Friday, June 20, 2008

How bad do you want it?

I am going to get on my soapbox here for a moment or two. But while I climb there, let me just preface by saying this: I am not perfect at this whole journey to become fit and healthy, Far from it. Nobody is. And thank God.

How badly do you want to be free of your extra weight, no matter how much extra it may be? How bad? Bad enough to realize you need to make changes permanently? Bad enough to realize it takes learning a new way to relate to food and activity? Because you had better want it that badly if you're going to make this anything other than one more unsuccessful attempt to get yourself healthy.

What do you want more, to feel persecuted and deprived that you can't have potato chips as much and as often as you want, or to reach your goals? It's a potato chip, for Christ's sake. Do you know what an obsession with potato chips will get you? It got me 348 pounds to carry around. Do I miss the potato chips? Not really. Because you know what? Get the garbage out of your system and you'll realize its really not that tasty. And its not a potato. It's a chemically engineered concoction of something only slightly resembling a slice of potato. Full of crap I can't pronounce. Adopting a new lifestyle is going to require letting go of a lot of things. Crappy food. Crappy things we tell ourselves about our self worth. Say good riddance.

How hard are you willing to work at this? Because you know what I see so often it makes me a little crazy (and skeptical that the persons doing it can find long term success, to be totally honest?) People wanting and expecting all the information to be spoon fed to them. And the spoon feeders bug me just as much. Not taking the time to research the basic information is a big warning sign to me. You want the easy fix. ANd for those who hand it over, you're not helping. You're hindering. I know I'll get flack for saying that, but I could care less. Its the truth. If somebody is going to make this work, they need to learn the basics. Not be told the basics, they need to learn them. And you know the basics Im talking about. If they ask, it shouts out that they haven't bothered to look for the information in their materials. (That or they have no access to the materials because they aren't paying members and they're trying to glean it out of those of us who did pay to get it.) Look at it this way. If I went to my trainer and said, I want bigger biceps how much of result would I get if she slapped some baby weights in my hands, then used her own force to push my arms up and down? She'd get a bit of a workout, I'd get practically nothing. Parents, are you raising your children to be self sufficient or to have to rely on you for the most basic things once they become adults? I hope its not the latter.

You have to work at this. If you want easy, go to Jenny Craig or Nutrisystem where all the thought is basically taken out of it for you. If you want to change your life, you better want it bad, because it's going to take work and sacrifice.

Flame away, for those I piss off with this post.

4 comments:

  1. Right on! Guidance is one thing, hand holding is another.

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  2. I've said it before....I make my son look things up before I'll answer his questions. Spoon feeding helps no one.

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  3. Thanks!! I needed the reminder :)

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  4. I know this is late, but I just wanted to agree with you. Everything that you noted in this posting is the exact reason why I chose Weight Watchers.

    I always knew that losing weight meant changing my life and controling my life forever. Weight Watchers helps you learn that control (which you will only have if you really want it more than the food). Sure, you have to have weed out other foods when you're on Nurtisystem, Jenny Craig, Diet 2 Go, Hour Glass, I could go on. These programs are formulated to help you lose weight efficiently while eating tasty food, but they don't make you learn how to prepare your own meals and control your portions. Also, it allows you to make mistakes, finding out on your own what works and what doesn't work--which is the essence of real life.

    It's ridiculous to expect someone to be on a spoon-fed program like that for the rest of his/her life. Weight Watchers helped me understand that my accountability does not end with the program.

    Sorry my response was so long, but thank you for emphasizing what we all need to hear.

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