Operation Transformation finished up this week. I delighted to see the end of it for another year…because despite the programmes attempts to update, it remains very problematic. While it is superficially trying to rebrand itself as celebrating health gains rather than weight loss, the reality is that the finale emphasis was still about weight, still about body image. Seriously: how many times did the host remark on how the Leaders looked?
Weight is not beauty. This is a hill I will die on
Whether or not you can – or want to – run a 5K is not a metric of health. You can be very healthy and active — and not run a 5K. When patients ask me what the “best” exercise is, I respond with the question: “What do you like?” because the best exercise is the one you will do – and you won’t continue to do something you don’t enjoy.
An entire programme dedicated to positive and evidence-based approaches to healthy aging or healthy parenting would be amazing. OT has had chances to go a different direction, but until they lose the obsession with scales, public weigh-ins and lycra, this show will remain problematic.
While they Leaders did fantastic work — can we pause to think for a moment how broken is our healthcare system that the support and intervention they needed for their health was not available to them without having to go on a television programme that required public weigh-ins in lycra and a catwalk?
More in-depth on the problems? Have a look back:
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