It’s Sunday morning. A day I should be focusing on Jesus and my family. ( I guess I should actually focus on Jesus and my family every day but you get my point.) But all I am focusing on right now is rage and exhaustion.
My leisurely read of the Sunday newspaper has been interrupted by two book reviews. They are literally on top of each other in the book section. And surprise, surprise…they are both diet books. You know why two diet books can get featured on a national newspaper page…on a SUNDAY? Because people like me can’t buy that crap fast enough.
My heart is breaking for those people who will shell out 17.95 for a piece of nonsense that we are supposed to believe was actually written by a famous ER doctor who now has his own talk show. Or maybe one written by a person who makes his living ‘helping’ fat semi-celebrities. You see they are the experts and, as you can see from their smiling photo on the cover, they are thin and healthy. Therefore they can tell us, the slovenly obese, how to end up happy, healthy and thin,
I haven’t read either book so I’m totally judging these works based upon past experience. (In my defense, I could probably hold a PhD in Diet Studies…if such a thing existed.) I assume they discuss the dangers of high calorie, fatty food. I assume they both laud exercise and a variety of supplements. There is probably no advice given by either of these guys that would cause actual harm to a reader.
The simple fact is this. If nutrition and weight loss were a one answer problem, none of us would be overweight. It’s an insult to all of us who struggle every ding dong day for years and decades and lifetimes to assert that you know THE answer. And my biggest problem is that I don’t believe that two fit guys who have never had a weight problem IN THEIR WHOLE LIFE even know what the question is.
He jests at scars that never felt a wound.
William Shakespeare
You see at the end of the day it’s not about carbohydrates and calories. It’s not about egg whites or egg yolks.. It’s not even about cardio versus weight training.
It’s about this one body that I have been given.
It’s all mine.
My struggle. My responsibility. My success and my failure.
And it’s not exactly like anyone else’s.
I’m not against ‘professional’ help at all. By all means, find a smart, trained person to walk beside you in your journey. Find a strong, compassionate person to drag you down the road when you fall. Find someone who is willing to help you find YOUR answers.
Because the question is not “How can one lose weight?” it’s “How can I lose weight?” And my answer might be very different than yours.
It’s time to quit studying diets and start studying ourselves.
End of February…down 7 pounds.
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