What Weight Loss Program?

The other day, a company emailed me (and a bunch of other bloggers) to promote their weight loss product. I am not going to get into details on what this product is or who the company is because I am not interested in slandering anyone.  We all have to make a living, I guess. But there were a few  things about the initial email as well as the response to my reply that really irked me.

The initial email said that this company was writing to me because of my blog’s focus on weight loss. Right away, I knew that this company did not actually READ my blog. When have I ever talked about weight loss (aside  from recounting my personal weight experiences in relation to my gastrointestinal issue)? Yes, I promote a healthy lifestyle and express my thoughts on health. Yes, I love exercising and I discuss my workouts in great detail.  But eating healthfully and working out are part of living a healthy lifestyle for me — and should be for everyone. I don’t ever discuss tips on losing weight, aside from expressing to the best of my ability that if you eat clean, real, whole foods I strongly believe your weight will stabilize. Notice I said stabilize — NOT lose. I never discuss calories unless it is part of a product review. I don’t count calories and honestly, you wouldn’t want me to discuss my own caloric intake because I have a tendency to round everything up to the nearest 500. And worrying about calories isn’t really necessary if you’re eating vegetables, fruits, sprouted grains (or high quality whole grains, but check the ingredient list), nuts, non-factory meat, real eggs (from happy, free chickens), small amounts of real butter, milk (if you can tolerate it), and on and on. Eat cleanly and it will all work out.

(Which reminds me, I still need to discuss the books In Defense of Food and Real Food and I just got The Omnivore’s Dilemma. I will probably do a summary post of all three when I finish Omnivore’s.)

Okay, so maybe she assumed a blog largely about health and fitness must be about weight loss if it was written by a girl. Or maybe that all readers of these blogs are trying to lose weight. Some are — and good for them! I am all for being as healthy and in shape as you can be. But still . . . at least read my blog if you want me to promote your product.

So I responded with a nice note, thanking her for the offer and explaining that I try to avoid processed foods containing GMO soy and corn (their product was processed and contained these things) and that I try to educate my readers in this as well (again, if they read my blog, they would know this). I further expressed my thoughts on eating cleanly to stabilize weight rather than relying on a product. I said it nicely and concisely.

Aside: Has any “weight loss product” truly helped anyone long term? Maybe, but generally no, as the diet trends and fads come and go. And any tool that means putting more chemically processed junk into your body cannot be a tool you’d want to rely on for very long. Unless you are a fan of cancer.

After my response, I thought all was done. Wrong!

The woman from the company replied back and said:

“I understand that you don’t feel that our product is a tool you can use in your weight loss program, but if you change your mind please let me know.”

And herein lies the source of my anger. The reason I am even writing about this at all, because if it had been left with my last email I wouldn’t have ever thought about it again or put it on this blog. But this, this one line, got me angry:

My weight loss program.

Why would she think I am on a weight loss program? I’m not going to tell you my weight on here, but let’s just say I am a fairly thin girl with a very small frame and I should not be on any weight loss program if I want to be healthy. Me going on a weight loss program would likely be considered an eating disorder.

A more appropriate response to me would have been “I understand that you don’t feel that our product is a tool you can feel comfortable sharing with your readers . . .” That would have been fine. But. My weight loss program? Is it because I am a girl, I must be on a diet? Or because I work out and no girl ever works out unless they are trying to lose weight? Or because I try my best to eat healthfully and no girl would ever choose carob over chocolate unless she was trying to drop some pounds? (Note: Carob satisfies the chocolate cravings. Try it — in its unsweetened form if you can! With none of the chemical aftertaste of M&Ms.)

I know, I know. I am overreacting. It just bothered me. It bothered me that the marketing company for a product that promises weight loss through sketchy methods would assume I am on a weight loss program. It bothered me that they are blindly throwing their product out there without checking who they are relying on to promote it. You’d think they would at least read up on who they contact to make sure values align, etc. What if I liked murder and wrote my blog about murder and weight loss? Would they have still contacted me to promote their product? Probably. Although you can probably safely assume that any company that makes a quick weight loss fake ingredient GMO product designed to “trick” your body wouldn’t exactly have the most ethical standards.

And our bodies do not need to be tricked; that is in fact what processed foods and imitation “low-fat” labeled foods have been doing to them for years. And what did that do for us? Cancer, heart disease, diabetes to name a few. Stop tricking your body and just treat your body right. I am not perfect myself — when the (probably processed) cookies are out, I will eat them. I am not preaching perfection. I’m just saying do yourself a favor, stop stressing about how many calories are in your Snackwells cookie, eat a peach or two and take a walk outside. All you can do is your best and no one’s best is perfect. Trickery is not needed!

OK. Rant done.

Come back tomorrow or maybe early next week to hear about the very strange Counting Crows/not really Counting Crows concert I went to on Tuesday night. And see pictures. And maybe see videos if I can figure out how to put them up.

And click here if you want to contribute to my fundraising efforts for the World Trade Center Run to Remember. That is a 5K race I am running (my first!) on September 6. The proceeds I raise go to a charity I selected called the September 11th Families Association.