I have been asked by many people why I did a blog - Selfishly I am writing this blog for accountability. However, I was not ready to be accountable at the time the post hit my personal facebook page. I was writing and tweaking my blog and decided to connect to FB, Pinterest, and Instagram. I wanted to test the blog and instead of posting to my Broken Chairs, Diets and Habits FB page, I posted to my personal FB page. When I realized I had done this, it was too late and I just burst out crying. As life has a way of doing ... serendipity was my friend. I want to thank each and every one of you for the amazing support and of course subscribing to my blog. Each and every one of you are now my personal weight watcher leader ... it is a volunteer position. I was truly blown away. I heard from women and men alike which surprised me and other people sharing their stories.
I realize we are all fighting a battle. All kinds of people struggle with their body image and mine happens to be a struggle with obesity. I read a report that 30% of the world's population were overweight while 2% were underweight. There are people:
* Trying to maintain their weight whether they had a baby, menopause, aging, injury, etc.
* People who have anorexia
* Skinny fat people - Who knew?
* People maintaining CDC weight and BMI standards
* Being overweight
* Obesity
So how do skinny people stay skinny - they do not overeat. Thin people understand and practice the concept of calories in and calories out. If someone tells you they eat like a pig and they do not look like a pig, I guarantee you they do not eat like a pig or they hit the gym and/or reduce calories for the next meal to compensate for a binge. They are not eating a package of Tasteykakes and washing it down with a bottle of wine daily. I know that is shocking.
So we all know the concept of calories in and calories out, but why is it so hard for people who are chronically overweight or obese? Do we feel entitled to a whole pie? I mean I do, but do you? I am a total stress eater, but I am not stressed 24/7. I think once we can hone in on the why the rest will follow ... maybe.
I have never publicly said I was obese because if I did not say it, it wasn't so. If I did not tell you I was obese, you did not see me as obese. Honestly I cannot even give you rationale for thinking this. Fears of an obese person:
* Need a seat extender for a flight - You will notice I fly according to my weight. If I am a certain weight, I will not fly. You can buy an extender on Amazon (because I looked this up) and tuck in your purse so only TSA and you would know.
Fears of an obese person:
* Assessing furniture - Constantly gauging strength of furniture. We have Adirondack chairs on our deck and mine broke. As any respectable wife would do, I switched mine with Brad's so he thought he broke his chair. GUILTY as charged (this is you and my secret - do not tell Brad)
* Limit my activity - What if I tip a boat and Brad has to tow me back to shore???
* Amusement ride - Requires diligent research on weight limits
* Seating - Seating on public transportation/airplanes/any seating that doesn’t have solid dividers. Trust me, we’re trying to take up as little space as possible. To the point of doing some pretty impressive contortion and/or making ourselves damn uncomfortable in the process with a smile.
* Clothing/Jewelry - Finding clothes that fit all parts of your body. Finding a bangle to get over your hand is near impossible and a short chain necklace is a choker.