Fatties. My money where your mouth is.

[matrix]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Yes changing your habits/addictions IS easy.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wow you're a moron. There's a reason why it's called an ADDICTION. It's not easy one bit, it really takes a lot of hard work for anyone to break a habit or get out of a rut.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm a moron - fair enough.

The point I am making (albeit making it very badly) is that if you have convinced yourself that something is hard to do - if you believe that something is difficult then you are actually making it harder for yourself - if you believe something is easy or at the very least not so hard that you can't get there without some superhuman effort you are much more likely to succeed.

I have not claimed that breaking an addiction doesn't involve hard work clearly it does - but that doesn't mean that it is hard to do.

Losing weight and quitting smoking are perceived as being difficult - quitting smoking is not at all as hard as it is made out to be - I know this to be true because I have done it. I imagine that losing weight is similar. (I concede that I might be wrong here but I don't think so)

I used to think that breaking my smoking addiction was hard, I tried and failed several times - when I learned the right way about thinking about it - that it's not hard at all, that I could easily achieve it then I discovered that it was actually quite easy.

I had a very similar conversation to this with my brother when I was encouraging him to lose weight. More an argument than a conversation but anyway. Some time later when he had got to his target weight and had stayed there for some time he told me "I never thought I'd say this but you were right - it was easy" - make of this what you will.

The hardest part of breaking any addiction is admitting you have one in the first place and resolving to do something about it - once you clear that hurdle the rest the actual losing weight part IS easy.

I will quit posting in this thread now - I do not want to derail it any more than I have already - we can all argue round in circles about this and it won't help anyone.

My intent was to encourage the guys who are losing weight and perhaps others who read - looks like I have done a bad job of this for that much I apologise.

[astroglide]

a staggering majority of overweight people do not have "food addictions". i also think that losing weight isn't hard, and i'm down 75 pounds since last july. it's about the diet, and it's not even an "active" process since you get results by NOT doing something. i find the discovery of good, light foods to be totally interesting and cool too.

[SomethingClever]

Dids, I kind of think that the spirit of what he's saying is that you shouldn't feel sorry for yourself or make yourself a victim, or get bogged down with how difficult you perceive weight loss to be. Because then you'll never change.

You have to change your attitude to get this done.

Instead of thinking, "[censored], I'm fat, I've always been fat, it's going to be really really hard for me to ever get thin," think, "Well, I'm fat, but I can do whatever the [censored] I want, and if I say I'm going to eat healthier and work my ass off to get thin, god damn it, I'm going to do it."

[Dids]

SC,

I get that, basically. I mean, flipping the swith CAN be easy, but at the same time, something about how he said didn't resonate. Yeah, it's a simple decision, but in some ways it's changing almost EVERYTHING about who you are, and while you can do that at the drop of a hat, it's hard.

[jstnrgrs]

Dids,

I like how you've put your weight in your location. I hope you don't mind if I copy your idea.

[GeniusToad]

when i first saw the title of the thread i thought you were gonna offer to feed money to fat people.

[GeniusToad]

[ QUOTE ]
Dids,

I like how you've put your weight in your location. I hope you don't mind if I copy your idea.

[/ QUOTE ]

height would be great too. 305 lbs and 7' tall, not that fat. 305 lbs and 5'5", FIZZZAT!

[Acehawk74]

Yeah, im down to 410 so far, from 415 last Saturday. I'll have a blog post with pictures tomorrow (new job adjustments aren't easy. Sleep is at a premium atm)

[buriedbeds]

[ QUOTE ]
caveat: I'm thin - I've always been thin - I have never been overweight I've never had to lose weight - please bear this in mind when you read the following.

[/ QUOTE ]

Trolling? If not, then you're horribly misguided and ignorant. Not everyone has the same body, not everyone has the same mind. You lack empathy, and therefore should not be posting advice. You don't *really* know what you're talking about.

-bb.

[buriedbeds]

[ QUOTE ]
Dids, I kind of think that the spirit of what he's saying is that you shouldn't feel sorry for yourself or make yourself a victim, or get bogged down with how difficult you perceive weight loss to be. Because then you'll never change.

You have to change your attitude to get this done.

Instead of thinking, "[censored], I'm fat, I've always been fat, it's going to be really really hard for me to ever get thin," think, "Well, I'm fat, but I can do whatever the [censored] I want, and if I say I'm going to eat healthier and work my ass off to get thin, god damn it, I'm going to do it."

[/ QUOTE ]

While this is true, it also only the veneer on a deeper problem that, like all addictions, has INCREDIBLY strong aspects to it - both physiological and psychological - that can't be overcome with that kind of BS, shallow advice. It is not simple. It is extraordinarily difficult - which is why nearly everyone fails in the long term. The original advice is like telling an alcoholic to stop drinking by thinking differently about drinking. It won't work. Particularly because a person *needs* to eat to live, while you don't *need* to drink (or smoke cigarettes) to live. It's not something you can just stop and avoid.

These difficulties, of course, are really only known to people with severe (morbidly obese) weight problems. Not people with 10-50 lbs to lose. For people with severe weight problems, it is a much deeper issue than just changing your attitude. Changing your attitude is necessary, but only a part of what's going on. It's like someone who "drinks too much" giving an alcoholic advice. You don't know what it's like until you've felt the burning in your veins, the hopelessness, and everything else that goes with doing something you KNOW will kill you but your mind and body won't let you stop. And again, unlike cigarettes, alcohol, drugs or gambling, you NEED to do it to live. It's like having an unhealthy addiction to air.

I've quit smoking (2 packs a day, cold turkey) and eating badly. There is NO contest as to which was harder.

-bb.