There have been a number of comments left on the posts regarding the LighterLife debate, which I was going to make a full response to. However, while I want to thank everyone who offered reasoned and non-aggressive involvement for their input, I have decided to leave things where they rather than give further address to some of the more personal and attacking remarks. I have therefore also closed the option for any other comments to be left.
I wanted to clarify again that the main aim of this site, throughout its existence since 1st September 2006, has been to record my personal journey to a diet-free existence. I know that I'm now a happier, healthier person as a result of this, as well as being able to stay with my goals to 'ditch the diet'.
Learning about intuitive-eating and the research behind whether dieting works, as well as being in contact more and more with women who have eating disorders, has led me to increasingly oppose dieting and the incredible strong-hold that the weight loss industry has over consumer culture, the media, public health messages and our popular belief systems about overeating and weight gain and loss.
When I hear stories related to dieting or the weight loss industry that cause me to have great concern for the health of others, such as the BBC LighterLife report, I bring attention to those and express my concerns within this blog. I think this makes me someone who cares and is passionate about what she believes in, rather than a 'damaging individual' as one commentator, Paula Balfour, tried to suggest.
I believe women should have alternatives to dieting. I believe that most women who start a diet will find that they are then dieting all their life unless they make a conscious effort to get off the treadmill. I believe that yo-yo dieting especially is harmful to our bodies (and there is plenty of research to back this up). I believe that dieting gives you an unhealthy obsession with food, and I believe that very-low calorie diets are extreme, and will for the most part, do more harm than good. I'm not quite sure how any of these beliefs makes me a bad person?
I really do though, need to thank Andrea Amador for her lengthy and very supportive and understanding comment. Andrea is an inspiration, and I wrote about our meeting in New York recently on my site.
We are all different people and have different views, and one of the Beyond Chocolate principles is Be Your Own Guru (know what works for you and only you, trust yourself). Even those have rejected dieting will have different ideas about intuitive eating and what that means - but we can all offer our different views with respect for that difference, surely?
If you find any of this extremely difficult to read, for whatever reason, then I would suggest you challenge what is going on inside yourself to bring up such strong feelings.
Although comments are closed, if you want to read the LighterLife posts and comments, you can find them here:
The LighterLife debate continued
I'm Andrea, and am obsessed with creating fabulous food. After I managed to ditch dieting, the reason Chocolate and Beyond was born, it seemed natural to evolve my site into a foodie blog. More so since I also ditched animal produce to be vegan. Now, I love showing how inventive cruelty-free cooking can be. And sometimes I like to rant, too. I wouldn't be myself otherwise :) x 
Your comments seem to be very one sided.Just because you trying to grab a piece of cake from the weight loss industry, this does not give you the right to condemn everybody who uses alternative methods of losing weight such as dieting. Lots of people do have good long term results using VLCD diets especially in combination with councelling. There is also plenty of research to back this up. I think you are in denial. Let’s not forget even you have successfully used a low carb diet yourself to treat your candida and your carbohydrate addiction.
Why do you feel that you need to disempower women who have worked hard and who are proud of what they have achieved by calling them 'desperate,imprisoned, trapped,poor saps' and more. It just makes me sad.
Why do you need to start a religious war by telling everybody that your religion is better than anybody else's?
You then act surprised that some women are upset about your 'you're either with me, or against me' attitude.
One of them who seems to be offended is a Beyond Chocolate client who was very loyal towards you. She was one of the few women here who participated regularly on your blog. You may have lost a valued customer for BC as she probably stopped coming to the sessions because of the way you and some of the so called BC community treated her.
Posted by: Justine | May 17, 2008 at 03:47 PM
Hi Justine, many thanks for your comment and I'm glad you took the time to write it.
I do need to address some of your points as there are a number of misunderstandings, I feel.
Firstly, I'm not quite sure what you mean by 'grabbing a piece of cake from the weight loss industry'. I cannot say enough times, it seems, that this is my PERSONAL BLOG!
Other than having Amazon links to Beyond Chocolate (and anything else I believe people who read this site might want to find), and having done the multi-media course, I'm in no way affiliated to Beyond Chocolate. Basically, I read the book, loved it, and decided I'd write a blog to journal about my PERSONAL experience. Therefore, I am not plying for customers! I'm also not looking for 'loyalty' - I just want to put my own thoughts down. It's up to others whether they read them.
I have no investment in BC beyond this, and the fact that I think diets don't work and I want to have some impact on the flooding of the media with the 'pro-diet message'.
The other thing I can guarantee I have NEVER EVER done within this site is call any woman "desperate,imprisoned, trapped,poor saps' and more." Never ever - and I certainly do not seek to disempower people. The opposite, in fact. I feel more empowered than ever since I started to trust myself much more.
And to be honest, when people resort to aggressive or abusive tactics in order to try and be heard, there is no bigger sign than that of how disempowered they must feel. Empowered people NEVER have to resort to making personal attacks on other individuals.
And I think the diet industry already does a very good job of managing to facilitate the process of disempowerment. Ultimately though, people disempower themselves through their own choices.
As it seems I cannot reiterate enough - I'm not pro-diet. Therefore, if you feel my comments are one-sided then that is fine, but this is my blog and my take on things. There are many dieting blogs out there and I don't go leaving comments all over them shouting "this is one-sided, have you ever considered that not dieting might work for you?" Why would I? My investment is in my own journey, ultimately.
Having said that, you seem to believe that I'm not supportive of women who diet, and a lot of the people who responded regarding the Lighter Life debate took my articles personally, as direct attacks against them. This isn't the case at all! I really want all women to find their way, and I wish that all women were free of eating issues - whether overeating or undereating.
I'm against the diet industry, and its multi-million pound interest in protecting its self, at the expense of women's mental and physical health. Even if you don't agree with my stance on diets, I don't see how anyone could possibly interpret that as being against women who diet?
In terms of my low-carb approach for candida (not carbohydrate addiction, I have to add - that wasn't the case for me), I think tackling a diagnosed health problem through taking nutritional care is very different to embarking upon a restriction plan with the aim to control weight. And I do believe I owe it to my body to eat real food which is full of nutrition.
I think there is clearly a need for intelligent discussion and debate on this topic, highlighted by the recent comments and posts - but it really needs to stay reasoned.
Kindest regards,
Andrea
Posted by: Andrea Wren | May 19, 2008 at 10:12 AM
Onload of page my antivirus put alert, check pls. Joker
Posted by: Joker | May 04, 2009 at 06:31 PM
I am in need of help.
I did the lighterlife diet and successfully lost two stones I could not keep up with the diet and went onto slimming world.
Although I kept ridged to the diet I was gaining pounds,with the help of the councellors I was told to stick to the diet and it will start to come off. Unfortunatly it hasn't I seem to be loosing two pounds then a gain of five pounds.
I am reluctant about rejoining lighter life even though it worked great and it made me feel healthy and young.
Can you suggest anything.
Posted by: Assunta Martino | November 11, 2012 at 04:12 PM