Smash the Wellness Industry

Smash the Wellness Industry  – a NYT editorial by Jessica Knoll

I’d like to start my commentary by quoting Red: A History of the Redhead by Jacky Colliss Harvey: “[Red hair] is, with me, as with many other redheads, the single most significant characteristic of my life.  If that sounds a little extreme to you, well, you’re obviously not a redhead, are you?”

I am a woman; therefore, I diet.  If that sounds a little extreme to you, well, you’re obviously not a woman, are you?

It’s time we did “Smash the Wellness Industry”.  What does that mean?  Well, make no mistake, as Knoll says, “at its core, ‘wellness’ is about weight loss.”  “Wellness” has now become one of my trigger words/phrases, like “lightly breaded” and “light cream sauce.”  Oh, we are all about health and wellness, that is why we are avoiding dairy and doubling down on grain bowls… yeah right.  You’re trying to lose weight; whether directly and consciously or indirectly by approaching it sideways, you are hoping this will make you thinner, er. more “well”.  (Or keep you that way, if you’re already there.)

The article is fantastic start to finish.  But here’s the other best part – those who do attempt to finally throw the whole dieting thing out the window are often counseled to do so by first accepting and loving their bodies as they are.  Why, Knoll asks?  Why indeed.  “I think loving our bodies is not only an unrealistic goal in our appearance-obsessed society but also a limiting one.  No one is telling men they need to love their bodies to live full and meaningful lives.”

Part of my hopes and dreams as I transition to the big 5-0 involves finally shedding the mentality of the dieter.  Just let the whole thing go.

That said, this should be my final word on the boring subject.

 

Book Corner 2019.27

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The New Republic by Lionel Shriver

My fourth Lionel Shriver and alas my least favorite.  Granted, it’s three stars – I read the whole thing and was interested each night to get back to the story.  But nobody was likeable, least of all the awful main character, who had something snide to say about EVERYONE; and since it was told from his perspective, the over all vibe was relentlessly ugly and negative.

The protagonist, Edgar, switches careers midlife to become a journalist; and he is sent to Portugal to cover a fictional separatist movement.  The area and the ethnic group Shriver is writing about are fake; but even so, I winced at her constant disparagement of the environment and its inhabitants – can something be “racist” when the “race” it’s taking shots at is entirely fictional?  I think so.  This is beyond having a nasty protagonist with a tendency to put everyone down – Shriver is the narrator and she’s no better than her character.

I’m neglecting to mention a significant part of the plot – the mysterious disappearance of the journalist who preceded Edgar.  I guess I didn’t much care.

I don’t want to give away spoilers; what drove the plot and my interest was how Edgar chose to become involved, at first very peripherally but then more and more directly, in the violence that is at first distant from him, then literally surrounds him.  This is what kept me coming back night after night.

Shave ’em to Save ’em #3 – dyeing

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My third project for Shave ’em to Save ’em was white roving (Cotswold I think), but it’s officially Dye Season.  This was in a ball, and the outside of the ball soaked up more dark than the inside.  I will even it out a bit with the drum carder, which will make it easier to spin anyway.  This is Greener Shades dye, a half teaspoon of yellow with a couple of smidgens of black (I couldn’t find my smidgen-sized measuring spoons, though I did later, so I don’t know the exact amount of black I used).  It ends up a nice green.

Stitch Fix Summer 2019: Item 5 of 5

Categorizable as a sundress, but not a milligram of cotton in it.  This is poly.  I would not wear it in a casual way; as the poly would make it uncomfortable during summer weather; it is too sexy for the office, and I have maybe one occasion per year where I want to be dressy outside of work, and said occasion may or may not happen on a hot summer day.  I would never wear this.  I love it.  But I would never wear it.  I already have other things I might wear on the 0.5 hot summer days per year I want to dress up.  Adieu, lovely little dress.

Stitch Fix Summer 2019: Item 4 of 5

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Tee-shirt dress.  This fix, I asked for shorts, and cotton sundresses.  This material is majority but by no means entirely cotton.  It is also not a sundress.  Xopher said the pattern reminded him of Ernie, as in Ernie & Bert.  I would never wear this.  I have several times bought Stitch Fix items outside of my zone, that I strongly suspected I would never wear; told myself to stretch a little, start wearing something different.  After one time, I never wear the thing again.  So I told myself I have to learn to say no, be realistic.  So this one is going back.