This post is in response to Alan Shalman’s socially apologetic piece entitled ‘Living Life Overweight: 10 reasons why you are not to blame’ (http://www.zenhabits.net/).
Although I do not wish to ‘pick a fight’ in any way whatsoever, I feel that it is essential to pick up on the content of his post because it sends out the wrong message to those who are battling being overweight/obese. I, too, was obese until I challenged myself to overcome it, which I did successfully. In my opinion, we should be helping those who are obese to face the reality of their condition and take full responsibility for allowing themselves to become that way, and for getting themselves back in shape. Telling them that they are not to blame is horribly misleading, as well as irresponsible. That approach will not help them. All it will do is help them to get fatter, as they will feel that the situation is out of control.
My ten reasons why they are to blame are rather direct, but that is what is needed. In order to beat obesity, we need to have clarity of thought, correct thinking. In order to attain clarity of thought, we need to accept the reality of our situation – in this case, being overweight or obese. Either condition carries with it several health complications and should be treated as a serious condition that needs urgent and proactive attention.
Here are my ten reasons why you, as an overweight/obese person (just like me before) are absolutely to blame:
1. You are the only one who can make yourself fat.
Although I do not wish to ‘pick a fight’ in any way whatsoever, I feel that it is essential to pick up on the content of his post because it sends out the wrong message to those who are battling being overweight/obese. I, too, was obese until I challenged myself to overcome it, which I did successfully. In my opinion, we should be helping those who are obese to face the reality of their condition and take full responsibility for allowing themselves to become that way, and for getting themselves back in shape. Telling them that they are not to blame is horribly misleading, as well as irresponsible. That approach will not help them. All it will do is help them to get fatter, as they will feel that the situation is out of control.
My ten reasons why they are to blame are rather direct, but that is what is needed. In order to beat obesity, we need to have clarity of thought, correct thinking. In order to attain clarity of thought, we need to accept the reality of our situation – in this case, being overweight or obese. Either condition carries with it several health complications and should be treated as a serious condition that needs urgent and proactive attention.
Here are my ten reasons why you, as an overweight/obese person (just like me before) are absolutely to blame:
1. You are the only one who can make yourself fat.
2. You are not doing any/most of the things which are recommended for weight loss for the following reasons:
3. You are gluttonous.
4. You are not strong willed enough to change bad habits.
5. You don’t think clearly enough about the material that you are ingesting and what the consequences will be to your body.
6. You believe the nonsense propagated by social apologists which deems you should be proud to be the way you are (even if it is dangerous to your health, life and can severely and negatively impact the lives of those you love).
7. You don’t respect or value enough the life lives of the ones you love.
8. You don’t respect or value your life enough.
9. You have not made weight loss a priority in your life.
10. In conclusion, you are too lazy to change.
Harsh isn’t it? But it is realistic. Overweight people have allowed themselves to become removed from the norm, and so honest analysis of their condition is, congruently, not mediocre. I’d like to very briefly expand on each point in order to clarify it a little further.
1. This is true, of course. No one force-feeds you. You make a decision to have the huge burger, have that extra can of Pepsi, order another dessert etc., no-one makes that decision for you.
2. Overweight people may well have researched ways to lose weight but are doing nothing to help themselves. Although they may venture into the swimming pool once in a blue moon, or for a sporadic strafing of sessions in an overpriced gym, but they are never consistent. And that is why they remain overweight.
3. Fact.
4. There is no will power, as discussed in the second point. Everyone has the potential to gain or lose weight, depending on their mind set.
5. Due to their gluttonous nature at that point in time, overweight people crave the sensations produced when eating their favourite foods. They pay little or no regard to the calorie or fat content etc. Even if guilty feeling arise, they are quickly digested by the mind’s craving for more of the food which has produced the guilty feelings. They feel that they cannot control this feeling. In fact, of course, they can. But they don’t.
6. Unfortunately, overweight people are usually looking for a way to feel good about themselves, and social apologists offer that convenient and lazy way out.
7. This is a very serious point. I am so glad that I lost all my excess weight before my young son was born. It would have been so selfish of me to continue putting my life at risk simply because I was too weak willed to do anything about it.
8. This is pretty straightforward, I think!
9. In order to achieve anything in life, it needs to made a priority at some point. For example, if you want to score well in an exam, then you make revision a priority. If you want a promotion at work and are scheduled for an interview with top brass, you take time to work out you interview strategy. Reducing weight is the same, but it takes much more time. It needs to be a priority in your life.
10. Overweight people, frankly, are too lazy to change. Until they stop being lazy and get real, they will continue to be overweight.
Being overweight is usually caused by a habitual behaviour; therefore, it can be reversed as long as the habit is reversed. It is the same as stopping smoking, or drinking too much alcohol. You don’t hear people saying, ‘It’s okay for being alcoholic, you are not to blame! The beer is so cheap in your country and the marketing is so effective, and people used to have to go through the painstaking and laborious process of brewing beer, but now you can but it at 7-11 etc.’ Alcoholism is a serious problem, just like being overweight. It must not be simplified and excused.
The only situation in which I consider Alan Shalman’s viewpoint to be correct is when the overweight person is a child; children cannot make rationale, informed decisions about their well being in the same way that adults can. And isn’t it true that, usually, overweight children have overweight parents? Which brings me back to point number 7.
At the end of the day, the dictum hits the proverbial donut on the head:
You are what you eat.
(And you’re the one that ate it!)
What next?
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