Beauty can mean so many things to so many people, but here we mean what does it mean to you and how you perceive yourself and how you feel others see you?  How many times have you heard people say, ‘True beauty comes from within?’ You may have heard it said several times by someone from your close family, perhaps when you were a teenager, stressing about your muffin top, the latest bout of acne or another body issue. While you may have believed this advice to be intrinsically true, you probably disregarded it as being irrelevant to your life.

Unfortunately, it seems women rarely grow out of this behaviour and while repeating the same messages to our children and believing it most passionately for them, we still find ourselves clinging like a limpet to the Western ideal of beauty. If only we could lose a few pounds, were a few inches taller, banish cellulite, grow thicker, longer hair, if only we could basically turn into a Disney princess, we believe we would be happy. How can we believe so inherently that true beauty is about confidence and yet so paradoxically that a successful diet will make all our dreams come true?

So what is beautiful?

Some big brands have attempted to show that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.  Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign launched in 2004 was conceived after market research indicated that only 4 per cent of women considered themselves beautiful – the campaign used a diverse group of models of all ages, shapes and sizes. But these well intentioned campaigns sometimes end up confusing the messages – the latest ad campaign from Dove shows a group of women who were drawn by a forensic sketch artist, once as they perceive themselves and then redrawn as others see them. Unsurprising the second drawing is considered more attractive. The message is that we perceive ourselves to be less appealing than we really are.  The problem is these women, are once again, showing that they want to feel beautiful on the outside in order to boost their confidence.  Is it time for that old adage, ‘beauty comes from within’ to finally become our battle cry?

These contradictions have been passed down the generations, from the suffragettes who fought for the vote while wearing corsets to give them a tiny waist, to the 60’s when being stick thin like Twiggy was all the rage, moving to the Jane Fonda feel the burn and wear tight lycra brigade of the 80s who demanded power in the boardroom. Today, we know that most celebrities are airbrushed to within a low-cal inch of their lives, yet we still aspire to be like these images. Our senses are blasted by such contradictory messages. We are at war with ourselves as we struggle to find confidence from within, while waiting in line to buy the latest, greatest face cream or diet aid, while thinking ‘Will the latest cream make me feel beautiful?’

Luckily our generation also has its warriors fighting to change the mindset for what is truly beautiful.  BeRealTalks, are one such organisation, who are hosting an event called ‘Why Size Doesn’t matter’.  The ladies behind the event have gathered a dazzling line-up of inspirational women to entertain and enlighten you and we are among the speakers they have invited.  This is not a self-help group it specifically aims to challenge the beauty and diet myths and to celebrate women in all shapes and sizes – it will explore ways you can be the best you and feel great 24/7.

Please join us on Tuesday 4th June at the London College of Fashion for a great night out. We’ll be looking at how dieting and body image tie in with each other and showing you how to approach weight loss and body confidence from a completely new angle so that you feel good about the way you look NOW, regardless of your size, shape and weight.

Tickets and  information can be found here:  http://www.berealtalks.com/#!talk-information/ctzx

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Be Real Talks is the brainchild of Stephanie Rosilio and Sharon Baker, two busy working mothers who decided to set up events with a difference – events that are fun and carry powerful messages that will inspire people to make positive changes in their lives. The events gather a mix of entertainers and speakers to offer a unique and memorable experience.  Be Real Talks will donate a percentage of tickets sales to relevant charities and to support good causes. www.berealtalks.com

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Have you seen this article in The Independent today? Apparently Nigella and her TV chef mates are contributing to the obesity crisis… I can’t really think of anything more intelligent to say in response (just this second) than WHAT A LOAD OF TOSH. Here’s why I would challenge every one of the assertions made in this article:

The article states that “many celebrity chef recipes in cookbooks contained “undesirable levels” of saturated fatty acids (SFA), sugars and salt which are linked to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.” Most of us, hand on heart, know that it’s not the deliciously creamy risotto made with butter and parmesan, the wonderful chocolate mousse made with double cream and dark chocolate, the Sunday lunch of roast pork (with crackling) and roasties cooked in goose fat, with veggies or salads on the side, the home made fish and chips (I could go on and on…), these wonderful foods, cooked at home from fresh ingredients and eaten at the table with family and friends, these are not the foods that make us fat. It’s not cooking with fat or baking with sugar that makes us fat.. it’s eating two Twix bars at the office between the cheap unsatisfying sandwich or salad we have for lunch and  and the pack of crisps (or two) we guiltily and quickly inhale on the way home. What makes us fat is the  packet cereal (or cereal bars if we are in a hurry..) laden with refined sugars and fructose syrups we rush down for breakfast with skimmed milk, which doesn’t keep us full for more than about 30 minutes. It’s the 2 or 3 (or 4 or 5) chocolate digestives or Hobnobs with our cup of tea at 11 which act both as a treat and a break from whatever we are doing and fill the huge, gaping nourishment hole left by that semblance of a breakfast.

What makes us fat is the take-away dinner eaten in front of the telly and the ready meal from any one of the big supermarkets, chucked in the microwave at the end of another exhausting day, overloaded with salt, cheap vegetable fats, processed meats and poor quality veg… these are the things that make us fat, followed by a bar of Daily Milk while we delve into the oblivion of Facebook and the pack of Doritos we put away while we were waiting for the microwave to ping. Overeating any of our favourite junk foods when we are bored, frustrated, anxious, that’s what makes us fat. Eating as a social glue is that’s contributing to the obesity crisis (if that’s what it is… but that’s another blog post) not eating wonderful, luscious home cooked dishes (inspired by the wonderful Nigella, the ever so creative Nigel Slater, the truly amazing Ottolenghi, the pioneering Jamie or the passionate and excellent teacher Paul Hollywood) to celebrate with family and friends or to nourish ourselves and our families every day. These chefs have brought new and inspiring dishes laden with vegetables of all sorts, fresh and vibrant food from every food group, delicious and as healthy as you can get. Their focus is always on high quality ingredients, going for quality over quantity. Quite the opposite of the BOGOF offers for cheap food promoted by the supermarkets. No, we don’t have one pack today and the other tomorrow… they are so cheap, or so we are told, we may as well eat double the amount…

The eating that makes us fat is the muffin and latte we have between lunch and dinner because we are meeting a friend, and the coffee shop is the obvious place to meet, we are not hungry, it’s just what we do while we talk.  It’s the KitKat from the vending machine when we’re hungry and there’s nothing else on offer in the NHS waiting room at A&E, it’s the endless pints of beer and the several G&Ts or glasses of wine imbibed while socialising on on a Friday night (and Saturday, and maybe Thursday…) propped up with crisps and peanuts to keep us going.

What makes us fat is millions of people too poor to buy good quality ingredients and who don’t have the skills, the equipment, the resources, the time or the confidence to cook real food and who are tricked by advertising to believe that that all those highly processed, cheap packets, tins and jars of ready made gloup are nourishing (are they still running that radio ad that claims that Heinz tomato soup can count as one of your 5 a day?!)

What makes us fat is going on diets. It’s the weeks of deprivation and being good followed by the post diet overeating to make up for all the times we’ve missed out. The real culprits are not the butter and cream you find in Nigella’s recipes but the low fat, low sugar, low carb processed diet foods which leave us forever hungry and inevitably see us eating more than our bodies need to make up for the deprivation sold to us at over inflated prices by Weight Watchers and the likes. What makes us fat are the two diet yoghurts eaten hurriedly (with a tinge of shame) because they have so few calories, surely another one won’t hurt.. followed by the late night trip to the fridge to satisfy the insatiable desire for something nice, something tasty, something real…

What makes us fat are the litres and litres of Coke and other fizzy drinks (diet or sugary… by the way, have you seen the information about how artificial sweeteners don’t help us lose weight and can contribute to making us fatter?). Our bodies are not designed for drinking Lucozade, Sprite, Fanta… there is nothing in those drinks which contributes to good health or nourishment and they don’t even quench our thirst. The do, however, make us fat.

Cooking with fat, be it butter, lard or olive oil, when it is part of a delicious meal or even a simple, nothing-fancy, lunch or breakfast, eaten with enjoyment – I can think of nothing healthier. A delectable cake or pudding, made with sugar,  eggs, butter, flour and other lovely things to make it taste good… these things nourish my body and my soul.

This article is misleading, unhelpful and smug. Those academics, whoever they are, need to do their homework and stop twisting research to serve their own misguided views.

We know that so many Beyond Chocolaters get back into the kitchen and rediscover the joy of cooking and eating real food when they stop dieting.  Add to that the fact that we begin to eat with awareness and pleasure, when we are hungry and that we know how to stop when our body says “that’s enough thanks” means that we can eat as many TV cheffy inspired dishes as we like… and long may all those talented TV cooks continue to inspire and teach us (not to mention our very own Kitchen Fairy).

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Just over two and half years ago I wrote a story for the BodyGossip campaign called Ageing Gracefully. Last month it was released as a video. Seeing and hearing other women speak my words is an incredible experience, I feel proud and humbled at the same time. I am thrilled to be part of such a brilliant project and so grateful to Ruth and Natasha, the brains and talent behind BodyGossip, for taking my story and making it into something that will move, touch and inspire many women who are coming to terms with getting older.

When I submitted my story to BodyGossip I was about to turn 40 and the concept of ageing had, up to this point, been just that – a concept.  Something that would happen, eventually, but that wasn’t really relevant in my life. Then, seemingly overnight my body started to change and it took on a whole new meaning. Thats’s when I started to notice just how pervasive the anti-ageing message is in our society. Looking your age is definitely not cool in this part of the world.  The media is crammed with ads selling us products that promise to miraculously recapture the dewiness and firmness of youth (read this great post on Jezebel about anti-ageing badvertising). TV Shows exhort us to turn back the clock and look 10 years younger. Celebrities are praised for looking half their age and harshly condemned when they don’t. Role models for women who are happy to look their age are few and far between.

In the 2 years since I wrote the story, I have become less and less tolerant of the anti ageing mantra that I come up against day after day and more and more  militant about normalising ageing. Women do not need look younger (or thinner, or whiter)  in order to be beautiful, powerful, successful or acceptable. Women don’t need to look any other way than they look like already because who we are is not what we look like.

Think of all the creativity, time, energy and cash that we would free up if women everywhere decided to stop fighting the ‘signs of ageing’ . I want organisation like BodyGossip to make loads more videos like this one so that more and more women are inspired to fight for the stuff that matters instead of fighting wrinkles

Every inspirational video that BodyGossip produces costs £1000. As a non profit venture, BodyGossip needs our help to raise the funds for videos. So rather than go out and spend your money on some miracle ‘re-plumping double action dermo pump for younger looking skin’, click here and donate a few pounds towards the next BodyGossip video. You will be making a huge difference and giving  everyBODY everywhere inspiration for acceptance, confidence and joy.

Then we can go about changing the world.

The 5:2 diet is an interesting phenomenon. I think it’s both very Beyond Chocolate (if you have just uttered a shocked “What!!”, bear with me) and very diety, and therefore not BC at all.

Originally this kind of intermittent fasting was thought to have significant health benefits. Let’s get scientific for a moment. My understand is that lowering our intake of food for two or three days out of seven has been shown to lower levels of the hormone IGF-1. High levels of IGF-1 encourage the body to focus on producing new cells rather than repairing existing ones. As cellular and DNA damage multiplies, aging and disease take hold. Cancerous cells usually mutate to take advantage of both insulin and IGF-1, using them as fuel.

I have found information that says that the opposite is also true: the lifespan of mice, which have been genetically engineered to have low levels of IGF-1, increases to the human equivalent of 120 years. Among the few hundred people in the world who have low IGF-1, cancer and diabetes are virtually unknown.*

So, initially the aim of this kind of fasting was to prolong life. One side effect, for some people, was weight loss. So, low and behold,  the concept was hijacked by the weight loss brigade and the 5:2 diet was born.

So does the 5:2 diet make sense for weight loss? Could it be a good idea? Here’s what I like about the idea of intermittent fasting:

It acknowledges that we don’t need the same amount of food every day. Unlike the inane and insane calorie counting diets (and most diets which provide what they call balanced diet plans with similar amounts of food each day spread equally between breakfast, lunch and dinner, oh and the obligatory snack) and government guidelines (based on ignorance and fear) all of which tell us there is a set number of calories we should be eating every day.

It stays away for categorising foods as good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, fattening or ‘free’.

It acknowledges that most of us eat too much, even when we think we are eating normally.

In toady’s western diet most of us eat far, far more food that our bodies need. Portion sizes are larger than ever and food seems to be everywhere we go. Our bodies rarely, if ever, need snacks of any kind – and just look around you in the supermarket and in every shopping outlet on the high street, at the vast number of snack foods on offer. My body doesn’t need popcorn at the cinema, it doesn’t need a slice of Audrey’s wonderful cake with my cup of tea at 11am (just a few hours after breakfast and couple before lunch when, hand on heart, I’m not really hungry). My body doesn’t need the crisps I buy at the petrol station to have in the car on the way home, because it helps ease the boredom of the journey. My body doesn’t need the chocolate I savour while I watch Great British Menu on the telly. It doesn’t need the second and third slice of bread ad butter with my soup at lunch time… I could go on and on.

I can’t think of a single snack food that my body actually needs. And I know there are I times when I eat much more than my body is asking for just because it tastes nice or because the emotional and psychological part of me, needs it.

The fact is that our bodies don’t need much of the food we eat and so many of us eat more often in one day than we are hungry for and far larger portions at meals than will satisfy our stomachs . Our food culture has developed around the idea of food for pleasure, food as a leisure activity, food as fun, food as treats, food as distraction and we have almost completely lost sight of food as nourishment, food as survival, food as a social activity which binds families and communities together. There’s nothing wrong in eating just for pleasure and because we fancy it , there’s nothing wrong with overeating to comfort, soothe or treat ourselves – and it helps to recognise that in doing so we are eating more than we need and that it has an impact. And that the reverse is of course true – eating just what our bodies need can positively impact our health and our weight. And as many of you already know, that is far easier said than done – and the 5:2 diet does not, in my opinion, provide the magic wand to make it easy.

When I take the Beyond Chocolate principles as a guide,  when I tune in and eat when I’m hungry, when I eat what I want and I stop when I’ve had enough, when I do all that, I don’t eat very much. As I have written in countless previous posts, following the Beyond Chocolate principles means that I eat less without telling myself that’s what I should do. By tuning in and listening to my body and responding to what I discover, I naturally do a kind of 5:2 diet. Some days I find myself more hungry than others, depending on the kind of food I ate the day  before and the amount of moving I’m doing. Some days I eat quite a lot and some days very little. Some days I crave warming, fatty foods, some days all I want are light, refreshing dishes.

The problem I have with the 5:2 diet, is the very fact that it’s a diet. It has been pounced upon by the weight loss industry as the easy way to lose weight. In my experience there is no easy way to lose weight. Trying to stick to 500 calories in a day, twice a week, is not easy, however alluring it sounds. It’s not easy because it comes from outside ourselves and demands that we stick to the rules no matter how we feel or what our body tells us. The diet requires that we ignore our needs (emotional, physical or physiological) without giving us the tools to deal with them, and that we disconnect from our hunger and our satisfaction. The danger with yo-yoing between feast and famine as a diet is that we don’t listen to ourselves. We stop paying attention to how we feel and what our body wants. Going between those two states with awareness, as a response to internal cues, is a very different matter. When I choose not to eat very much because I’m not hungry I am working with my body, respecting it and treating it well. When I fast because it’s the appointed day of the week, without any concern or care for what I truly need, I am working against my body, despite it, forcing something on it. Those diets rarely last very long.

I imagine that the men and women who take on the 5:2 diet as a lifestyle, and actually stay with it for the rest of their lives, are not serial dieters or overeaters. I imagine that the thousands of women I know, who overeat for a whole host of reasons, will not be saved by fasting for two days a week.

For quick-ish weight loss, it may well work. After all it’s new and quirky and anyone who has tried several diets knows the excitement of a brand new plan.

For long, sustained weight loss and good health, this diet is the same as any other. Pointless.

If you truly want to look after your health and well being, reach a body size that feels good and which is sustainable and you want to learn how to eat less, much less, start with (or revisit) the Beyond Chocolate principles. You can create your very own version of the 5:2 diet, one which is based on knowing, trusting ad respecting your body and yourself. One which is based on true nourishment. It may take a while to get the hang of it, but once you’ve got it there will be no turning back. Freedom, peace of mind and enjoyment for the rest of your life.

The Beyond Chocolate Fairy Training starts with a wonderful Retreat 13th – 17th November 2013 – Transform your relationship with food and your body. Make a huge difference to your own life and the life of so many women.

My flat-sharing lifestyle means that my bedroom is my kingdom, the centre of my universe, where I can hang whatever I like, create whatever weird altar I want, and basically THE place I can do entirely as I please with. This is why I need to Beyond Chocolate it to the hilt! I spend a lot of time here, working, writing, and sleeping (and sometimes – I’ll admit- eating). And if you’re anything like me, “out of sight is out of mind”, and if I DON’T create a world around me that constantly whispers – or (joyfully) shouts – “DRI, YOU ARE DOING BEYOND CHOCOLATE!”, I will simply get caught up in my life and completely forget to do stuff. (Admittedly, it’s harder to forget when you’re getting weekly phone-ins, weekly reflections and even writing blog posts about it, but you’d be surprised how easy I find it to tune out. But that’s another story)

So this is what I create:

• lots of funky “appreciation stickers” on an old broken mirror (it was there when I moved in, and I loved the metaphoric value of the image: covering up this broken mirror – this false, judgemental view of my own reflection – with love hearts and shiny guitars and strawberries, every time I manage my daily Beyond Chocolate actions, do something good for myself, or simply really want to say “Dude, that was awesome”.)

• A weekly planner, where I write my planned daily action
• A menu planner, courtesy of Audrey The Kitchen Fairy, where I write down meal ideas and food shopping plan for the week

• A stack of “Beyond Chocolate fairy cards” leaning against a candle on my altar space – one message at a time, and of course, a copy of Beyond Chocolate by my bed.

The last thing I do is talk to my flatmate about the sudden sprouting of jars full of cookies on the kitchen counter. She is intrigued! She’s not judgemental! Hurrah! I have talked about Beyond Chocolate with a new person and survived!

Result?  I now feel supported by my environment. I feel cheered on by my bedroom walls, encouraged by my kitchen counter, serenaded by my dinner table. I can now truly begin the adventure. This is what Beyond Chocolating the house is all about: getting your home on your side, activating the hearth cheerleader. Do it now. You’ll love it.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hello my name is Adrienne and I am training to be a Chocolate Fairy. I’ve had an up-and-down, erratic and troubled relationship with food ever since my first diet aged 16  and it is something I have willfully ignored for a number of years, until now. Through my blog posts, I’ll endeavour to take you with me on my fairy journey – or rather ‘periple’ – a French expression meaning an adventure that’s full discoveries, strange encounters and, of course, one for which lots of delicious food must be packed. You *might* find a lot of Lord of The Rings metaphors in my posts. My heart-felt apologies to the not-so-medieval-fantasy-inclined readers! So to all women out there on the Beyond Chocolate path, I hope you enjoy sharing this soul food with me. It’s cooked up with love and encouragement to us all.

The Beyond Temptation show, The Overeating Dialogues, was a gift. I could invite all of the people in my life along and let that do the talking. I lent my voice to the show in more ways than one and I could express my experience through that voice and it has made a huge difference. Not only is the shame slipping away I am also able to be myself more now that I am not deliberately avoiding talking about my relationship with food and my body.

In the past I felt I was lying but now I feel a little bit more like me and sometimes I even feel that I am OK.  Just as I am. The feeling is sporadic but it does surface and that is new for me. I don’t remember a time where my gremlin wasn’t on my back driving me down, telling me how useless I was because I was fat and couldn’t seem to stick to a diet and get rid of the offending weight. The shameful, obvious baggage that I carried around on my bones every day that served as a reminder of how broken and ultimately unfixable I felt I was.

I still struggle with the creeping feeling that I am beyond help, that I have ruined my body to the point of no return. This makes it very difficult for me to treat myself with kindness and respect so the Own Your Body principle has been the most challenging one for me to embrace. I am overweight and I am judged for it, and through the external judgement I have received I also judge myself. Deep down, or maybe even not that deep down, I still think I am wrong for being fat and therefore wrong for being me. The shame and embarrassment that this produces in me makes it nearly impossible for me to own my body, because I tell myself it is disgusting. It barely feels like I am telling myself, in my head it is a fleeting thought and it is fact; an unequivocal truth.

So how do I deal with this? Well the only way I know is to observe. With the hope of slowing this down and seeing that it is not a truth but an interpretation. Yes I want to change my body, but it’s not going to happen whilst I am being unkind to myself. And most importantly, I no longer want to use my body’s interpreted imperfection as a reason to avoid living. Being involved in the play reminded me what living was like, what doing the things I love means to me and how much fun it can be. I punish myself for being overweight by not doing the things I want to do, by putting them off until I am thin.

So now I am practicing telling people the actual truth about me instead of omitting certain parts of my experience. And I am practicing doing the things I love now, instead of when I have lost weight. And quite honestly I have never been happier! And sometime in the future I hope that I will learn how to embrace my body and meet it on equal ground where I’m not comparing to what it might have been or what it could be, but just happy to be in it… however it is at that time and be able to say – this is my body.

Which means I need to get ready. Fairy training ends in June 2013 – I’ve got a fair way to go yet -and I need the prep. You see, the retreat was a bit like living in The Shire; cosy rooms, scrumptious food (always at hand, abundant in the kitchen, varied, delicious) and lovely countryside. OK, there also were lots of explorations and exercises (psychological and practical) as well as a fair amount of tears and meditations that I am certain Hobbits don’t do. But still, it felt safe and contained.

But now… I’m home! And having to find practical ways to support myself for a 9-month-long process, starting with the Beyond Chocolate online e-course. And in that first week back, I realise one thing is fundamental.

I HAVE TO BEYOND CHOCOLATE THE HELL OUT OF MY FLAT.

First things first, look at my kitchen. At the moment, it’s cold and bare, with a vaguely desolate look, as if all the food’s been taken down to the basement in preparation for the apocalypse. OK, it’s clean. But my goodness, it looks miserable. What does it need, precious? FOOD, dammit! WARMTH! ABUNDANCE! I remember how joyful I felt, walking into the participants kitchen at Hidelow House: tubs full of colourful smarties! Heaps and heaps of chocolate! Giant glass jars bursting with cookies! To paraphrase Hemingway, it was An Always-Available Feast! My kitchen just doesn’t cut it.

So I go out and buy funky jars. (OK, I didn’t need to get the more expensive ones with the little man hanging from the lid, but they are fun!) And then…. I FILL THEM UP. Yup. I stock up with my newly-discovered forbidden food of the moment: Sainsbury’s all-butter quadruple-chocolate cookies. (I thought I’d be embarrassed buying 6 boxes of the stuff – literally emptying my local’s entire shelf stock – but no. I found it strangely exhilarating!) Already I can feel my kitchen sigh with contentment. (I swear)

Next , I buy a candle holder – one of those sparkly merry-go-round ones – with owls dangling from it. To honour my wisdom within, you know. This is placed on my kitchen table, next to my rolled-up place mat and the Beyond Chocolate key-chain with the the 1-minute-hourglass. Serendipitously, one of my good friends gives me a teeny plastic Buddha figure: perfect. He will preside over my meals, looking on joyfully with a bright, beaming smile, after I’ve lit that candle, unrolled the place mat and turned the hourglass for a true Beyond Chocolate style meal. On the wall, between an age-old electricity bill and a never-used pizza-delivery leaflet, I hang my Beyond Chocolate tune-in card: thoughts, feelings, sensations.

Ready to tune in, man.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hello my name is Adrienne and I am training to be a Chocolate Fairy. I’ve had an up-and-down, erratic and troubled relationship with food ever since my first diet aged 16 and it is something I have willfully ignored for a number of years, until now. Through my blog posts, I’ll endeavour to take you with me on my fairy journey – or rather ‘periple’ – a French expression meaning an adventure that’s full discoveries, strange encounters and, of course, one for which lots of delicious food must be packed. You *might* find a lot of Lord of The Rings metaphors in my posts. My heart-felt apologies to the not-so-medieval-fantasy-inclined readers! So to all women out there on the Beyond Chocolate path, I hope you enjoy sharing this soul food with me. It’s cooked up with love and encouragement to us all.

 

So, who watched the Dispatches programme Monday night on Channel 4? Judging from the activity on Twitter and Facebook, quite a few! I was, of course glued to the box following last week’s blog post and the rather animated debate that ensued. While I wait for your comments to come in, I’ll give you my two pence worth.

The programme in a nutshell: Weight Watchers makes its millions from sales of its own brand diet foods and diet paraphernalia such as scales, measuring spoons, point calculators and pedometers.

Dispatches didn’t have anything to teach us that we didn’t already know about the Weight Watchers business model. When Sophie and I appeared on Dragon’s Den a few years ago our vision was to offer an alternative to Weight Watchers meetings with a Beyond Chocolate Drop In on every street corner. One of the Dragons – I can’t remember if it was the arrogant one with the stripy socks or the awful one with the Scottish accent – laughed at us saying, “Weight Watchers don’t make their money with the meetings! They rake it in by selling their products. This will never work and for that reason, I’m out!”

He was right, I suppose. It’s certainly no money spinner. We are still struggling to find a financially viable way of supporting women at a local level across the country despite the huge demand. But we’re getting there… all in good time. (In fact you can help by telling us where you’d like to attend a £10 workshop if you haven’t already done so by clicking here.)

I have to say that the huge number of Weight Watchers products on offer at the meetings and in shops is staggering. I could live on Weight Watchers food without ever needing to eat anything else (I don’t know if I’d survive for very long but that’s a different matter). There’s a Weight Watchers alternative for every moment of the day from breakfast through to lunch and dinner including drinks and snacks. And it’s not just ready meals and biscuits. You can buy Weight Watchers everything including:  bacon, bread, curry pastes and even wine!?

So why is that wrong on so many levels?

1. It’s wrong because it’s all about profit

There was a lot of noise on Twitter and on the Dispatches comments page yesterday from members who say they are not pressured to buy the products and I’m sure that’s true in many cases. I don’t believe for a moment that all Weight Watchers Leaders want to earn as much as possible with the 10% commission they make selling the products at their meetings. I’m sure there are many leaders out there who are genuinely passionate about providing weight loss support and who don’t push the products to their members. In fact, I know it is so because many of them come to us when they give up . Some of the most lovely, supportive, honest Beyond Chocolaters in our community are ex Weight Watchers leaders. It depends on the person, right? If Dispatches is right about how they operate though, there is something slightly skewed about a weight loss company that rewards it’s leaders with commissions on renewed memberships and diet food sales and not on the actual weight loss achieved – or maintained – by their members. There are people out there who’s main motivation is to make money and this business model means that they will be focusing on the activities that profit them the most – selling the diet foods and the ongoing memberships. They won’t make money out of anyone actually losing weight and keeping it off unless, they keep on coming back to the meetings and buying the products. Membership is free when you reach your target weight so there’s no money in that.

2. It’s wrong because it preys on desperate dieters’ insecurity and vulnerability

I had an interesting discussion with my partner about this last night as I ranted and raved at the television. He’s a man who has never had weight issues and is a naturally intuitive eater. He pointed out that people could make a choice as to whether they bought the products or not: “Surely no-one is holding a gun to their head or telling them that they HAVE to buy this stuff?” he argued. I pounced on him, snarling (I’m sorry sweetheart, I apologise for biting your head off like that!) and let him in on a little secret which I’m sure the Weight Watchers marketing department are in on.

When you are desperate to lose weight you’ll do anything - buy anything – that offers even the merest promise of helping you to achieve your target weight. I can’t begin to add up the money I spent on diet foods and slimming ‘aids’ over the years. Juicers, calorie counters, diet yoghurts by the dozens every week, low calorie this and low fat that – anything that even hinted at helping me to be thinner. When you’re in that place when you think that your life literally depends on losing weight, it’s all fair game. Rational thinking and measured decisions go out of the window. If it’s going to help to shed the pounds and it’s not ANOTHER carrot stick it’s good to go.

What’s that you say? I can have a pack of these Weight Watchers crisps as part of my daily allowance? I’ll have 2 dozen of them. What? The packet is half the size and twice the price as normal ones? Who cares? THIS IS GOING TO HELP ME LOSE WEIGHT!

And there’s more. The Pro Points system is so complex to keep track of that many dieters go for the easier option of buying products. This isn’t about laziness or ignorance this is simply survival. Being on a diet, counting points and controlling what you eat all the time is a draining and time consuming affair. All your energy is focused on making it through the day without slipping up and binging on that chocolate fudge cake that’s been beckoning since you woke up. By the time you get round to doing the shopping after a hard day’s work, figuring out how many points are in the ingredients you are buying for dinner is just one step too far. So much easier to grab a Weight Watchers meal where the points are conveniently displayed on the packaging.

3. It’s wrong because it teaches dieters to stop trusting themselves (and stop cooking).

There’s also the fact that after years of dieting many dieters have lost the confidence to make their own choices. Dieting robs you of self confidence and self trust.  In 2012, Research group Mintel released a report called Dieting Trends – UK in which they revealed that 61% of UK consumers were confused and didn’t know what they should be eating or not to lose weight. When you’re on a diet food becomes the enemy. Every morsel of food represents a potential risk.

Serial dieters will all relate to questions such as:

• Can I eat that?
• Is it allowed?
• How many points does that have?
• How many points do I have left?
• If I eat this, can I eat that later?

When you live in a state of perpetual anxiety, day in, day out, desperate to get it right and stay on track, grabbing a packet of something which has the Weight Watchers logo is the safest option. After all, they know best. If it’s made by the very company that’s selling me the diet then it’s got to be OK, right?.

There were lots of comments on the Dispatches site by Weight Watchers fans who talked about being encouraged to cook from scratch and, again, I’m sure that many leaders are passing this on and that many people have, as a result changed their eating habits for better. But the mixed messages just don’t add up. Displaying tables full of attractively packaged, branded convenience foods at Weight Watchers meetings is NOT helpful or conducive to getting people back in the kitchen, however dedicated the leader is to home cooking.

4. It’s wrong because these foods are full of suspicious ingredients

And what about what’s in these foods? The Dispatches programme obviously chose the most TV worthy – and therefore shocking – example to show just how many additives and added ingredients Weight Watcher diet foods are made with. The ice cream has a list of 20 odd long and complicated to pronounce ingredients which looks like a chemical factory compared to good old Haagen Dazs made with cream, milk, sugar and vanilla. But the ice cream is not an exception.

Weight Watcher foods are full of  addititives and chemicals. Sugar derivatives such as glucose fructose syrup and artificial sweeteners which have been linked to weight gain in numerous studies feature heavily across the range. They are believed to inhibit the body’s ability to regulate food intake play havoc with fat storage. The same goes for low fat foods which have been shown to increase weight cycling (yo-yo dieting to you and me). Also, where does the meat that they use in their ready meals come from? They are keen to tell me that there are no artificial colours or additives in their crisps but they are silent on the source of their chickens and beef. What’s in them? Has the meat been pumped full of hormones and antibiotics? In an age where it is widely accepted that a healthy diet includes as little processed food as possible why are Weight Watchers expanding their range every year?

Of course the Dispatches programme was one sided. Of course there are people out there who have lost 5 stone with the programme without ever tucking into a Weight Watchers Berry Fruit Layered Fat Free Fromage Frais

(Fromage Frais, water, Raspberry (11%), Fructose Glucose Syrup, Oligofructose, Boysenberry, Modified Maize Starch, Stabilisers; Pectin, Locust Bean Gum, Guar Gum, Concentrated Elderberry Juice, Flavourings; Acidity Regulators: Citric Acid, Sodium, Citrate, Sweeteners; Aspartame, Acesulfame K; Preservative; Potassium Sorbate)

and we are here to talk about all the dieters who have ended up weighting 5 stone more than they did before they went to Weight Watchers for the first time and who spend their hard earned cash on a Weight Watchers chicken wrap

(Chilli Tortilla Wrap (49%), Cooked Chicken Breast (24%), Sweet Chilli Sauce (12%), Red Pepper (4%), Spring Onion (4%), Spinach (4%), Coriander, Cornflour, Chilli Tortilla Wrap (Wheat Flour, Water, Chilli Seasoning (Maltodextrin, Onion Powder, Sugar, Salt, Chillies, Green Pepper, Chilli Powder (Chilli, Cumin, Salt, Oregano, Garlic Powder), Garlic Powder, Spice Extracts (Chilli, Capsicum), Colour: Paprika Extract; Flavouring), Raising Agents: Disodium Diphosphate, Sodium Bicarbonate, Malic Acid; Vegetable Oils, Emulsifiers: Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids, Mono- and Diacetyltartaric Acid Esters of Mono- and Diglycerides of Fatty Acids; Sugar, Salt), Cooked Chicken Breast (Chicken Breast (98%), Salt), Sweet Chilli Sauce (Water, Sugar, Spirit Vinegar, Cornflour, Dried Red Pepper, Red Chilli Purée, Onion, Tomato Paste, Garlic Powder, Salt, Chilli Flakes)

at lunch because they don’t trust themselves to make a sandwich.

But I’m not here to point out what is working. Weight Watchers can look after themselves just fine, as we saw from the numerous pro comments on the Dispatches web page and Twitter last night. This is a space for the thousands of women I have met personally – and the millions who I don’t know but are out there – for whom this doesn’t work. For those who are ready to stop blaming themselves and do something different.

Did the Dispatches report reflect your experience of Weight Watchers? What’s your experience of eating and buying diets foods? Did they help you lose weight?

I’ll be tweeting along throughout the show and would LOVE you to join me. Just follow @beyondchoc on twitter and tweet your comments to me! The offical hashtag will be #DietIndustry.

If you don’t have a twitter account, signing up is quick and easy – if you need any help just leave a comment and I will do my best to assist.

Oh, and if you’re on twitter and we’re not following you then let me know!

Back in the 1970s when I was a teenager at school, we made peppermint creams in cookery. I loved those pale green jewels. Soft, sparkly, melt-in-the-mouth, minty, cut out stars or half moons. We had fun making them and then as much fun eating them. No one ever stopped to ask if they were healthy. Not the teachers, not our parents and certainly not the children. I am so thankful for those times. So glad that in my childhood enjoyment, creativity, the joy of sharing, took precedence over being healthy, whatever that means.

What is good health and why is it such a big deal? No, really. I’m not being facetious. I’m serious. What is good health? What does it mean to you? Why do you want to be healthy and how do you achieve good health if that’s what you want?

I think being healthy is a bit trendy. Maybe it’s a result of the general affluence and abundance we experience in the west. We have so much, of everything, that the only thing left to yearn for is perfect health. Long, healthy life. Not that we haven’t always as humans wanted to live longer and better but maybe now is the first time that the majority of people really have the luxury to focus on it. And of course rather than shining the light on the bigger problems which contribute to our ill health; global pollution in our environment from a myriad of sources, pharmaceutical companies who market medication which create more health problems than they cure, food producers who fill our shelves with products which barely deserve the label of ‘food’, all things which we as individuals are pretty much powerless to change, we are urged by the powers that be to make healthy food choices and move more. We are fed the belief that our health is ultimately down to what we eat and that what we eat is our choice.

Here’s what being healthy doesn’t mean to me. It doesn’t mean being slim or eating a sugar, carb, fat free diet. It doesn’t mean doing 30 minutes of exercise 3 times a week (or is it 20 minutes 5 times a week? Or maybe it’s one and a half hours a week…). Being healthy doesn’t mean eating five a day or ten a day or even making sure I get plenty of fresh fruit and veg in my diet. Being healthy doesn’t mean being free from pain or other symptoms. Being healthy does not mean living longer.

The more I explore this question the more frequently I come to the same conclusion: being healthy means so much more than eating well and moving more. Of course those two things play their part in my overall well-being but they only play a part. For me being healthy means so much more than that.

• Being healthy means going about my daily life without constantly feeling stressed and worried.
• Being healthy means smiling, laughing and enjoying myself.
• Being healthy means having satisfying and loving relationships, with my family, my friends, my colleagues.
• Being healthy means looking in the mirror and being comfortable with what I see.
• Being healthy means taking time to ask myself what is important today.
• Being healthy means caring about others as well as myself.
• Being healthy means having a purpose to my life and living in alignment with that purpose as much as I can.
• Being healthy means going to bed at the end of the day happy with what I have done and who I am.

And I accept that where my health is concerned there are some things that would take huge changes or major life decisions to control. Changing the quality of the air I breathe from example, would mean leaving London, right now I am not willing to do that. I’ve also come to the conclusion that stressing and worrying about making the right choices (be it about food or anything else) is likely to contribute to ill-health more than having a relaxed attitude to food and my body allowing myself to eat what I want. And of course the irony is, the moment I take the pressure off making the ‘right’ choices, I seem to make those choices anyway, almost effortlessly, without feeling deprived or rebellious and most importantly without the anxiety and guilt – both of which I am sure are bad for my health.

Frankly I’d rather teach my daughter to make peppermint creams than fruity, sugar free flapjacks, if the message I give her about her health is the latter one. I’d rather she ate what she enjoys than worry about the calorie count or the nutritional content of her food. When I think back to those cookery lessons I feel a smile and a little shimmer of joy. When I think back to attending my first Weight Watchers meeting just a few years later, my heart sinks, I’m aware of a tightening sensation in my chest and I feel sad… I know which one is healthier, absolutely no doubt at all.

How do you define good health? We’d love to hear what it means to you.