Remember when Kellogg's came up with the idea of a weight loss challenge that was buying and eating their Special K cereal? Then years later the CEO suggested buying and eating their cereal as dinner?
There are a few things I remember about the Special K challenge.
I was still about a decade away from finally breaking free of diet culture, so I participated in this bullshit. I was also using Slim Fast at the same time. I was so hungry I could have eaten the box and the can too. No, it didn't make me thin.
Kellogg's stole concepts like "Size Sassy" from Marilyn Wann, a fat liberation activist, co-opting her anti-diet stance into diet culture rhetoric.
I have no doubt that my constant diet cycling, especially combined with the food insecurity I tended to experience anyway contributed to my developing diabetes. I'd like to see this condition renamed hypopancreatism, which would be more direct and to the point than a Greek word meaning "to pass through."
Dieting certainly contributed to my self-loathing. I was 46 years old when I discovered Health at Every Size and Size Acceptance. I'm now 59. I started dieting and became bulimic at 12 years old. I wasted 33 years of my life trying to hate myself thin. Since my thyroid killed itself off when I hit puberty and I also had PCOS, it was inevitable that dieting would eventually stop working (in the short term) for me. I lost a lot of weight during the years when dieting worked (temporarily.) The weight always came back with friends.
I still struggle with my self-image. I will never see myself as even moderately attractive, let alone beautiful. I fight to see myself as worthy of common decency.
I know this is wrong, and it's such bullshit. Diets don't work and fat people aren't lazy or undisciplined. Most of us have varying levels of endocrine disruption. However, there are some fat people who are metabolically normal.
Medical professionals need to treat the patient, not the chart. The entire world needs to stop believing the hype force-fed to them by the multi-billion dollar diet industry.
Great read and so much important information! You can never really be reminded often enough. What had been ingrained needs constant undoing. Thank you😊
There are a few things I remember about the Special K challenge.
I was still about a decade away from finally breaking free of diet culture, so I participated in this bullshit. I was also using Slim Fast at the same time. I was so hungry I could have eaten the box and the can too. No, it didn't make me thin.
Kellogg's stole concepts like "Size Sassy" from Marilyn Wann, a fat liberation activist, co-opting her anti-diet stance into diet culture rhetoric.
I have no doubt that my constant diet cycling, especially combined with the food insecurity I tended to experience anyway contributed to my developing diabetes. I'd like to see this condition renamed hypopancreatism, which would be more direct and to the point than a Greek word meaning "to pass through."
Dieting certainly contributed to my self-loathing. I was 46 years old when I discovered Health at Every Size and Size Acceptance. I'm now 59. I started dieting and became bulimic at 12 years old. I wasted 33 years of my life trying to hate myself thin. Since my thyroid killed itself off when I hit puberty and I also had PCOS, it was inevitable that dieting would eventually stop working (in the short term) for me. I lost a lot of weight during the years when dieting worked (temporarily.) The weight always came back with friends.
I still struggle with my self-image. I will never see myself as even moderately attractive, let alone beautiful. I fight to see myself as worthy of common decency.
I know this is wrong, and it's such bullshit. Diets don't work and fat people aren't lazy or undisciplined. Most of us have varying levels of endocrine disruption. However, there are some fat people who are metabolically normal.
Medical professionals need to treat the patient, not the chart. The entire world needs to stop believing the hype force-fed to them by the multi-billion dollar diet industry.
So much honest truth in your sharing here. And it is sad (and infuriating!) that you have suffered so much.
I’m glad you’ve found Health At Every Size.
I have a vague feeling that I did that challenge, but it would have been short lived as I never did well for long with hunger.
However Special K has always been a diet food for that reason and I don’t think I’ve eaten it in 20 years.
Great read and so much important information! You can never really be reminded often enough. What had been ingrained needs constant undoing. Thank you😊
Very spot on! It has been a while since I even thought of the Special K challenge, but still evokes the same "ick".