WeKnowDieting.com’s Blog

If you’ve been following our blog, you might have noticed that my “Monday morning rants” are becoming a bit of a habit. Indeed, I do enjoy blowing off steam and voicing my opinions once a week. But I also have a chance over the weekend to plug back into the world a bit, actually watch a little television, spend time with friends and family (over the age of 3)… and witness the stupidity that is going on around me. Now, remember that I have to speak in generalizations, and I know that stupidity isn’t everywhere. However, I did find it on Sunday afternoon… in reality television.

I know what you’re thinking: just a few days ago, I was singing the praises of reality television as quality entertainment. Let’s just say that was before I saw “Ashley Paige: Bikini or Bust.” Now, the premise of the show is interesting: a successful bikini designer (as in, high-end, $700 swimsuits) attempts to expand her business while continuing her dog rescuing efforts on the side and keeping her head above water. However, after watching an episode and a half of reruns, I was quickly becoming annoyed. If you are a person who feels you have common sense, see if you can figure out where Ashley might be able to save some $$, since she is struggling to even make her rent payment.

Possible Solutions:

A. Ashley’s mom can try to get a job.

B. Ashley’s mom can try to find Ashley a man to help her pay the bills.

C. Ashley can cut back on her staff of 4-5 assistants.

D. Ashley can try to land a licensing deal to mass market a more affordable swimsuit line.

E. Ashley’s mom can try to hire an agent for their house dog, who sits and stays for cheeseburgers.

In the course of a few episodes, Ashley and Mom, Leah, actually try all of these options except “C.” Her mom attempts to get a job and is unsuccessful, goes from hardware stores to doggie parks looking for Prince Charming, and takes their lapdog to an agent, who has a hard time keeping a straight face as the dog refuses to sit or stay. Ashley is also in the midst of working toward a licensing deal that will generate some cash flow, but here’s my favorite part: in the midst of a semi-breakdown, Ashley goes to a life coach (I can only imagine how much those sessions cost), who listens to her story and suggests she pare down the number of employees at her bikini store. Since when does someone need a life coach to tell them that if they can’t pay the rent, maybe they should cut back on their employees’ hours and do a bit more work themselves?

Now, I’m not against the idea of a life coach. I also realize that some people are leaders and problem-solvers while others are followers (and sometimes part of the problem). But when I look at all of the weight loss websites out there, it seems like common sense checked out a while back for some people.

For the large majority of dieters, though, I have a feeling that the problem is not necessarily the lack of common sense. Instead, I suspect that like Ashley Paige, many dieters are overwhelmed with their situations and find it difficult to self-evaluate. Am I eating too many calories? Am I eating too few calories? Am I not exercising often enough/hard enough/long enough? Are my portion sizes too generous? Are my jeans just shrinking with each wash?

Answering any number of questions about your own habits is not easy. And of course, there’s nothing that says once you’ve identified the problem, you can wave a wand and adjust your habits. I don’t know many smokers who believe that smoking is actually good for their health, but that doesn’t necessarily make it any easier to stop smoking.

So, while I’m not sure if Ashley Paige is a few bricks shy of a load, I do know that she’s worked pretty hard to get where she is, and to her credit she did take the life coach’s advice. The next few minutes of her show revealed a tearful Ashley stumbling over her words, letting her staff know what adjustments she needed to make. If only restructuring our diets were so easy.