Obesity, the Biggest Loser, and a new life
People that I meet now don’t know that I was ever obese. I am by no means a small woman…my shoulders are broad, I have been told I am “athletic”, but no one thinks I am fat anymore. I, of course, will always see myself as “used to be obese”. I wear it like a baggy old shirt from my previous life.
And, I don’t tell many people either…I keenly remember the bitter pain of someone telling me how great their life is now that they have lost 100+ pounds…and the agony of thinking it can never be me. However, every once in a while I tell someone, because I think it will be a positive experience. Not a moment to brag…but more a moment to say, “I know your pain, I have lived it, and you can find a way out too.”
The most interesting part of this story is that so many people, from my old life, don’t recognize me. If you have followed the Biggest Loser at all, you have heard the contestants saying the same thing…they walk down the street and people don’t recognize them. That seems to appeal to people – more than the “feel good” points, or the “new wardrobe”…the idea of they could be a new person…is remarkably powerful.
It makes sense – we are miserable in our bodies, the prisons we have made for ourselves, and maybe, there will be a time when no one will remember it, when it will just be a thing of the past. It can be. No, never easy…you know it. We didn’t get big overnight, and we won’t get smaller and leaner overnight. But you can do it – look all around you. Move more, eat less…you can do it. No expensive diets, or pills, or even surgery…just move more and eat less – TODAY. Tomorrow, you can do the same thing…and the next day.