Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Fat Rant

Meta posted the "Fat Rant" video over at her blog Girls That Eat Pizza You should go check it out.

I agree with the message overall. "Diets" don't work because a drastic temporary change can have drastic results- but they'll be temporary.

Diet should be about eating better forever, exercise should be something we always do as part of an active life. When we make small changes our progress is going to be more gradual, but I think it is more likely to be permanent.

I somewhat disagree with the video in that I do think that it is possible to overcome genetics to some extent, though I do agree that some people just aren't designed to be tiny thin (just like others aren't designed to be extremely huge bodybuilders.)

I think her point that we should accept who we are is great, but a lot of people with that attitude miss the part about "if you're already eating better and exercising" I know I've used the "Well I'm just fat and can't do anything about it" excuse and it just serves to make you unhappy as much as trying to be a body type that you aren't does.

The point from the video that I love is that all of us need to go out and live our lives no matter where we are. We can't let being too fat get in the way. I think it's one of many things we use to stop ourselves from living. It isn't just "once I lose weight" I can do this, it's:
"Once I get this place cleaned up I can decorate (have people over, work on other stuff... etc)"
"Once I can stop smoking then I'll go back to church"
"Once I can get good at this game, then I'll play with other people"
and a whole host of others.
I know I'm guilty of doing those sorts of things. Often we put up these barriers and
we don't change them because then we'd have to face everything else. Sometimes we want to face other things, but those initial barriers we set up are so overwhelming we don't know where to start. And a lot of the barriers we set up actually keep us from removing those barriers. Being worried what people will think of the fat and/or weak guy at the gym or the pool ensures you're always going to be the fat and weak guy everywhere.


Pancho is worse about these things than I am- and it's hard in the fitness department because he's in much worse shape than I am. Being 6'1" and 240 you can kind of pretend you aren't that fat. But you can't really do the same at 5'9" and 300. At that point he really just gets depressed in that it seems insurmountable and that he isn't really making progress that seems significant. A lot of the cardio options are too hard on his knees- but he won't go swimming. He doesn't swim well but he refuses to learn. He doesn't want to be the dumbass that doesn't know how to swim- and more than that he doesn't want to be the fatass that should know better than to be in public without a shirt on. It's frustrating because I think that swimming would be really good for both of us. I really do love the guy like a brother, he's one of my best friends in the world and it's hard to see him unhappy with life. I hope he can start making some real progress and feel better about himself (and I hope that my progress can continue or increase as well)

I'll continue to post about my progress here. Even though few people read it- I think that it keeps me accountable a little more than if I weren't posting.

1 comment:

Joy said...

Someone (who lost 75 pounds a few years before I knew him) once told me a long time ago "If you want to be someone you've never been before, you have to do something you've never done before." Those words have really stuck with me.