Madison blogs - body beautiful

Weight loss and body image are tricky subjects for magazines, but they come up all the time. After editing for more than 10 years, I am still overwhelmed, perplexed and sometimes alarmed by the number of letters I receive each month on both issues. As hot topics, they are not going away. The media is often criticised for peddling weight-loss paranoia. And I understand where the arguments stem from and, in many cases, I am in agreement. But there seems to be little made of the fact that women still look to magazines for solutions. It is a position that I havestruggled with over the years and I am not sure I have always handled it the right way.

I put on almost 40 kilos over two pregnancies (20 with each child) and worked hard to get back to a healthy weight after each one. It was not easy. And the extra weight made me feel bad about myself. I am not proud to admit that I tried what I now consider to be unsafe weight-loss methods during this period: extreme detox, fad diet plans, over-exercising. And that was misguided. Categorically, the only thing that made me lose weight in the end was consistency and time. There is no quick fix when it comes to any aspect of your health. And weight is no different.

Looking around at the current zeitgeist, there seems to be a trend towards this kind of doctrine. In fact, the federal government recently handed down a report calling for the regulation of the weight-loss industry. This is to police a boom sector that is not monitored by a body of experts. It is a good first step. Body image is also taking a refreshing turn in the media, with a new breed of weight-loss heroes replacing the homogenised red-carpet variety. Thérèse Rein and Magda Szubanski are great local examples: normal women with normal bodies. After a decade of exile in the size-zero wilderness, it is beyond refreshing to see a more realistic ideal being held up as an example of health.

This groundswell of honesty is spilling over into new media and advertising too, with what would have once been considered unlikely images becoming viral examples of this new breed of authenticity. My favourite was the image of a naked woman posing for the September issue of US Glamour magazine. She was sitting on a stool (all private parts covered) – her body looked lush, sexy and yet her stomach was spilling on to her thighs. Women around the world
clapped. I was one of them.
While there will always be a place in every woman’s life for fantasy, escape and dress-ups, when it comes to self-esteem, a small dose of authenticity with your salad is just what the doctor ordered.
Older. Wiser. Healthier. Happier.