Hi,Do you think that the...

Question
Hi,

Do you think that the prevailing belief that all overweight and obese people are just lazy and unmotivated, and sit around and eat all day is true? Are people who say those things just ignorant and uneducated? What are some legitimate reasons why some people  have a very difficult time losing weight no matter how hard they try?

I am someone who has struggled with a weight problem all of my life and is very concerned about how overweight people are perceived, and even how they are treated by so called well-educated doctors and other health care providers. Even they look down on us. And we are constantly told that if we don't lose weight no man will ever want us(which is probably true). This is all very hurtful and upsetting. It seems impossible for an overweight person to be confident and sucessful in this culture that is obsessed with thinness, and treats overweight people like pariahs. I'd appreciate your views, any advice you have on the subject etc. Thanks so much for your time.

Answer
Anyone who really believes that overweight people are "all" lazy, unmotivated, etc. - ARE painfully disabled by their own handicap of ignorance, closed-mindedness and probably deeper feelings of inadequacy. It is THEY who should be felt sorry for. They wear their faults, failures and crippling lack of knowledge on the inside and most certainly it poisons the rest of their lives.

Ignorance has nothing to do with intelligence. Doctors, Lawyers, Rocket Scientists and College Professors can be ignorant. Painfully so.

Some people are overweight as a result of medications, a physical condition such as thyroid dysfunction or other disease. Some people are overweight because a temporary injury laid them up for some time and they fell out of the routine of activity they otherwise maintained.  Some people are overweight because of emotional/mental injury or need. Food is a comfort, it's an immediate gratification and it can layer on an outer shell of "protection" against the injury or assault some people have suffered (from child abuse to sexual abuse, even verbal abuse and more).

Once a high weight is established, let's use my own experience of being 200 lbs (I'm pretty short, so that was borderline morbidly obese). When faced with the prospect of losing 80-90 lbs, it was overwhelming. When, after days, weeks, months of strict dieting, just a couple lbs would be gone (or none). Standing at the far end of the scale and looking at the other end, knowing that there's months or years in-between, it's awfully easy to quit, if start at all. Many (if not MOST) overweight people "top off" at a certain weight and maintain it. If only they were only at their ideal weight and could maintain it just as easily, right?

 Can an overweight person be - ANYTHING THEY WANT TO BE ??
Let me ask you, how much did Shakespeare weigh? How much did Ben Franklin, Sally Ride, Amelia Earhart, Charles Lindberg, Rosa Parks, Jesus-Abraham-Moses, weigh?  Does anyone REALLY care? When we realize we are more than a number; more than a weight or size, then we can get to work on WHO we really are in this world.

 No one who thinks they are better than someone else is "looking down". There IS no further "down" than they already are.

 BE confident by being the best YOU that you can be. Lift your head, walk proud. I think it's time for a new color, a new hair style, a new lipstick! I think it's time for you to get rid of your scale and start measuring yourself not based on what anyone else says or how anyone else reacts, but on whether or not you go to bed at night and feel something (ANYTHING) was accomplished in that day and you can't wait for another one!

By the way - I DID get to my best weight. Once I stopped 'trying' to be that number.  I also outline exactly how - and make it available to everyone who needs it - no sales, no promotions, no signing in
   www.GetTheReal.Info

I'm here for you. Write me anytime and I'll answer.  

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