By LARA CAIN
I’ve just started a new diet. It involves eating lots of fruit and vegetables, holding back on the ‘sometimes food’ and going for walks. It’s amazingly effective. I desperately wish I’d known about it before I spent thousands of dollars on books, pills, powders and ab crunching machinery trying to shift those pesky kilos. I think this revolutionary diet model slipped under my radar because all it offers is good health, whereas other products offered me weight loss, romance, fame and fortune all in one tasty meal replacing shake.
Our obsession with the weight loss industry surely pushes enough money through the economy that it almost balances the toll taken on the health system by the so called ‘obesity crisis’. Okay, so I’m no economist but I do think a lot of us would benefit from a few minutes in the ‘thinking corner’ having a long, hard look at the notion of ‘balance’. I know I have.
Over the years I have swung between superfit and supersized depending on where I was on life’s great game of snakes and ladders. I’ve battled my weight using a range of tactics I would very much not recommend. In the 80s, a fitness instructor told me that if I just ate one Mars Bar a day, I’d give myself enough energy to keep functioning without any other unnecessary calories. I passed out a few times but I did lose weight.