Weight Loss Companies Prey on Womens Greatest Fears‎

From the time I was about 10 years old, I've been a consumer of燿iet programsand products -- from weight loss camp to diet pills, diet frozen dinners to weight loss support groups.

At the same time, I've always been confident, outgoing, and had a strong sense of self, never hesitating to know or to communicate爓ho I am. And that has been the truth no matter where the scale has gone.

But the folks behind weight loss programs, pills, supplements, foods, and support groups want me -- and women like me -- to think otherwise. They'd rather our sense of爏elf-worth燼nd爄dentity爓as inextricably woven to our爓eight.?/p>

I realized this recently when I saw two posters at a Weight Watchers center, which display the following boasts from now-thin women: "When I look in the mirror, I see爐he real me" and "Now I'm爐he person I always wanted to be."

I couldn't help but notice that these were the messages exclusively from and targeting women ... Women like a lady in one of my WW meetings, actually, who called the leader's bluff and remarked that she's燼lways爓orn fashionable clothes and loved how she looks in them, no matter what size she's fit into.?/p>

GM Diet

The point she was making was loud and clear:燡ust because you have some weight to lose doesn't mean you should be having an identity crisis!

Negative Calorie

After all,爉en燼ren't being told that they need to drop the pounds to be the person they've always wanted to be. In fact, the WW poster from and爁or爉en read, "You can do this." That's all. No mention of self-worth, the mirror,爐he爎eal him. No, all爃e爊eeds is a little Tony Robbins-style motivational tap.

I'm a Lifetime Weight Watcher, currently on the new PointsPlus program leading up to my wedding. I approve of the plan itself for the most part as a great way to learn and adhere to healthy lifestyle habits. But noticing how these two campaigns are like night and day really underlined a mega, double-edged problem when it comes to what Weight Watchers and similar companies are selling women燼nd爓hat we're buying. It's so disappointing to see how these commercial diets continue to steer us into a dangerous trap: Tying up爓ho we are燼s people, our minds and souls, with our weight. Telling us that if we're overweight, we must not be our authentic selves.

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