Far 2 Fabulous

Would you trade ten years of your life to be thin?

• Julie Clark & Catherine Chapman • Episode 75

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Episode 75

What would you give up to be thin? A shocking survey reveals some people would sacrifice ten years of their life, accept blindness, or choose infertility over being overweight. This startling reality forms the backdrop of our deeply personal conversation about weight loss injections and society's toxic relationship with body image.

As health care professionals, we initially approached weight loss medications with skepticism, focusing on their concerning side effects. However, we've come to recognize something more troubling – the emotional desperation driving people to these solutions despite the risks. When feelings about weight override logical health concerns, we must ask ourselves what's really happening beneath the surface.

We share our own struggles too. Despite being fitter than ever (I just ran a marathon!), we're both carrying more weight due to perimenopause. Standing on different scales gives wildly different readings – on one set my metabolic age is 38, on another it's 55! Yet we're the same person, doing all the right things, battling the emotional baggage attached to arbitrary numbers.

Remember the client who transformed her body, dropped clothing sizes, and felt fantastic – without losing a single pound on the scale? This perfectly illustrates how our relationship with gravity doesn't reflect positive changes in body composition. What truly matters isn't weight but how we feel, move, and live in our bodies.

Most poignantly, we discuss looking back at photos from our youth, realizing we were much slimmer than we perceived at the time. Now our daughters are beginning this same cycle of negative self-perception far too young. How do we break this pattern?

Join our Facebook community to continue this important conversation about redefining our relationship with our bodies beyond the number on the scale.

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Thank you for listening.

You can continue the conversation with us in the Far 2 Fabulous Facebook group. Come and connect with other women on a journey to empowered health.

For more information about Julie Clark Nutrition, click HERE
For more information about Catherine Chapman, click HERE

We look forward to you joining us on the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Far Too Fabulous hosted by Julie and.

Speaker 2:

Catherine, join us on a mission to embrace your fabulousness and redefine wellness. Get ready for some feistiness, inspiration, candid chats and humour as we journey together towards empowered well-being. Let's dive in. Hello, hello and welcome back to the Far Too Fabulous podcast. I was going to say show again. Yeah, it is a show really. It is a show, isn't it? It is a show, absolutely. And this week we thought off the back of the episode where we talked about the I just call them weight loss drugs. Julia's got a real fancy pants name for them, but you'll know what I'm talking about. We had a huge response to that and then we weren't obviously talking about it again off air and you had something very interesting that was shared with you through your governing body right, yeah.

Speaker 1:

So in a group that I'm in with nutritional therapists, we, we obviously look at new research and studies and changes in behavior and you know, discussion comes up and this has been discussed a lot lately the glp receptor medications, fancy pants, words, yeah, and so what I thought was interesting was that a post had been put up basically saying to us look, we know that these drugs and injections are an issue, but we've got to come at it from a different way because of the amount of pressure, or that emotional connection, that mental connection with wanting to be a certain size, overrides basic logic. I think was what they were saying.

Speaker 2:

So I'm just going to read what the post was not all of it, because it's very long and I'll just before you read that, I will just say if you haven't listened to the, the first episode that we've done on this subject, then stop now go back and listen to that. It was only a. It'll only be maybe three or four or five episodes back. It's not very far back, and julie will explain to you what the fancy pants names meant and you'll understand where we're coming at it from here yeah, I think that it was recognized within my nutritional group that these drugs are going to become a part of our everyday life.

Speaker 1:

They are gaining momentum and we mentioned on that episode about the fact that we hadn't fully appreciated how common, yeah, it was, and that people within our circles, even our clients, were saying I'm going to look into this or even on this medication, and we couldn't get our brains to kind of connect the dots there with with our work and we, we, just we. The more we spoke about it, the more quiet I got, because I was just going, my brain was just going oh, my goodness me, we are, we are going to be causing a massive fallout, and you called it a pandemic around the corner, didn't you? Yeah, so I think my governing body and people that are influential in this group were noticing or just letting us know look, these drugs are going to become very everyday and we've got to take off our judgy pants, because it's very easy when you're in a place of knowledge to be why wouldn't people just move their bodies and eat the right foods? And it goes way deeper than this. So this post was put out, basically saying this is where these people are at and they're going to need help because, when we spoke about the side effects of these drugs in that previous episode, they are so detrimental that your initial weight loss which also has some positive effects, we know that you know when you feel that you're overweight and you feel like you've done that, you've tried all the things and nothing's working, and then this miracle thing allows you to drop weight and it happens very quickly in people. Yes, so there was that, that benefit to dropping the weight but there was no consideration as to the long term impacts on their health in the future. What's going to happen? Long-term impacts on their health in the future what's going to happen? And that that overriding need to lose weight, to feel good, was driving that I just want to get these medications and that seems to be happening a lot.

Speaker 1:

So this post that went in in my nutritionist group was about we got to know where these people are at and the drive behind it's a lot of self-worth and the stuff that we're pushed about being a certain size and stuff. So, anyway, it was I'll give you some stats because it was so interesting, but it was saying that we as nutritionists or you know the same as you, katherine, doing your, you know your exercise and movement and all of these kind of things. We emphasize and we do this on this podcast all the time the importance of educating our clients about you know, change and how we go about. You know that there are side effects of things, but we place an emphasis on better nutritional intake, wiser lifestyle choices, in the belief that this will trigger a new, healthier behavior in you. Listening, and what this post was about was we believe that if you educate someone, that they will go. Oh yeah, those side effects are nasty. I won't do that. I'll go and do, I'll go and exercise and I'll go and eat. Right, and we believe that because it's enough for us. That's enough for us, with our identity and values, to create action, to create the necessary need for change. But for clients, that's not necessarily the case. This is basically what it was saying and then it was going into that again. That weight is such a frustration and a disappointment it can make you angry, it can make you feel really shit about yourself, all of these things. And we've got that constant, you know, social media pressure, any external pressure to be a certain size and look a certain way and fit in a certain size clothes and everything that.

Speaker 1:

When they surveyed over 4,000 respondents looking at this weight loss medications and how you feel about yourself, people said the following, which I find quite shocking, but this goes into how ingrained it is. So, out of 4,000 people, 46% of them would rather give up one year of their life than be obese. And, what was interesting, it wasn't medical being. You know what we would term medically obese. It was someone that felt that they were overweight to the point that it was impacting their life, and that could be you being a stone heavier because your hormones have changed and now you can't get into your clothes and your self-worth goes down.

Speaker 1:

So out of these 4,000 people actually it was more than 4,000 people 15% would give up 10 years of their life rather than be obese. I mean, could you imagine it Right? I'm going to give you this medication, it's going to work, you're going to lose weight, but you're going to lose 10 years of your life. 15% of over 4,000 people said yeah, all right then. 30% would rather be divorced. One in four would rather be infertile. 30% would rather be divorced. One in four would rather be infertile. One in four would rather be severely depressed. One in six would rather be blind than obese or overweight. I just again I'm losing the words because it's so staggering, but it just goes to show the impact on someone to be overweight or obese is so severe that they one in six would rather be blind than be overweight yeah, no, it's.

Speaker 2:

It's scary, isn't it? And, like you said, when this survey is talking about obese, it's actually not talking about clinically obese. It's talking about somebody's perception, yes, of being quote unquote overweight. So it's very much an aesthetics or, majority of the time, it's very much an aesthetic thing. It's not, uh, necessarily a a thing, which is what these injections were designed for, weren't they? They were designed for people whose weight was, or whose body fat, whose body composition there we go, that's the word Was impacting their health. So that's who that was designed for. However, the people that were surveyed through that, that wasn't just about their health. That was about how they looked, or how they decided they looked, based on what society says we should or shouldn't look like.

Speaker 1:

How they felt about themselves was more important than any of that other stuff was more important than any of that other stuff. So they felt so bad about being overweight that they were prepared to give up 10 years of their life in exchange for being one of the slim people.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and the irony is that if somebody is clinically obese, they are giving up probably 10 years of their life anyway yeah, yeah, it's true.

Speaker 1:

So we thought that we would raise this as a as a discussion point, because we obviously looked at that medication from our perspective and we concluded that know why on earth would you want to take it? Based on the side effects. And the side effects were very detrimental if you're not aware of them and you're not compensating for them. And we're seeing a lot of stuff in the press about I took this drug and this is what's happened to me. There are some, you know, pretty famous people that are shouting about it at the moment.

Speaker 2:

Sharon Osbourne was one of them, wasn't she? Yeah, you shared that article. Yeah, that she was really really poorly. Yeah, she was awful. And somebody shared with me that apparently Robbie Williams had got scurvy because of taking the injections, so not able to get the right amount of nutrition into his body to survive, to live yeah, so we know that there's a an impact on the.

Speaker 1:

It limits the amount of food that you put into your system severely, to the point that you are nutrient you're in nutrient deficit. This is the issue, and then that impacts so many things but bones and your immune system and just so many things which we spoke about on that previous episode. However, I think what we've got to look at what this you know my the post in my nutritional group is saying is that we know this, but the people that are taking or going to take this drug won't necessarily care about that because the need to be slim is so strong.

Speaker 2:

Yeah and that's well.

Speaker 1:

That's the direction we need to be looking at it at yeah, so we need to be able to support, as people that work in in health. It goes so against the grain, doesn't? It's the complete opposite of what we would want to promote. But because these things are going to be so commonplace and people are going to start to have issues, then there's going to be a need to support them so that they can offset the side effects of those medications. I think, or we've got to get really deep into the underlying issue as to why they feel that being slim is the answer. It's a bit like people that um, win the lottery and think it's going to make them happy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it doesn't because you haven't dealt with the reason that you felt unhappiness yes, yeah and maybe being a certain you know size in the mirror does play into that a bit. There's got to be a bigger picture right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, absolutely this. I'm, uh, just about to launch a new group coaching program and I've been talking a little bit around the fact that I'm I have a new business coach and I'm trying to find a different way, a different approach to speaking to people. And this, this plays into it so hugely because I want people to embrace well-being, embrace strength, embrace confidence and all of those that lovely, lovely stuff, and they do want that, but often, when I survey clients and things, it is always the weight loss that is first the driver yeah absolutely, and it's really.

Speaker 2:

Then it's really difficult to then say to potential clients that it's fine, because after you work with me, you won't care about the weight loss. That's not going to sell any programs to anybody ever. They'll be like what do you mean? I won't care that I'm carrying like extra pounds.

Speaker 2:

And it's the work that we want you to do is the habits, is the feelings that you've got about yourself, is the reasons that you are seeking solace in food and the habits that we've created. And also, I mean society really sets us up for failure so many times, so it's provided us with this, this drug, uh, that plays into our whole. We can be thin and it can be easy. Yes, absolutely, absolutely. And then and again, it fuels us with that. It fuels us with the fact that that society wants you to be this, this certain size, and all the social media. You get that played to you all of the time. And then what does it do? It gives you foods that are this quick fix. So then you don't want the stuff that's nutrient dense. All you want are the super tasty processed foods yeah and it's just uh, julie's going quiet again on me.

Speaker 2:

I my every time I've spoken about the previous episode I've said that we we started this like. We have now really animated and I thought that it was going to be a proper ranty kind of episode. And as we got further and further along and Julie explained deeper and deeper how these injections worked and what they physically did, you got quieter and quieter. By the end of it. I actually didn't know what to do with you because, you know you, you talked yourself almost completely out of it and that was my lasting memory of recording.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it was just the penny was dropping out as I was going through the process of it. From a logical nutritional perspective, this is what happens when you take this, but then it was just dawning on me as I was talking through oh, my goodness me, this is a massive issue and so, within my community and with my governing body, etc. We, we're starting to get this, these, these you know this information about. We are no, we are recognizing that this is a massive issue, but it's not going away. Yeah, so we need to deal with it and we need to understand why someone would take that, opposed to what we think people would want to do, because that's what we would do is to I need to move my body, I need to get to bed on time, I need to eat properly.

Speaker 2:

No, yeah, and also that. So another edge of this sword is that our lives are not set up for that, are they? They are so busy, they are so chaotic. There is a hundred million things going on that quite easily somebody can say I don't have time to do all of those and for some reason it's it's not, uh, billed as the priority across society, across social media and things like this. But I think it's really great that your governing bodies are noticing that there is a problem problem and being able to identify where you guys can help and support rather than being judgmental, because, I mean, that's a really, it's a really easy place to go yeah, and it's.

Speaker 1:

It is difficult not to be when, like I said, when you're in that place, where you know, in in my mind and probably the same with you, with you, katherine, when we think about weight we're like that's just a positive side effect of working on all the other things. But it has become such an issue because we've got we change so many things. I mean, I find it fascinating to look at those pictures where they go. This is a beach scene from the 1970s and this is a beach scene now. And they do it with the football matches. These are guys, you know, or girls, going into the football match and this is now. There's been a massive problem with weight gain over the last well, probably in my lifetime really, you know, being a child born in the 70s, the changes have been massive. Our body doesn't know how to deal with it and then we've created a problem. In a world where we get instant things, everything is quick fix. We want it now. We want it now. We don't necessarily want to put the work in to get it.

Speaker 2:

Well, no, I mean, we're like our body and our subconscious is set up to take the path of least resistance. It wants. It wants it to be easy for us and so, yeah, we are going to be predisposed to getting those quick fixes. That's what our body wants. Our body doesn't want us to. It thinks that we need to conserve energy because, you know, the saber-toothed tiger might be around the corner. So we need to. We need to conserve energy. When there is food, we need to consume that, especially if it's yummy and it's got all the things that set all those lights off in our brain. And it doesn't. Yeah, our poor bodies have not caught up with the fact that there is no saber-toothed tiger anymore. Actually, the saber-toothed tiger is far scarier now, isn't it that the stress and yeah and all of that that is is unseen and doesn't chase us physically is is far more scary yeah, yeah, because we don't get to deal with it and then have the.

Speaker 1:

There's change in our body that happens afterwards. It's constant, isn't it? So I think also, there's a there's such a lot of pressure from people that are taking it and having that what they would call a positive impact of it. You know, I've lost all this weight. I'm feeling really good, you know. Look at, look at me. I'm now in a size 10, yeah, and you're the friend that is doing all the working out and the food and you're seeing the nutritionist or you're having the training sessions, and then you've got a friend that's just gone and taken this medication and they've lost the weight and they're swanning around going. This is great. They don't know what's around the corner at the moment, or they, maybe they do.

Speaker 2:

But there's someone who would rather be blind than be obese, yeah, and is this great like, like you said, with the, the lottery example, now that you have lost that body fat and muscle and nutrition. But body fat. Has that solved the problems? Because I, because it hasn't like. The reasons are have you done how? Are you someone that has done the work? Whilst you are taking the injections, have you sorted out the underlying reasons why you are using food as a comfort? Have you changed those habits? Have you increased your fluid intake? Have you made sure you're going to bed on time? Have you reduced stress in your life? All of these things that will contribute to you putting that weight on on? Have you sorted those things out so that you can then come off them? My guess is that majority of people, because of the way that you can get hold of them, haven't done that you might mean to do it, but they might that.

Speaker 2:

But you know it. Suddenly it works and you're like oh, I don't need to do.

Speaker 1:

I don't need to do that because I was a size 18 20 and I now was size 12. Yeah, so what what you want about Catherine? I don't need to do that. I'm fine over here in the short term. Again, they don't necessarily know what's around the corner, but that's the the thing that you're being faced with if you're someone that is looking thinking I really want to lose weight.

Speaker 1:

My friend's just taken this and look at that that's amazing, yeah, and I think initially you would get a boost of confidence and it would change. But remember, in that previous episode I said about the study that looked at the increase in suicide yeah because you've taken away that thing that the person was using to to with their emotional issues. Support like a crutch yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

So we know that it's a problem, but we also fully understand the impact of that weight. I mean, I was saying to you about I bought some scales that were like yours because I wanted to be able to track my body fat percentage because I'm doing some work on strength training and things and my muscle mass and stuff. So I bought a set of scales with the handle that does all that and I usually come to your house and use your scales and so I bought some myself and it measures your metabolic age. On your scales, my metabolic age is 38. On my scales, my metabolic age is 55. Right, I don't know what the difference between the settings are on the two scales. I I only know that my scale makes me feel less than your scale. Yeah, your scale. I'm like skipping out there going. Yes, my metabolic age is 38. I've got it nailed. I'm so good. I'm such a good nutritionist.

Speaker 1:

I'm doing all the things I said I'm so good no, I'm a year older on my scales than I currently am. I'm rubbish.

Speaker 2:

I'm shit. Why can't I do this exactly? I'm bad at my job. I mean all the decisions that you could make, yep, just from stepping on a different scale yeah, and I had some scales before where I had two sets.

Speaker 1:

I had one set of scales I used to have in my clinic room and then I had the ones that you have in the bathroom that you know you wear your suitcases on and stuff. There was half a stone difference between those. I don't know why. They were both calibrated. You know you do the little dial and I'll make sure it's on zero Right. Which set of scales do you think I felt best on?

Speaker 2:

Oh, definitely the ones measuring less.

Speaker 1:

I'm the same person. I'm the same person that's on your scales with a metabolic age of 38, on my scales with a metabolic age of 55. What is going on there? But this is the mindset, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

We, when I used to work at chelsea, westminster, we had a seated scale for some, for people that couldn't stand on the scales, and they were the oldest thing. They literally looked like florence nightingale had used them and they were the most accurate. I don't know how they measured this. They must have gone around and and like tested all of the all of the scales around the hospital. They were the most accurate. I don't know how they measured this. They must have gone round and tested all of the scales around the hospital. They were the most accurate. People used to come down to our seated scales. Actually, I'm going to take that back. I don't know if they were the most accurate, they just weighed us less than any of the others.

Speaker 2:

They were the most favourable yeah they were the most favourable, and so people used to come down to the clinic and sit on these scales because it was the most favorable. And I still remember and this was even as a extraordinarily slim 20, 30 year old that I used to get on. Before I got on the scales, I used to take all my pens out of my pocket, I used to take my my belt buckle off, I used to take my shoes off, I used to take literally everything. I mean, if I could have got away with getting on it in my underwear, I would have done, but it was the middle of a clinic and I drew the line of that and yeah, and then that was, that was the number, and you make sure you did it right in the beginning of the day after you've had a poo.

Speaker 2:

So you were just absolutely the lightest and and and that's considered the best, and yeah, and I mean so we're telling you these things because we, we get it, we totally get it. We were talking again just before we came on about the fact that our hormones are having a little bit of a song and dance with us at the moment and we are not doing anything different. And in fact, did I say this the other day, I can't remember I almost broke a sub 30 park run last week amazing, go you. I haven't done that since 2019 and I was really. I was just really pleased with myself, and so I am probably the fittest and healthiest I've been for a very, very long time and I am probably the heaviest I have been, probably ever yeah, me too, and it bugs the shit out of me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it does. It's really like I've been. I've been being kind to myself because, like Catherine, I'm just going to tell you straight up I am a stone heavier, yeah, than I would normally be, yeah, and I was my weight. So my weight was just over nine stone and I was constantly that way for years and years and years. That was my weight. My size was an eight to ten. That was me. I didn't budge because I was. I eat white, right, I do my exercise, I prioritize my sleep, all of that. Then, since I don't know, a couple of years ago, I've now got to the point where I'm now just over 10 stone. It's very stable, but that is a stone heavier. And now I'm in a size 12, from an 8 to 10. And it is really upsetting. But at the same time, I understand the reasons why that's happened and I've not changed anything. That is being in perimenopause with the oestrogen, that's all that is. At some point that's going to change for me and it will probably go back and it will go back.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, to your normal, to my normal, but in at the moment, my focus has got to be on the fact that I am fit and healthy. I am strong and I'm working on my strength side of things and, like you, I will be the fittest in terms of that strength and everything else than probably I've ever been. And yet I'm gonna. I'm, I'm a stone heavier yeah, and isn't it interesting?

Speaker 2:

and I think the percentage here. So for you and I, I think maybe there's a 20 80 kind of rule, and so for 80 percent of the, we are very happy with how fit and healthy we are and we're always looking for different ways to maintain that. But there is always that 20% that we have just been pre-programmed with that. When you put on something that used to fit and doesn't fit anymore, or something doesn't look as nice as you thought it used to look, that upsets you and that you make judgements about that. So, first of all, you make judgements about how you look and then and I think I speak for both of us you then make judgments, like you said, about standing on those scales.

Speaker 2:

You make judgments about your ability to do your job and that, as well as the fact that one in six people out of 4 000 would rather be blind than be obese, that shows the power of of weight and again, for us it is purely superficial. It's it's, it's got. It's not having any impact on our ability to do anything. I ran a marathon last month. It does not have any physical impact. It's not having any impact on my body, it's not having any mental impact. It is purely aesthetics.

Speaker 1:

It's purely what we are told that we should look like and if you think about if we had no scales and we had no mirrors, yeah, and we had no cameras, and when we went and bought clothes there was no sizes in, you know, the labels, you just found something that felt comfortable on you. Yeah, I don't think we would have this issue. Yeah, because it's only like for me, I don't feel, I don't feel like I'm overweight or I don't. You know, get in the shower and look down and think, oh, geez, or anything like that is literally the scales. When I look at myself in pictures, now, all of those superficial things, when I go shopping and I, you know, I'm looking at different sizes, all of that, it's like a little kind of, you know, niggle, it's like tapping away there.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, and I think, like you're looking at yourself, we just, if I looked at a picture of you, I would just see you. I would just see you. Know, lovely Julie, in that, in that picture meditating, where mum said aren't you supposed to be being serious? Yeah, do you know what I mean? We would just see your lovely smiley face there. In no world would somebody then look at you and go well, you look about a stone heavier than you did a few years back. It's just, it's your perception and but weirdly, there is an element of you thinking what will other people think of me?

Speaker 1:

yeah where?

Speaker 2:

and it doesn't, and that doesn't exist. You've just decided that it does yeah, it's so funny, isn't it?

Speaker 1:

because if you haven't seen someone for a while in your head you, you're almost thinking to yourself. They're going to think, oh, she's put on a bit of weight, yeah, and they're just pleased to see you. And it's ridiculous, yeah, it really is ridiculous, because when you, when you look at, like what somebody said something to me the other day about my legs I've got good legs, nice pair of pins, nice pair of pins. Right, it's because they're toned. Yeah, you know, they are toned because of the sport I do, yeah, and everything.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, you're right that people are just looking at you for you not making all these, you know you, just you, you make up your own narrative, don't you? Yeah, and then you have to check it and remind yourself. So I was talking to a client the other day about this very subject and we were talking about people that are bigger but look great, and we were saying, look, you can still be bigger and look great if you're wearing the right colors for you or the right cut for you. You know the right fit for you. It doesn't matter if that is a size 16 or a size 10. You could have someone who's a size 8 look awful yeah and someone who's a size 20 look fabulous.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, yeah, absolutely these so interesting. You talk about clothes sizes as well and, like everybody knows that if you go to Zara, those clothes sizes make you feel absolute shit. So mean, like I, I've had to buy large in zara and I'm I'm not small, but I'm not large, and so then where do you go with that? So what does somebody that does need large clothes, what do they then have to go and buy in zara and it's that labeling, that's really. It's not great for your mental health at all. And oh, I can't believe I'm going to say this out loud as well we're really going there today, aren't we?

Speaker 2:

Julie, I have always had this thing that I would never buy a size 12. I would never buy a size 12. Now I have had to give up on that, quite a while ago actually. But why would I? Why would I even think that that was a thing? Why does it matter? Exactly as long as things fit you and are comfortable, it's, but it's just, and so it just shows the pre-programming that has gone on through.

Speaker 2:

And that was like I grew up without social media. I just grew up with just 17. I'm pretty sure people in horse and pony weren't worried about what size their choppers were or anything like that. So, and yet that was still a thing? Yeah, definitely. And and and yet that was still a thing, yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2:

And so our daughters growing up now this is actually even more of a an important conversation for them, because they are consuming all this social media all of the time and it's just subconsciously going in, going in, going in, and everybody's got to look the same. And if they don't look the same, then they're, then they're weird and they're, you know, then then they're pushed out and we, we know again from subconscious sight, a point of view that we feel safer in those tribes and once upon a time, if we were not part of that tribe, we would genuinely have died. And so that's what our poor old brain is thinking oh, my goodness, I don't look like everybody else, I'm going to be pushed out of the tribe and then I'm going to die, which obviously is not going to happen now. But that's, you know. That's what's going on in your head.

Speaker 1:

The thing that I find most fascinating as well is that at the weekend we were looking through uh photos. The kids wanted to look at photos when, like I was the age they are now and things like that and I remember thinking to myself that I was bigger than everybody else, always. I don't know where this come from, but I always had this, this thing that I was bigger. And then I'm looking back through these photos and I am so slim and I think I don't know where that come from. I'm looking back, I'm thinking to myself even when I was doing my trampolining and we were in leotards, I always had that thought that I was bigger than everybody else.

Speaker 2:

But when I look at the photos, I am so slim and I guarantee that 99 percent of women that are listening to this right now know exactly what you're saying that every, each and every stage, they thought that they were overweight. And then you look back at the, at the pictures, and you're saying that every, each and every stage, they thought that they were overweight. And then you look back at the, at the pictures, and you're like what was I thinking? I even said the other day to one of my clients that if I looked like I did then and I look like my, my daughters look like now, I think I'd walk around naked yeah, yeah, it's just incredible.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I took my daughter shopping the other day. She's 13 and she said something about because I said to her you're going to need a smaller size because you are tiny, and she said no, I'm not, she is tiny. Right, she's tiny. There's nothing of her. Yeah, she's tiny, and she, at this age, has already made that comment I'm not. Yeah, when you are has already started on that cycle yeah, yeah. So I think the the point of this discussion was that, yes, those glp medications are an issue.

Speaker 2:

They have massive side effects and are not to be taken lightly. They are to be taken as a as a tool, in conjunction with lots of habit training, subconscious training, all of that stuff.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but we need to recognise that as women, that weight side of things probably for men as well, but I think it's more for women is so powerful that those statistics showed that people were willing to give up 10 years of their life or be blind, or be infertile, you know, never be able to have children. What would you prefer? Never to be able to have children or be slim? One in four said I'd rather be slim. Yeah, which is just mind-blowing. But that's that's where we're at and our discussion around. You know how we feel when we get on the scales. The fact that we've both gained weight. I think the good thing for for us is that we know that we haven't changed anything, we are still eating well, we're doing all the things, and that weight's gone up. Now we could look at it and be completely demoralized by it, or we could just accept which is where I'm at now. At the moment, I'm accepting that there are things going on in my body that are natural.

Speaker 2:

I can do things to support which I am, but focusing on the strength side of it rather than the weight side of it is where I'm at, and that's I think that's important yeah, and I mean there's been a bit more research into women's health now and so we know that we need to do things differently as our hormones start this different dance and and we can implement that and we need to come at it from and hopefully we come at it from a health perspective 80 of the time, as opposed to an aesthetics point of view yeah, but we also have to work on that ourselves as well.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah, because it's so easy to get drawn into that. Like I said, your scale says I'm 38. I'm happy with that. My scale says I'm 55.

Speaker 2:

My skills are definitely right and this is the thing well, I mean for you that was fine. My scales have been absolute bitches to some people, some of the, some of the ages it gives people and you're like, oh, that's just rude. There was no need to say that yeah.

Speaker 1:

So I don't understand the mechanism for that, but tracking my body fat percentage has actually been going down steadily with the work that I've been doing. And when I was listening to somebody I can't think of their name, I always do this and I'm like I'm listening to this, can't think of their name, but somebody that is like an expert in that weight loss field and in metabolic health. They said if you are targeting your muscle mass and reducing your body fat percentage but keeping your muscle mass, you absolutely mustn't look at the weight. The weight is irrelevant. The weight is irrelevant it is irrelevant.

Speaker 2:

It's totally, totally irrelevant.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, as long as that, yeah, exactly as long as that body fat percentage, if you want it to go down, is going down, that muscle mass is going up to turn you into a lean mean muscle calorie burning machine and your and your hydration remains at a good level, which is yours always has done, then then those figures are going to go either go the way that you want them to go or remain where you want them to go, and that that that top number.

Speaker 2:

So, talking about that top number, I have found because I I often say that and I I often say I could there's no relevance to that overall body weight. However, I think I might have found just one relevant moment, for it was that when I was running the marathon again as the heaviest I think I've ever been as a human being on this planet, as far as I know anyway, um, apart from when you were pregnant, oh, I don't, I don't know how old. See, this is also. The thing is that I have never bought into, um, how much I weigh. Particularly, I didn't realize I was joked about weighing, uh, when we were younger, but I've never had during that part of my life where I was having babies. I didn't ever have scales so I actually don't know.

Speaker 2:

I'm sure somebody weighed me at some point, but I actually have no idea what weight I was whilst I was pregnant. So I actually have no idea. But potential I don't know. I'm not% convinced I'm not heavier now, but anyway, than when I had an actual other human in me.

Speaker 2:

But what I did make a conscious decision to do whilst I was running the or training for the marathon, was not to increase my weight training, which would have increased my overall body weight, because it was very unlikely I was going to be dropping body fat whilst I was marathon training, because if anyone that knows why you've marathon trained, I was eating quite a lot, so there was very little chance of me dropping body fat.

Speaker 2:

I would have increased muscle mass, which would have made my overall body weight much heavier, and that's what I would have had to have then lugged around 26.2 miles. So that was the only time I've ever found that it was useful to know what the top number meant or said. But other than that, for me it's totally irrelevant. And and if you stand on the scales and you get those numbers, they are just baselines, they are just guides and the work is going to be not then attaching all the emotional baggage to them, like not making one number mean something when really is just a number yeah, it is, and I I'm going to finish with.

Speaker 1:

I remember this because it sticks in my mind from years ago. This client that I worked with for weight loss I I did not allow her to weigh herself during the process, and I just remember it was after eight weeks. We were seeing each other and the final session she came in. She got new clothes. She was having, you know, felt really good. She said, oh my god, I've done so well. I can't wait to get on the scales. I'm feeling great, I've got my new clothes, everything. When she stood on the scales, they did not move. She had not lost any of a relationship with gravity. That I call it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, but she had lost like inches. Yeah, she'd changed her body composition. Yeah, and that's way more important, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean that's a really that's a superb thing to end on, absolutely that that top number didn't move. But your relation, your relationship to gravity, but you, the way that you felt about yourself, because you'd been putting effort and love and care into what you've been doing for yourself, was where the difference was made.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, amen okay as ever as we should continue this discussion in the far too fabulous Facebook group.

Speaker 2:

Please come and join us for this one. I think it's going to be a good one. See you there. Thank you for keeping us company today. If you enjoyed the podcast, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review.

Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

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Speaker 1:

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Speaker 2:

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