Weight Loss Culture?

I am starting to get the feeling, and I hope it's true, that we're turning things around in this country. I'm not the only person in my spin class who has lost 80 pounds and is working on more. As I think to myself, "I don't know where to look for clothes anymore. I don't know how to dress this new body," an episode of What Not To Wear comes on and the perky hosts help someone in a similar situation but is far worse off. People become overweight and obese for a wide range of reasons. Maybe we ate too much fast food and pasta out of a box or maybe we were filling up the empty feelings we had inside by just eating whatever was in sight. Maybe you never were shown a form of exercise that you actually found enjoyable or maybe your mother thought it was more important for you to be happy than to make you worry about your outward appearance. As people educate themselves more on issues such as nutrition and heart health, and start leaving the overweight lifestyle behind them, I wonder if we'll ever really get over where we've been. Are we the new ex-smokers? I know most of us didn't get fat trying to be cool, and marketing often made people into smoking while a lot of marketing these days is making some people anorexic. I just know so many people who have been overweight and have found a way to get more healthy. We all have our battle scars and war stories. We start judging people for the same bad habits we used to have. We hate to see our own bad behavior on display in front of us.

It's easy to lose perspective. I am currently beating myself up because I had told myself I'd like to get back down under 200 pounds by my next birthday. Time is ticking away, and while you might be horrified at the idea of weighing that much, just know that I spent my entire 20's with a 2 on the front of my weigh-in's. I don't know yet if I can make it to this goal and I started feeling sorry for myself. Today I heard about a new client my trainer has, she weighs over 300 pounds and her goal right now is to be able to shop at Lane Bryant. I think about the years I spent just trying to get out of that store (on the other side of the scale, of course), and how happy I feel now when I go to buy something to wear for an upcoming event and have 10 dresses that fit just fine to pick from. It's then that my heart just aches for this other woman. She has a long way to go, and I hope she has people her life who appreciate her situation and help her through the times when she has to deal with the people who are less than kind. People can be so cruel.

There are so, so many sides to this issue. I am only just now approaching the weight I was once told I needed to be to get health insurance, not that anyone ever reached out to show me the way. Fat jokes litter the media, people aren't quite sure if they're allowed to laugh or not. The plus-size section in department stores continues to be hidden away on a floor separate from the "regular" sizes, usually in some dark corner somewhere. Like someone might get secondhand-fat if they get too close.

When I look at how many people still smoke and think about long smoking has been around, and then think about how young the obesity epidemic is, I get a little scared. Like I said, it's easy to lose perspective. And it's hard to know just how far it is you've come and how much further there is to go. But I think about that woman who had the guts to walk into the gym and say to a personal trainer that she wants to focus on getting into Lane Bryant just as I'm anxiously running out the door. I realize that I need to appreciate the health I have now. I wish I could grab hold of that woman's hand and pull her along behind me. I'll pave the way. It's hard not to look back.

Warning, long schpiel about theater!

A friend emailed me recently for advice on going to see a Broadway musical. Actually, they're thinking of going to NYC sometime but for now wanted to know what they could see on this side of the country. DISCLAIMER: I am no expert. But I am a huge enthusiast so I thought I'd share some information, opinions and tips about going to the theater for a little culture.

To start with, there's the different types of productions. Broadway musicals are in New York in certain theaters, I believe Off-Broadway is even constrained to a certain set of theater or at least production companies. Sometimes Broadway productions have an out of town try-out. Those of us lucky enough to live near San Francisco have been blessed with a number of these special previews (I didn't see Legally Blonde but it got surprisingly good reviews, I did see the revival of A Chorus Line, they were fantastic). In a number of cities there is the possibility for "sit-down" productions, which usually means the run is open ended and they aren't moving on to the next city the day after tomorrow. Los Angeles often has this type of show and Las Vegas has become the newest hot spot for sit-downs. In Vegas they have been shortening shows and taking out intermissions but I think it's great to offer this entertainment option in Sin City. Next on the list is national tours, these productions vary in quality but are usually close to Broadway caliber. The sets often have to be simplified a bit and the cast has the added strain of travel in addition to performing eight shows a week, but honestly, before I ever went to New York I saw dozens of these tours and I never would have known I was missing a thing. Please note: these are tours, so please don't ask me if I'm going to see Molly Ringwald in San Jose's production of Sweet Charity, that's just silly. Then there are professional theater companies across the country doing fantastic productions, actors are often equity and aren't always locals. Examples of this would include San Francisco's American Conservatory Theater, Berkeley Repertory Theatre and Sacramento Theater Company. This would be followed by local productions and community theater. These groups will do a range of old and new shows, the ticket prices and quality of production and performance vary greatly.

Now, how do you figure out what is out there and available for you to see? Playbill.com is an excellent source of information on what is going on in the New York theater scene as well as what shows are playing across the country. You can look for tickets on TeleCharge (for Broadway and Off-Broadway) or TicketMaster, plus a number of other ticket brokering sites. For tours coming through San Francisco check out bestofbroadway-sf.com.

When you're ready to take the big leap over to New York I strongly recommend the TKTS booth from the Theater Development Fund. Day-of tickets to almost any show on Broadway can be purchased at a discount (usually half-off) at one of their two booths in the city, cash or traveler's checks only. Ticket managers for the different shows decide what tickets/seats to send (someone paying half-price for the seat is better than nobody at all), and I hear you can sometimes get a better seat at 6pm than if you go when the booth opens at 3 (which would indicate a second wave of seats being released as managers get more desperate to fill the seats). I have always been able to get tickets to the show I've been after (but I always had realistic expectations). The seats are usually close to the front, but rather far off to the side. It's a lot of fun to be so close to the action, plus you can practically reach out and touch the people who paid twice as much as you! I would like to remind you to do a little research though, check out what's been selling at the booth. If your trip will be ruined if you don't see that certain show and it's only sometimes at TKTS, then go ahead and book tickets in advance. And no, you can't get Wicked for half-off but if it's only one or two of you and you're willing to pay full-price then just go get in the cancellation line about two hours before curtain and you'll probably be fine.

Remember, theater is part art and part life. There aren't many fleeting things that I enjoy quite so much. So open your mind, take it all in, and enjoy.

Pop Culture Nerd

Ready for a little glimpse of what a freak I am? Watching the Oscars on Sunday I noticed a familiar face in the audience when they showed the nominees for best original song. It was going to bug me until I figured out who it was. My first guess was James Naughton who played Miranda Priestly's boozy husband in The Devil Wears Prada, but I found nothing in his listing on imdb.com that would explain what he was doing sitting with songwriters from Dreamgirls. Last night while I was looking through the "to-do" list on my Tivo I saw that CSI:NY is on tonight and that's when it hit me. It was Robert Joy who plays Sid! Wait a minute! Why would he be sitting with the Dreamgirls crew? Well, I looked him up on imdb and found a link to an interview with Henry Krieger, the composer of the original Broadway musical and the new songs for the film, explaining that Robert, his life partner, would be his date last Sunday! What a relief, I can stop wondering who that was. Good for them! But aren't I scary? I wish my brain could focus on more important things instead of placing faces seen on television.