I loves me some irony, and I have two updates that prove it.

Update #1: I was at Target yesterday, buying some lamps for my new place (the office doesn't have any overhead lighting, and so I need to seriously bulk up in the lighting department).  I painted my office a light plum, and I found a lamp to match the decor that I could sit on the piano. I also bought a cute purse on clearance for $6.  So I went through the checkout line, signed my receipt, and gathered my bags.  As the cashier handed me my copy of the receipt, she said, "Oh, you got an extra coupon!  For $2 off!  A...scale!"

I took it mostly because I found it funny, although I didn't explain to the poor lady exactly why I found this so hysterical.

Update #2: Another moving-esque update.  I'm packing up my books tonight, and I'm trying to figure out where to have the movers put them in my new place.  I'm still not entirely sure exactly where I want to put every last bookshelf (I have 4 folding ones and one really big one that my dad built me), so I was thinking and thinking about where to put the books.  I didn't want to drag them up or down the stairs too much, but space upstairs is going to be at a premium since there's already plenty of crap going up there.

I called my mom in and we discussed it.  Eventually, we both realized the best solution was to put the books in the dining room.  I have my table, but there's space against one or both of the walls to stash some boxes.  The books are definitely a Carrie Priority, but I also realize that there are lots of other practical things that need to be sorted first.

So my books will be temporarily housed in the dining room.

That's my update for now.  I'm exhausted!

I was catching up on some blog reading just now, when I stumbled across this wonderful post from Nattie about all of the ironies in recovery. I can't improve upon what she wrote, so I won't. I'm just going to cut and paste what she said:

I'm sorry, but my irony-meter (ironometer?) just dinged so loud I was practically deafened:

Weight Watchers Sues Jenny Craig Over Deceptive Advertising

To me, any weight loss program advertisement is pretty deceptive--if you are mandated to have "*results not typical" in small print, you can pretty much guess that what you are hawking is worthless. I mean, Weight Watchers portrays your hunger as a little fuzzy square-shaped monster, which isn't exactly accurate. ABC's Good Morning America* has more on the story here:

"Jenny's delicious cuisine and the support of your personal consultant make all the difference," Bertinelli, who lost 49 pounds on Jenny Craig, says in the commercial. "Jenny Craig clients lost, on average, over twice as much weight as those on the largest weight loss program."

Those claims have Weight Watchers fighting mad. The company says Jenny Craig's so-called science is a big fat lie.

"The claims that they are using in that advertising was just patently deceptive," said David Kirchhoff, the president of Weight Watchers International.

And now Weight Watchers is taking the fight to court.

"They compared a study they did this year, for one purpose, to a study we did 10 years ago," Kirchhoff said.

The Jenny Craig ads never mention Weight Watchers by name, but Kirchhoff says "everybody knew. You say the world's leading weight loss company; everybody knows who you are talking about."

Jenny Craig stands behind its message, and their science.

The real irony is, of course, that science supports neither of these companies' weight loss programs. An independent study from UCLA shows that diets don't work. Despite the assurances from corporate big wigs that these programs aren't a diet ("They're a lifestyle change!"), um, they're a diet. You're restricting your food to try and lose weight--if that's not a diet, then I don't know what is.

Still, the legal issues brought up in this lawsuit--"whether the ad claim is false, or misleading to the point of being the functional equivalent of false, and whether or not an ordinary person would be impacted by the ad's claims"--are both relevant and important. I'm curious to see where it ends up; the chuckles I get from my off-the-charts ironometer are merely a bonus.

*Holy leaping Freudian slip, Batman! I initially typed "Food Morning America."

How do you think this ad reflects our current attitudes about food? Would you be more likely to buy a Starbucks baked good because of the change?

Full disclosure: I'm probably going to go. I like the lattes at Starbucks, and it's probably good for me to try and work something different into my meal plan. Starbucks, like all of the other businesses out there, is trying to sell their product. I don't eat their baked goods enough to tell if the taste has changed any, so I won't try. It's a sales pitch, pure and simple. And if I get a free muffin out of the deal while being caffeinated, I'm okay with that.

The advice is good, but oh the irony!

Watching this video, I just kind of shook my head. I mean, the advice is good ("love yourselves, ladies!") but the person from whom it springs might want to think about the other advice she gives, too. I mean, Jillian Michaels preaching body love? Not that I watch The Biggest Loser (I've lived it, I don't need to see more), but the segments that I've seen don't indicate that she's telling the contestants to accept their bodies.

Oh...that's right. Accept your body but only if you're not fat. And not until you've bought a Jillian Michaels exercise DVD. I get it.

Honey, your entire fortune is predicated on the fact that people don't like how they look. There's some lip service to health, but most "motivation" I hear is about appearance. If people suddenly accepted their bodies, you would be out of a job. At least admit it.

Are people really that disconnected from their own messages? Do the execs at Weight Watchers and Slim Fast really buy their own schtick ("we're not a diet, we're a Lifestyle Change!"), or do they know the rest of us are a bunch of suckers?

"Fat talk" in women serves a variety of purposes, but mainly as a bonding device, a way for women to connect. One of my therapists in treatment called similar things "bonding through bitching." Women don't dare bond through talk of their achievements, so they bond through their problems, body and otherwise. Bitching is okay; bitchy isn't. Saying how fat we are or how ginormous we feel makes us feel like one of the gang.

But you don't need to win The Biggest Loser in order to stop with the fat talk and start accepting yourself and your life and your accomplishments. Start now.

Share an accomplishment from today in the comments- no "it was just..." or "only..." and such. What did you accomplish today? I'll start: I went to the grocery store and got what I needed without a meltdown. Yeah!

Today, the UK eating disorder charity BEAT updated their Twitter feed with an announcement about those women who had run the London Marathon to raise money for BEAT. A quick visit to the BEAT homepage shows that they are asking people to run in other races to help raise money for the organization.

Which is all well and good, but it strikes me as a little counterproductive for an eating disorder organization. It's one thing for a person to independently decide to run a marathon as a fund-raiser for an ED charity. I'd want them to be sure about their motives if they had an ED history, but, well, okay. However, I have a little bit more of an issue with BEAT actually asking people to run in marathons or other long distances when these activities are so frequently abused in people with eating disorders.

It almost strikes me as having an AA event with an open bar or a tanning salon hosting a fundraiser for melanoma research.

I blogged about a women several months ago who said she was recovered from AN but now runs "super-marathons" and was attempting to run the length of Scotland and England also as a fund-raiser for BEAT, and I raised some of these concerns there.

I have no doubt that BEAT's efforts are well-intentioned and the money is greatly needed, especially in the crappy economy. BEAT is a fantastic organization that does so much for so many people with such limited resources. I have no doubt that most of the people who participate will have the best of intentions. I don't expect anything to be "risk-free," but it seems awfully dangerous. There has to be a better way, one that would more likely promote health in the clientele BEAT serves.

I mean, isn't that the point?

The satire in The Onion always seems to be more truthful than the straightforward newspaper articles. And once again, they nail it, this time with this little gem:

Woman Upset At Herself For Feeling Hungry
MODESTO, CA—Telling friends that she "just ate a huge thing of yogurt four hours ago," local woman Vanessa Stroud chided herself Tuesday for feeling hunger, a natural urge experienced by all living creatures to ensure they consume the sustenance necessary to maintain metabolic processes and other vital biological functions. "God, I have no willpower at all," Stroud said regarding her inability to go without nourishment of any kind until the start of bikini season. "It's just my stupid brain telling me I need to eat when what I really need is another three-day cleanse." Stroud was later seen swatting her own hand as it reached out for a blueberry muffin.

How many of us can relate? It seems obvious that such behaviors are odd and irrational in others, but it's so hard to see it in ourselves.

The Salmonella outbreak has been formally tied to a single plant producing peanut butter paste- more information can be found from the FDA and the CDC. No jars of peanut butter are effected, which is a good thing since I eat so much of the stuff! However, a wide variety of products potentially containing the peanut butter paste have been recalled.

The public health blog Effect Measure noted that NutriSystem diet bars had been affected by the recall, and had this to say about it:

"Meanwhile FDA is saying the Peanut Corporation of America's Blakely, Georgia processing plant is the source of the problem. Besides the pet food the plant makes cookies, crackers and ice cream, 125 products in all. The bug was found in unopened containers seeming to rule out post processing contamination. FDA expects more recalls. The latest is peanut butter granola bar in the NutriSystem product line. Salmonella infection would seem to be a pretty good way to lose weight, but I guess the company wants to earn its money the old fashioned way: by scamming you with advertising with the tiny letters at the bottom of the screen that say, 'results not typical.' "

Really? I couldn't have said it better myself.