do for our health is focus on health-giving behaviours, and allow our weight to fall where it will.”
Continue reading "Fat acceptance might help your ego, but it could kill you" »
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Rquick says:
This post is all over the place. Bottom line people are people. Why are fat people being condemned? Is the author of this post an MD because she seems to be doing an awful lot of diagnosing. The only thing you can tell from a persons size is their size.… Read more »
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Paige says:
I hear the most anti-thin/slim comments come from women, as well as the most excuses. Food for thought… Read more »
A new person entering a small workplace will inevitably alter the human equilibrium. Just as chaos theory predicts the fluttering of a butterfly wing can cause a cataclysmic event, the introduction of small habits can have big consequences.
Enter Jo: a talented, hard working and very personable colleague who has wonderfully enhanced our office in every respect… bar one. Jo has brought a coffee machine. As a garnish to the coffee she has beside her desk a jar of chocolates.
In many ways my life has been characterised by a stormy relationship with chocolate. True it is that in a world of shifting sands and moving goal posts chocolate has been a constant friend delivering consistent satisfaction on demand. Yet the legacy on my waist has been a girth approaching the dimensions of the MCG.
Continue reading "My bittersweet relationship with a sweet brown mistress" »
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Paul says:
Some idiot always has to weasel in their anti-religious comments. Where in Easter Bunny’s name is your invitation to rabbit on about (anti) religion on this blog? Keep on topic or choc off! Read more »
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stephen says:
Talking about colour, the channel 10 weather girl tonight is wearing orange and aquamarine ... and there’s our next colours for our new flag. Plus about, hmmm, up to 10% of white. Perfect. Read more »
There’s a steaming pile of rubbish out there about health. There’s plenty of money to be made from offering too-good-to-be-true remedies.
Yesterday I was writing a couple of news stories about ways in which people get bamboozled by health-related information and then I started firing up a Punch piece on them. Then I realised I’d written it all before. Bullshit is everywhere, and it’s a billion-dollar industry and people want magic pills.
So rather than repeat myself I thought I’d just list five of the stories that have crossed my desk recently and made me want to tear out my hair and run screaming into the street. And if you know of others, let me know. It’s not that we ever run short of subjects for The Punch’s regular I Call Bullshit column, but there’s a sadistic pleasure in seeing that particular cup runneth over.
Continue reading "Five dumb health mistakes even smart people make" »
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TracyS says:
Are walking and running really the only exercise options??? The best advice I’ve ever heard is for people to do the exercise that they enjoy so that they are more likely to stick with it - whatever type of exercise it is will be better than doing none. For the… Read more »
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Xar says:
The Conversation covered all of these topics to much greater depth in their Medical Myth section and other articles under the topic of health over the last year or so. I mean, good to bring them up and all but having read the others it just leaves me feeling the… Read more »
As politicians reconvened in Canberra this week, Liberal MP Malcolm Turnbull was asked how he’d managed to shed 14kg over the summer hiatus.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve learnt,” he responded. “This may seem like a penetrating glimpse of the obvious – but it is an insight that most of us ignore because it is too painful: the way to lose weight is to eat less.”
Let’s hear that again.
“The way to lose weight is to eat less.”
Continue reading "Ideas from the University of the Bleeding Obvious" »
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lucy 2 shoes says:
yeah & the yanks hate obama, uk hates cameron, france hates sarkozy, germany hates merkel….ah, oh whats the pattern here - duh aussies are so short sighted - the $ & time abbott has wasted by just throwing ‘molotov’s’ is a joke - the chinese must P…..themselves laughing at our… Read more »
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Chris L says:
@GLM - That’s not where the discrepancy is. What we’re getting is a Carbon Price and Gillard voiced her commitment to this in the same address as the “No Carbon Tax” quote that people keep parrotting. The fact that a small and misleading sound bite is being used dishonestly to… Read more »
“Some day, far into the future, this here machine will become a powerful medium with the potential to unite nations and inspire common folk through high-definition images of overweight D-list celebrities struggling to run and weeping atop rowing machines”.
Do you know to whom this quote - which is believed to have been uttered at the unveiling of the first television set - is most commonly attributed to?
Nobody. Absolutely no one said this.
Continue reading "If we wanted reality, we’d turn off the television" »
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aspirin says:
Why do you think most countries are now implementing internet “filters”? It potentially lays the foundation for information control. The constant saturation of “reality” garbage is deliberate I reckon, and if some of the shows don’t take, its just another roadkill on the highway to zombie-ville. Interesting that most -… Read more »
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Jason Todd says:
I still think Tony Martin’s suggestion of a combination of the two would be great. “Round Trip”, Start fat, get skinny, get fat again. Or alternatively, start skinny, get fat, get skinny again. First one to wind up exactly where they started is the winner. Read more »
Like many Australians, I spent the Christmas holidays growing as a person.
Unfortunately, I’m talking literally.
Over the summer months, I fed liberally from the five festive food groups: the rum ball group; the mayonnaise group; the house-made-of-stale-gingerbread group; the looks-like-the-placenta-scene-out-of-Poltergeist trifle group; and, of course, the furtive-third-helping-of-pavlova group.
Continue reading "The temptation of forbidden fruit: Why I can’t Dukan" »
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lj says:
To all those on here critising the diet, do any of you actually know what’s involved ? or what the final aim / target of the diet is ? The dukan diet DOES allow veg, and once your on the third of the 4 phases, you’re even allowed chocolate, and… Read more »
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Lj says:
“We never had the supply of meat as we do now thanks to factory farms” maybe I misconstrued what your’re trying to say here, but I would have though that ‘back in the day’, it would have been easier to spear a deer, or net some fish, rather than set… Read more »
Welcome to this week’s I Call Bullshit, a regular column where we pick apart mischievous misrepresentations, balderdash, and outright bunkum. This week, with bulging bellies, blurry brains and labouring livers, we’re taking a look at detox diets.
It’s easy to see the appeal of a detox. You’ve been shovelling twenty kinds of crap into your poor system, you can sense it’s struggling to cope, and you want to turn back the clock.
Like a very Earthly Confession, you want to wipe away your sins with a few Hail Marys, some lemons and dash of cayenne.
Continue reading "ICB: Magic detox diets - just intoxicating marketing?" »
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I caught up with a group of old workmates just before Christmas and couldn’t believe my eyes.
In the 12 months since our last festive fizz, they’d all shrunk – and by a sizeable amount.
“I’ve lost 16 kilos,” cried one gleefully.
“Ten!” said another.
“More than 20,” said a third.
Continue reading "Think you can’t keep that resolution? Think again." »
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Mademoiselle Slimalicous says:
Happy New Year! Interesting post, I like it! To help my fellow bloggers sticking to their diet related New Year’s resolutions, I’m currently running a giveaway (open to aussies) on my blog to win a copy of bestseller: “French Women Don’t Get Fat”. This books is about NOT DIETING, but… Read more »
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Ed says:
... and he has not noticed that eating less has lost you 21kg? Sounds to me like it’s time to lose him as well… Read more »
I like the name ‘Nestlé’.
You can say it softly (nestle) or with that European flamboyance (Nestlé!).
And there’s just something about the logo that gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling.
Continue reading "The day Nestlé gobbled Jenny Craig all up" »
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M says:
James people may not like you as you might drive them away now, with your self loathing and maybe when you were skinny you had issues that turned people against you, like maybe personality traits or maybe you didn’t like yourself as a person and therefore hid those things about… Read more »
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leah says:
I blame you for my impending obesity. violet crumble overload! wow. Read more »
Damn it’s tough to lose weight in mid-age.
I think back to my 20s and 30s when see sawing weight meant gaining just a few kilos and the top end of my weight spectrum was 12 kilos lighter than I am now.
I tried a personal trainer but having to drive across the city to exercise in the dark was a drag.
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