Why We Never Seem to Win the Battle of the Bulge

by Rhonda

You can’t watch the news without hearing about wars going on in various parts of the world. War has always been apart of life. So it has remained throughout history and will continue to do so. The war that looms largest for me and many of the rest of us, is the never ending battle of the bulge. In my opinion, it does not get the kind attention that it needs. Sure, everyone talks about it and you see plenty of commercials with people who have lost large amounts of weight by following a certain diet or popping a certain pill. What you might not have noticed is the disclaimer in the tiny, fine print at the bottom of the screen that reads, “Results not typical”. OK, so if the results are not typical, why give the illusion that they are? Make no mistake, illusion is exactly what it is. It’s like watching magicians at work. They employ distractions to keep you from seeing what’s really going on, so it appears that they are doing actual magic. The commercials that you see do the same thing. They’ve got women dancing around in bright dresses or people of both genders showing dramatic before and after pictures. These tactics draw your attention away from the truth at the bottom of it all, which is, the results are not typical. So we see these ads, try the plan and maybe shed some pounds. We drop the diet and the weight comes back. We start the cycle again with the latest fad that hits the air waves and still end up back where we started from. Believe me, I know from whence I speak. If I had a string attached to my head, I’d be a yoyo. After decades of struggling with weight loss, I realized that in order to combat the issue I had to understand the problem. The problem wasn’t that I ate too much. That was just a symptom. The actual root of the problem is based on psychological training and emotional issues. In these series of articles, I will be addressing these issues. I will be referencing my own experiences as well as others. I welcome any comments or contributions of your own experiences. It is my hope that together, we can fight this battle and win.

Let’s begin with psychological training. Back in the stone ages when I was a child, they didn’t have all of the parenting advice that you see today. You pretty much had to just wing it, using your own upbringing as a reference point. When I was a baby, if I cried, a bottle was stuck in my mouth. As I grew older, the bottle turned to candy or some other treat. Being a good girl, or doing well in school was also rewarded fattening food. If I was sad or skinned my knee, that too netted me a cookie or some other form of sugar. So the trend was started. As an adult, if I have a bad day, I console myself with chocolate cake. If I have a good day, I congratulate myself with some form of fattening food. It’s tough to break this type of training and I still struggle at it. Your homework for tonight is to think back to what it was that set you on this path. As you begin to understand the true problem, you will then begin to develop a plan to fight it. Tune in tomorrow and we’ll talk about this some more. -Rhonda