The Obesity Epidemic
If you are fat, chances are you’ve been shamed. You’ve been left out, passed over You’ve been marginalized.
If you are female it’s likely been worse. Yet Obesity in modern western cultures has reached epidemic proportions with 2-in-5 Americans being clinically obese and 1-in-3 American suffering from pre-diabetes. If you are the 2-in-5, health risks lie ahead. If you are the 1-in-3 serious health risks are likely just ahead.
What Obesity Isn't
There is a whole list of things that Obesity isn’t, beginning with your fault. It isn’t a moral failure, a character flaw or any of those things/ Oh sure, most folks who are fat feel on some level that they ate and sat themselves into that condition. This includes people the cases where some awful disease such as hyperthyroidism, depression or pick one from a long list that cause weight gain. However the Obesity happened, its there. Its not your fault. No blame needs to be accepted. No shame need be felt.
This is a truth with disease, and obesity most certainly is a disease. And a gateway disease at that.
While it may define you in the minds of those who judge on such things, it needn’t, shouldn’t, mustn’t define you to yourself.
I’ve been Class III obese. I understand that self-defeating attitudes of shame, self-loathing and self-blame that can come with being obese. Attitudes that work to keep us stuck. Clothes that are hard to find and seldom fit right. The once-over look we get from people where we know we’ve been judged, found wanting, and dismissed.
You don’t have to accept any of that. That’s a self-sabotaging delusion pushed on you from the attitude of unlove. Whether its coming from other people, cultural perceptions or yourself, begin rejecting that. Understand that you have a disease and begin loving yourself now. That’s the first step in reaching for the person you wish to become. Manifest that love in the form of self care blended with awareness.
Obesity is a solvable problem
Medical Intervention
Okay first off I want to clear on a point oft repeated by me. Obesity can be serious business. If you even suspect you may be prediabetic – symptoms such as frequent urination, thirsty above normal, tired above normal, get to a provider. There is not a thing on the internet outside of your Healthcare Provider’s appointment page that can truly do you service. At the same time, don’t go blindly under the knife either. If your provider recommends bariatric surgery I STRONGLY recommend getting a second opinion from an integrative partitioner. Don’t go there if there is another way. And there may be another way, if you are willing to do the hard thing. And the hard thing? Not as hard as it seems. As a SURVIVOR of Class II obesity with the full Metabolic Syndrome load I’m telling you it can be done.
Obesity Classes Defined
I’ll just reinforce in this moment that obesity isn’t an insult or degrading term. It is a medical one used to describe a condition… a disease. It is categorized into classes I, II and II as a way of assigning risk for developing metabolic syndrome, which is a cluster of obesity related disease such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and etc based on your BMI. The following classes are defined.
How about yourself?
If you fit in any of the categories outside the normal weight you should consider. You might think you are okay because you are over weight instead of obese that all is well. Its a mighty short hop to get from one to the next and a long, rocky road back down. Don’t go there if you can help it.
One thing I won’t do is BS you here. the process from obese to not is simple. It’s execution is work.
Valuing the work
Stop thinking of things as hard or easy. Easy is the bait diet culture hacks use to ensnare the uninformed. This is not the time for looking at methods.
This is time to look at the project. Start looking at things as work rather than easy or hard and valuing that work appropriately.
If the project is losing X number of pounds the mechanical part of that process is simple and clear: Calorie Deficit. But wait. There’s more. Executing the simple process is as much, possible more up in your head as it is on your plate.
To put in a biblical turn of phrase gird yourself up for war, for the enemy is nigh upon you. And the enemy is you. Your thoughts about food, and much else. We are whole people. You can’t lose weight successfully and sustainably if you are a depressive/compulsive eater and you don’t deal with that depression/compulsion.
Help with that may require someone with the appropriate PhD and specialized clinical experience. Not some health coach dug up on the internet. The war isn’t on your fork or in your fridge. It’s in your head. There is no stigma or shame in asking for and getting all the right help if you need it.
Remember work and valuation. It’s different for everyone. Consider the endpoint. Better health, longer life, access to activities perhaps currently denied, whatever applies to your unique self. The satisfaction of winning what may be the toughest battle of your life.
How much work are you willing to put in to get there? Even if that work is completely change your mindset about much you don’t expect.
I can speak to all of this. I walked the path, took the journey. My journey. You have your own path, your own desired outcomes.
Its already hardwired in you. We just have to find it. I can help you find that path.
Related Articles
