no one should ever shout at you while you are on the Stairmaster

We live in a society that hates fat people, but has also made it politically incorrect to say "Goddamn, it feels fantastic to be thin." We're all supposed to linger dispassionately in the mid-ranges; it's like the fallacy of middle ground.

I have finally found a type of salad I like (I hate lettuce, but it turns out I dig spinach), and I've been making spinach salads with dried cranberries and flax seeds and chevre and raspberry viniagrette. When I say it feels good to be thin, I mean it literally -- my posture is much better when I get really thin. It feels fantastic to be standing up straight all the time without even thinking about it. I've never actually heard anyone else mention the effect of one's bodyfat level on one's posture, but I'm sure I couldn't be the only one.

While on the topic, though, I think the reality show The Biggest Loser is one of the meanest, least productive things I've ever seen. It's practically a human rights violation.

Torturing people as they try to lose weight for sixteen hours a day, and then putting them on a giant scale in front of their teammates and the opposing team, where, even if they've lost weight, everyone will likely be disappointed in them for not losing more? Have these people not heard that you shouldn't do anything on a diet that you wouldn't be willing to do for the rest of your life? (You shouldn't!) This show was so mean!

I think a few of the contestants were classic, ultracompetitive type-A personalities who took the ball and ran with it and will now be super-annoying, mountain-biking, protein-shaking drinking, jogging-at-5am-type diet fetishists for the rest of their lives. But that hardly justifies sending the message to America that getting healthy requires torturing yourself, public humiliation, and exercising until you cry. I hate you, NBC.

Semi-relatedly, this young man has been on a jam sandwich diet his entire life.