Slim Chance!

The Slim Chance Awards were announced!!  For those of you who are unaware, The Slim Chance Awards are given to the most outrageous and egregious weight loss hoaxes of the year.  (Click here for full list of winners…er um losers…) 2013 had an impressive list of candidates!!! You may have read my recent blog post, Freeze Police, in which I nominated a procedure that promised to freeze away your fat and give you the body you’ve always dreamed of.  Well now I have some good news!  It seems that calling out F.L.O.P.S. (FAT LOSS OVEREXAGGERATED PROMISES) is not entirely the responsibility of the domains of fat acceptance, size acceptance, and or Health at Every Size®  It turns out that the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) and the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) blew the whistle on several big names in the weight loss (aka cycling) industry for their lies lies lies!  Now there’s a Surprise surprise surprise! 

Ragen Chastain, author of the blog, Dances with Fat, beat me to the punch blogging about this wonderful turn of events and you can read her post here.  But I just want to add that I love the timing of the FTC’s announcement.  January 1st is hailed far and wide in the weight cycling industry world as the first day of the new you!  The number one resolution, people all over are starting their new year off with thoughts of self-hate and an often self-destructive resolve to lose weight no matter what the cost may be.  With dieting and weight loss on so many radars, this kind of announcement from the FTC/FDA may really hit home for people and reinforce the absolute ludicrous nature of so many of these schemes that are promoted as gospel.  In simpler terms…the FTC/FDA just called out that

In other news, an article in Reuters, written by Sharon Begley, just reported that the Workplace Wellness Program provided by PepsiCo fell short of their fiscal goals.  The issue of workplace wellness is one that is ripe for the picking and will no doubt be a topic for a blog in my future.  I did want to mention it in this post because, once again, the timing is such that many folks who may ordinarily pass over an article about workplace wellness, may stop to read it.  This in turn, may initiate some deeper thinking about the whole issue of health and one’s job.

My biggest complaint about the mandated workplace wellness programs that are intertwined with the ACA (Affordable Care Act) and I have many, is that a person’s investment in their wellness is not one based on financial equations.  It is an investment of time, energy, and intention.  An individual’s state of wellness is just that…individual.  One person’s wellness may look quite different than another person’s and there is no room in this arena for competition or coercion.

I don’t know about you but I have this oppositional thing going. It’s been a part of me ever since I was a little kid.  When someone tells me I have to do something I want to do it LESS than ever!!!  When I am given a choice then the odds go up that I may take some action.  Some of the workplace wellness programs can be insidious by offering the illusion of choice to the employees e.g.

“You don’t have to do this, but if you do not you will be penalized.”

The long term compliance rate of people engaging in a wellness program under those conditions would be a great study, but I’m going out on a limb here and hypothesizing that it probably isn’t too impressive.  If it turned out to be otherwise, I would remove my tongue from my cheek and earnestly say,

Til next time,

Dr. Deah

P.S.  Check out my new author’s page on Amazon.com now! (Stork design by Ross Turner)