Cheryl Cole’s ‘Diet Regime’

Photo Copyright: Reuters and Ken McKay/ Rex Features

This blog post is in response to Chelsea who contacted us to say:

im only 13, and i really want to loose a stone, im 9st at the moment, and i want to be 8, and i came on here to see if her Cheryl Coles diet regime would help me but it hasnt, i dont feel like i know anymore than i did before.

Kate Cook of London Nutritionists The Nutrition Coach says:

Dieting does not work – full stop.  It leads to yo-yo dieting and the body actually storing weight.

Being the right body weight is about knowing the boundaries of what to eat – not how much you eat.  Young girls starve themselves of calories but if the remaining calories are just crisps and junk food, dips in energy levels, crashes of mood and then inevitable bingeing – and then the on-set of massive guilt.

Who can we blame this on?  The media?  Young girls look to role models – and often those role models do come from the media – it seems that celebs, effortlessly achieve fame and fortune because of being slim – but of course this is not even half the story.  A lot of Celebs strive for the “perfect” body with the help of countless personal trainers, personal chefs, air-brushing and beauty products.  It is corny to say that this does not make them happy but it does not.  You only have to look at the sad story of Amy Winehouse, staggering around in a haze of drugs and alcohol, literally falling into the gutter – fag in mouth.  However this is reported it is not clever or funny – it is hugely sad – mostly for the people that love her most – her family.  It is not some film we are viewing.  This is a real and messed up life.  A lot of celebs are just grown up kids (or not so grown up kids) with absolutely no idea at all about food/and how to enjoy it or life and how to live it.

Can we blame our value system?  That is, our own internal code that is our guiding star of how we live our life and by what rules.  We live by extrinsic values today – that is we look for guidance outside ourselves of how to live our lives and that guidance is coming from the Celeb culture fuelled with people with chronically low self-esteem.  We are copying them.  They should be copying us!

Family meals are a thing of the past and therefore we don’t know how to cook or provide for our daughters – food doesn’t come in a packet – it is grown!  But some girls aren’t even aware of how our food gets from the farm to the table, let alone how to cook it.  We eat food that puts on weight (processed food will do this) and then panic to try and lose it – setting up this binge/starve cycle.  We only need to learn the rules of the game – that is what foods to eat when and how.  It is simple – the result is a naturally slim body.  Not a super slim body and not perhaps as slim as we would want it but slim.  Our idea of slim cannot be based on how someone else is made/and looks.  It is madness to keep trying – you never arrive.

The only way to have self respect is to learn that values are intrinsic – they are your unique code of how you want to conduct your life – with respect.  Respect for your own body, your own beauty, your own unique talent.

Be true to yourself – be great.  Be talented be gorgeous – get your girl power by being yourself not a pale imitation.  Get passionate about food, learn how to cook, and learn to be beautiful from the inside and the outside!  Learn just to be you.

Girl Power!

Kate Cook