X-Weighted
Canadian broadcasters are required to have a certain amount of Canadian shows to support the Canadian TV business. I find that what Canadians offer is either Murdock Mysteries, odd low budget weight loss shows, or whatever the CBC is on about to do with culture, or politics or both. Yesterday, I turned the channel to a Canadian weight loss show filmed in Toronto called X Weighted, and Oh My God was it interesting. I don’t know about their other episodes but the episode I watched featured elements to weight loss I was blind to. The person the show was trying to help lose weight was a woman earning minimum wage, parenting two teenage sons by herself, and living in the culture of drinking/ eating/ and having a big booty, all to do with culture as well as socioeconomic status. When they showed her environment my immediate reaction was that for her to succeed they would either need to pluck her out of her environment and never let her go back or provide her with lots and lots of therapy for the rest of her life. I had no idea how she was going to succeed, the moment the trainer walked in the door she was defensive. He gave her a new exercise plan, to counter her already devised unsuccessful exercise plan that she wasn’t letting go of. The trainer told her what her new diet needed to be and started throwing away what was in her refrigerator, she started to complain about food prices and feeding two boys on a small salary. I wondered, based upon what her economic necessities were, was this the best choice? It was incredible to see the changes she would go through, the ups and downs of weight loss success and failure. She went strong the first two weeks and lost six pounds, took this as a win and then rewarded herself with chocolate and carbs. She then gained four pounds and made herself feel better with ‘I had a minute with 4 english muffins.’ The entire journey was a series of self-sabotage and unjustified yet feel-good rewards. What really peeked my interest was that on camera she was a fire cracker, not the kind of person you would want to find yourself in a fight with, but if she were on your side you would be happy about it. If she liked an idea she would go for it and give her all to it, but if she didn’t like the idea she would put up an impenetrable stone wall. At one point the show called in a self- esteem expert, he came in to discuss style with her and she was her bubbly funny self, then her two sons started to cause a racket in the next room and you could see the change on her face. She was angry. The self-esteem expert left and all hell broke lose, I don’t know if the sons were fighting each other or fighting her, but she had to physically restrain them using her weight to hold them down. I think that this woman has so many elements against her in her weight loss journey, finances, culture, friends, drinking, children, you name it she is fighting it. On top of all of that, at the end of her episode she was required to host an aerobics class with her family. It went well with her motivating everyone to run around the gym, do push ups, lift weights. However, there was a moment where I think her son forgot where he was, because he picked up the mat looked at his mother as if he was going to launch the mat at her, then noticed the camera and the trainer staring at him, and then he put it down. On top of all this, nothing was her fault, but her environment is a different matter. Everything went along the lines of, I need to be free of this, my sons gave me the chocolate bar, and my favourite, “I have stopped drinking for now, I don’t know what the future will do to me.” Like she has no control over anything, yet the truth is she does have choices, she just couldn’t see them in the moment. I think that the show paid for everything, so those that are dealing with the same issues do not have the same options open to them, such as a trainer working with her daily and salsa dancing lessons. But the truth is, that finances do have an impact, as well as the others that live indoor house, culture is an important consideration. I need to take a look at these finances, as I have heard this myself, that healthy is expensive and unhealthy food choices are cheap.
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Emerald HillOn the quest to lose 50 pounds in a year. Can she do it? Only time will tell....with the help of this blog. Archives
October 2019
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