Gymnastics of the mind...

"You just gotta want it"

"Enroll in *insert main stream diet program here* and you will be successful"

"Walk"

"Join a gym and go every day"

If you ask anyone that's lost a significant amount of weight or even just 10 to 20 pounds how to lose weight you will undoubtedly get a plethora of different answers and none of them will be the same usually. Losing weight and getting healthy is not exactly rocket science though there is science involved I am in the camp that it is almost totally a mental issue that needs to be dealt with if successful long term weight loss is to occur. Eating unprocessed whole foods will help the cause for sure, exercising daily will almost certainly aid in shrinking your waistline but in the end if the mental part of that equation is left unchanged short term transformation just might be on the menu. Learning that food is merely fuel for our bodies has been something long lost on lots of people that find themselves in the position that I was in a couple years ago, when food takes on an emotional attachment is when we find ourselves on the wrong side of 500 pounds.

"Drink lots of water"

"Portion control is key"

"Count calories"

When we look at food for what it is things become very clear, food is merely the product that we ingest so that our bodies can function on a daily basis, in simpler terms, it is energy. So many of us find comfort in food beyond it being purely sustenance for our ever working bodies and unless we can get past that part of losing weight I am afraid it will be a constant struggle back and fourth almost infinitely ongoing tennis match with ourselves. Decide, make the choice to look at food as nothing more than fuel and the entire ordeal simplifies and yes I called it an ordeal because it best describes how the transition from emotional to as necessary eating feels. This change isn't easy, I will never say that it is an easy thing because its not and people who have never struggled with it may not understand the phenomenon but trust me its real and I feel it every time I get over stressed but not giving into it is key. I just said that its not easy but at the same time that I believe its not easy I do believe that its simple, Decide, eat right, exercise, see? simple.

"Ride a bike"

"Get a personal trainer"

If we approach it as if we are machines again things simplify, a machine has no emotions it does what its suppose to do and it continues as long as it is fueled and maintained properly. Food is our fuel and exercise is our maintenance we are in fact just a complicated machine driven by a motherboard or brain if you will full of emotion, control the emotional part and the machine will run as it should. When I began, this machine theory is how I lived, it was my mantra and I followed it as close as a human could because it was either that or deal with the possibility of dieing by my own hand which was clenched tightly around a fork. I still look at food as fuel but as I got more and more comfortable with the newer me I found that I am more willing to let things slide where grabbing an extra bite of this or that goes, no more.

When I started writing this blog I was a more than 500 pound man that honestly felt that unless huge changes were implemented that death was in fact not far away. Now that I am down more than 200 pounds and have kept it off for a couple years the game has changed somewhat, the players are the same in some ways but the stakes have changed a bit. Not having death looming ominously over my chubby shoulder has in time slowed my pace and the weight has not come off lately. Realizing that this game is one of a mental challenge more than anything else I need to push through the stresses that are slowing me down at this stage of my journey and get down to my goal weight more so to prove to myself that I can more than anything else at this point. Physically I am so far away from that 534 pound man that struggled up a flight of stairs worrying about if the pin would be pulled in the grenade of a heart that was beating in his chest but mentally I still find myself in conflict at times but then I suppose that is a game I will play for the rest of my life, just like every other person who struggles with their weight.

Weight loss is a game played in oneself head, it has nothing to do with the food, it has even less to do with the exercise, beat yourself in that chess game and you will have won your health back.

As Ever
Me