Recently, I started what I like to call a “health-kick”. It's definition? To allow myself to detox from all the junk I've consumed over the previous few weeks or months and try to, once again, get myself comfortable with the way I look. Now, I am sure all of you would say to me, “just put down the pint and eat a salad!”, but I'm talking about a different kind of health-kick. When I think back to a few years ago, circa 2006, I was more than your average 'big guy'. In fact, I was about 310lbs (22stone) at my peak. Getting that big was quite an achievement, I know. I remember what was happening in my life that made me allow myself to, to put it mildly, swell. My studies in University weren't going that great, I was working enormous hours in my part-time job, home was fine more or less, but stress was a huge factor in my life. I was only 21 after all and stress was something that I simply couldn't deal with. So, like many people, I would, unknowingly, binge eat and sit in front of the TV watching hours of pointless sitcoms and MTV reality shows (back when reality shows consisted of hot celebs showing their homes and 'The Real World' was still interesting). As well as this, my social life was at a stage where I was hanging around with lots of people and therefore had an excuse to go out partying 2 or 3 nights per week. Things seemed great, I was eating what I wanted, drinking when I felt like it, but it was all definitely taking its toll on my body. Later that year, I went on a work placement abroad and was out of my usual setting. I definitely think that it was this time away from my familiar surroundings that allowed me to focus on me rather than get distracted by everyone else around me. The first thing I realized was this, I looked and felt like crap. So, for about 2 months I trolled the web looking at all the fad diets and exercise plans which promised “lose 20lbs in 20 days” or “I lost 45lbs in 4 weeks by following these two simple rules”. These were all so appealing and felt like 'the cure', but proved to be nothing but bogus. I was lucky in many ways because I was familiar with forums and blogs and read hundreds of accounts of people who said that they had tried this and that and they was bogus. The only truly honest account of someone losing weight and generally feeling good came from some guy, who's name escapes me, who said that he had managed to lose 100lbs over the course of two years by doing a combination of walking more, eating less, but most importantly, realizing that none of it means jack if you aren't firstly, comfortable with the fact that “it's a marathon and not a sprint”. For some reason, since then, whenever I hear someone say that phrase, I start to trust them a bit more. It just seems honest.
Now, what I did to shed the 100lbs or so that I lost is irrelevant, but one thing that will benefit you more than any diet regimen or exercise plan is remembering this; In order to become comfortable with the idea that losing weight and feeling good takes time, you must first assess your life. Think about all the people that make you feel good about yourself and put them to one side, keep them close, and think about the people, whether they know it or not, who for some reason make you think less of yourself, and minimize your exposure to them. It sounds harsh, but, negative 'energy' (I use that term loosely) is a major factor in making positive changes in your life. I have seen programs like “The Biggest Loser” and frankly, they make me sick. In particular, when I see Jillian Michaels yelling at contestants because they are emotional or simply exhausted is, in my mind, criminal. You can do all the working out and dieting that you want, but it won't mean a thing unless you have a positive mentality to compliment it. Why? Because you will hit a wall, feel tired and depressed because you aren't achieving the results you are told, or want, to achieve as fast as you think and as a result, will most likely quit. You'll keep quitting unless you get into a good mental state about who you are, what you are, and who you want to be. One thing is for sure, the questionable practices of Jillian Michaels and her team of “Biggest Losers” (and by that I mean her fellow Personal Trainers and Dieticians), this goes for all of that genre of extreme body transformation 'experts', are not making people lives better. Look for yourself, see how many contestants from the show have kept off the weight they have shed a few months or a couple of years down the line. Those practices are most dangerous and for show rather than anything else. In fact, there are major concerns and speculation regarding the shows practices (click here to see for yourself). Shows like this aren't there to make peoples lives better, they are there to make money. They turn people with genuine weight issues into a carnival sideshow all for the sole purpose of boosting ratings and making green. When I think about it, for viewers of the show who have weight problems, they are making matters worse for you by hooking you to the TV and staying put in front of the rather than going out and walking around. My point is simply that it's all well and good to lose a shed-load of weight in a short space of time, but all that effort it worthless if you aren't able to keep it off. Few people can afford a dominatrix style personal trainer to shout at them and force them into some kind of dietary and exercise submissive state throughout their life. Even if they could, it's not healthy. Every doctor, up and down the country an across the World, as well as every dietician and personal trainer will tell you that it is unhealthy to lose vast amounts of weight in a short space of time. It can wreak havoc with your heart, circulation, your respiratory system and can cause irreparable damage to your internal organs. As well as that, you will most likely end up with lots of excess skin which can be just as depressing as being as big as you were. I know it may seem like I am picking on Jillian Michaels, but for someone who it supposed to be some kind of a 'role-model' for people (if you can call her that), I find it totally irresponsible be treat contestants like they are inferior and for her to make statements like, she “won't let having a baby ruin her body” (click here). Firstly, who cares? But Is that really a positive message to be sending to expectant mothers all around the world? She isn't exactly inspiring, nor are her means for helping people achieve weight loss commendable. It's quite simply, downright dangerous.
If you want to learn of a truly inspiring story of weight loss and lifestyle improvement, read about Larry Sherman from Detroit, Michigan (click here). He went from 540lbs down to 175lbs by simply doing yoga. He himself said that the main reason he was able to win his war with weight was by being around people who “saw him as a person”. Quite simply, he surrounded himself with positive energy. Without the encouragement of the people in the 'Yoga Shelter', he might not have won his fight with fat. This just goes to show that even though you can deprive yourself of all the good stuff and work your but off to achieve that 'prefect body', you can make the whole ordeal (and believe me, it is a hell of an ordeal) by making some positive changes in your life that don't include dumbbells and Acai berries or diet pills. You can avoid the heartbreak and tears that comes with changing your body by first changing your mind. So before you turn on the TV to see which glamourette used 'this' or 'that' to get in shape, or before you decide to become a disciple of the Jillian Michaels “Goosestep your way to thin” program, which ultimately will fail you, instill one thing in your mind: if you've tried and failed to lose weight and you are wondering “why?”, take some time, be it a week; a month; or even a year, to assess what's really at the heart of these failed attempts. Or, to put it another way, as Yoga Shelter co-founder Eric Paskel says realize that “It's not the way you eat food, it's what's eating at you”.
SHC
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