Magic Little Pills-Maggie Shayne

Magic Little Pills

Suzanne’s post about moms and food got me to thinking about food issues, and weight issues, and health issues, and how a lot of us struggle with them throughout our entire lives and how advertisers, marketers and flimflam artists make millions upon millions of dollars by exploiting the most troubling issues women face.

Women worry about the way we look. We worry about every little laugh line, every flake of dry skin, every bad hair day, every ounce of fat, every bump, bulge, droop, sag, wrinkle, bag, and wrinkle. Want proof? I got proof. Magnification mirrors.

Why would any sane person buy a mirror that magnifies every pore to the size of an olive, just so that she can see her flaws more clearly? Why?

Flimflam artists know this about us, and they laugh all the way to the bank with the knowledge. How many infomercials tout the miracle of some face lotion or other? Miraculous, age reversing, wrinkle removing, skin tightening goop guaranteed to make you look ten years younger in ten minutes! Come on. And we believe them. Or maybe we don’t quite believe them, but we want to. We hope it’ll work. And so we buy it.

Every other commercial on TV is about weight loss. Pills are advertised by models who’ve never seen an inch of fat, parading around with washboard abs and tiny butts, telling you that taking this one little pill a day will give you the same body. Or by celebrities who’ve taken off a great deal of weight and credit the magic pill with doing it, even though we all know better. The truth is NO ONE has ever lost weight by taking a pill. Celebrity or otherwise. There’s a lot more they’re doing, things that would have worked just as well without the pill. The pill is nothing. Every single package of them comes with instructions to eat less, exercise more, “for best results.” That should read “for any results whatsoever. In fact you don’t even need to take the pills if you do this.”

I’m gonna give you the secret. First of all, you can be skin and bone, and still not have washboard abs or a firm butt. Those parts come from exercise. Period. No pill in the world can give you muscle tone.

And no pill in the world (no legal one, at least) can make you burn fat. (Amphetamines and cocaine can, but you really don’t want the side effects, folks.) Fat burning comes from exercise. Taking a pill to boost your metabolism won’t work. Healthy foods and regular exercise will boost your metabolism all by themselves, and in a healthy, natural, lasting way.

Keeping off the weight is very, very simple. Not easy. Simple. Burn off more calories than you take in. That’s all there is to it. That’s the ONLY way. Decrease intake. Increase output. Simple. And free.

There are programs that can help you with this, and the best one I’ve found is Weight Watchers. They are entirely based on helping you learn how to eat healthier and exercise more. You don’t have to buy prepackaged, pricey, prepared (and processed) meals from them. There are no magic pills or formulae. You just attend the support-group-like meetings and learn how to eat.

There should be no market whatsoever for magic weight loss pills, because women should be smarter than that. And maybe we’re getting there. I hear one famous diet pill maker is being sued for misleading ads. Another just settled for millions to the FDA for similar charges. (However, wake up FDA. Making them pay you a fine, doesn’t do a damn thing to inform the general public that the pills don’t work. How about spending that money on a big ad campaign in which the drug’s manufacturers are forced to admit the truth?)

Okay, on to the magic, age reversing creams. Yeah, there are tons, and yeah, some of them work to some extent. Retinol is helpful. But the best things you can do for your skin are pretty simple. Drink tons of water, keep your environment moist, use SPF to protect form sun damage, even in winter. Cleanse, tone and moisturize daily, of course, but you don’t need to spend a fortune. There are plenty of fabulous products out there that work fine. Avoid abrasives, they damage your skin. And if you’re really serious about keeping your skin at its best, stop smoking. I know it’s hard. Believe me, I know.

Mostly, folks, you’re as young as you feel. If you spend every morning staring in the magnification mirror in search of new wrinkles, then you are going to find them. Focusing on aging creates aging. So do stress and worry and discord and strife. Any negative emotion shows up in your life, and on your body. Be healthy, be happy, spend your days in bliss, and you’re going to look younger, healthier, happier, and more beautiful, because you ARE more beautiful. Positive emotions make you that way.

So when you do your daily regimen in the bathroom mirror, smile at your reflection, and tell that woman in the mirror that she is beautiful and getting more beautiful every day. Tell her! I dare you. Your body believes what your mind tells it. Look for things that you like about your face and body, and pay yourself compliments, and more good things will be apparent every time you look. I promise. Do NOT look at flaws and complain about them. This takes time, it’s a real shift in focus, but it’s a great habit to develop.

I am not, by any means, against using modern technology to improve your appearance, folks. Not by any means. When something can’t be fixed by diet, exercise and good health, but can be by other means, they why not? If you can afford it, and you want it, and it’ll make you feel better, you have every right to go for it. What I am against is companies who make millions marketing products that do not work. Make your decisions based on real information, not false advertising.

Finally, I want you to think about the person you love. When you look at him, are you examining his face and seeing a flaw and thinking, oh, God, that wasn’t there yesterday! Yuck! Do you run your hands over his body and think, oh no! I think he put on an ounce or two right here!

No. You don’t. You don’t even notice. You’re not looking at him through a magnifying glass in search of flaws. You’re so glad to see him, to touch him, to be in his arms—you feel so much for him that he is the most beautiful thing in the world to you. You wouldn’t even think of turning away from him because of a zit or an eyebrow in need of tweezing or a gray hair. Because you care, and that’s real.

Now, try to accept that those who love you feel exactly the same way. The way you look at them is the way they look at you. They don’t even see those tiny flaws you spent an hour trying to cover up in the magnification mirror from hell. They don’t even notice the stuff you’ve been obsessing about. Hard to believe, isn’t it? It is for me, too. But let’s try.

It’s almost spring, (I swear, it’s true!) We have passed the halfway point between Winter Solstice and Spring Equinox, known to Wiccans as Imbolc. The Groundhog didn’t see his shadow. Spring’s coming and I feel it stirring to life already. (I know the folks a couple of hours north of me, who’ve had 9 plus feet of snow in the past five days—no that is not a typo—probably find that hard to believe right now, but trust me, it’s coming.)

As spring draws nearer, every woman’s attention is turning to the things spring seems to bring, intuitively, into our minds. Venus related stuff. Beauty related stuff. We dive into fitness and health and cleaning and redecorating and new clothes and new looks. If you decide during this time, that you want a support group, you’re more than welcome to check out my health and fitness email group. We share tips, offer support, commiserate and celebrate together. To join (free) just send a blank email to:

Maggies-health-and-fitness-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Don’t buy any snake oil, folks. And remember, if you’re beautiful on the inside, you’re beautiful all over. And as a friend of mine is fond of saying, “You are loved. All is well.”

Maggie