Are We Eating Ourselves to Death?
It is not inconceivable that as people are statistically getting larger (in girth, not necessarily in corresponding height) their life expectancy is growing shorter as the risk of suffering weight related illnesses and medical conditions increases in line with that growth in body mass.
As the problem gets worse and more people become obese and morbidly obese, it naturally follows that they could be literally eating themselves into an early grave unless they start doing something to reverse the trend.
There are bound to be those obese individuals that would vehemently disagree with that observation and even claim that they are not fat because they eat too much, but instead because they have some other carefully nurtured excuse to explain their excessive size.
The subject has been flogged half to death by experts and the opinionated on all sides of the argument for many years in any case.
But the fact remains that you cannot gain body mass without doing something to create that mass. That something is eating and to some extent drinking sugary, calorie rich beverages to excess.
Too Much Food
In the West, we have the luxury of a constant supply of food wherever we go and whenever we want it. The invention of the refrigerator made it possible to store food for longer periods of time without it spoiling, providing us with a repository of sustenance as and when we desire it.
We have literally provided ourselves with the means to have too much food available for consumption and it is in our nature to eat whatever food we have available in case we, thanks to our ancestral instinct, have to suffer a period of famine.
Of course, that famine never materializes so we always have plenty of food to eat as long as out budget stretches to keeping our fridges, freezers and pantries fully stocked, which most people manage to do quite ably. Yet most people don't get overweight let alone obese (at least it is still "most" people although the gap is closing).
So how can so many people knowingly have a good supply of food and not feel the need to constantly eat? And why does this growing army of obese people keep overfeeding itself despite the warnings and when there are numerous forms of diet solution to help alleviate the problem?
Willpower vs Indifference
While there are no decisive studies to prove what it is that specifically keep so many people from indulging in their store of food while others seem to do so with something approaching gay abandon, there is plenty of room for speculation. While some people will claim that they manage to keep their hands off their stash of food through sheer willpower, far more don't give it a second thought.
To be more exact, the people who remain at their correct weight seem to be completely indifferent to the fact that there is food to eat if they simply aren't hungry.
On the other side of the coin, the overweight seem to be fighting and losing a constant battle of will. Can it be that once a person has gained an excessive amount of weight that they cave in and stop trying to avoid the food they know they shouldn't be eating to avoid getting any larger? Or are they still trying to avoid the food and winning only some of the time, but losing spectacularly when they stop winning?
Yes I Know That...
But don't fall into the trap of thinking that overweight people don't know a lot of this stuff! Most are fully aware of their size and are generally locked in battle with their will and often at their wit's end trying to eat right and lose weight, but are under constant threat of perceived failure. Fear of failure is at the heart of actual failure in all things in life and a weight problem is no exception.
It is very tough to maintain a diet program when the fear of failing is looming over you like a dark, menacing shadow. No matter how hard you try and keep a positive attitude and keep telling yourself you'll be fine, that nagging doubt just won't go away until it has succeeded in causing you to slip up and eat that taboo item of food, which makes you feel guilty and a complete failure.
Break the Cycle
Many of us have heard of the expression "getting into a rut" and that is what many overweight people have gotten themselves into. They have become accustomed to eating a certain way and that is usually responsible for an intake of way more calories each day than their bodies can effectively process as energy and so the excess gets stored as even more fat.
It's a rut! But a rut is just a habit or a collection of habits (a paradigm) that are controlling behavior, in this case eating the wrong food, drinking the wrong beverages and doing too much of both.
Habits can be broken, although some can be tougher to break than others. But they are not cast in stone and therefore can be overcome. The way to do this is through persistence, tenacity or dogged determination. Use whichever word or phrase resonates best with you, as they all mean pretty much the same thing. It's a case of recognizing the habit and creating a real desire to cease it.
Know Thy Enemy
If you know what foods are your personal downfall then single them out. Write them down on a piece of paper and carry that piece of paper with you wherever you go. Make sure there are none of the foods on that list in your home at any time and stop visiting places where you know they will be.
Identifying your nemesis and naming it and then bringing it into reality by visualizing it on paper makes it possible to fight it on an even playing field.
When you know what you have to avoid, you can avoid it! Having it in graphical form makes sure you don't forget it and "slip up" when your guard is down. If you don't slip up any more and can avoid the foods that are causing you to gain weight, then you can stop failing and start winning.
That little exercise is so empowering because it proves to you that you are not a failure. It proves that you can identify the thing that you no longer need in your life and get on happily without it any more. You effectively break the habit and climb out of the rut.
No one needs to eat themselves to death simply because they are stuck in bad eating habits that they are largely unaware of. Become aware, take control and lose weight naturally by no longer being a slave to old habits.
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