Archive for January 3rd, 2009

I’m planning on bringing out a blog post tomorrow on the YES Diet Book by local health coaches Debbie Shroeder and Liz Smith. In order to review a book, you have to read it, which is what I”m doing now, and it’s making me a bit worried — have I done enough about my diet and weight? Although my poundage is in the  higher end of the “acceptable” range at the moment, last time I checked a weight chart I still think being thinner would be better. Don’t they say you can’t be too rich or too thin? I read somewhere that going around hungry all the time is actually healthy for you. So if I go by the  ”well nourished” American weight standard, is there the possibility that I’m still not thin enough? Are supermodels healthy? Would they be considered healthy in the Third World, where overweighness just isn’t an issue?

Weight loss is relative, of course, and how heavy you are supposed to be depends on whether you’re in LA or Somalia. And our American fixation on food lends us to a severe irony of the contrast between constant food advertising and promotion and the continual stream of dieting ideas and news.

What one needs is a voice of reason. I’m sending off an email right now to Smith and Schroeder with some questions about the difficultly of getting healthy food as opposed to junk, in Fort Worth and America at large, and to ask whether in this age of personal trainers working people can afford the time and money to be thin. I’d like to know, too, whether they agree that American culture is to blame for the health and weight crisis. Hopefully, their answers will help me to determine if I need to do more than walk the dog and go to the gym once or twice a week.

I’ll be back with more on this tomorrow.