Six is such a good number. It sounds like so much less than 7 for some reason. Maybe because 7 can easily go back up to 10. 6 is far enough away from 10, that I'm no longer scared of 10. Does that make sense?
So when I originally made my weight loss chart, I remember thinking not knowing how long to make it. I've officially run out of room, which gives me some sort of satisfaction. The end IS very near, and even my chart is telling me to get this thing over with. Can I suggest to yall to make one of these? Even if it's just hand written. To see your goal whittle away is kind of awesome. I also really appreciate seeing the dates because I think it paints a VERY realistic picture of the time line of weight loss.
One goal all along in sharing this has been to produce a very normal, boring picture of weight loss. No one loves The Biggest Loser more than I do, but it doesn't really present a realistic model for people wanting to lose weight. Also, a lot of "weight loss stories" that make it to a public forum usually feature people with closer to 100+ pounds to lose. Losing 100+ lbs is EXTRAORDINARY. Anyone who is able to transform their life so dramatically has to be a really incredible person, and I honestly don't know if I would be able to do it. Understandably, people don't end up on the front of People for losing 30 lbs... and the closest thing on tv to The Biggest Loser: normal people edition was "Celebrity Fat Camp" on VH1. Which was basically the exact same show as Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew with weigh-ins at the end of every episode.
The news-y stuff I mentioned in the post title is regarding this article in which the AMA has now declared obesity a disease. I feel this subject usually gets people kind of riled up, so I thought I would weigh in as reasonably as possible. I'm not a doctor, and I don't even watch Dr. Oz, so what do I know? But here it goes... And please keep in mind any time I use terms like "overweight" and "obese," I am using them as medical terms to describe someone's health, not how they look.
I agree that when you are obese, that your body is in a state of "disease". When I started my weight loss, I 100% felt that I was unhealthy... plus, I am sure that I would have been considered obese in medical terms. So yeah, when you are overweight, your health is compromised, and you should fix it. The problem I have with calling it a "disease" is that it can somewhat shift the responsibility of getting healthy from the person and onto "medical treatment". Now, I am 100% in support of anyone working with their doctor to lose weight and improve their health. I am even very pro lap band if it helps people to permanently change their lives. It's just like smoking. Obviously, no matter how addicted you are to cigarettes, you could just force yourself to stop smoking. But I would rather someone use the patch or whatever and stop smoking than be forced to "do it the hard way" and never successfully quit.
If someone looked me in the face and said "look, I'm obsessed with food and I am not strong enough or committed enough to lose weight completely on my own," I would be like dude, I totally get it. But when someone says they have "tried everything, but nothing is working," I want to say go eff yourself. "Trying" a method of weight loss means doing it perfectly, every single day, for at least 30 days. "Trying" is not... eating low carb for four days, but then, you know, it was my birthday, so we went out and had some drinks, and my coworkers bought me cupcakes so I just had one, blah blah blah...
I don't get why the most pervasive theme in weight loss is "diets don't work." Um, well, actually, they do work. But you HAVE TO DO THEM. And when you're done, you have to use the brain inside your head and not eat like a psycho. I'm sure you can guess the next thing I am going to comment on... the almighty LIFESTYLE CHANGE. "It has to be a lifestyle change." What does that even mean? Like even if you have changed your lifestyle to where you bring your lunch instead of going out or whatever, your brain chemistry is never going to change to the point that ChikFilA doesn't taste amazing. I think the lifestyle change thing irks me because it implies that once you "change your lifestyle" that you won't even have to think about eating healthy, because it will become so ingrained. Well, that's bullshit. Anyone who has ever lost weight can tell you that it never stops being hard. It never stops taking conscious effort... which, in my opinion, IS a diet. I guess the way I can reconcile "you can't go on a diet, it has to be a lifestyle change" is if you define lifestyle change as accepting the fact that you are basically going to be on a diet every day for the rest of your life.
With all that said... 24 lbs ago, if the doctor was like "hey, I see that you are obese, so here is this pill to help you lose weight, and guess what... your insurance will cover it!" I would be at Walgreen's in less than 5 minutes. So I guess my conclusion is that I am hopeful that this new categorization of obesity as a disease will help people get healthy regardless of if they do it the old-fashioned way or not. And maybe the long term effect will be something like obesity will become less common in our population, and therefore people will be less likely to become overweight in the first place? Who knows. Just get (or stay) healthy, people.
Love,
Lauren
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