Blog Post #41: Weight
Do you worry about your weight? Most Americans do. And most Americans are concerned with weighing too much rather than too little. How much do you weigh? Weight loss, as I'm sure you're aware, is a major industry in this country. The issue with really losing weight or being able to control your weight is that most of us will regain the weight that we lose within months following our weight loss. Fad diets may work, but only in the short run.
In this post and in the next couple, I will argue that it is really a matter of controlling our weight, not losing weight. And that in order to do this, we need to learn how to manage our weight.. Most of us do not know how to. I don't believe it comes from taking a pill or being on a special foods diet. At least I don't believe that sustained weight loss comes from these. And I would argue in this post and the ones that follow that the skills of resilience have a lot to do with weight control. One of the key skills in resilience is caring for yourself and for others, like members of your family. Weight control is about caring for yourself, and it has a lot to do with being able to manage the strong feelings that come up around this issue. It has a lot to do with how confident you feel in yourself and how flexible and persistent you can be.
It also has much to do with paying attention to our bodies. Many of us don't like the bodies that we have and would prefer to ignore them if we could. But if you're going to lose weight or control your weight. You have to pay attention to your body, and again, if you are going to learn the skills involved and the information required to do this, you will need to be active, not passive. You will need to do your homework and again not rely on a pill or special food to do the work for you. What I'm suggesting is slower, and the weight doesn't come off as fast. This can be very frustrating when we regain weight and struggle with losing another pound. But regaining the weight that we lost on a fad diet is equally frustrating.
So here are some suggestions if you want to manage and control your weight. First, weigh yourself each day and keep track of the numbers. Pay attention to what you eat each day. Some people refer to this as mindful eating. This means that we actually pay attention to the food we put in our mouths and we attempt to enjoy it. And we focus on the process of eating, which means we don't focus on the Internet or the television when we are having a meal. We will continue to explore this in the next couple of posts and talk more about how the skills of resilience are critical to controlling weight.
Ron Breazeale PhD
