Media

Is it me, or do the holidays bring a greater onslaught of anti-weight gain advertising?  It used to be the diet commercials and products surfaced after the new year, just in time for resolutions.  Now, we're expected to not gain weight during the myriad of holiday parties, admittedly we will fail at that, and then we will sign up for Jenny Craig to get rid of the pounds we inevitably gained because we tried so hard not to.

Sure it's bothersome these targeted advertising is happening sooner, but what is more "get under your skin" pathetic is that this is all ED thinking.  My holidays were littered with those thoughts and conflicts - how will I attend these X amount of parties without gaining?  What exactly will I eat, and how exactly will I get rid of it?  I can't wait until January 1 when I can start my diet and lose all that holiday weight, or really, any weight.

Even more bothersome is the fact that as a society, we are getting smarter about our media but we still fall for the weight loss gimmicks.  We are becoming more critical of things we hear in the news, generally.  The best example recently was the Ebola scare.  Yes, having Ebola in the US is a frightening thing to deal with, but the way the media treated really put everyone into a frenzy.  Sure enough, a few weeks later, the hype is gone (what is not gone is Ebola itself, all over the world for, well, let's just think of the reasons why, but those issues are another post and blog altogether.)

So if the news media is coming at us about Ebola, and we cry wolf, why is it we believe every single study, article, tidbit, fact/opinion about losing weight?  Is it that all the mentioning have become so commonplace?  I'd admit that this could be true.  The more we hear the same message over and over again, we become quite literally deaf to it.  We stop looking at it with a critical eye, throw our hands up in the air and just say "well, I guess it's true".

Through my own recovery, I've had to listen up even harder to the messages surrounding weight, food and body.  I've had to dissect the bombardment of campaigns that tell me every day that I am not good enough, but I need to love my body anyways.  I need remember that I am fortunate enough to be smart, educated (both in school and life) and know I can use that power to say no to what I see every day, to realize that I am good enough, that my body is different, but just fine. 

How can we all do this?  It's easy to listen to the television and accept it as is.  It takes considerable time, naysaying and thoughtfulness to say "wait, I don't think so".  Perhaps it takes just a bit more time to come up with the why.  But one thing I know is that all the time spent worrying about my weight, what I ate and how I exercised did nothing to make me feel good about myself, and the messages kept coming to support my ill-advised efforts to be skinny.  So instead, I can use that time to be critical of what I read and hear, and guess what?  All this does make me feel better, with just a little power, I can control my own body and life.  I didn't worry about getting Ebola, so I am not going to worry if I am thin or not.