The Tapeworm Diet – Now I’ve heard it all!

Yesterday afternoon I sat down with a cup of tea and flicked on the TV. I’m not a regular afternoon TV watcher but it’s the holidays so I kicked back with the remote. I only get twenty eight channels so the selection was pretty slim. I landed on the Tyra Banks show. Her topic this day was, women who are considering putting a tape worm into their bodies so that they can lose weight. At first I laughed but then I realized that there are women out there who are so desperate to lose weight that they would be willing to ingest a disgusting parasite to do it.

And there they were. The two women who came on the Tyra Banks show and in front of millions of people confessed to wanting to do this crazy thing. Tyra brought on a parasite specialist who lifted a bell jar with a twenty foot long tapeworm inside. That’s how long they can grow in your body. YUK! He pulled this long, flat, white, gross thing out of the jar. Needless to say the two women were less then impressed. In the end they both agreed that perhaps ingesting a tapeworm to lose weight might not be the best idea.

So here I am thinking, are you kidding me? Have things gotten so bad for women that they would stoop to whatever level just to lose weight? The answer obviously is yes. These women had one thing in common, they each confessed to the fact that they really liked to eat and hated to exercise. It’s the same old story isn’t it? Instead of learning how to behave differently or just accept that they won’t be model thin, these women seek to destroy their bodies by whatever means available in the holy quest for weight loss. What’s happened to our self-esteem as women? One of the ladies went so far as to say that if you aren’t pretty and thin then you won’t find a guy to marry you, huh! With this type of thinking you have to wonder about the IQ level of some of these gals.

Two other women came on the show. One woman had her tongue altered so that she couldn’t swallow solid food. She was on a liquid diet and lost fifteen pounds. Of course she did but what’s going to happen when they remove the mesh wiring she had sewn onto her tongue? Yes, that’s right. She had mesh wiring sewn onto her tongue. She will gain it all back and then a few more pounds for her efforts.

Another lady had her ears stapled. She claims it took away her sugar cravings. Yeah, and I have a bridge in swamp land I would like to sell you.

It’s not like I don’t understand the plight to want to lose some weight. Two days ago I stepped on the scale. It was not a pretty sight. I’m up a few pounds this holiday season but I know why. I abandoned any restraint I had and ate whatever I wanted. Well there’s a price to pay for that isn’t there? As they say, you do the crime you must do the time. So back to eating healthy again and my weight will stabilize to where it normally sits. I don’t obsess about it? I’m not out for a quick fix or in search of diet to help me lose the weight quickly. I know that if I eat my fruits and vegetables, snack regularly throughout the day, manage my stress and get plenty of exercise that my body will naturally shed the excess.

As fitness professionals we have a hard job. If it was just about program design or teaching a fantastic class then it would be easy. But keeping up with these crazy fads and helping people find true acceptance of themselves is the hard part of the job. I know many people wish for world peace. I think at this point I would settle for people finding inner peace and perhaps they would stop hurting themselves. I sincerely hope that now that I’ve heard about the Tapeworm diet that I’ve heard it all because I honestly can’t imagine what other lengths women would go to in their search for their perfect bodies.