OK, it’s that time of year again. Although actually, it seems that any time of year is a time of year to screen programmes about how to diet.

My Big Fat Diet Show is Channel 4’s latest offering and I have to say that, rather than annoy my partner by shouting at the TV, I did just switch it off after about ten minutes. But ten minutes was more than enough.

The show is described by the programme-makers as an “interactive diet along” hosted by Supersize versus Superskinny presenter and “serial dieter” Anna Richardson.

Well, that’s a good start then, isn’t it. Someone who describes themselves as ‘a serial dieter’ surely isn’t the best person to show people how to be the weight and shape they want to be permanently? Or am I missing something?

There’s more. Richardson is accompanied by six “diet divas”, a group of women who will be dieting along with her.

So, hey, now you can be a diva of the diet, girls. Whoo-hoo. What fun. Let’s all go on one together. It’lll be such fun. (Sorry. I will do my best to keep my sarcasm at bay.)

Over the next two weeks, these women will ‘try to drop a dress size’ (don’t even get me started on ‘trying’ to do something versus just doing it) and, by eating a 1200-calories-a-day diet, they will lose weight. At the end of the two weeks, they will introduce more calories. It’s safe, easy and it’s a great TV show. Ta-da.

Over at Channel 4’s promotional web site for the programme Anna Richardson tells us more about why she describes herself as a ’serial dieter:’
She says:

‘I’ve just done three series of Supersize vs Superskinny, and in series one, my job was to investigate and immerse myself in the world of extreme diets. So I started off that series back in 2007 at 11 and a half stone. Every week for eight weeks, I had to try a different approach. So week one, I had to try the apple diet, week two I tried diet pills, week three I tried surgery. I tried everything going. Over the course of about a year and a half, I successfully lost two stone. I have, over the years, tried every single diet going, and for the first time in 20 years, I have found my own way of eating, that has made me really quite a successful dieter.’

Now, pardon me, but if I am not mistaken, in the course of her investigations for Supersize, Richardson discovered that hypnotherapy was actually the single most helpful method that she used to change her eating habits. Oh, yes, here is my article on that very programme, right here.

Because in that programme, which aired in February 2008, Richardson worked with London-based hypnotherapist, Marisa Peer, to get some marvellous results. In fact, so highly did she recommend hypnotherapy as a means of letting go of unhelpful habits and emotions around food and eating that I had a deluge of phone calls after the programme aired.

So why, now, is Channel 4 churning out the same old boring nonsense about diets – when, in fact, we know from its very own programming that diets are not an effective way of losing wieght and that making changes to the way you think about food and practising, every day, a mindset of healthful eating is the very best way to help people to feel and look good? It seems cynical in the extreme.

Here are Anna’s final words on the subject, again from the programme web site:

‘But 1200 calories doesn’t sound like much. It’s okay to do that for two weeks?’

‘Yes, it’s absolutely safe to do that for two weeks. It’s meant to be a kick-start. You can safely lose a few pounds in that time. After that, yes, of course you increase your calories, but you do it in a healthy way.’

Ahem. Excuse me?

The thing that most people I work with know how to do is to go on a diet for a couple of weeks/months/years and then come off the diet and struggle with maintaining a healthy weight. Of course, you will lose weight if you follow a very rigid restricted eating plan and do some exercise, but few people can hope to maintain that plan for very long. And it’s certainly not a very healthy or enjoyable thing to be doing with your precious life.

Why not give people some information they don’t yet know? Why not give them something new? Why not give people the benefits of your own investigations into healthy ways to lose weight by working with a hypnotherapist to help people to understand how to get a powerfully healthy, happy, focused mindset, Channel 4?

Grrrr…

My advice: forget ‘diet-along.’ Instead, follow the celebs, who seem to have discovered what really works. Follow the example of Lily Allen and Sophie Dahl and work with an experienced hypnotherapist to make some permanent changes, healthy changes that you can maintain and enjoy.

If you want to drop a dress size, start with dropping the diet mentality and get yourself a new way of thinking.

Tags: diet, My Big Fat Diet Show, weight loss
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Oh, dear, oh dear.

According to this article in The Telegraph, women will ’start Christmas diets today.’

Apparently ‘around 58 per cent of women plan to shed some pounds before their office party to make sure they are looking their best.’

The research was carried about by British Lion eggs who are keen to ‘debunk the”myth” ‘  that eggs raise cholesterol levels. A spokesman said:

‘The Christmas party has become one of the biggest events of the year, and for many, it’s an ideal time to impress a male colleague to be the envy of your female workmates,” he said.

So while January is well-known to be the time Britons detox to try to undo the Christmas indulgence, this study shows that women are also dieting in the run-up to festive season as well.’

I am not too keen on what seems to me a rather chauvinistic interpretation of the data from this research, portraying womankind desperately scrambling to impress the alpha-males in our workplace. After all, we know, don’t we, that the best way to make an impression at the office party is to drink lots of cheap punch, do knee-skids across the dance floor, show off our best John Travolta moves and play air guitar. That’s all that really matters… Ha, ha, ha.

However, there is a nugget of common sense to be redeemed from this article.

The anonymous spokesmen also says: ‘But simply cutting food out won’t work. The best way to lose weight is to eat sensibly and have three balanced meals a day, particularly breakfast.’ (He then goes on to advocate eggs for breakfast.)

Later in the article it turns out that the ‘research’ on dieting conducted  by British Lion eggs is, in fact, a poll of 3,000 women. The poll apparently found that:

‘While 71 per cent will eat a healthy balanced diet to shed the pounds, almost one in ten plan to skip the odd meal completely.

Another four per cent will cut out breakfast from their daily routine.

The poll of 3,000 women revealed 14 per cent even buy their party outfit in a size they know is too small in the hope they will fit into it by the time the big event arrives.

But more than half of those have had to buy an emergency outfit after failing to lose the weight in time.’

Hmmmm…

And here are more stats from the poll:

‘21 per cent of those who usually diet in the run-up to Christmas say they normally always put the weight straight back on during the festive period.

Another 17 per cent have usually gone back to their pre-diet size once the New Year is under way.’

Oh, dear. Why, oh why, are we doing this to ourselves? You know, if you have ever put the wrong fuel in your car, I bet you modified your behavior pretty quickly to make sure you never repeated that costly damage to the engine. I bet you learned pretty quickly that your car did not run very well at all on the wrong fuel. So why do so many of us keep on doing the same old stuff that doesn’t work when it comes to our infinitely less replaceable and mendable bodies?

If you’ve been thinking of going on a diet, it can be very helpful to have something to aim for and visualising yourself feeling fabulous and sexy at a Christmas party can be a powerful motivator.

However, eating a healthy balanced diet and exercising regularly – adopting the mindset of someone who eats healthily and knows how to enjoy maintaining that health -  is going to be much, much more effective than faddy dieting, skipping meals, special diet foods and other ‘quick fix’ craziness.

I know that if I say to myself ‘I am forbidden to eat that delicious chocolate I love, no more chocolate for me…’ then all I can think about and see and taste and smell is that chocolate. That kind of thinking just doesn’t work.

Neither does putting myself on a miserable self-imposed diet. I often find that some of the people I work with are just not eating enough to fuel their metabolism. They are experts on all the different ‘points’ and ’sins’ and calorie counting they have tried over the years; or have literally been surviving on a couple of lettuce leafs and a Ryvita for lunch and then wondering why they are constantly thinking about food and ‘binging’ in the evenings.

Personally, I am getting back into shape after a period of time this summer where I couldn’t exercise and – what a surprise! – a few pounds crept on. I am focusing on how good I feel when I exercise, what it does for my energy and health, my general well-being. When I talk to myself like that, it’s a pleasure to get myself to the gym. I love that feeling.

Your self-esteem does not have to be tied to the office party. You can make changes to your eating and exercise habits because you want to do that; and you can feel wonderful any time you choose. If you need some support to (re)learn how to do that, why not get some professional help from someone who understands that it is your mind and not magic diet foods that will help you to feel good and stay healthy.

Tags: diet, hypnotherapy weight
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