Monday, November 26, 2007

Skinny Crazy

I read today about Brittney Spears’s latest addiction: LipoDissolve. It’s a process in which doctors inject soybean derivatives into the body’s fatty areas. The procedure is said dissolve fat cells in a matter of weeks. Spears’s sources have even been quoted as saying “It’s like a tummy tuck without surgery.” We all know about Brittney Spears’s laundry list of bizarre endeavors, and this is certainly not the weirdest of her weird. The scary part, however, is it’s not just Brittney Spears participating in Hollywood’s latest weight loss trend. The trendy Las Vegas spa Spears was caught entering is catering to the rich and famous daily. Walking in fat and flabby and walking out fit and fabulous without a bit of the work, sounds like a dream come true. But shooting needles full of unknown substances into my body sounds just a little scary to me. Reading about the disturbing lengths Hollywood’s hottest are willing to go to leaves me with little hope for the young girls who look up to the ever shrinking starlets.

I don’t necessarily blame them. It’s hard not to get sucked into thinking thin is in. I fight daily with the desire to be skinny and fast. Healthy is hard work. And just when I was feeling like there was no hope, I opened up the latest issue of Fitness magazine to hear Kelly Ripa, Hollywood’s sweetheart and mommy-next-door, talking candidly about her healthy slim down. Starting out slow, and working her way up to ass-kicking sculpting classes, Ripa can relate to every woman out there. She gave up smoking, lowered her cholesterol intake, and started working out at least four times a week. Even though she appears to be superwoman, Ripa is subjected to the same self conscious kryptonite all women are. She admits to wearing her “good butt jeans” on a bad day and needing the boost of a good compliment every once in a while. Kelly Ripa made having the Hollywood body human and most importantly attainable. But what impressed me most was her awareness that skinny isn’t everything. She said, “I like to think my daughter will never hear me say the words ‘Do I look fat in this?’” Maybe we should all take a lesson from Kelly, take a long run and throw on those perfect jeans to show off all our hard work to the world.

1 comment:

Pylon said...

Today, I was in the Union, and I heard two girls discussing get-skinny-quick schemes. The conversation ranged. One girl suggested that instead of meals, just eat snack here and there throughout the day. That way, your metabolism is constantly active as it digests, and you lose weight. The other girl talked about only allowing herself one small meal a day and no snacks. She also talked about starving yourself, then binge eating. All this made me wonder. Why can’t people strive to be healthy rather than skinny? Your post about Kelly Ripa is a good example. She got into shape slowly, reduced the unhealthy factors in her life (like smoking and high cholesterol), and is continuing her fitness regime. Kelly Ripa isn’t focused on staying skinny. These girls in the Union were. They didn’t sound like they cared about the effects strange diets might have on their bodies; they weren’t concerned with exercising to trim off weight. They just wanted to lose a few pounds. I know that we all would like to lose a few pounds, but I agree with the general concept of this post. The way to lose weight is to eat right and exercise regularly, not invest in Britney Spear’s “LipoDissolve” or any other shortcut or surgery.