Hell yeah!

There is a great article in the ContraCosta Times about the image of weight loss we're being fed as a society. The author, Joan Morris, particularly blasts diet companies trying to push the idea that weight loss is quick and easy to sell pills and diet products. Weight loss isn't quick or easy and most of us who achieve it still won't end up looking like a supermodel. We'll be healthier, we'll feel better, but we won't suddenly have the body we had when we were 16. Here's what Morris had to say about the Jenny Craig commercials that tracked Kirstie Alley's very public weight loss.

Kirstie, bless her heart, has dropped a lot of weight, but she hasn't turned into a pencil-thin woman. She still have curves. She still has a stomach. She still has work to do. In other words, she looks like a regular person working her way through weight loss.

But in the commercials, they photograph her mostly from the front, which accentuates her new size until you catch a glimpse of her in profile. Then you realize that part of the weight loss is actually an optical illusion, the product of tight clothes with a slimming cut, or a tummy concealed by a large purse or pillow.

And in trying to hide it from us they are sending the message that there's something wrong here. Kirstie has been dieting for months, and she "still" isn't thin. And because she isn't, then they have to hide it, because heaven knows, a slightly overweight person is just not good business.

The ContraCosta Times also offers a Diet Club. If you want to join, you can e-mail jmorris@cctimes.com