Will Power

"Man cannot remake himself without suffering."

         - Alexis Carrel, French biologist and surgeon (1873 - 1944)

I watched a television special about obesity and losing weight tonight.  The good Dr. Phil was talking to people who were bursting out of their clothes and explaining that they could slim down if they would change their eating habits.  Duh!

Most of these folks admitted they had a problem and wanted to do something about it but practically all of them had failed, not once, but many times.  There were clips showing them eating huge servings of the wrong kinds of food and more clips showing them snacking at all hours of the day and night...solid evidence that they alone were the reason for their failure!

As I watched I thought of my own experience with this.  I don't consider myself fat, but know I could stand to lose a few pounds.  Probably, most of us could.  I actually started walking about an hour a day some time ago and was feeling pretty good about myself.  But then I stepped on a scale a couple of months into my new regimen and discovered I'd gained 5 pounds!  Crap!

What happened, I think, was the exercise was making me hungrier and I actually ended up eating more than I had been before I began the walking.  I also had no goals.  I was simply going out for my walk and letting nature take its course.  I should have decided how much I wanted to lose, weighed myself each day, kept up with my food intake and been more serious about it than I was. 

The thing is, if you're overweight, trying to slim down, and your progress is slow or you actually get heavier, it is very easy to just give up. That's not to say it can't be done, it's just hard and requires a very long-term commitment, something the majority of us don't want to make.  That Edy's French Silk Ice Cream and Double-Cheeseburger with Fries overwhelms our resolve...almost every time!