Duggars on a diet

[homeschoolmomma1]

So ummm... what happened to the 'diet'? AKA Weight Watchers

 

I think Josh needs it too and Jim Bob

 

Also remember this? http://health.discovery.com/videos/17-kids-and-counting-webisodes-losing-weight-after-a-baby.html

 

Could you all imagine the Duggars on the GI (Glycemic Index) diet? http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/glycemic-index-diet knowing TLC they would be saying they were following a diet like this for years haha

 

Also, 2 OT questions

 

1. Am I not supposed to provide the whole link?

2. Can I find a list of what I will be next? (I was a tator tot now I am blanket trained)

[xDreamerx]

Personally, this episode disturbed me. The fact that Jana came along was disturbing. I mean it's one thing to eat healthy and watch your weight, it's another to focus on being thin. Jana didn't look overweight to me (though it's hard to tell in all those baggy clothes). Even if she were a little, it's just sad. It says, slim down or you won't be worth marrying. Sorry kind of OT, kind of not but this episode has always bothered me a bit.

[darkplumaged]

Don't worry about the links. People post broken links to fundie blogs and the like so that the bloggers won't be able to easily figure out where their traffic is coming from. No need to break links to commercial sites.

Dieting would involve more effort than the Duggars are willing and able to put into meal preparation. So much easier just to open a bunch of cans, brown a bathtub-sized skillet of meat, and throw in some tots for yet another mega-pan of TTC.

[Jessica]

Personally, this episode disturbed me. The fact that Jana came along was disturbing. I mean it's one thing to eat healthy and watch your weight, it's another to focus on being thin. Jana didn't look overweight to me (though it's hard to tell in all those baggy clothes). Even if she were a little, it's just sad. It says, slim down or you won't be worth marrying. Sorry kind of OT, kind of not but this episode has always bothered me a bit.

Me too. Meanwhile Josh gets wider by the minute.

[O Latin]

Personally, this episode disturbed me. The fact that Jana came along was disturbing. I mean it's one thing to eat healthy and watch your weight, it's another to focus on being thin. Jana didn't look overweight to me (though it's hard to tell in all those baggy clothes). Even if she were a little, it's just sad. It says, slim down or you won't be worth marrying. Sorry kind of OT, kind of not but this episode has always bothered me a bit.

It's possibly she's getting that message from her parents or from the fundie world in general, but I'm almost certain she's not getting any remotely similar message from Weight Watchers. The program annoys me sometimes because I feel like there is too much of "Well, I didn't eat this, that, or the other thing and I am still happy and satisfied, dang it." But the focus is certainly not on being thin. As far as I know, you can join WW even if you don't need or want to lose any weight.

[Sola]

I noticed that Michelle's face looked a lot thinner when I watched the Michael James birth episode on Youtube. Her belly isn't but then it isn't likely to be after having 19 kids. Hell, I've had two kids and my belly is never going to be the same again! That's probably as good as she's going to get. Josh has gained weight since marrying, but I don't think he is quite as big now as he was about year after the wedding. So I think he might have lost a little. The episodes now showing in the UK are season 5/6 so by watching the latest ones on Youtube, I'm getting a good comparison. Jim Bob is getting a case of middle aged spread but when you consider how much exercise and work that he does - ie; none, that is no surprise.

[almostfundylyte]

I go to WeWa, and the main focus is on a healthier lifestyle, not necessarily losing weight. It is a good program for weight loss, which is why I'm using it, but part of the biggest focus is on eating foods that are better for you and more filling. They encourage 5-9 servings of fruit/veggies daily, lean proteins, whole grains, 2-3 servings of dairy, and healthy oils/fats. To lose weight, you just have to stay within your daily points target. I get 35 points/day, this is what I had yesterday:

Omelet with peppers/onions/ham/low-fat cheese

Banana

Yogurt with 1 c. mixed berries

Turkey burger on whole grain sandwich thins, lettuce/tomato/pickle/spicy mustard

Cobb Salad

A cucumber-tomato salad

Fruit salad (fresh strawberries/blueberries/pineapple/kiwi/oranges)

Blueberry Angel food cake

I also went swimming for 2 hours and then walked 2.5 miles.

Theoretically, TTC and chicken-etti are workable on WeWa, but not in the quantities consumed by the Duggars, and with the addition of lots of veggies and fruit.

[The Archivist]

Personally, I think a focus on weight and losing baby weight could be another way of fundies keeping the wimminz in line. Not that they all develop eating disorders or take it too far, but I do think there's a huge element of conformity to the femininity and submission standard going on there.

WW is about losing weight. I agree they couch it in healthy lifestyle terms, but it would not be called Weight Watchers if people didn't go there to lose weight. Not being wildly unbalanced like most fad diets does not make them a weight-neutral organization.

I also find weight loss evangelism sometimes similar in pitch to religious evangelism. Anyone here had their FB hijacked by obsessive weight updates and euphoric proselytizing from a dieting friend? I have.

[O Latin]

Not to threadjack, but yes. My mom and I do WW together and when we first started she would come home practically every week and post on FB something like, "I lost 2.3 pounds this week!" But what really bothered me was that she liked to tell everyone she talked to how much weight I had lost, which wasn't something I felt like sharing with the world. I had one or two close friends who noticed that I looked thinner and asked if I had lost weight, and then would periodically ask how much I had lost, and I didn't mind telling them, but I didn't want ever old friend of my mom's we bumped into in the grocery store to know that I had lost X pounds. Fortunately, we've been doing WW for about a year-and-a-half now and I think some of the novelty has worn off and she doesn't feel the need to tell everyone all about it anymore.

Also, I just want to say that while the focus of WW is definitely losing weight, I've never felt that there's much focus on being thin. For a lot of people there it's, "my doctor said if I don't lose some weight pronto I'm going to end up with diabetes." Most of those people couldn't care less about being thin. They just don't want to be chronically sick. But that is just my experience.

[xDreamerx]

Just for the sake of clarification, I wasn't trying to say that WW focuses on being thin. I was trying to say that bringing a young woman to any diet or weight loss programme when she didn't need to loose any weight is messed up. I'm fine with people going to WW and loosing weight if they need to. I was put off because I didn't feel Jana needed to. It was more a criticism of the Duggars than any particular weight loss approach.

[BlondeAgent007]

From my experience with WW, it does focus more on a healthy lifestyle than weight loss in general. Yes, it is made to help people lose weight, but I know of many members who continued to go to WW for years after their goal weight was attained, just to help to encourage them to continue the lifestyle. WW is nice because of this- it has people in all stages of the transition to help other people out, sharing recipes, experiences, tips and tricks, and other useful information. It promotes a well balanced diet with the ability to "cheat" because, let's be honest, life gets in the way, and people need to learn how to handle these setbacks and move on.

From this perspective, having some of the older girls go to weight watchers may be a good idea. As the household cooks, they plan all the menus and are responsible for the family meals. They need more nutrition help than the guys do if you look at it from that angle. Josh can go to weight watchers until he is blue in the face but if anna is still making chicken-etti type meals 6 days a week, he probably isn't going to be very successful on his diet.

Also, the duggar girls are now more exposed to media than before. Most teenaged girls are insecure with their bodies, even when their weight isn't an issue. I think allowing the girls to go, even if they don't necessarily have a weight problem, is one of the more proactive parenting decisions the duggars have made. They can talk to other people about their insecurities, and learn how to be healthier. Since weight watchers doesn't obsess about weight, then maybe they won't get hooked on numbers either. When parents don't want to admit their child has a weight problem, or overly nags them about losing weight, is when problems can occur. That's when girls start creating their own diets, and reach out to the online community for support and weight loss. If you have ever visited a pro-anorexia website, you know the dangers of finding support online(in SOME cases)

[IReallyAmHopewell]

The fact that Jana came along was disturbing.

Hey, it's a chance at one-on-one time with Mom in the car. I'd have gone for that at her age if I'd had all those kids!!! Plus, Michelle is in pretty decent shape for having 19 kids--maybe Jana wants to be prepared for her future. Plus she gets to meet people outside the QUiverfull bubble.

[homeschoolmomma1]

From my experience with WW, it does focus more on a healthy lifestyle than weight loss in general. Yes, it is made to help people lose weight, but I know of many members who continued to go to WW for years after their goal weight was attained, just to help to encourage them to continue the lifestyle. WW is nice because of this- it has people in all stages of the transition to help other people out, sharing recipes, experiences, tips and tricks, and other useful information. It promotes a well balanced diet with the ability to "cheat" because, let's be honest, life gets in the way, and people need to learn how to handle these setbacks and move on.

From this perspective, having some of the older girls go to weight watchers may be a good idea. As the household cooks, they plan all the menus and are responsible for the family meals. They need more nutrition help than the guys do if you look at it from that angle. Josh can go to weight watchers until he is blue in the face but if anna is still making chicken-etti type meals 6 days a week, he probably isn't going to be very successful on his diet.

Also, the duggar girls are now more exposed to media than before. Most teenaged girls are insecure with their bodies, even when their weight isn't an issue. I think allowing the girls to go, even if they don't necessarily have a weight problem, is one of the more proactive parenting decisions the duggars have made. They can talk to other people about their insecurities, and learn how to be healthier. Since weight watchers doesn't obsess about weight, then maybe they won't get hooked on numbers either. When parents don't want to admit their child has a weight problem, or overly nags them about losing weight, is when problems can occur. That's when girls start creating their own diets, and reach out to the online community for support and weight loss. If you have ever visited a pro-anorexia website, you know the dangers of finding support online(in SOME cases)

The sad thing is MICHELLE should be cooking the meals not the girls! Why shlould they learn how to cook healthy for the Duggar clan- They shlould learn to cook healthy for themselves if they ever leave

[camdendayton]

I remember that issue. I think they mentioned somewhere that Jana was interested in nutrition. I also assumed that she went to get some time out of the house with her parents. If I had seen Jana weighing in, then I'd be disturbed!