Tuesday, April 27, 2010

IS WHERE YOU ENDED UP WHERE YOU WANT TO BE …


“The reason you’re so fat,” he shouted, “is because that’s exactly how much you want to weigh!”

The audience immediately gasped, groaned, protested and threw in some expletives just to keep it real.

As it turns out, his opening statement was purposefully designed to be as incite-full as it was insightful.

“How many of you,” he continued, “went to bed last night weighing your ideal weight and woke up this morning to discover you had put on 50, 100, 200 pounds while you slept?”

No hands went up.

“How many of you, on your journey toward whale status, sincerely believe that a diet of Twinkies, ice cream, chili dogs with that special 5-cheese sauce, meat-meat-and-more-meat pizza, and consuming daily quantities of McBiggerButt’s fries, Leviathan Lard-n-Bacon Burgers (double-bacon please) and a diet-friggin’ soda, all colossus-sized, was actually a healthy diet?”

All hands stayed down.

“And just out of curiosity,” he said, as most of the audience knew that this volley was not going to go well, “how many of you think that the Fat Fairy mistakenly stumbled into your home, sprinkled some ‘slow metabolism dust’ on your cookies, and so it’s not really your fault you can’t lose all that weight?”

Stunningly, a few hands went up.

“Are you kidding me,” he screamed. “Put those hands down.”

This was no boot camp for the weight-challenged. This was a boot-up-your-butt camp and it was about to get real ugly.

Or so I thought.

Without warning, this dieters’ drill sergeant suddenly became an empathetic and compassionate counselor.

“Look,” he said unexpectedly softly, “I understand. I’ve been there. And I want you to know that you too can conquer the dragons that have slowly yet persistently been dragging you down. But you have to understand that ‘feeling good’ is not the first priority here. Eating good is. Thinking good is. Doing good is. Feeling good will come later, I assure you.”

He asked everyone if they knew and understood the two basic rules of healthy living – eat right and exercise. And of course they did.

“Good. I won’t have to waste time on what you already know.”

He then introduced what he called the dieters Dragons of Deceit and Defeat.

The Dragon of Deceit muddles the mind and hides in the heart. It tells you lie upon lie about what will make you feel good. Feeling stupid? “Eat,” it says. Feeling ugly? “Eat,” it says. Feeling like a loser? “Eat,” it says. Feeling like no one likes you? “Eat,” it says. Whatever your problem, it assures you that eating can make you feel better. And of course it doesn’t tell you to eat whole, fresh foods. It tells you that you need “comfort” foods.

As the weight begins to pile on and you begin to feel guilty about it, the Dragon of Defeat begins its evil work. “You may as well eat ‘cause you’re not going to get any smarter,” it says. “You may as well eat ‘cause nobody’s really going to like you anyway,” it says. “You may as well eat ‘cause you can’t lose weight anyway,” it says.

Before you know it, ten pounds overweight becomes 28 pounds. Thirty-five pounds becomes 63 pounds. 142 pounds becomes 200 pounds. As the lies pile on, so does the weight.

So how do you destroy the Dragons of Deceit and Defeat.

Core Truth. You keep asking questions and seeking clarity until the core truth reveals itself, and it always does.

Whenever the lie comes at you, challenge it with the truth. Once you know the truth, write it down, read it often and speak it aloud.

Not so surprisingly, the Truth really will set you free.

3 comments:

  1. yup... I know that... both sides of it, and I'm happily walking back down that *mountain*!

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  2. Yes indeedy ... the truth sets you free. But wow, what a harsh beginning.

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  3. Are you saying I'm fat??
    A definitely different approach to the whole lose weight issue.
    Nice post.

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