I know this, but still I am fat. I try and try and try and fail and fail and fail. I am intelligent, well read and sensible. But I am also fat. It is the bane of my existence, and dominates almost every waking thought.
A deeply depressing read. It is early morning and this piece makes me miserable.
Oh Kate my dear friend, i'm so sorry this has made you miserable. As you can see from the top picture, I do know what you're talking about. And I would do exactly what Jackie says - get on the injections. I'm going to write more on that subject in the future. xxxxx
Kate, I’m on Ozempic. Life-changing. I have been on every diet and I’m a super emotional eater. I take a half-dose and have slowly lost 20kg over a year. Ask your GP. What it does for me is stop that awful, ridiculous craving (not hunger) for the bread bin and I naturally eat smaller portions now. I still have party food and drink, but only on party days and nights. It kind of enables you to be more mindful, and what you eat gets metabolised slower so you honestly feel properly full.
Thank you Jackie. I am in discussions with my GP about it. A problem is that there's been a shortage here (Australa) for years, and I feel guilty for taking it away from diabetics.
Hi Kate, I’m in Australia too. I hear your dilemma. The supply is much improved now and there are the alternatives (same drug, different label, marketed for weight-loss). My friend is a diabetes educator and she wasn’t happy with me, but my argument was that if I can’t get some weight off now, I’ll be one of her clients before too long. x
Oh god same…I’m a year on ozempic, the weight comes off so crushingly slowly and then stalls for weeks at a time. And my ankles hurt so bad. All the time. Soul destroying.
So sorry to hear you have the ankle version of my hip... Have you spoken to your doctor about your slow process on ozempic? I know so many people who have done it/are doing it and the weight is dropping off steadily. You probably have already, don't want to be annoying! But as long as the direction of the scales is doooooowwwwn, it's worth it xxx
I’ve just gone back to Michael Mosley’s Fast 800 Audiobook too. Hearing his voice makes it feel more doable. The Ozempic isn’t a magic wand, as my GP keeps telling me, but it has helped me. I hope you do ok. I’m starting the …gulp…gym to help build my strength. I’m a great joiner of things in order to feel that delicious naughtiness of bunking off. I keep having to tell myself “you’re a 60-year-old grown woman”!!
for me it was about finding the right gym - one where i didn't feel like an unfit, fat old loser. Now I LOVE it. The people watching is second to none...
Ohhh Kate, you sound like a gorgeous human being. Just stick with Maggie’s uplifting writings & I’m sure there’ll be a shift..in your attitude, “self regard” your motivation & courage to “embrace a new healthier “you.” Dr Michael Mosley’s program (bless him) has been the answer for me.
So sensible, easy & supportive. Watch a YouTube or two & you’ll become “hooked.” Good luck! Lets us know how you go!! 💕🦋
concentrate on loving yourself enough to nourish yourself lovely lady - start by following nutritional guidines, reducing ultra processed food, buf don't beat yourself up about it - just focus on nutrition and self love 💕💯😘
I eat very well. No soft drink, no takeaway. Crisps sometimes, ice cream sometimes and chocolate too often. Emotional eater. I've tried loving myself but it's hard to love when you are constantly reminded of the scientific evidence of poor health when you are overweight. Not to mention the hideousness in the mirror...
My husband wants to take me out to dinner tonight. He will hoe into pasta and meat, I will pick at a salad and some plain protein. I love food. I love good food. I don't eat huge quantities. I'm a really good cook. I cook for my genetically blessed family, and often don't eat what I make. Which means I have to cook something else for myself. It is expensive and exhausting.
Right now I'm vigously gardening and this afternoon will take the dog for a 5km walk. I am still fat. Exhorting people not to be doesn't work.
btw you should eat protein when he takes you out and eat what you enjoy. protein helps balance the appetite to what we need to sustain a healthy life. enjoy your marriage, and your date night - much love 💕
try chanting I love myself I forgive myself (over and over) it may take time but the power of affirmation helps move the subconscious. I only send love you have no need to explain anything to me and if we met in real life I would see your beautiful light filled heart and nothing more 💕
This is such a gentle, loving reminder. It’s amazing how something as simple as an affirmation can soften the edges of self-judgment. Thank you for holding space like this. it really does make a difference. 💗
Kate I know EXACTLY how you feel. I'm so tired of being offered 'education' like the problem is I'm too stupid to know what I need to do. You're not alone. I hear you.
Thank you Nancy. I walk a lot (over 5 kms yesterday, and can easily and regularly do double that and more), I eat healthily 90% of the time. I'm 59 and I am EXHAUSTED by the struggle. For me to lose the 25kgs I'd need to in order to be in the 'healthy' weight range, I would have to consume 5000kjs a day for the rest of my life. It is nigh on impossible to function with the energy required to work and cook and clean for a family on this little input. Even if it is healthy protein, complex carbohydrates etc. I know, I've tried. There are other, complex factors in my life, which make losing weight so very hard for me, but I won't bore you with my (slightly unusual) sob story! Emotional and stress eating are factors. My GP told me that she'd recently attended a lecture by a world renowned psychiatrist & psychologist. He said the one area he refuses to treat is people with weight problems. Just too intractable, too difficult. Being exhorted to lose weight is pointless. Everyone who is fat knows it, and knows it's unhealthy.
A great post. It’s also important to remember that bodies come in all shapes & sizes due to genetics so it’s equally important to be as fit as possible. I say this as a relatively recent Pilates convert who’s been doing twice weekly sessions for a year now added to daily dog walks - I’m still short & sturdy - I’ll never be svelte but so much fitter & stronger & toned!
So true Catherine - fitness is so important and as we get older holding onto muscle is the thing. That's why I go to the gym at least three times a week.
Thank you Maggie - appreciate you sharing this as a free post. Your honesty and commitment to sharing your learnings with others is hugely appreciated. Have always loved your writing, 25 years ago you influenced me to buy my first pair of Birkenstocks and reconsider cardigans as a wardrobe staple. Thank you 🫶
This is another fantastic Substack feature, Maggie, the like of which we never see in newspapers and magazines. I have been working on a new astrology book chapter about planets in Virgo and big tobacco (who make Benson and Hedges, Marlboro and began mass-producing supermarket food, like Ritz crackers, in the 1980's). Big addictions followed.
Those cigarette and food manufacturers are all Generation Virgo. They have Uranus and Pluto in Virgo, born 1956-1972. And we were also born with that pattern in our charts, if we are currently aged 54 to 70. I've put the dates below.
Virgo rules food, drink, drugs, doctors and diets. Uranus rules new inventions. Pluto rules control. So it's really our control of ourselves, with whatever new methods we can invent (Ozempic, Atkins) versus their control of us, with all their new inventions. Hyper palatable foods. Fat, sugar, salt and flour in combination.
We were first addicted to food as children. People born after 1972 gained from having parents who were educated about food. I don't know how many of your readers are curious about astrology, Maggie, but I fell down a rabbit hole with this one, having also been large jeans, medium jeans (in rotation) my entire life. I wanted to know why and I also have Uranus and Pluto in Virgo.
Here are the dates. It's also worth mentioning that if you have more than four factors in Virgo in your astrology chart, you will be profoundly affected by Big Food as well as Big Pharma and Big Cigarettes industries.
Uranus and Pluto in Virgo
November 1st, 1961, to January 10th, 1962. August 9th, 1962, to September 28th, 1968
and May 20th, 1969, to June 24th, 1969. (Uranus in Virgo).
October 20th, 1956, to January 14th, 1957. August 19th, 1957, to April 11th, 1958. June 10th, 1958, to October 5th, 1971. April 17th, 1972, to July 30th, 1972. (Pluto in Virgo).
I'm so glad you liked it JA. It's the 'big one' I've been building up to posting - fear of being accused of 'fat shaming' made me nervous to even say it, but being overweight is a personal health catastrophe for us all as inviduals and also a massive drain on society. I felt freed when I learned the stuff about the Big Food conspiracy, which is what it really was. Being fat doesn't make anyone a 'bad' person, but it's incredibly BAD for us. I can't ever gain weight again. For me, after 50 years (first diet at 15...) the yo yo has to stop here.
Yes, Maggie. Big Food, like Big Pharma, and Big Cigarettes, is absolutely real. There is a horrid experiment on rats, who would put up with electric shocks in order to get cheesecake. (The sugar, dairy, salt, flour combination that creates food noise in the head). Ozempic stops the food noise, really well. Why? They tested it on rats.
Intermittent fasting has helped me get to a healthy weight and stick to it. Most days I don't eat after 6pm and a couple of days a week I have a larger lunch then don't eat until the following morning. Still eating and drinking whatever I feel like but I'm lucky in that my hubby is a naturally healthy eater and doesn't like sweets, chocolates, crisps so I just don't buy them. I try not to eat too many carbs either as they just make me feel lethargic. It's hard to find a way of eating which fits your lifestyle and you can stick to. Good luck to everyone, health's so important.
I'm sure the fasting was the reason I kept the weight off so long - that and the gym, because when I couldn't go to the gym, it crept back on. Once you get into the routine of it, it's just a way of life isn't it?
Thank you! I had something similar to your hip, but with my knees. I was 18 kilos heavier in April last year and couldn’t do things like make a quick shuffle jog for the bus or train due to sharp pain in my knees. I also struggled to do things like downward dog in my yoga class due to pain in my wrists.
Now I can do these everyday movements as the weight loss has a taken the pressure off my joints. I am all for body positivity and I will never be aside 6, but you also have to listen to what your body is telling you too.
It's the balance between body positivity - and looking after ourselves. I think the big thing is to let go of the 'other people' in the equation. It's how we feel about ourselves and how we look after ourselves.
Hi Susana - it makes me so happy that you have taken this post in the spirit in which it was intented, to inspire, not guilt trip or fat shame. I heartily recommend the Fast 800 Diet, with the cook book - plus the app that I mention in the piece, which makes it very easy to keep track of your daily carb and calorie intake. The other essential is exercise. Using that combo I lost 12 kilos in four months. I've now lost the bit I put back on over this winter and i feel great again. I'm going to be writing a lot more on these subjects, but they will be paid posts. I did this one as a freebie as I wanted to reach as many people as possible. It's $8 a month - less than two coffees! Good luck with your 'journey', keep me posted! xxx
Well said, Maggie. We cannot afford to be fat. It's what's going on beneath the surface that worries me...the unseen visceral fat. Even though Dr Mosley was slim at the start of his research, it was his visceral fat that got him motivated. It's the double danger of the flabby tummy and what lurks beneath...!
That's exactly it. The thing with my hip was the wake up call to remind me of all the stuff I'm NOT aware of - yet. Even though I've lost over a stone, I still have fat in my middle on the outside, so GAWD KNOWS what's going on inside...
It's not fat shaming - why would I shame myself? It's being realistic about how damaging excess weight is for our own health. Nothing to do with what other people think. I'm truly sorry it made you feel miserable xxx
2. The fact that your individual frame makes you unusually vulnerable in the face of weight is being used as yet another stick to beat women into guilt and shame about their ‘porkacious wobblage.’
(1) movement including strength AND (2) removing food additives, my adult son encouraged me to (mostly) give up sugar and to make whole foods my treats. I am 66 and never felt better, no medicines at all, no health problems (despite a poor gene pool of family who has died in their 50s) AND (3) meditation and very positive attitude - I see the health I want to be.
Thanks for sharing. My mother in law's partner died suddenly aged 52 a couple of months ago and it was a heart attack. He was overweight, not massively - maybe 2 stone? - but the coroner said it was the impact of his weight and lifestyle that caused it. It was a very stark reminder to try and not carry excess weight so that we can live longer for our selves and our families. I think you have given me the inspiration I need for my next post!
Flipping heck - 52? that is so young and as you say, two stone isn't very much in the big picture. But if you imagine carrying around sacks of potatoes weighing that much...
Brilliant Maggie! I think the expression 'yo yo dieting' is yet another way to make women feel bad about our soft wobbly bodies. If I hadn't regularly dieted (high fibre, Dukan, calorie app, WW, replacement shakes and all) after having babies, terrible life episodes etc I'd be big. As it is post menopause and tamoxifen eating 'normally' piles on a stone in no time even with running. Just in process of 'down yo yo' again now. It's really difficult and you've made me think about my occasional hip pain too... and you make a terrific Duchess.
I think it's just a handy term for what I've done my whole adult life - up, down, up, down - and as you say, it's better than just getting steadily bigger. I'm not ashamed of it - as I say, I was slim for more than half the time. It's just that now I can't let the upswing ever happen again. It's daunting, but better to face the reality.
Exactly what you say. It's a fight post menopause, and so much harder. My figure was always unfashionable, although I thank Kim Kardashian, however artificial, for the hourglass being more of a thing now. What I meant was, 'yo yo dieting' has very negative connotations, as if we should never 'have to diet' - but we have babies, have crises, have bodies that put on weight easily.... We do have to make sure consciously we stay within our limits and it's a challenge. I don't blame anyone for trying Ozempic to help- it must be wonderful to find it so much easier and it seems to have so many other benefits too. What I don't like is the term 'food noise' - which I assume is natural hunger, the thing that drives us to eat and stay alive.
I associate 'food noise' more with the unnatural cravings brought on by unnatural ultraprocessed food, which were - as above - designed by Big Food to be genuinely addictive. I think it's different to the natural feeling of hunger.
It wasn't much use to me. I used to look in the mirror in my mother's house and wonder why I was so unattractive as I rather liked the dent on either side.
Gabriel Gate, a French Australian chef just posted on instagram a visual of ultra processed food as % of household purchases in Europe. UK 50.7 ireland 45.9 Italy 13.4. It doesn't show source but I've been thinking about your post
I know this, but still I am fat. I try and try and try and fail and fail and fail. I am intelligent, well read and sensible. But I am also fat. It is the bane of my existence, and dominates almost every waking thought.
A deeply depressing read. It is early morning and this piece makes me miserable.
Oh Kate my dear friend, i'm so sorry this has made you miserable. As you can see from the top picture, I do know what you're talking about. And I would do exactly what Jackie says - get on the injections. I'm going to write more on that subject in the future. xxxxx
Kate, I’m on Ozempic. Life-changing. I have been on every diet and I’m a super emotional eater. I take a half-dose and have slowly lost 20kg over a year. Ask your GP. What it does for me is stop that awful, ridiculous craving (not hunger) for the bread bin and I naturally eat smaller portions now. I still have party food and drink, but only on party days and nights. It kind of enables you to be more mindful, and what you eat gets metabolised slower so you honestly feel properly full.
Good luck 😊
Thank you Jackie. I am in discussions with my GP about it. A problem is that there's been a shortage here (Australa) for years, and I feel guilty for taking it away from diabetics.
Kate, brands like Wegovy are designed purely for weight-loss, so you are not depriving the diabetic population. Hugs x
Thank you Christine. It's been available here since last August. Will be discussing with the GP.
Hi Kate, I’m in Australia too. I hear your dilemma. The supply is much improved now and there are the alternatives (same drug, different label, marketed for weight-loss). My friend is a diabetes educator and she wasn’t happy with me, but my argument was that if I can’t get some weight off now, I’ll be one of her clients before too long. x
The health benefits for taking are huge. So is the judgement...
I swear the thinnest I’ve been was when:
- 1970s portion sizes were the go (3 fish fingers, two blobs of mash and a spoonful of peas)
- I didn’t drive and had to walk for buses in all weathers
- I smoked
- I spent 3 nights a week dancing for hours in clubs
- before babies
- before antidepressants and the like
- before junk food was cheaper and far less plentiful than real food
- when you’d buy a small bar of chocolate from a shop, not a massive block from the supermarket for the same price.
😕
Oh god same…I’m a year on ozempic, the weight comes off so crushingly slowly and then stalls for weeks at a time. And my ankles hurt so bad. All the time. Soul destroying.
So sorry to hear you have the ankle version of my hip... Have you spoken to your doctor about your slow process on ozempic? I know so many people who have done it/are doing it and the weight is dropping off steadily. You probably have already, don't want to be annoying! But as long as the direction of the scales is doooooowwwwn, it's worth it xxx
I’ve just gone back to Michael Mosley’s Fast 800 Audiobook too. Hearing his voice makes it feel more doable. The Ozempic isn’t a magic wand, as my GP keeps telling me, but it has helped me. I hope you do ok. I’m starting the …gulp…gym to help build my strength. I’m a great joiner of things in order to feel that delicious naughtiness of bunking off. I keep having to tell myself “you’re a 60-year-old grown woman”!!
for me it was about finding the right gym - one where i didn't feel like an unfit, fat old loser. Now I LOVE it. The people watching is second to none...
Ohhh Kate, you sound like a gorgeous human being. Just stick with Maggie’s uplifting writings & I’m sure there’ll be a shift..in your attitude, “self regard” your motivation & courage to “embrace a new healthier “you.” Dr Michael Mosley’s program (bless him) has been the answer for me.
So sensible, easy & supportive. Watch a YouTube or two & you’ll become “hooked.” Good luck! Lets us know how you go!! 💕🦋
I love Michael Mosley’s philosophy and I’m going to follow his way of eating now that I’ve lost a lot of my tricky habits.
concentrate on loving yourself enough to nourish yourself lovely lady - start by following nutritional guidines, reducing ultra processed food, buf don't beat yourself up about it - just focus on nutrition and self love 💕💯😘
Thank you for your support Rebecca.
anytime
I eat very well. No soft drink, no takeaway. Crisps sometimes, ice cream sometimes and chocolate too often. Emotional eater. I've tried loving myself but it's hard to love when you are constantly reminded of the scientific evidence of poor health when you are overweight. Not to mention the hideousness in the mirror...
My husband wants to take me out to dinner tonight. He will hoe into pasta and meat, I will pick at a salad and some plain protein. I love food. I love good food. I don't eat huge quantities. I'm a really good cook. I cook for my genetically blessed family, and often don't eat what I make. Which means I have to cook something else for myself. It is expensive and exhausting.
Right now I'm vigously gardening and this afternoon will take the dog for a 5km walk. I am still fat. Exhorting people not to be doesn't work.
btw you should eat protein when he takes you out and eat what you enjoy. protein helps balance the appetite to what we need to sustain a healthy life. enjoy your marriage, and your date night - much love 💕
try chanting I love myself I forgive myself (over and over) it may take time but the power of affirmation helps move the subconscious. I only send love you have no need to explain anything to me and if we met in real life I would see your beautiful light filled heart and nothing more 💕
This is such a gentle, loving reminder. It’s amazing how something as simple as an affirmation can soften the edges of self-judgment. Thank you for holding space like this. it really does make a difference. 💗
Kate I know EXACTLY how you feel. I'm so tired of being offered 'education' like the problem is I'm too stupid to know what I need to do. You're not alone. I hear you.
Thank you Nancy. I walk a lot (over 5 kms yesterday, and can easily and regularly do double that and more), I eat healthily 90% of the time. I'm 59 and I am EXHAUSTED by the struggle. For me to lose the 25kgs I'd need to in order to be in the 'healthy' weight range, I would have to consume 5000kjs a day for the rest of my life. It is nigh on impossible to function with the energy required to work and cook and clean for a family on this little input. Even if it is healthy protein, complex carbohydrates etc. I know, I've tried. There are other, complex factors in my life, which make losing weight so very hard for me, but I won't bore you with my (slightly unusual) sob story! Emotional and stress eating are factors. My GP told me that she'd recently attended a lecture by a world renowned psychiatrist & psychologist. He said the one area he refuses to treat is people with weight problems. Just too intractable, too difficult. Being exhorted to lose weight is pointless. Everyone who is fat knows it, and knows it's unhealthy.
consider mounjaro - it has changed my life - it could yours
I will be discussing it with my GP later this year. Thank you.
Talk about break-up weight !! It happened to me I’m not young and I didn’t diet the weight just fell off. I’m now around 50-54 kilograms
A great post. It’s also important to remember that bodies come in all shapes & sizes due to genetics so it’s equally important to be as fit as possible. I say this as a relatively recent Pilates convert who’s been doing twice weekly sessions for a year now added to daily dog walks - I’m still short & sturdy - I’ll never be svelte but so much fitter & stronger & toned!
So true Catherine - fitness is so important and as we get older holding onto muscle is the thing. That's why I go to the gym at least three times a week.
Thank you Maggie - appreciate you sharing this as a free post. Your honesty and commitment to sharing your learnings with others is hugely appreciated. Have always loved your writing, 25 years ago you influenced me to buy my first pair of Birkenstocks and reconsider cardigans as a wardrobe staple. Thank you 🫶
aw.... thanks AJ. Those are still two of my very favourite fashion food groups xxx
This is another fantastic Substack feature, Maggie, the like of which we never see in newspapers and magazines. I have been working on a new astrology book chapter about planets in Virgo and big tobacco (who make Benson and Hedges, Marlboro and began mass-producing supermarket food, like Ritz crackers, in the 1980's). Big addictions followed.
Those cigarette and food manufacturers are all Generation Virgo. They have Uranus and Pluto in Virgo, born 1956-1972. And we were also born with that pattern in our charts, if we are currently aged 54 to 70. I've put the dates below.
Virgo rules food, drink, drugs, doctors and diets. Uranus rules new inventions. Pluto rules control. So it's really our control of ourselves, with whatever new methods we can invent (Ozempic, Atkins) versus their control of us, with all their new inventions. Hyper palatable foods. Fat, sugar, salt and flour in combination.
We were first addicted to food as children. People born after 1972 gained from having parents who were educated about food. I don't know how many of your readers are curious about astrology, Maggie, but I fell down a rabbit hole with this one, having also been large jeans, medium jeans (in rotation) my entire life. I wanted to know why and I also have Uranus and Pluto in Virgo.
Here are the dates. It's also worth mentioning that if you have more than four factors in Virgo in your astrology chart, you will be profoundly affected by Big Food as well as Big Pharma and Big Cigarettes industries.
Uranus and Pluto in Virgo
November 1st, 1961, to January 10th, 1962. August 9th, 1962, to September 28th, 1968
and May 20th, 1969, to June 24th, 1969. (Uranus in Virgo).
October 20th, 1956, to January 14th, 1957. August 19th, 1957, to April 11th, 1958. June 10th, 1958, to October 5th, 1971. April 17th, 1972, to July 30th, 1972. (Pluto in Virgo).
I'm so glad you liked it JA. It's the 'big one' I've been building up to posting - fear of being accused of 'fat shaming' made me nervous to even say it, but being overweight is a personal health catastrophe for us all as inviduals and also a massive drain on society. I felt freed when I learned the stuff about the Big Food conspiracy, which is what it really was. Being fat doesn't make anyone a 'bad' person, but it's incredibly BAD for us. I can't ever gain weight again. For me, after 50 years (first diet at 15...) the yo yo has to stop here.
Yes, Maggie. Big Food, like Big Pharma, and Big Cigarettes, is absolutely real. There is a horrid experiment on rats, who would put up with electric shocks in order to get cheesecake. (The sugar, dairy, salt, flour combination that creates food noise in the head). Ozempic stops the food noise, really well. Why? They tested it on rats.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3147141
and not forgetting.... BIG MONEY!
Intermittent fasting has helped me get to a healthy weight and stick to it. Most days I don't eat after 6pm and a couple of days a week I have a larger lunch then don't eat until the following morning. Still eating and drinking whatever I feel like but I'm lucky in that my hubby is a naturally healthy eater and doesn't like sweets, chocolates, crisps so I just don't buy them. I try not to eat too many carbs either as they just make me feel lethargic. It's hard to find a way of eating which fits your lifestyle and you can stick to. Good luck to everyone, health's so important.
I'm sure the fasting was the reason I kept the weight off so long - that and the gym, because when I couldn't go to the gym, it crept back on. Once you get into the routine of it, it's just a way of life isn't it?
Thank you! I had something similar to your hip, but with my knees. I was 18 kilos heavier in April last year and couldn’t do things like make a quick shuffle jog for the bus or train due to sharp pain in my knees. I also struggled to do things like downward dog in my yoga class due to pain in my wrists.
Now I can do these everyday movements as the weight loss has a taken the pressure off my joints. I am all for body positivity and I will never be aside 6, but you also have to listen to what your body is telling you too.
It's the balance between body positivity - and looking after ourselves. I think the big thing is to let go of the 'other people' in the equation. It's how we feel about ourselves and how we look after ourselves.
Thanks so much for this post Maggie
It’s the inspiration I needed right now in my life…
At 63 I’m menopausal, at least 10kg overweight with sore joints and bursitis in both hips.
I know I need to ‘do something’ but keep doing all the same things that got me here.
I used to read your column in Australia and loved it…so great to find you again.
Now you’ve given me the wake up call I needed.
Please share a bit more of your health regime with us …what do you eat and do daily??
Thank you for being so open.
Hi Susana - it makes me so happy that you have taken this post in the spirit in which it was intented, to inspire, not guilt trip or fat shame. I heartily recommend the Fast 800 Diet, with the cook book - plus the app that I mention in the piece, which makes it very easy to keep track of your daily carb and calorie intake. The other essential is exercise. Using that combo I lost 12 kilos in four months. I've now lost the bit I put back on over this winter and i feel great again. I'm going to be writing a lot more on these subjects, but they will be paid posts. I did this one as a freebie as I wanted to reach as many people as possible. It's $8 a month - less than two coffees! Good luck with your 'journey', keep me posted! xxx
How kind of you
Thanks so
Much
Well said, Maggie. We cannot afford to be fat. It's what's going on beneath the surface that worries me...the unseen visceral fat. Even though Dr Mosley was slim at the start of his research, it was his visceral fat that got him motivated. It's the double danger of the flabby tummy and what lurks beneath...!
That's exactly it. The thing with my hip was the wake up call to remind me of all the stuff I'm NOT aware of - yet. Even though I've lost over a stone, I still have fat in my middle on the outside, so GAWD KNOWS what's going on inside...
Fat-shaming by another name (wobblage???). This made me feel miserable too.
It's not fat shaming - why would I shame myself? It's being realistic about how damaging excess weight is for our own health. Nothing to do with what other people think. I'm truly sorry it made you feel miserable xxx
1. Internalised self-loathing
2. The fact that your individual frame makes you unusually vulnerable in the face of weight is being used as yet another stick to beat women into guilt and shame about their ‘porkacious wobblage.’
Another great article from you Maggie - relatable & real. And I was reminded of Margot Leadbetter, an absolute Queen. As your regal self is.
Fabulous advice Maggie! Yes, it’s hard work getting and keeping the weight off however absolutely worth it when we get to our golden years.
This is good. We need to stay mobile for as long as we can. That’s the key, I think, looking at my parents now.
That was a lesson I learned from my mum too.
(1) movement including strength AND (2) removing food additives, my adult son encouraged me to (mostly) give up sugar and to make whole foods my treats. I am 66 and never felt better, no medicines at all, no health problems (despite a poor gene pool of family who has died in their 50s) AND (3) meditation and very positive attitude - I see the health I want to be.
This is exactly my program. I'm 66 next month, never felt fitter... And same family gene pool!
Maggie I honestly believe attitude counts, I feel as well as my 40s BUT HAPPIER!
Thanks for sharing. My mother in law's partner died suddenly aged 52 a couple of months ago and it was a heart attack. He was overweight, not massively - maybe 2 stone? - but the coroner said it was the impact of his weight and lifestyle that caused it. It was a very stark reminder to try and not carry excess weight so that we can live longer for our selves and our families. I think you have given me the inspiration I need for my next post!
Flipping heck - 52? that is so young and as you say, two stone isn't very much in the big picture. But if you imagine carrying around sacks of potatoes weighing that much...
Brilliant Maggie! I think the expression 'yo yo dieting' is yet another way to make women feel bad about our soft wobbly bodies. If I hadn't regularly dieted (high fibre, Dukan, calorie app, WW, replacement shakes and all) after having babies, terrible life episodes etc I'd be big. As it is post menopause and tamoxifen eating 'normally' piles on a stone in no time even with running. Just in process of 'down yo yo' again now. It's really difficult and you've made me think about my occasional hip pain too... and you make a terrific Duchess.
I think it's just a handy term for what I've done my whole adult life - up, down, up, down - and as you say, it's better than just getting steadily bigger. I'm not ashamed of it - as I say, I was slim for more than half the time. It's just that now I can't let the upswing ever happen again. It's daunting, but better to face the reality.
Exactly what you say. It's a fight post menopause, and so much harder. My figure was always unfashionable, although I thank Kim Kardashian, however artificial, for the hourglass being more of a thing now. What I meant was, 'yo yo dieting' has very negative connotations, as if we should never 'have to diet' - but we have babies, have crises, have bodies that put on weight easily.... We do have to make sure consciously we stay within our limits and it's a challenge. I don't blame anyone for trying Ozempic to help- it must be wonderful to find it so much easier and it seems to have so many other benefits too. What I don't like is the term 'food noise' - which I assume is natural hunger, the thing that drives us to eat and stay alive.
I associate 'food noise' more with the unnatural cravings brought on by unnatural ultraprocessed food, which were - as above - designed by Big Food to be genuinely addictive. I think it's different to the natural feeling of hunger.
And I envy your hourglass shape! I've never had a waist.
It wasn't much use to me. I used to look in the mirror in my mother's house and wonder why I was so unattractive as I rather liked the dent on either side.
Another great, practical piece dear Maggie. Good advice! Now what’s going on with the shoes in the gorgeous photo above? Doing a Caroline Kennedy?
The trainers? It's all in my piece about the best jacket I ever bought - going to a seriously cool fashion party. I don't do heels any more.
Well, good on you!!
it's so freeing
Gabriel Gate, a French Australian chef just posted on instagram a visual of ultra processed food as % of household purchases in Europe. UK 50.7 ireland 45.9 Italy 13.4. It doesn't show source but I've been thinking about your post