Sara Rue: Happy at Any Size?

I am going to read this.
No wait! I'm not going to continue reading this.
It's simply called changing ones mind, obtaining a new perspective on life and growing up.

I agree with your statement and though there might not be a "magic answer", it is sometimes helpful to be on a program such as Jenny Craig for a supportive boost.

I see what you're saying, but from my experience with Jenny Craig, it was different. My experience was fantastic! I had about 15lbs to lose and they showed me what a real portion was supposed to look like and encouraged me to exercise daily. Most importantly, after the 3rd week, I was taken off their meal plan. So for me, it was well worth it and much less than a nutritionalist or a personal trainer.

It's a commercial, she is selling a product.

I think she is beautiful, chubby or thin. I think she has beautiful skin and hair. :)

What you say makes good sense. Like someone that has a magic pill for good money. If we don't exercise and eat right we might not get results. For some of us it is not so easy all at once. I can tell you how easy it is to fly a small plane ,but can you fly one?

I don't think I'm overweight (size 8, 140 lbs.) - but I am friends with several people who are. It's not as easy as you make it sound and genetics and gender do play quite a roll in things. My husband eats whatever he wants whenever he wants and he's very thin. I'm not as thin as I would like to be, but I can't remember thinking I was okay, even when I was in my twenties and a real size 6.

I agree! People don't understand just how seriously unhealthy a lot of foods are today. The food industry knows that the general public is not educated about health so they put things into the foods just to make them taste good. People need to be educated, because without knowledge you can't do anything about it! People need to know, and food industries need to stop feeding us unhealthy food! My generation of young people are seriously suffering from unhealthy food and constant pressure to be the perfect sized it girl. As a people we need to do an about face and stop this before it gets worse! People die from obesity and it is so awful.

You may think it's a easy as watching what you eat but being a fitness specialist and being on both sides very fit to after twins now with a thyroid problem. You have no idea what it feels like to work out like a crazy person and not loss a pound. It stinks!! I really get it people. It's easy to talk when your all that, been there!

Yes J. Court, God created us all in the same shape and size just like He created us all in the same color, heights, and gender! So, the ONLY reason in your mind that some people have more weight and girth is because they're stupid and lazy, right?
BULL$HIT! There are medical reasons, there are genetic reasons, and yes, there are the stupid lazy people.
You know, I'm considered by some people to be BIG because I shop in plus size shops and wear plus size clothing. My BMI is 17.5. Look it up! I'm considered BIG not because of fat, but because of my height! I'm 6'3" and weigh, OMG, 165 pounds!!!
So, I'm not the size zero that so many people in this country feel you must be or else they feel free to judge you and make comments on your body shape and size.
Of course "fat discrimination" is not only alive and well, it's practiced with abandon and even encouraged! It's the last safe, legal discrimination that can be practiced. It's illegal to discriminate against someone because of their race, gender, sexual preference, etc but its safe, legal, encouraged and even condoned by our government! I guess people need a way that they can make themselves feel better about them by putting someone else down.
Diet and exercise that!

I so agree with your words. You are right on target. The same holds true for the Vitamin industry. If we eat a balanced diet, we really don't need all these vitamin pills that promise the world and deliver nothing.

I have a relative that I would PAY to do Jenny Craig ... it or another PROGRAM is the only way she will survive another 5 years PERIOD. That said, a person has to CHOOSE to lose weight. This FAT writer is in denial if she thinks Rue was a normal weight 50 pounds ago ... she NOW is a normal weight. Some people need HELP and are so stubborn (like you Ms. Writer) that they dont look for it ... yes you only lose weight by 2 things ... increased exercise and lower calories but some people dont know (for some reason) that you can eat an Apple instead of a piece of apple pie and be as if not more full. (Pie, Cake, Ice Cream, Candy, etc. are nice ONCE A WEEK AFTER you lose the weight but not 1-3 times a day and some people dont know that or need a JC Rep or Dietician, or Shrink or ... to help them make better choices.
And its not just dessert ... that bread basket, bag of chips, thick heavy cream sauce, pot verses serving of pasta or potatoes, a bag verses 2-3 almonds ... and on and on. Portion control seems easy when someone offers you celery or carrots ... but M%M's? yeah ...bring on the 3/4 pound bag ... and another.
The money people spend on DIET is much less than they will spend on Diabeties, Heart Disease, Broken Bones, etc. due to OBESITY and if they lose or keep less weight on they will have a healthier life when they reach 40(What you can do before 40 with 50 extra pounds gets very difficult at 40 and 50 and at near impossible at 60.
So GET OFF YOUR HIGH HORSE and do like Im doing right now, turn off the computer, go to the gym and get on the treadmill for an hour ... or else you can just get fat and be crippled ... you have a choice fatty.

I have to disagree with you. Being a plus size woman myself, it isn't always about eating right and exercising. Having had thyroid cancer and an exceptionally slow metabolism, it isn't about eating "right". I wish that society would do some self education about this issue before they go on judging other's with regard to a weight issue. Not everyone who is heavy sits around doing nothing, eating fast food or chocolate all day. I eat right, I exercise and I look the way I do, that will never change. I find those comments void of all intelligence and very mean spirited and personally feel that is the problem with our society today.

Maybe if YOU eat right and exercise, you don't gain weight, but these days, you would be in the minority. Unless we grow our own food and eschew everything in the stores that is processed and prepackaged *ready to eat*, chances are, we aren't eating right. Nearly everything you pick up off a grocery shelf anymore has high fructose corn syrup in it and usually it's the first or second ingredient. THAT ALONE will cause weight gain. It does NOT metabolize *just like sugar*, sugar must be broken down into glucose and fructose, HFCS already is, thus eliminating one step of metabolizing. It also tells your brain you are hungrier than you really are, thus encouraging overeating. Don't even get me started on the mercury.... And that's just ONE of the toxic foods we're encouraged to eat....there's also artificial sweeteners, white sugar, white flour, factory farmed meat and dairy contaminated with pesticides, growth hormones, low dose antibiotics, feces, etc., *diet* foods that are anything but, fast food & even restaurant meals that are *light* but still over a day's worth of calories in one meal....the list goes on and on.

Then there are the myriad of medications that cause weight gain. It's getting to be routine to have a med's side effects include weight gain. People who have to take one or MORE meds that do that gain weight no matter WHAT else they do. In our pharmaceutically oriented medical industry, side effects simply require MORE MEDS to counteract them, EXCEPT for weight gain. Then the Dr. just puts it off on the patient, telling them to exercise and eat right. Wait! You must be a Dr.!!!

Next, we have all the chemicals in our living, working and outdoors environments that create toxicity. In my case, the toxicity is from formaldehyde I've been exposed to for nearly 5 years in the FEMA camper I've been in since Katrina. That caused my thyroid to go haywire and just about shut down. The Dr.s would NOT give me the natural Armour thyroid and INSISTED I take Synthroid. As a result, 50 pounds fell on me in less than 2 months, with another 10 since then. My face, neck and the back of my head broke out in boils and I have extensive scarring from that. I lost about half my hair. I took that med for two years until I just decided I'd had enough of this BS and just QUIT. Now I'm taking natural supplements that support thyroid function. My face started clearing up within a week of stopping Synthroid and after 3 weeks, I've lost 10 pounds, my energy is coming back and what's left of my hair feels better every day. It's not always about exercise and diet.

Let me repeat that, it's not always about exercise and diet!!! With such a narrow minded and bigoted viewpoint that all we need to do is step away from the cookies and up on the stair stepper, I can only hope you walk a mile in the moccasins of all the people you berated here. Nothing like a little personal experience to open one's mind.

Chew on THAT while you're exercising!

@ J.Court-Common sence! Yes, all we've got to do is eat less and move more, and poof! no more weight problems, right! Well if it was easy why are Americans known as the fattest people on the planet. I'm not say you *have* to use Jenny Craig (or other diet centers), but some people really do need extra help in losing weight and if these place can help them, then why not. I've lost weight on my own but I'm currently on Jenny Craig. I think the difference is that I'm not only losing weight I'm learning to kept it off through portion control and recognizing my impulses to over eat. Either way you do it, it's better than sitting on the couch crying and complaining about how fat you've become.

I tried doing a diet and excerices on my own for a long time, and nothing ever worked. I started Jenny Craig in October and I have lost 30lbs so far! They do not require you to buy the food, but rather teach you how to eat properly and how much you need to eat a day. I love going to my councelor every week and getting the extra support that I need...

Some people need others to help them make the right decision. They are neither weak or dumb but just a little help is needed to steer them in the right direction. Eating right and exercising is great but not always on your own

I totally agree!!

Yes, it is common sense to eat right and exercise, but most people don't know how to eat right or they think that exercise is too hard. They were never taught how to eat right. Entire generations grew up eating processed food. Their parents fed them processed food. And nobody thought that there was anything wrong with it. A lot of these people grew up thinking it's normal to eat like this and in turn, that's how they feed *their* kids.

I know this. I am one of these people. My mother rarely cooked from scratch. I grew up thinking that jar spaghetti sauce was normal and tasted better than sauce made from scratch. (I now know otherwise.) We've also been conditioned to think that we don't have time to cook; therefore all our food needs to come out of a box or already prepared.

It's not as easy as just "eating right" or moving around or making an effort to cook from scratch. People have to learn how to do it. If someone is going to a Jenny Craig or taking a nutrition class to learn how to eat properly, then so what? More power to them!!

It is very difficult to unlearn a lifetime of what you were taught is "normal". I'm not saying it can't be done, but it's a very difficult process. My weight problems stem from a lifetime of not being taught how to eat properly and thinking that I can't cook at all if I'm tired. I am probably 20 pounds overweight, but I gain because I fall back on these bad behaviors I am trying to unlearn.