Let’s Talk Movies

It’s 90+ degrees in Portland this week. Last night Michael and I decided to have a quickie dinner and then go see a movie.

We settled on making BLTs for dinner.

I’m not a huge fan of tomatoes but I’m definitely warming up to them. However, I’ve always liked BLTs.

A slight variation: I added a slice of Havarti cheese to the sandwich and it really made it great.

Quick dinner!

We left for the theater. We finally saw “Inception.” Since it’s a fairly new movie, I’m not going to spoil it for anyone. It was a REALLY good movie, though! I enjoyed the story and the action was good. I really recommend it!

Michael wanted to get popcorn at the movie (it’s one of his favorite things). Movie theaters are a full of landmines for the dieter. Michael wanted the large popcorn. I said no, medium. After much debate, we got the medium size.

The theater is smart. The Medium sized popcorn was $4. For ONLY 50 cents more, we could get a LARGE popcorn! But in reality, the medium was a huge size. I even caught myself thinking “It’s only 50 cents more….” But NO. Don’t give in to temptation!

A medium popcorn is about 720 calories. A large is between 920-1100 calories! Plus three days worth of saturated fat intake! Those are staggering numbers.

I probably had 1/4 of the popcorn and left the rest for Michael to have.

QUESTION: How do you resist movie theater temptations?

Since we are talking about movies, I want to talk about one of my favorite movies–which is totally relevant to the topic of weight loss.

The movie: Shallow Hal. Have you seen it? If not, I highly recommend it!

It’s an older movie starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jack Black. While it’s probably a good 10 years old by now, I still think it’s relevant. The premise is that Jack Black’s character is very shallow and will only date hot girls/models. He’s trapped in an elevator with guru Tony Robbins who “hypnotizes” him to see the INNER beauty of women and not their exterior.

He falls in love with Gwyneth Paltrow’s character (Rosemary) who is a morbidly obese woman that Hal sees as a skinny model.

When I first saw the movie, I was offended by the obvious fat jokes they made. But then I saw the movie a few more times and I started to love it. It’s a love story about falling in love with someone no matter what they look like–and no matter WHAT they weigh.

The movie is good because it addresses low self-esteem, obesity and political correctness while balancing those serious topics with humor and some sweetness.

When I was obese, a lot of my self-worth was wrapped up in how much I weighed. I think “Shallow Hal” did an excellent job portraying the fears, hurts, and feelings of those often overlooked and ignored because they aren’t the “typical” idea of beautiful.

I think any person that has struggled with their weight can relate to many parts of the movie. The embarrassing moment in the middle of a restaurant when the chair breaks under her weight. The public ridicule about having “cankles.” Having to shop at a Plus Size store.

How do we see beauty? Can we look passed the outer  and see the inner beauty? Or are we doomed as a culture because of People magazine, reality TV and anorexic looking stars (like Madonna, Nicole Ritchie, etc)?

QUESTION: While it’s an older movie, have you seen “Shallow Hal”? What did you think after watching it?

Update: I hope everyone is getting this post. I seem to be having problems with Google Reader today. 🙁