a weighty rant…

I have a 14 year old daughter. Regular readers know that.

She swims- a lot. About 10 hours a week- her choice. She also does a couple of cardio sessions with me at the gym and eats whole food- most of the time. She is strong, healthy, fit and very rarely ill. She isn’t fashionably thin and I’m incredibly proud of her.

Despite what she reads and hears, for the most time she has a healthy body image. That is, except for when she tried to fit into skinny jeans that are cut for women without hips, bums or other normal body parts. Even then she shrugs and goes for a different style.

I asked once if it worried her- not being super skinny- and she looked at me like I was from a different planet and told me that those girls couldn’t do one of Vera’s butterfly sessions.  She never gets sick and her body does what she needs it to do. She has no idea what she weighs and (so far) doesn’t care. She gets the whole moderation thing in a way I never have.

Firstly I wonder at how someone who is as hung up about her weight as I am produced someone as together as she seems to be. Next I wonder how I can encourage that attitude. Then I wonder what I’m doing to hinder that attitude. After that I wonder at my level of hypocrisy- given that I am writing an Astro book about weight management. Then I wonder what I can do to help keep her self-image as healthy as it is…especially in view of the crap she hears from me and the crap we heard on a top rating breakfast show yesterday.

The producers staged an “intervention” on Jackie O- a woman who is seriously hot. I’ve done my own extensive research- ok I asked hubby, my BMF and some of the guys on my hubbys football team- and they all agree… Google some images and you’ll see what I mean.

Yet she has now ballooned up to…wait for it…66kgs. OMFG. 66kgs. Hardly obese and hardly cause for intervention. The phrases “nothing is working” and “desperate measures” were thrown around. Desperate measures called for 66 kilos? I’ll say it again. OMFG.

Now, I get that Australia is probably the 2^nd fattest nation in the world, and anything that can raise the issue of healthy living to the population has to be a good thing. Right? But a fat intervention on a 66kg supremely hot woman because they have reached the stage where desperate measures are required? Seriously?

An intervention on me I could cope with- I need that kick up the bum and I need to lose a lot more than 6kgs- probably 3 times that. My weight is compromising my health and my self esteem. My goal weight is what Jackie O currently weighs! Ok, my maths aren’t great.

To keep it real, the producers have given Jackie 6 weeks to lose the weight or they will pop a photo of her in a bikini at her current weight on the station website.

6 kilos in 6 weeks- at a starting weight of 66kgs? At the risk of repeating myself, OMFG. I’m sorry, but I don’t hear anything sensible or healthy in any part of this. I get that she wants to look even hotter, and will be more comfortable and healthier at her usual 60kgs, but guys let’s be sending a better, more responsible, message to the audience. Surely aiming for a 0.5kg loss per week would be more realistic- and promote a healthier approach yet still give results that the listeners could be encouraged by? Remember guys, it’s healthy living and attitudes we’re trying to achieve here.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Jackie O. To me she always sounds like sunshine- positive, optimistic. But my mother always taught me to talk about the weather if I can’t say anything nice- so rather than comment on the others involved, I will say that it’s very cold this morning.

I guess my issue is that my daughter listens to this- and she commented on it. Her friends listen to it- and many of them are already on diets. All the time.

I overheard a girl in a hotel lift on Saturday telling her friends how her new diet is working. It’s great, she said. She eats twice a day- once at about 6pm, and then something small at about midnight. What would you eat at midnight, her friend asked. Oh, you, know, redskins, lollies- something without fat. She then proudly announced how she can drink as much as she wants and doesn’t need to exercise- because that’s uncool. Anyway, she’s lost a kilo a week and still gets to party.

I’m hoping she’s the exception.

Me? I want to be more like my daughter. I want her attitude. And I don’t want her attitude to change. In fact, I’m going to work harder to learn what she seems to already know.