In defense of Mila Kunis: "Outlandish" or Tough Love?

I check the news daily and when I saw the headline "Outlandish body claims: Kunis puts her foot in her mouth" ...well as a wellness girl, I had to click! I started reading...waiting for this "outlandish claim"...



In an interview included in the latest issue of British Glamour, Mila Kunis said that anyone can lose weight, and if you can't, you're not trying hard enough.


"I'm a huge foodie. I love food," she said. "But when people say, 'I can't lose weight,' no, no, no, you can. Your body can do everything and anything. You just have to want to do it."

{me: ok....}Kunis lost 20 pounds to play a conniving ballerina in 2010's "Black Swan" alongside Natalie Portman. While dance training and dieting helped her whittle down her frame, self-confidence was key, too.
{me: was she underweight...no they're not talking about that...}

"I don't think I ever fully [realized] what a human body is capable of doing," she told the U.K.'s Glamour. "But I think I was also, in a beautiful way, incredibly naive. I believed I could do anything. I never for one moment thought that I couldn't do it. I believe in hard work, in self-drive and self-worth."

{me: ok where is this "outlandish claim"??}

But plenty of yo-yo dieters would agree that "self-drive and self-worth" isn't all it takes to score a Hollywood physique.

{me: seriously??....}

I'll try to leave alone the fact that the journalist is basing the judgement of "yo-yo dieters" when it comes to an actress talking about her successful body change...because as I'm sure we all know - and will admit - yo-yo dieting comes from our own resolve, or lack thereof.

Before we go further, let me also say that my reaction was based on the assumption that Miss Kunis is not saying 'As long as you have self worth, you can sit on the couch, eat potato chips and lose weight' because she clearly says that she believes in "hard work, in self-drive and self-worth".

I don't believe her claims are "outlandish". I don't deny that in some cases, we need more help from the outside - whether that's friends, doctors, therapy...whatever it takes to suppress the demons that derail our efforts - but I believe that with the right determination and confidence, you can make a changes in your lifestyle. If I'm honest with myself, I can say that the times when I was off track or wasn't making the progress I wanted, it was because I lost focus. I let other things get the better of me. I stopped believing that I could improve - not because I thought I was perfect but because I didn't think I had what it took to be better.

To call these claims outlandish is just one more example of how much we - as a society - shy away from tough love. Promoting self esteem has taken on a life of its own to an extreme. We have "graduation" ceremonies for pre-school, kindergarten, elementary school, middle school...we give ribbons for everything...everyone always makes the team regardless of ability...we need to be told we've done well even when we haven't and groups everywhere get outraged when not every child is told that they're good at everything. There is a balance between encouragement and honest feedback and in my opinion we've gone too far to the former. We try to teach diversity and that different people have different strengths, yet we go out of our way to either reward a child just as much as the one next to them, regardless of their actual performance. (Unfortunately we could extrapolate this to explain why American kids are falling behind in performance compared to their counterparts around the world but this isn't an education blog so I'll let you take it from there...)

The bottom line is that Miss Kunis is 1000% right. The human body is amazing and "mind over matter" is not just a phrase your mom used to use to get you to suck it up for a family event you were too "sick" to attend (ok maybe that was just my mom....). It takes hard work - something to which the American culture seems to have developed a severe allergy - and determination. It takes looking inside, knowing when you're doing everything you can and either stepping it up or taking the right paths to get the help you need. It takes owning up to your actions or lack thereof and knowing that you're worth the time, energy, and resources it takes to be healthier.

Thank you Miss Kunis for making your comments and hopefully pushing others to examine themselves the say way you prompted me to do the same. I am sorry we'll be at two different Marine Corps Balls (while both in NC) this fall but I hope you have a great time!


http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/mila-kunis-stars-make-outlandish-body-claims/story?id=14274971