Woman hired as 'eating officer' gets paid to eat in restaurants
LONDON -- Most of us would jump at the chance to get paid to dine out in posh restaurants.
Well, that's precisely what 25-year-old Sophie Hardy just got hired to do.
Hardy -- from Durham in the UK -- has been hired by Weight Watchers as an "official eating officer" and her principal duty includes travelling the country to try out the nation's favourite restaurants. Her research will aim to prove that a healthy approach to weight management doesn't have to interfere with one's social life. Hardy's appointment comes after a recent Weight Watchers report revealed that 71 percent of Brits feel that fad dieting makes socialising difficult, and people aged between 25 and 34 struggle to socialise and eat healthily.
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Hardy -- who was chosen from more than 500 candidates -- will be expected to dine out twice a week to test restaurant menus for healthy and tasty options. The restaurants that pass the test will receive the Weight Watchers seal of approval.
Hardy is no stranger to dieting: when she was 16 years old, she was a UK size 26 (US size 22), but has since lost five stone. Now two stone away from her target weight, Hardy will be posting a weekly blog of her weight loss journey, documenting her dining adventures across the country.
"Being chosen to eat out twice week in restaurants across the UK is an absolute dream job so I am delighted to be appointed as the first ever Official Eating Officer," Hardy said in a statement emailed to Mashable.
"I am excited to show the UK that life doesn’t have to stop while leading a healthier lifestyle."
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
