- The objective of at camp was to boost my self-esteem and my confidence, and improve my overall health. Despite the noble intentions, I ate with chopstics, sucked on ice cubes, and hate private water parties the night before weigh ins. I learned about enemas, laxatives, diet pills, and vomiting.
Because camp became a competition, against others and against herself. All the women I know have strange and interesting relationships with food. We eat too much or not enough, we have secret ways to lose weight quickly after a binge, and we ration and obsess about food. “I still go on diets where I’ll eat nothing but cabbage soup or hot dogs or no refined sugar or bleached anything. I read labels looking for 9 grams of fiber in a single slice of bread. I eat noodles made of tofu. I say it’s for my health, but I don’t really believe it. The chemicals in frozen dietetic foods aren’t for my health; they’re for my thin.”
And we learned this from our mothers and our families. We learn from the women and men who we grow up with that thin is always better. And that’s why thin makes us happy. “Because when my clthes are looser, I smile more readily and laugh more freely. I’m happier thin, in part because I remember, and am bombarded by, messages from those I love that I’m better for it.” Even with a husband who loves her and thinks she is the sexiest woman alive no matter what size, Klein says, “I’m ‘healthier’ now, but it doesn’t feel happy.”
Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp is not a joyous, happy story about losing weight and finding your true happiness without food. This is real life gritty memoir of how it really feels to battle with food and yourself for your entire life. Every parent of a girl should read this book!
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