Raison d'Etre
Richard sends in this Slate article, discussing some less obvious supporting reasons for the trend towards overweight. The article addresses those "reasons you haven't thought of," for example, that there are fewer smokers these days. I've seen this study floating around for a while now, but I guess I haven't posted about it! My bad.
I did enjoy my own personal philosophy being validated by a doctor who treats overweight teenagers. The doctor noted that:
"...adolescents who lose weight are more likely to have acquired a positive sense of themselves, because they've had some academic or athletic success, or some other notable accomplishment. Sometimes they have embarked on a successful romantic relationship. And often parents and other adults in their life focus on their strengths rather than harping on weight and appearance."
In other words, feeling good about yourself helps you lose weight. And that's why we're here, right? High fives, everyone.
I did enjoy my own personal philosophy being validated by a doctor who treats overweight teenagers. The doctor noted that:
"...adolescents who lose weight are more likely to have acquired a positive sense of themselves, because they've had some academic or athletic success, or some other notable accomplishment. Sometimes they have embarked on a successful romantic relationship. And often parents and other adults in their life focus on their strengths rather than harping on weight and appearance."
In other words, feeling good about yourself helps you lose weight. And that's why we're here, right? High fives, everyone.
2 Comments:
Hah! Yes! I win!
I've always said the influx of new medications has something to do with the "obesity epidemic". I live in a suburb, heavy on cars, heavy on calories, short on exercise, but many of the people I know who got badly overweight living here did so at the hands of antidepressants, hormonal birth control, or that old-fashioned biochemical rollercoaster, pregnancy. I gain weight living here every summer (and loose some of it when I go back to campus) but the year I took hormonal birth control I gained fully twice as much, and it stuck.
My common sense does disagree with the assertion that basic activity levels don't change. Maybe in children they don't, but I'm certainly more active in some living environments (campus, field assignments) and less active in others (suburbia). It shows in my weight, resting heart rate, etc.
I apologize ahead of time for the length of this post. This topic brought up a lot of emotions for me. I have always been prone to low self esteem and it's linked to my weight issues and my poor eating. It's like the chicken and the egg....no idea which came first, but cannot exist without the other.
I moved from my parents' home in rural PA to the Philadelphia suburbs for college (and stayed here for work). I did not gain the dreaded "Freshman 15" (or whatever it's supposed to be these days) but I did, literally, double in size in the years since I've graduated into the ranks of the working world. I went from
It seems pretty obvious to me why this happened. When I was living in the country, I did not sit around at a desk or in front of a TV. I was in the barn....feeding, grooming, riding horses, cleaning stalls, carrying water buckets (2 at a time, each containing 10 or more gallons of H2O). Or I was riding my bike the 1 1/2 miles to my friend's house or the local general store. Or I was helping my dad load up a winter's supply of hay into the barn. Or when I was visiting my friend in town, we walked everywhere. I never "exercised" (meaning, going to a gym an lifting weights or taking aerobics classes) but I certainly was active enough to burn off any calories that I ate (and believe me, I ate a lot!).
Another benefit of my country life was my diet. Sure, there were lots of steak and potatoes (with lots of butter), but there were also a wide assortment of veggies from the garden or fruits from a local orchard. Lots of home-made cakes and cookies, but made with butter instead of hydrogenated fats and certainly no added chemicals. Eating fast food or at a pizza parlor was reserved for special occasions, such as birthdays, good report cards, or the first day of summer vacation.
Once I left to be on my own, I completely let go of this lifestyle. I lived on take-out and on the rare occasion that I did cook for myself, it was usually in the form of a microwave dinner or Ramen Noodles. The grocery store was only a block away, but I'd stop in on my way home from work rather than walk there. I balloned in size and sank deeper and deeper into a spiral of depression. At one point I lost my job and had to move back to my parents'. Within a few months (with no medical assistance at all), I dropped a large portion of my added weight and had stopped living under that cloud of depression that seemed to follow me around, weighing me down and gluing me to my couch.
I moved back to the suburbs and the cycle started all over again. And yet I did not make the connection with my lifestyle. I went to doctors and had all kinds of tests run. I went on various anti-depressants and thyroid medication, and yet I still remained fat. Suddenly, the light bulb went off in my head! I started going into the city, parked my car, and would walk around. On the weekends I'd grab my roller blades and head to the park, or I'd get in my car and drive to one of the many state parks near me and go hiking. During the weeks where I am incorporating activity into my routine, I feel great. Alive. Happy. When I fall out of that routine, I fall back into that pit of depression darkness.
Even now, with the knowledge that I have about how my lifestyle and diet affects my emotions, I still seem to go through cycles. On the days that I feel positive about myself, I am more inclined to eat healthy or be more active. On those days where I wake up in a dark mood (normally during those hormonal times us women are "blessed" with), I am more likely to eat a bag of doritos for dinner. And of course, that kind of eating only makes me feel worse and the downward spiral begins.
I wish that I could find a way to stop the mood cycles, or find a way to deal with them in a better way than poisoning myself. Logically, the answer seems simple enough. Don't Eat The Junk Food! Get Up And Move. Unfortunately when you are dealing with emotions, nothing is simple.
Thanks for letting me ramble!
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