I just watched an episode of the show “I Want To Save Your Life.” This particular episode featured an obese mom of three young children. The intro was pretty creepy, it appeared the host was stalking Jennifer to “see what she eats.” What she ate was a junk food filled diet complete with tons of sugary sweets consumed during stressful and emotional times. The host felt this was similar to most women, which I have to admit was very similar to my diet at one point in my life.

THE BAD

There were a few things though that I just couldn’t stand about the show. They were little things that just made me angry at the show, the woman, or the host.

• She looked like she wanted to cry the whole episode. You gotta suck it up at some point lady.
• When looking at her kitchen and the disorganization he said, “This poor woman.” I admit it was a mess, but just the way he said it and acted like she deserved pity rubbed me the wrong way.
• She said “I don’t see how this is going to help me.” When walking 2.5 hours. Really? Are you that clueless about exercise. I know people don’t understand EVERYTHING about working out when they first start but everyone pretty much knows that exercise will help you lose weight.
• “I want to be proud of myself. I want to feel beautiful. I want others to think I am beautiful.” “I don’t know how my husband sees me as beautiful.” She kept saying things like this.  I know postitive body image is something women struggle with, but sometimes it annoys me. Why can’t women see themselves as beautiful, especially when they have an adoring husband?
• Her: “By doing all these destructive things, I must not love myself.” Him: “You will get to a place where you can love yourself.” The destructive lifestyle habits are proof that she is not fully content with things in her life. But his response that she will one day reach a point where she can love herself is bogus. What about now? Should she wait to love herself until she has lost x number of pounds? Once again I wonder why is loving yourself (even a little) when you are still fat so hard for everyone?

THE GOOD

• He had good core fitness principles. The focus on walking was awesome since it is such a great thing for people to start with. Note for the show: Walk 90 minutes a day, lose 37 pounds a year.
• FIBER. That’s right dude. Preach the fiber message and give that girl some breaducation. Avoid the white bread at all costs! I was totally on board with this message from the show.
• Use power… not willpower.  I love this point.  Willpower is based on emotion and can falter.
• The show also focused on organization for her since she was definitely very disorganized and messy. His message was very true: the more organized you are with your stuff, the more time you will have for yourself.
• I LOVED the introduction of the hula hoop for “family fit time.” It is a great way to get the kids active and spend quality time together and one of the many ways to rethink physical activity. And you know, 30 minutes of hula hoopin will burn 200 calories.

LAST THOUGHT

After four months the host went back to visit Jennifer and she had lost 40 pounds. It was pretty awesome to see how she had progressed and stuck with the healthy changes. However, her attitude seemed the same. She said, “I can’t say I feel beautiful, but there are days I feel pretty.” Her self-image has not improved much even with a 40 pound loss. I’m sorry, but that is a pretty sizeable amount of weight that someone should feel good about losing. I get the feeling that even when Jennifer loses more weight she will still be unhappy with herself in some way. She seemed to be committed to losing more of the weight, because as she said, “I don’t want to stop until I lose the amount of weight I will be happy with.” I think that happy magic number is a myth, but I hope Jennifer can figure that out and start loving herself NOW.