Posts Tagged ‘cut the waist’

An animated Mayor Rob Ford goes for a bike ride

- August 21st, 2012

Screen shot 2012-08-21 at 10

Screenshot of the Ride For Rob website

Duke’s Cycle is helping Mayor Rob Ford pedal away the pounds – at least online.

The bike shop launched the website rideforrob.com which allows cyclists to donate the calories they’ve lost to an animated Ford. Here’s the description of the effort from the site:

Mayor Rob Ford tried to lose weight. But it was a massive fail. Toronto riders, let’s show him how it’s done. Donate a bike ride and burn some calories for Mr. Ford.  Let’s make our mayor more fit for the job.

Zing!

So far cyclists have donated more than 735,000 calories burned while bicycling. If the honour system donation of calories continue the animated Ford will eventually be trim and in bike shorts.

Of course this isn’t the first sight of Ford, animated or otherwise, climbing on a bike.

Here’s a picture of him sitting on a pink bicycle (an art project) at Toronto city council last year:

Ford_on_bike

No word from the mayor’s office whether this site will prompt Ford to climb on a bike and actually pedal off the pounds.

Given the recent disappearance of the Cut the Waist challenge scale from outside Ford’s office it’s doubtful we’ll see another public weight loss campaign from this administration.

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Quote of the Day – Ford to media: Drop weight

- June 18th, 2012

Councillor Doug Ford

“I’m looking around here, three quarters of the people taking pictures right now have a weight issue” 

Councillor Doug Ford during the final weigh in for Mayor Rob Ford’s Cut the Waist challenge pointed out the Ford brothers aren’t the only ones with weight issues.

Ford weighed in 35 pounds lighter than when he started the challenge back in January while Mayor Ford managed to shed 17 pounds (story here).

It’s not the first time the media and politicians have discussed weight issues at City Hall but at least no one threw around the words “fat f**k” this time around (video of that legendary incident here).

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Weight-loss battles run in the Ford family

- May 29th, 2012

Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Doug ford

Councillor Doug Ford shows off his pipes with Mayor Rob Ford in the NEWSTALK 1010 studios on Sunday (Michael Peake, Toronto Sun)

Weight-loss challenges are a Ford family tradition.

Councillor Doug Ford used to challenge his dad, Doug Ford Sr., to bulge battles periodically.

“I won $2,500 off him once,” Ford recalled Tuesday.

The two competed to see who could lose the most weight. When he took the $2,500 prize, Ford lost around 50 pounds.

As one Ford family friend tells the story, Ford’s mom Diane would often take Doug Sr. out for a restaurant meal if he was poised to beat Doug Jr. in the cutting the fat contest.

Ford said his dad, a former PC MPP, always blamed his mom for his weight-loss losses.

“It wasn’t her, it was him,” he laughed.

Councillor Ford is likely poised to win another family weight-loss contest in June – Mayor Rob Ford’s Cut the Waist campaign.

Although Mayor Ford admitted he’s off his diet and will try to lose weight in a more private format going forward, Councillor Ford says he’s still on track to meet his own weight-loss goal of 50 pounds by June 18.

The Etobicoke councillor has around 21 days to lose 18 pounds.

“I’m doing it,” Ford predicted.

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“Sometimes he just can’t get the job done” Fletcher weighs in on Mayor Ford

- May 29th, 2012

Paula Fletcher

Councillor Paula Fletcher tied Mayor Rob Ford’s weight-loss campaign starting/failing/quitting/non-quitting/fizzling fit into a larger pattern emerging during his time in office where “sometimes he just can’t get the job done.”

“There a number of things he has not been able to do and this is another one,” Fletcher said Monday as confusion reigned over whether Ford had officially quit his diet (see story here). “He has to give up on this (weight-loss campaign), it has proven to be too much for him. He couldn’t manage it. He made a big promise and he can’t manage it.”

Ford vowed back in January to lose 50 pounds by June, a goal that Fletcher said was unrealistic.

“I’m just worried we kind of lurch from thing to thing and he lurched on this one and it just didn’t work out,” she said.

While she stopped short of saying the mayor’s failed Cut the Waist campaign was a metaphor for Ford’s mayoralty, Fletcher said sometimes she wonders “if the whole thing is a little too much” for Ford.

“Being the mayor is not an easy job, you can’t make simple promises about anything,” she said. “You need to be measured and thoughtful and I think on this one he just got over his head.”

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I’m not even dieting anymore – Mayor Rob Ford

- May 27th, 2012

Mayor Rob Ford

Mayor Rob Ford weighing in for the first time in January (Toronto Sun files)

“I don’t care about the weigh-in, I’m not even dieting anymore, it’s gone, it’s water under the bridge,” Mayor Rob Ford admitting he’s quit his own Cut the Waist campaign during his NEWSTALK 1010 radio show on Sunday, May 27, 2012.

Ford made the revelation he’s off his diet one day before he turns 43.

Starting out at 330 pounds, Ford was aiming to lose 50 pounds between January and June. His weight has been stuck around 310 pounds for most of the challenge.

He’s cancelled his last two weigh-ins (story here) and he’s rarely a happy camper when he steps on the scale (story here).

When Ford and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, started this campaign back in January (story here), Ford seemed optimistic he could shed the weight and no longer be (as he often calls himself) “300 pounds of fun”.

“I look forward to rising up to the challenge and making a healthy change in my life,” the mayor said at that time.

While critics at the time called Ford’s weight-loss challenge a cheap publicity stunt or a distraction from the budget debate unfolding at the time, Ford was adamant he wanted to slim down for his own family.

“I’ve got young children and this is not healthy, you can’t be running the city, you can’t be doing all this at 330 pounds,” Ford pointed out in January.

Doing it at 314 pounds would be no picnic either.

Hopefully, he finds a way to start cutting his own waist again but I expect, if he does, it will be a less public affair next time.

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