Women who do not diet?


Daily Mail feature
I was involved in the photoshoot and in the interview for the piece  'Secrets of the skinny women who NEVER diet' which appeared in the Daily Mail on Monday 16th May.  I would like to give an insight into the 'behind the scenes', as I do find the press and its workings most fascinating.
I am very grateful to Grey Model Agency for giving me the opportunity to be involved and of course to the lovely Kerry Potter, a most experienced professional, for the interview, and to Joanna Bridger, the editor,  as well as the whole team of photographer, MUA, stylist etc. I also would like to say I really enjoyed the lunch at the Daily Mail on the day of the shoot, the salad  was absolutely delicious!
To begin with you may have noticed that the Mail said upfront I was a model and mentioned the agency. This is quite unusual, as the Mail always prefers to give readers the impression they are using 'real women' for all such features even though several of them are actually models, often  to be found in the Lifestyle or Real People section of some model agency. Thus, for example Sanna, who appeared in another issue of the Mail also recently, in a piece about the ideal waist size, is a model who happens to have had a career as a professional dancer, so she was described as a dance teacher, leaving out the modelling bit.
The Mail likes lining up the women that appear in such features  though they are always photographed individually, gathering them in the line up in postproduction, which of course means using Photoshop. This is occasionally not very successful.
I was photographed wearing three different outfits, standing and sitting and finally the photo that was chosen was, I guess, the one that allowed the line up to be as realistic as possible. The colouring is also quite strong, but that depends on whether the photo is seen in the print version or the online one (I got the print as well, as a tear sheet).

Photographer: David PD Hyde, 2016
The interview was over the phone. Once the piece is submitted and approved and prior to going to press the Mail always tries to read back the piece to the interviewee to correct some details. There were a couple of things that had been misinterpreted and I asked for them to be altered. In hindsight I should have said more clearly that to be anorexic thin is bad rather than condemning extreme thinness altogether.  Being very thin is very natural for some women and they are not necessarily unhealthy because of their small size.
I would not call myself skinny at all, just slim, but was lumped with 'skinny' women. In fact as one reader rightly comments all the women in the article are normal size, none of the women portrayed in the piece is skinny.  I have a muscular body because I work out regularly and have done so for years. Now this is the thing that was omitted and I wish it had not. You cannot be in good shape without working out and I exercise (not just move, as some people would say).  I do  targeted exercises following a programme and I often put in one and a half hour of exercise everyday. When I have no time,  I only do thirty minutes. I rest on Sundays. Then I begin again. Missing my daily exercise is a big deal for me.
Even though I talked about this with the interviewer and mentioned the wonderful trainers I work with, the ladies at Sleek ,whom the interviewer knew, somehow this was not included. Also the thing about eating cake. I do not have a sweet tooth at all and rarely eat cake, only if I have to, and also only very occasionally I may have an ice cream, in summer for example or when I was in Florence last year, as the ice cream there is really nice.

Photographer: Adam Robertson Lingerie designs by Lux Tenebrae, 2014
It is interesting to think about the overall tone of the article and the video chosen to illustrate it (and once again there was some Gwyneth Paltrow bashing, but not in my interview). The video shows a young girl who indulges in overeating, taking part in one of those horrendous competitions where you have to stuff yourself.  She is naturally skinny and petite.
What's the message underpinning all this? That it would be amazing to be able to stuff oneself and never put on weight.  This is presented as an ideal, an aspiration which unfortunately is not within everyone's reach. Well, no.
That level of eating to me  is just gross, even unethical.
One could argue that actually we all follow a diet in the sense that we eat certain foods that we favour  over others. We do not all restrict our food intake drastically, but some of us do it naturally, just by watching portions, and making sure the quality of food we eat is high. It is no big deal, it is not a secret. If you are given three potatoes, eat only one!
I make my own bread - easy to do, with a bread maker. I sometimes use flour that is not high in its gluten content and I only ever use organic flour. Another thing I do is to leave a good 12 hours interval between my last and first meal, which means my breakfast is always very late, even though I may have tea or coffee in the morning.
Most of all I exercise REGULARLY. To me that is essential, just like showering or brushing one's teeth. It is not enough to walk and maybe dance to music around the house, though they may be very enjoyable activities I sometimes indulge in. You need to work those abs and gluts with targeted exercises. You need to keep the spine really flexible and so on and so forth. Sugar ruins your teeth, there is no need to have it.
It is impossible to keep in good shape, especially as an older , post-menopausal woman, without cutting down on sugar, soda and fast food and alcohol intake and without exercising. I used to be size 6 in my twenties, weighing about 52 kilos. I put on four kilos since then and went up a size but this change is normal and am not trying to be the same size  I was then. But I will not compromise on keeping fit and toned.
I certainly do not want to be skinny and eat all the available big Macs I can find,  I never did.  That video to me defeats the purpose of trying to show that moderation in food intake, something that all the women interviewed practise, is the key to good health and good shape.
I want a toned and healthy body for as long as I can and will invest time and effort to achieve it.

Comments