Biggest Loser

Tuesday:

I spent some time Christmas shopping today. I got a few things but was really tired and headachy and came home at lunchtime and had a nap instead of pushing on. I only have another week before the kids will be finished school and it won't be so easy to shop without them. Aiden's main present is going to be a bike (which he knows, he will help choose it), he has really outgrown his old one; not sure about Jasmine. She doesn't need a new bike even though she rides to school and has grown - she has just taken over mine! I never ride it anyway. It was actually never ridden at all, our old bikes were stolen a couple of years ago and the insurance company sent new ones and I don't think I ever even sat on it. I'll have to think of something good, if Aiden is getting a "big ticket" item like a bike then she has to as well or they will both be horrified by the unfairness.

I can't remember the details but I read something recently about children learning about fairness, it is partly innate and partly cultural. They start off knowing it's unfair if they get less than the other person. (Monkeys know that too, and will get very upset about it.) But only in some cultures do children decide it's also unfair if they get MORE, and they have to be around nine before they learn that. Aiden was quite worried the other day when we got a treat for just the two of us, until I reminded him that I'd given Jasmine an equivalent amount of money to buy a snack (it wasn't deliberate on my part, just worked out that way).

It was the Biggest Loser finale tonight. Some years many contestants have lost up to half their body weight and ended up looking very trim and healthy. This year only the winner (male) and two of the women ended up lighter than me. Even taking into account that I am short, many contestants still looked very overweight. Of course that is still better than the hugely obese they were before. Are they picking bigger contestants to start with, who can't possibly lose all their weight in six months or so (three months in the house then three at home before finale), or have they stepped back from the super-extreme exercise and dieting to a more moderate regimen?

Still headachy, early bedtime for me.