Britain: Losing Pounds=Gaining Pounds

The other morning I woke up to an NPR British correspondent talking about an “old, rotund contestant” on Strictly Come Dancing. I’m convinced that every popular US show (Dancing with the stars) is really just a glamorized version of some existing British show. I can say this with some certainty having lived in England for five months, obsessing over “Deal or No Deal,” and returning to the states to see how we managed to screw up our version. 

It goes something like this:

Common, compassionate British people in all of their unabashed rawness holding shoeboxes,

To…

Sequenced, spray tanned, plastic surgery patched up models holding leather, black brief cases. 

(At the round table on the 98^th floor: “…I’m picturing models! And they’ll all be blinding the audience with the sparkles form their teeth, eyes, outfits, and coins in those brief cases! Can’t you see it now?! It will be a great success! What do you say American Network? Do we have a Deal…or no deal?)

All of the character got sucked out of the show. The whole point I enjoyed the show. To see these drab-wearing British contestants show up day after day, patiently waiting for the random selection of their name so they could quit their box holding position for the chance to win 250,000 pounds was pure joy. I felt like I knew these people. Like they were my neighbors. Like we could have gone for a pint together.

Britain was the only place I managed to lose a lot of pounds while gaining a lot of pounds (it’s called the price of a pint…on both ends). But something about that culture made it easy for me to do so. No, not the giving away money, although that is easier after pints. And I can’t blame it on the lowered drinking age because, well, I can honestly say that the US college system has their own drinking age.

No, it was the judgment-free people and absence of stress accrued from un-attainability. I didn’t feel like I had to be tan, sparkly, or slightly augmented to have fun and feel good. Pretty British people conversed with British people. I mean…

And the interesting thing is that I never saw one obese British person. Nor did I see many, if any, obese people in Europe while I traveled (unless they were looking at a tour guide book on the euro rail wearing a Cowboys cap).  

Maybe it’s their good genes? Maybe it’s their use of public transportation and more physical activity? Maybe it’s their energy conservation frugality and refusal of centralized heating (or any heating) that cause an increased shiver/fidget factor? Maybe it was my “pint” goggles..?

Or maybe it was their lower level of judgment and stress?

 Yes this want-to-be-dancer is overweight but using the word “rotund” to describe her wasn’t even on the American “Rotund-ness” Scale. And if this 63 year old former British government minister exudes body confidence while being physically active, than she most likely has a better health status than the Americans who engage in harmful behaviors to remain stick thin under pressure or who use food as a coping mechanism under stress.

Maybe it was the lack of American picturesque perfectionist to match or the lack of a full length mirror that decreased my stress in England. Either way, I felt happy. Yes, I was a bit heavier but not unhealthily so. And happiness is health. Who knows, maybe if I had bought that mirror I would have changed my “view” point even if I was in Britain amongst British and their mentality. But after my enlightenment I have gained my own confidence, health, and happiness since returning.