New Year Weight Loss Balderdash Bingo

I saw my first new year diet ad on TV at about 11pm on Boxing Day. "Those rotten sods!" I thought, hoping that I'd have at least until 1 January until the annual cavalcade of weight loss advertising rolled in. Instead, the usual culprits are expanding their seasonal marketing window of opportunity for guilt-tripping gullible consumers into signing up for a dose of snake oil. Nothing screams holidays like a series of corporate multinationals selling lies about your body.

My enjoyment of xmas and the new year is invariably wrecked by the knowledge of what looms: the most intense time of the year for weight loss marketing and fatphobia. But enough is enough. I've decided to stop cringing, actively engage with this nonsense, and encourage others to do so too. I want to transform its negative power in my life and put it where it belongs: in a world of ridicule.

New Year Weight Loss Balderdash Bingo is a game that anyone can play. Based on a Generation X parlour game, it will have you begging for another diet cliché so that you can rack up another line on the card and win the prize that is rightfully yours.

How to play:

1. Print or share New Year Weight Loss Balderdash Bingo cards (.pdf, 110kb) for you and your pals.
2. Decide upon a suitable prize amongst yourselves (I usually play for a foot-rub or a cocktail).
3. Stay alert and immerse yourself in popular culture fearlessly.
4. Cross off each new year weight loss cliché as you encounter it.
5. When you have a vertical, horizontal or diagonal line, yell: "This is balderdash!"
6. The first person in your group to get a full house wins the prize.