My thoughts on Operation Transformation 🧭

I hope you had a nice weekend. It doesn't feel like a Monday to me because I have been in hotel quarantine for 5 nights/6 days now and all the days felt the same. Although I did eat may too much yesterday, which seems to be a Sunday habit I need to drill down on.

ANYWAY. I have had so many people ask for my opinion on Operation Transformation.

(If you're not from/in Ireland you might not have heard of it, but to briefly give an idea of what it is about - it is an Irish version of Biggest Loser, although not as bad - as far as I know)

I feel some caveats are important here:

1.  I've never watched it. I was always skeptical about weighing yourself as measure of progress. I have seen several clips of it over the years so I do have some sort of an opinion to give.

2. I like Kathryn Thomas. I only know the other people on it through clips I've seen so I should reserve judgement.

3. This is nothing against the participants or 'leaders'. These are people who want to make positive changes to their lives and should be commended for that.

Okay - some thoughts:

Firstly, my whole purpose at the moment is helping women feel happier about their bodies and improve their relationship with food, while focusing on getting fitter and stronger.

I believe that focusing on the number on the scales can be detrimental to getting fitter and stronger. This is because if you build muscle, you may see the scales go up (but, ironically, look leaner). I have had clients that were in "Weigh-In" clubs that were told to cut back on the gym because the scales didn't go down. Seriously. This happens a lot.

So if the person's goal is to get leaner/fitter/stronger, they might be actually moving away from their goal if they start pursuing a number on the scales instead.

Secondly, low calorie diets are dangerous to our physical and mental health. If you are putting your body under too much of a calorie deficit, your body will be stressed and some normal functions (like the reproductive system) can start shutting down.

You might see the scales go down in the short-term and that might motivate you to keep going (or you might not if raised cortisol levels are preventing fat oxidation). But what happens when your body is crying out for nutrients for energy but you are too worried about that number on the scales going up? Do you keep starving yourself or do you think you are failure because you give in to your natural urges? The mental implications from low-calorie diets really need to be high-lighted. Even if you think the diet "works".

Thirdly, and this is important: You can't shame yourself to make long term healthy changes. And you definitely can't have somebody else shame you into changing your habits (Some of the old videos I've seen of the "doctors" giving "advice" actually shocked and saddened me). Change has to come from a place of self-acceptance and a pursuit of self-improvement. Yes, if you are really uncomfortable with your weight, you might be really determined to make changes... but what happens when you start getting comfortable? Where's the motivation there? Or when you can't keep the changes up and you are shamed by somebody else. That can spiral.

Fourthly (is that a word?), I've seen the argument put forward by the doctor from the show that if anyone has an eating disorder, they just shouldn't watch it. This is obvious. But I have taken on thousands of clients over the last few years and the sad thing is, because of diet culture, that so many women don't realise that they either have disordered eating, or are on the cusp of it. Watching people get shamed for not losing weight, or praised for extremely fast weight loss, can have huge negative mental effects on so many people. Why do we even risk it when the statistics around the fatalities of eating disorders are so worrying in Ireland?

Now I can't write this email without talking about the positives.

Operation Transformation seems to make it's way into the communities and bring them together to get active. Social activities - I'm all for that!

I also believe that they are trying to make more of an effort to focus on healthier habits rather than the scales, but unfortunately I believe they are still weighing and talking about the Leaders' weight each week.

I feel like I could go on, but this is getting very long.

I have been following the petition to get OT decommissioned on the Instagram page of Sinéad Crowe. If you feel like the state broadcaster should not be supporting OT, you can sign the petition here (over 8,000 people have already signed).

I also had a thought this morning as I watched clips of the amazing dancers on Dancing With The Stars. They will might drop some body fat and get fitter because they are moving more each week to practice all the exciting dances. What if we used something like that to promote a healthier Ireland? A show where people try new activities etc? With no measuring or weighing but just commending them on their efforts in a new activity?

Just an idea.

Thanks for reading,

Siobhan "the slower the better" O'Hagan