I had a bad time when I was young and ended up with poor self-esteem as a result, but that didn't make me fat, it acted as a spur to get on and achieve something: kind of, in spite of it, you know what I mean? And wait until you sit next to one of them on a long-haul flight, going economy class.....
My son tells me that many of the obese students at the university have banded together and are pushing some kind of 'fat is beautiful' program to get the rest of the students to be more accepting of their size and appetites. He went to high school with the leader of this group and knows her well. She tells him that she desires a slim - NOT fat - boy friend but wants to be accepted as she is - fat. She is very forward with this and has been pushing her view hard all school year. She also just got out of hospital for a blood clot in her leg due to her obesity. She is 22 years old. Like his dad, my son eats right and runs regularly. We both highly value physical, mental and emotional health. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
For a great many obese people, it is as simple as a lifestyle change, but the commitment has got to come from the individual. One of my female co-workers had tipped the scale at 270+ lbs and decided that no way did she want to see 300. She took charge of her life through one of the organized weight loss programs and started to do math for her every meal. She learned that there was plenty of delicious food that she could eat that was actually easy to make and healthy for her. She has dropped more than 40 lbs over the course of one year and where before she could barely walk 1 km, now she can power walk more than 5 and actually jog more than 1 km of the distance. I am so proud of her! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! (My small part in her journey is that I was able to get her back on a horse for the first time in about 8 years and horses were a joy for her when she was a teenager. Shortly after our work with the horse was when she settled into this lifestyle change and I think she is going to stay the course.)
Good job then, Scheherazade. :applause: I also am of the opinion that it is the individual's outlook and motivation that are critical. Eating, like smoking, is a self - nurturing behavior. Both can be replaced by others that are more beneficial or less detrimental to the individual. In Taekwondo we teach the novice that in order to fight one must first appear to be a fighter. The student is then given the task of looking in the mirror and making faces, striking poses and shouting loudly until they can present a convincing "warrior persona" in a proper fighting stance with a 'fighting shout'. Advanced students give examples and suggest improvements. When their righting stance has been perfected, it is suggested that the student then aspire to become that fighter they have just imagined into being. I did that myself some 41 years ago and still work daily on being that warrior I imagined. My reward is that I feel very good about myself. Since the best you can feel about another/others is how you feel about yourself, this allows me to better fulfill all of the roles and responsibilities I have. It also allows me to live my life to the very fullest and gives me a rock solid foundation from which to deal with the life tasks that come my way. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The choice to imagine yourself as different than you are is an advantage to anyone that can muster that desire sufficiently so as to begin to change.
Awww thanks Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! , but I am not particularly dangerous, discretion being the better part of valor and all that. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
You're a cool dude, and I enjoy your posts... But, then I see Uncle Fester, and have to say WTF?... Lol. I get this flashback of him placing a light bulb in his mouth, and it lights up.Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
I have to say, what you said makes a lot of sense - the few times since high school i have gotten into actual fights, I have used mental imagery to boost myself up... it helps me to... I guess you could say disassociate myself a bit from the pain being inflicted on me and from the damage I am inflicting on another (believe it or not, I rather abhor violence, but I recognize that, sadly, it is sometimes necessary to protect yourself and those you care about). To describe the feeling of opening myself up to the damage that was done to me after the fight had ended though is interesting - it is like stepping out into a rain storm through an open door - while you can feel the wet and the wind in the doorway, it isn't until you are outside that you truly get the full scope of the elements.
Many thanks, friend Gremmie. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! The Adams Family was one of my favourite tv shows. I always got a laugh out of Fester's commentary and minor magics. I look enough like Fester to wear him as my avatar. He is lighthearted and incredibly optimistic....and can light a 60 W incandescent with his mouth! Martial art practice is physical and mental like any sport. You get used to the required emotional disconnect in the practice. That dissociation is a critical part of efficient fighting. I try to avoid pain of any kind if at all possible, and I do not want to feel guilty so I try very hard not to do things that would make me feel guilty. I avoid that fight if at all possible. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Then if it occurs anyway, I know I did all that I could to avoid it.
