Okay, we’ve all heard of actress Kirstie Alley and her well documented problems with her weight. Hey, guess what? Not all Hollywood actresses are plastic surgery enhanced, rail thin, lettuce eaters with fake boobs. (Disclaimer: I actually have no information on the authenticity of Kirstie Alley’s boobs.)
While her character was fairly annoying, Kirstie was also quite thin way back when she played Lt. Saavik in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.
She then was the object of many celebrity crushes during her time on Cheers (You know Rebecca was way hotter than Diane. A real-life Sam never would have gone for Diane. But I digress.)
Then, she gained a little weight. Okay, maybe more than a little. More like a lot.
Like about 100 lbs.
And suddenly the actress who once played the hot Rebecca Howe had a show on cable called “Fat Actress”.
Apparently actresses are real people too, as just like millions of people who aren’t on TV, Kirstie Alley, for whatever reason, stopped taking care of herself and gained a pile of weight. Nothing unique about that.
Image credit: Alley & Long: Everett Collection
Honestly, I don’t do the tabloid news sort of stuff, so I can’t say I really followed her weight issues too closely. Only when she became the spokesperson for Jenny Craig did I take a mild interest in her situation and what she was doing about it.
Unless you live under a rock, you know how well Jenny Craig worked out for her.
She ate their calorie restricted diet of overly processed, pre-packaged crap and lost a bunch of weight. She went on Oprah and stripped down to a bikini. And then, to prove actresses and paid spokespeople can be just like real people in the real world, she gained her weight back. There’s a reason all of those before and after pictures have “Results Not Typical” stamped on them.
Kirstie Alley’s results were typical.
And for Jenny Craig, it was Kirstie Alley out, and new fading-overweight-celebrity Valerie Bertinelli in.
For Alley, it meant the tabloids had a field day at her expense. You couldn’t go through the grocery store checkout line without seeing unflattering pictures of her on every magazine cover. She was ridiculed everywhere, for getting results that absolutely should have been expected. The “Typical Results”.
Well, now she’s back, and this time she’s apparently going to do it her way. She has come out with Kirstie Alley’s Organic Liaison. Unfortunately, her way now involves fads, gimmicks, and pills. Different problems than Jenny Craig, but still misguided and misinformed just the same.
Organic Liaison is the name for her new weight loss membership site, which along with her magic weight loss and cleansing pill and potions (“The first weight loss products to be certified organic” according to the site. Ugh.), will only set you back about $150 per month.
Ten bucks of that gets you access to the site, which in and of itself is fine. According to the sales info, the site will provide members with articles, reference materials, forums to chat with other members, and tools such as food journals, calorie calculators, and info on where you can find organic and local foods. Nothing wrong with any of that, other than the fact that you can also get most of it for free elsewhere on the net. For instance, go check out www.eatwild.com, www.realmilk.com and www.localharvest.org if you want info on finding organic suppliers in your area, or www.nutritiondata.com to get tools and nutrition info on just about anything you will ever eat.
But, for some people, $10 is worth it to have the convenience of having this stuff in one place and there is nothing wrong with that. On the down side, the site also focuses a lot on calories, along with worrying about how many calories you need to burn in your workouts, which is a major problem in my eyes. (Unless you’re hooked up to lots of fancy equipment in a clinical, research, or university setting, you have absolutely no f’g idea how many calories you’re burning in your workout. And don’t tell me you trust the number on your treadmill’s little display. That is nothing but fiction. Don’t get me going…)
Of course, the other $139/mo. nets you her “Rescue Me” kit, a monthly supply of magic weight loss pills and potions along with a “beautiful glass bottle & pump for the Rescue Me elixir”. Wonderful.
Kirstie, weight loss does not come in a bottle or an elixir.
It comes from a lifestyle of eating properly, exercising consistently and not becoming obsessed with how many calories you burn in a workout.
Granted, she did post on her twitter account that she is starting to exercise using the very popular P90X system, which is a great move. Unfortunately she also tweeted that she was trying out one of those stupid electronic ab belts that promise a great ab workout with no effort at all. I thought those idiotic things died off a few years ago, but apparently not. Anyone using one of those is not someone to go to for diet, weight loss, health and fitness advice or programs.
Come to think of it, regardless of the ridiculous ab belt, why on earth would anyone go to Kirstie Alley for fitness advice? Being a celebrity actress and former spokesperson for Jenny Craig does not qualify you to suddenly become a weight loss expert. And when former celebrities attach their name to nutritionally suspect, over-priced diet pills, cleansing potions, and elixirs, that is just a sign that you should run away from her site as fast as your finger can click the ‘back’ button on your browser.
Listen, I feel for her and what she has gone through with her weight. The fact that she’s had to have it played out on the tabloids and E! channel takes it to a level I can’t even imagine.
But, selling worthless supplements and calling it healthy because they’re organic still isn’t cool no matter who you are. Eating healthy, clean, whole foods and making exercise part of your lifestyle are the true keys to being healthy and living in the body you want. Unfortunately, Kirstie Alley is still looking for a weight loss miracle instead.
What do you think? Add your comments below.
~Dave
(7 votes, average: 4.57 out of 5)About the Author
Dave Soucy is a coach, trainer, motivator, husband, dad, and former fat guy. His goal is to teach as many people as possible how to achieve a life of health, fitness, and wellness through simply eating right and exercising. Click here to learn more about Dave.
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