Size...

TT update

I just finished week 3 of my (restarted) TT challenge and did my weigh in. So far I'm down 2.2kg. According to my Tanita scales, I've actually lost 4kg of fat and gained 2kg of lean mass. I think my scales are telling porkies, but at least they are flattering ones. So far I'm pleased. I've set myself some mini-goals, the first one being to get under 60kg. Today I am 60.1.. so very close. Last week I only managed two workouts due to travelling and -uh- partying, then getting the flu, but they were good ones!

Super Skinny Me

If this post seems familiar, it's because fitness bloggers worldwide been experienced some sort of funky global synchronicity in their TV watching habits. I saw the Super Skinny Me documentary about three weeks ago and found it to be mind expanding tv and bloody good journalism, which is an almost unheard of thing. Two jounalists, both of normal weight and normal eating habits are set a task to skinny themselves down to the hollywood nirvana of size zero. That's the size of Posh, or Nicole Richie. What do you think happened? Two normal women became food obsessed, eating disordered neurotics. Neither of them expected the psychological disruption that seemed to be caused by the dieting. One of them developed bulimia and had to quit the experiment. The other persisted, while dealing with constant thoughts of food and bouts of binge eating as well as the mental ups and downs of being a slave to that scale. In short, she started a war with her body, when previously she had been mostly at peace with it. One of the reasons that I found this program so interesting is that it showed a reverse cause and effect relationship between dieting and other issues. If you have experienced eating disorder then you'll know that often we are told that 'it's not about the food' but that there are underlying issues that caused us to be unhappy about our bodies in the first place. I remember my first diet, I was 16. It was the 'Victoria Principal Bikini Diet' from a magazine. At that point I did not have serious issues, I just wanted to be a bit thinner. When my body failed to drop 3kg in a week I began to dislike it, I dieted harder, I developed further body issues and eventually serious eating disorders. So, it really is a question of 'what came first, the disorder or the diet?'. Perhaps dieting is not so much an 'effect' as a 'cause' of disordered eating and body image issues. Something to think about.