Claire Richards Documentary

[Minerva]

I was watching this thing on the BBC iPlayer (runs out tomorrow) about Claire Richard's (from Steps) attempts to lose weight for her wedding.

Is it just me... but that program made me sad. And angry. The photographer about half-way through was showing her the "before" pictures (which have OBVIOUSLY been Photoshopped to make them look worse) and calling her a HEFFER to her face!!? What the hell. And to be honest I think she was so beautiful even at her 'largest'. So much more attractive than her "size 8" days.
And then they make her do some Live song in the most unflattering dress ever and high heels. I mean are they TRYING to make her look like a fool?! ... UGH. I hate the BBC. Poor woman. She doesn't deserve that.

In all honesty, she seems like such a lovely person, and they are demonising her for putting weight on after a very difficult period of quitting the band and having a baby. The main purpose of the program was putting on a circus of her going through quite extreme suffering at the expence of entertainment (though I suppose the BBC did pay for her to slim down for her wedding ) It's all very well paying for fitness trainers and nutritionalists, but they so skirted around her emotional issues. She obviously has an attachment to food which was not addressed properly at any point...
I guess that's what annoys me about a lot of the government and doctor's tactics - do more exercise, eat less junk. Yeah, but how can a person even begin to contemplate living healthily if they have a difficult relationshop with food to begin with? It needs serious addressing, maybe the NHS should be starting to provide Nutrition/Consumption Counselling or something!! Or maybe I'll study further to become a counsellor and go on to do what LLC's do. Blah.

Here's a link to what I was watching:

BBC iPlayer - Claire Richards: My Big Fat Wedding

 

[roundrachel]

I did see the programme when it was on BBC3 and found it quite interesting. The part when she was talking with her fellow bandmates who hadn't put any weight on was quite cringeworthy. They're obviously a competitive bunch, but I guess that's the industry they work in.
I did think her realtionship with her partner was brilliant and his attitude to dieting was refreshing, basically, she can do what she wants but he'll still love her. As for the guy calling her a heffer, I often look at my before pics and call myself shamu. I guess my new attitude is to not get so overly serious about my weight. Being overly sensitive to comments like 'you're a big girl' when I was in my teens (referring to me being over six inches taller than my peers) led to ten years of an eating disorder and body dysmorphia.
I think it's healthy to have a bit of banter about your weight with friends. It's not the be all and end all of life and it's made me realsie that making it the focus of my life is so ridiculous. I now have a healthy approach to it although I do still have to work really hard not to slip into old habits.
I think the programme did look at why she'd put on weight. It was the exact same reason I did really. Got to a point in my life when I could no longer do what I'd always done so sat on the couch for three years eating.
It could definitely have gone into the emotional side of why she put on weight a bit more. Even though she admits to being miserable when she was fat, at least she could laugh at herself too. We've all got to be able to do that surely? Just as I laugh at my ridiculously freaky stomach now I've lost weight.
The programme was all about her fitting into a size 12 wedding dress and I don't think they were to bothered about the emotional side of things.
There are other weight loss programmes on Sky (biggest loser etc) which generally focus on the losing weight bit and not on the why you were so big in the first place bit which all us LLers know, if you understand that, it's the key to a happy and healthy future.
Maybe we should write to the BBC and suggest a weight loss programme with a different slant? xx

 

[Minerva]

Thanks for your reply Rachel. I was just a little disgusted as to how the BBC made a bit of a mockery of this woman - she genuinely seems like a nice person. Her relationship with her OH is indeed lovely and his attitude to her weightloss/body shape throughtout the years is about the same as my boyfriend's view on me. We also love each other for our personalities and we have both balooned out of proportion while going out, and both did LL together last year as well.

I do agree having a degree of humour about your own body is healthy - it's not helpful when someone else you've never really met before calls you names.. It can lead to problems (like you've experienced), I've also been fat all my life so I've always got comments on it ever since I was a baby. And no matter what, it does add up. But I have to say, LL really did help me resolve many of these issues in my head (and also this forum to quite a large degree!!). I can take these things with a pinch of salt now, and poke fun at myself not in a pitiful way, but in a genuinely humorous slant.

And you're absolutely right. Life shouldn't revolve around weight/food. I am working hard to just LIVE instead of worrying about everything that goes in and out. I'm trying to treat food as subsenence at certain times of the day, rather than something to rely on in times of need/stress/happiness/whatever. I so want to dissociate it from any kind of emotion. I am gonna retain the slight excitement I get for planning and cooking a meal though! A growing passion for preparing good food is nothing to be ashamed of I think.

Either way... I feel quite sorry for the ex-pop-star. Didn't think I would since I hated Steps and pop music when they came out. And I agree, we should write to the BBC and suggest a programme on the true reason many of us are overweight. The emotional side of things - because it doesn't just come down to the industry and McD's and stuff. We do ultimately make choices based on an emotional response. ... Though I think Channel 4 would make a better program of it, I do find Ch4 are just plain better at arguing both sides of discussion in all their documentaries. ... HMMMMMM.

 

[Sulleyp]

I wish Id seen it now. I used to have the hots for CR bigtime when I was growing up.

 

[Minerva]

It's still up on the link I gave! Runs our on Friday, so gogogo

 

[Sulleyp]

Is she still in good nick?

 

[roundrachel]

She's certainly feisty! I had to admire her workout routines. They were hardcore. Wish I could have a personal trainer to come round to my house every day. It's the actual getting to the gym that's the hardest bit. Once I'm there I'm fine!

The bridal bootcamp is just the sort of thing I'd love to do to get myself in shape but I don't have the £2k for a weeks stay. You have to admire the woman for getting out there doing sit ups on the frozen grass at 6am!

I'm not sure how sustainable her weight loss programme is. Much like Natalie Cassidy, I think it'd be pretty hard to keep up that level of physical activity every day. Good on her for reaching her goal (well, getting below it!) for her wedding day. She looked stunning. I hope she doesn't beat herself up if she puts any weight back on though. It's a vicious circle....miserable about putting on weight so you eat more etc etc. Unless the emotional issues are addressed as they are with LL then life will be on constant diet yo yo :-(

 

[Blonde Logic]

I haven;t seen it, but surely she agreed to the content, and could have said no - or that they went too far? Just guessing.

It might be what she needs to motivate her. may try and watch it, but might not have time.

 

[daisydoll]

hi there
just watched it - thanks for link minerva.
i got quite emotional watching it, think cos its only 8 months since my wedding!
kept thinking she should have done LL then wouldn't have had to wait 8 months, or done boot camp lol!

only joking, good on her for doing it the 'sensible' way and hope she can keep it off.

and i thought she looked great when she was larger too, she has a really pretty face, and i reckon looks much better than she did when in steps

daisy x

 

[Minerva]

I nicked the link off another forum, and someone there said that she'd gained some back... But then again, she looks great whatever she does, 'overweight' should never mean 'ugly'. ... *sigh*

 

[PurpleButterfly]

There's actually a documentary somewhere (google it) called "fix my fathead" which does focus on the emotional attachment to food almost completely. Might be worth finding it and having a watch of that minerva?

 

[DoraDale]

I saw that on the iplayer, and overall it was hilarious, she is very funny but really deluded about how much she actually eats.
Some of the methods she looked into were useful, but I think her actual dependency on the wrong foods/portion sizes made it practically impossible for her to accept any methods for longer than a week.
And her job was to write in a local paper about the life of a larger lady, I dunno if she wanted that to change.

 

[Minerva]

There's actually a documentary somewhere (google it) called "fix my fathead" which does focus on the emotional attachment to food almost completely. Might be worth finding it and having a watch of that minerva?

I'll have to look that up! Thank you PB!

And yeah Dora - I really did enjoy her humour through out the program.
I think a lot of the time we are all deluded about how much we eat as well - until someone tells us and points it out. I remember Pete actually wrote down what he used to have on a daily basis pre-LL and he did not have a clue how much chocolate and junk he ate per day. He was gobsmacked.
And I know definitely from my experience a lot of food went "missing" even in my own head if I ate it secretly. If no one saw me do it, then I didn't see me do it either - and it would be forgotten.
As for portion size - I've had to come a long way to actually KNOW what a portion size is?! I've had to research and rely on what other fellow maintainers do. But it really isn't common knowledge. In England the plates sold in shops for dinner are absolutely humongous, so no wonder most people have lost the ability to judge how much they should eat in one sitting. In Europe the plates are quite small in the average house.