NOT!
warning: rant ahead….
Women, how do you want to be marketed to?
Let me just start this post with the fact that I really do want all of the following:
I do want a flat belly.
I want strong, sculpted upper body muscles.
I want to be a lean, mean strong machine that can do 10 pull-ups on the drop of a hat.
I want to be fit, toned and all over “muscley”.
But, I will do it with hard work, dedication and good eating habits (that are improving all the time! Put Kale in your eggs? Did that today!)
However, l don’t want to be “marketed to” with the following: “Get a flat belly in 6 weeks”, or “Lose 5 pounds in a week” or by substituting two meals with the cereal to lose 5 pounds, “lose your belly”, etc…
I am sick of it. It is very negative advertising. The implication is that we ALL need to lose our belly fat?! Every magazine cover you read is all about losing weight. In a recent article in Women’s Health (Jan/Feb 09) p. 56. ” The keys to losing weight are in eating the following foods: almonds, beans, spinach, dairy, instant oatmeal, eggs, turkey, peanut butter, olive oil, whole grains, extra protein powder, and raspberries. And it says that if you follow the Abs Diet Plan for Women you will see results in 8 days!” Nobody get’s anything in 8 days. Yes, if you followed a plan of 1400 calories a day you might lose weight, but will you keep it off? The first two recipes were absolutely weird too: cooked eggs in microwave with tuna fish mixed in. (yuck!) Second recipe calls for a “fat blasting smoothie” with ice cream in it!??! (link)
In another example:
Tracey Mallet’s book “Sexy in 6″ that I reviewed way back was based on 18 minutes a day and contained a fairly sound nutrition plan. However, what bugged me about the book was the “how to get sexy in 6″ part. I don’t believe any of us think we can get sexy in 6 minutes a day nor do I think any of us can get sexy and sculpted abs in 8 days. Ugg?! Sculpted, toned abs don’t happen in 8 days unless you are going to fast continuously. The notion of speed and results over night bug me too. We know that it takes hard work, dedication and motivation to look the way we want.
I suppose that creating titles and covers that are more positive, inviting patience and stating facts won’t get readers, heh? I hate the word DIET too. Diet implies short term. I will do this diet for a short while, then I can return to what I used to eat. If you want to be a lean mean machine you have to change your mindset and your lifestyle.
What do I want to see on magazine covers, book covers or even ebooks probably won’t sell as many magazines but the women who read it will at least be holding a positive message in their hands. So far, Women’s Adventure Magazine and Her Sports and Fitness covers ARE offering healthy, inspiring articles for women athletes. They offer real advice from real athletes about what works for them. Motivating articles about things we CAN do. They also offer ab routine work but it doesn’t say get a flat belly..just says “get great abs” Isn’t that a better message?
What’s working for me:
Effective ways to cut the fat will be in the small changes you make over a long period of time. Scrambled egg whites instead of cereal. Eating MASSIVE quantity of fruits and vegetables daily. Learn to LOVE all vegetables even the weird ones. Cut down on the alcohol. Exercise daily doing something you LOVE. Lift weights. Read.
What do you all think? What kind of message do you want when you buy a magazine, ebook or even a health food book?
Older posts about diet and exercise:
Building muscle is better than losing weight
9 responses so far ↓
1 Miz // Jan 5, 2009 at 12:43 pm
why do I think you can GUESS how I feel?
Mizs last blog post..The Amazing Adventures of Diet Girl. (subtitle: MizFit is smitten & it’s all kinds of gushy up in herre.)
2 Amanda // Jan 5, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I have slowly lost and kept weight off for seven years by making small changes. I think if any of these plans worked…well they’d be out of business right because we’d all have the perfect body in no time at all.
Amandas last blog post..Holiday Bootie Buster Last Chance Workout
3 ttfn300 // Jan 5, 2009 at 7:43 pm
i completely agree, and I’d buy/read your book
4 Lori L. // Jan 5, 2009 at 9:44 pm
It seems like the “you can” message is slowly creeping its way into the marketplace, and not soon enough for me. Don’t you just love Dove’s marketing campaign? (The cosmetic company, not the chocolate!)
Lori L.s last blog post..Watching and Waiting / Oatmeal Cranberry Walnut Cookies
5 Jill Will Run // Jan 5, 2009 at 11:41 pm
I used to subscribe to Shape and Self but cancelled my subscriptions specifically because they always proclaimed ways to lose weight. Her Sports/Women’s Running is doing a good job of writing about health and fitness in a way that doesn’t scream “YOU NEED TO LOSE WEIGHT NOW!” I can’t deal with that kind of pressure. I am recovering from an eating disorder, something that will probably be an issue for me the rest of my life. I’m trying really hard to eat to fuel myself for exercise and it’s frustrating when so-called “authorities” in the health media are only telling me to lose weight.
I guess what I’m saying is that I want the messages to women to encouraging clean eating and fitness to be “healthy” and “fit”, not thinner.
Jill Will Runs last blog post..It’s a Brand New Year…
6 Kara from MamaSweat // Jan 6, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Oh, with you sistuh! I’m for appreciating the body for what it can do (and continually testing it:-) and for how amazing it works. Really, the body is so amazing and all of those supposedly “health/fitness” mags, with those degrading cover lines are so disrespectful!
Kara from MamaSweats last blog post..If the President-elect can find time to exercise, so can you!
7 Stephanie // Jan 6, 2009 at 8:26 pm
Your post made me smile. Especially the part about “nobody gets anything in 8 days.” That is SO true!
A healthy, lean body is the result of hard work, determination, persistence, sweat, etc. Regular exercise and a healthy diet are the keys. It may not be a “quick and simple” fix, but it’s tried-and-true. I’d like more magazines/books to adopt that mindset.
Stephanies last blog post..It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane…It’s Super Saver Girl
8 Donna // Jan 7, 2009 at 1:15 am
I think Women’s magazines are basically evil
I stopped subscribing years ago and I’m a happier person for it.
That said, they all scream that stuff on the cover because it sells magazines… and because everyone wants to buy into the myth that someone somewhere has the magic formula that will give her a flat belly without the hassle of diet and exercise. We buy that stuff on hope and aren’t too disappointed when it turns out to be BS, because deep down, we knew it was… but buy into the promise over and over again because – I dunno – we were weaned on fairy tales?
Anyway – good rant! Despite what I said above, I completely agree with you.
9 Amy L // Jan 7, 2009 at 5:31 am
hear hear. I agree with Donna – maybe we were never weaned off of fairy tales and still need our daily dose in one form or another.
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