20/20: Celebrity Weight Loss

I’ve got a great topic to discuss tonight so I just want to fly through dinner first.  Tonight was taco night up in here! My fave.

We had ground turkey tacos with all the fixings, or at least all the fixings I had on hand: jalepenos, shredded pepperjack cheese, lettuce, and salsa.

I also sautéed some green peppers on the side for myself and made Billy a salad.

And don’t be fooled, I went back for more after I devoured this plateful:

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Now on to more interesting things…

Last Friday night, ABC did a 20/20 show on weight loss called “Losing It: The Big Fat Trap.”  I found it incredibly interesting and I’ve been watching the video clips from the episode again all week.  There are quite a few different topics they discussed, so I’ll probably break them up into a few different posts so I can cover everything.

If you’re interested in watching the full episode yourself, click here.  I think you’ll be glad you did.

They started the show out by stating that one-third of Americans are currently obese; that is, not just overweight, but 37.5% are obese.  By 2030, that number is expected to rise to 42%.  Staggering, to say the least, but not entirely new information.  Everywhere you go, it’s clear that America’s headed in completely the wrong direction in regards to food.

It’s also no secret that celebrities are leading the way in weight loss, promoting products that will supposedly help you shed pounds – and fast.  All you have to do is turn on the TV or walk through the check-out line in the grocery store, and you’re immediately hit with all kinds of headlines about how easy it is for celebrities to get fit. Companies like Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers, and Jenny Craig make billions of dollars every year endorsing famous faces like Kirstie Alley, Valerie Bertinelli, Janet Jackson, Jennifer Hudson, and the newly rumored Jessica Simpson.

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The Kardashian clan even has their own line of weight loss products, claiming nothing short of miracles.

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All of this attention obviously makes us regular people wonder how they do it.  Where does their will power come from?  Why doesn’t it work for me?  Well as an interviewee on the show puts it, ”It’s pretty easy to have will power on a diet plan when you’re being paid millions of dollars to lose those pounds.”  It doesn’t get much simpler than that.

The show claimed that Valerie Bertinelli was paid around $60,000 per pound lost.  $60,000 per pound, people!  I’m pretty sure there’s not too many people out there who couldn’t drop weight for that kind of cash.  But that still doesn’t mean it was easy.  Or in some cases, healthy.  (Taylor Kitsch said on Ellen yesterday that he dropped 35 pounds in two months eating broccoli, fruit, and coffee… although he did also mention that he doesn’t endorse this.)  And it surely doesn’t mean that it was all because of some super-strong internal will power only borne among celebrities.

What it does mean is that money can be a serious motivator.  And money also buys things like personal trainers, chefs, dieticians, and nutritionists – things that many of us civilians don’t have access to, things that make weight loss look easy when you don’t see the painstaking workouts, healthy dinners, body analysis measures (and paychecks) behind the scenes.

So the bottom line is, don’t be fooled by the glitz, glamour, and beautiful bodies of Hollywood; they’re just people too.  People who have to work hard for results, like anyone else. Just because you don’t see that happening doesn’t mean it’s not true.  A human body is a human body, regardless of the team of weight loss professionals behind it.

But if you’re like me and aren’t lucky enough to have a million dollar team or a multimillion dollar paycheck behind you, just know that it’s still possible.  Just because we’re commoners certainly doesn’t mean we have to be fat.  It might mean that we have to be the ones to kick ourselves in the butt instead of paying someone to do it for us, but it’s worth it.

Your health is worth it!

Questions:

What celebrity health fads have you seen?

Do you find yourself being sucked in to celebrity weight loss endorsements?