The post-divorce mini skirt, and other weight-loss motivators
Posted: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 9:48 AM by Dan Fleschner
Filed Under:
Health
(From Stephanie Becker, TODAY producer)
Here's a math problem that never came up in Mr. Gill's Geometry class. If a picture is worth 1000 words and television adds 20 pounds, how many times will I bypass the office candy jar after seeing my butt on a field tape?
That’s kind of the point of an on-going study being done at Stanford University. As Chris Jansing reported this morning (video), Professor Jeremy Bailenson's student, Jesse Fox is running a series of experiments asking the question: If you can see a computer clone of yourself lose weight, would you be more incline to be healthier in real life?
Early results have shown that as a result of the subjects exercising and watching their virtual bodies slim down, they spent more time working out in the next 24 hours than they normally would have done.
Now, before I get all snarky about this study, I have to come clean. I applied to Stanford University. They rejected me. So instead of wearing sweatshirts to class, I wore a parka and big bulky boots to get around during the winters at Indiana University in Bloomington. And I got a fine Hoosier education.
So my lack of a Stanford diploma has nothing to do with this critique: Who needs a virtual goal? Most of us already have some REAL life examples to propel us to lose weight.
For motivation I turn to my favorite skinny-me photo snapped 13 years ago. I was on the divorce diet plan. When my marriage failed, I spent the first week eating big tubs of gooey rice pudding. But once out of the comfort-food phase I just couldn't get up the energy to chew. So I didn't eat for three months. I lost 195 pounds of flab and 175 pounds belonged to my ex.
I look at that photo and feel all "Woman hear me roar, and keep that Snickers bar at bay!" I also motivate myself by trying to get into a post-divorce turquoise mini-skirt. It's still a stretch. I recently tacked it up to my fridge.
When I get dejected, I cheer myself up with the array tabloid photos of celebrity cellulite on my office door. Honestly, if Serena, and Jerry Hall and Jennifer Love Hewitt and Nicole Kidman could all have cottage cheese thighs, what hope do I have? Quick someone get me the turquoise skirt STAT! !
After we finished shooting, I did get sucked into the virtual reality world. I donned the goggles and walked the plank over a scary 40-foot deep pretend pit. I nailed it with no vertigo and then dove in with a 9.7 from the Russian judge. When I looked up, dozens of men were jumping in after me. Like lemmings they were virtually dropping at my feet. Me! Cellulite and all! It was raining men. Gosh, maybe I wish I did go to Stanford.
