Thursday, June 18, 2009

it might just move you


If you have a taste for self-improvement shows, then I urge you to go to you tube and search for "You Are What You Eat BBC."  Be warned, this show will go against your American sensibilities of social propriety and decency towards other human beings.  Within minutes you will hear the word "poo" more times than you've ever heard it on any of our major TV networks.  And you will like it.  At least I do.  

It's basically a weight loss show that is nutrition and exercise based (shocking, I know).  There is a finite time period (8 weeks), but there are no Biggest Loser boot camp style implausibilities when it comes to exercise and weight loss expectations.  The subject (or subjects) of every show are significantly overweight and, more importantly, engaging in self destructive life style habits.  At the end of the 8 weeks, you won't see a sunken faced marathon runner.  Instead, the participants are still well away from their healthiest weight*, but they are more aware, more informed, and armed with a battery of constructive new habits.  

Can you tell I'm trying to make it palatable to the skeptics?  

Yes, the host is a heinous bitch sometimes, and she says things that are horrific even after you've gotten used to her no-nonsense delivery.  Yes, the show appeals to the sensationalism of just how much these people overeat and how inactive they are.  Yes, the narration is ridiculous and heavy handed with the puns.  But you know what? It's effective.  Even if you consider yourself to be self-aware and health conscious, you will learn things from this show.  If nothing else, it will give you good ideas for recipes.  Just the other day we experimented by making a lentil pie with squash/chickpea crust because it was mentioned in the meal plan for one of the participants.  And it was damn good.  

So please, give this poo smelling, rude awakening, accent laden** show a chance.  


*the show discusses weight in units of "stones" -- 1 stone = 14 pounds (in case you, too, are a sucker for calculations)
** sometimes the cockney is so thick that we have to rewind it to figure out what the heck they're going on about.  

3 comments:

David Meek said...

OMG I want that pizza so much! Much more than the scraped out cow intestine the neighbors were preparing....ooh intestine....scraped out...it took me a while to figure out which part they were going to eat...the intestine or the scrapings....ewwww

Rebecca said...

There are lots of skinny people and medium sized people who overeat and are inactive, but they aren't humiliated on tv or moralized at. If the show really was about healthy living it wouldn't just be playing in to our stereotypes that fat people are bad and lazy. And yes, this is Rebecca. If you had come over to play scrabble with me I wouldn't have had time to be a critical pain in the ass!

herding tapeworms said...

next time we'll play scrabble.