A Journey from Obesity to Health

What a journey this is! It is really hard being addicted to food. And that’s exactly what I have, an addiction. Food is in my every waking thought and sometimes in my sleeping thoughts.

I’ve heard it said (by non-food-addict persons) to just avoid it and it will be alright. Well, how do you avoid food? It is all around us, it is the sustenance of life. How do you avoid something that is necessary for life? Obviously you can’t. When you get up in the morning you start with breakfast, then comes lunch and then supper. When you open a magazine you find ads for food. When you turn on the television, one out of every three commercials is about food. When you drive somewhere you pass fast food places or restaurants. You can’t even fill your car up with fuel anymore because when you pay for the fuel you are accosted by food when you hit the door. So you tell me, how can you avoid food?

I have been obese in the past and gone down to a healthy weight only to return to obesity (several times) as have most obese persons. I am on that journey again and this time (at 61 years young) it is harder than ever. I am retired and therefore not as active or distracted as I was on my previous journeys. All I think about all day long is food. When is my next meal? What can I eat that will taste good? What can I eat that will satisfy? What can I eat and still lose weight?

What about advice from the “weight loss experts?” I haven’t heard any that have helped yet. One of the funny ones is to eat things that you like but in smaller portions. Well, the things that I like are not good for you even in smaller portions. How do you eat gravy on your mashed potatoes in smaller portions? Even one tablespoon of gravy (the way I like to make it) is extremely fattening. And one tablespoon of gravy is a joke. Chicken is wonderful fried in deep fat with the skin on and nice and crusty. Baked or broiled chicken (boneless and skinless) just isn’t the same and doesn’t satisfy the way a good ole piece of fried chicken does. I am not a fish eater and rarely ate it during my obese days. I could tolerate it battered and fried with lots of tarter sauce, but that surely isn’t low-fat. Another tidbit of advice from those “weight loss experts” is to spice up your food so that it satisfies the taste buds. Oh, I love spicy food and do that often but it still doesn’t satisfy as much as a big glob of butter or sour cream would.

The only advice I can give is to look at your journey closely. If you are just starting, look at the way you were. Ask yourself, “Do I want to look like that and feel like that the rest of your life?” If your answer is no then you need to get a plan and if the answer is yes then you have just wasted time reading this. If you are already on this long journey, look back at the progress you have made. Ask yourself, “Do I want to continue or just give up and destroy all the progress I’ve already made?” Then look ahead. Look at what you see in your future. Will you turn the head of the opposite sex? (You sure wouldn’t in the old self.) Do you want to be able to climb stairs without huffing and puffing? Do you want to shop in the regular section of the department store? Those are the things that keep me going. I have lost 47 pounds and have approximately 50 more to go. I want to get there and that is the only thing that is keeping me on this horrible weight loss program. And yes they are all horrible in my eyes. I’ve tried dozens of them.

Support from friends and family help some but you have to dig deep within yourself to find the strength. You can do it but not for someone else just for yourself.