This quote from an article in the New York Times today by Alessandra Stanley really hit home with us.
“Television used to ignore obesity; now it wallows in it. But the effort to portray the problem — and the solutions — mirrors the way most Americans eat: the most basic facts are larded with sugary entertainment and creamy dollops of instant gratification.”
We tweeted last week about how our society is more likely to follow advice doled out from celebrities in US Weekly and on TMZ than they are to listen to their doctors. Who wouldn’t rather drink a maple syrup drink and look like Naomi Campbell than slog through a daily 45 minute work-out and eat some fruits and vegetables and look like themselves? Most of us apparently.
Just like our inability to plan for retirement is dying off with our older generations, our inability to understand that weight loss shouldn’t occur all that much faster than weigh gain demonstrates again just how much of a gotta have it now society we have become?
It took you ten years to put on that extra 50 pounds. Why do you think that your body can cope with losing all of that in a matter of a couple of months? Sure, it won’t take you ten years to lose that 50 pound weight gain, but expectations of doing it in less than a year are unhealthy and counterproductive. We don’t have to go any further than our celebrities for examples of how well these hyper aggressive diets work. Oprah needed a new wardrobe about every six months for years. Kirstie Alley? She could plant a forest with all of her tabloid covers chronicling her every changing body.
So, it really comes down to what you want to do with yourself? Do you want to be a size 10 for your 20th high school reunion and then return to your size 14 pants a few months later or do you want to be a size 8 by your 39th birthday and stay that way? One requires little discipline and effort. The other is actually easier over the short-term and becomes part of your daily life.
Even commercial diet companies know this. You don’t see Medifast, Nutrisystem or Jenny Craig making claims that some of these less reputable companies are making about how much you can lose in a specific time period. Medifast claims 2-5 lbs. per week as a reasonable target. Someone who is grossly obese will be able to shed pounds faster, mainly because they intake so many more calories than they actually need. Someone who is looking to lose 20 lbs is definitely going to not drop pounds as quickly.
The moral of this blog post? Make diet decisions based on long-term health benefits, not on whether or not you will look good on your vacation to Hawaii next month. Wouldn’t you rather look good in Hawaii the next five years as well?
