WoO Vet
This is the first ever guest post on TTotT! The following post is by Natasha from My Hair is Better than Yours. Be sure to check her blog out!
Citizens of the world are engaged in many theaters of war. Along side the literal ones, there are the countless figural ones: terror, drugs, halitosis and obesity, to name a few. I am a Veteran of the War on Obesity. The WoO.
There are varied reasons why or how an individual can come to find themselves fighting this war, yet, I believe that the lone principal for winning is universal and therefore, I asked Shannon if I could share. And before you ask, no, it isn’t this, this or this.
Let me share my fat story.
It’s nothing spectacular. I grew up fat. I never needed a Rascal or anything to get around Wal-mart, but I had thunder thighs and belly rolls. I had friends and a social life, but I didn’t have boyfriends and my love life consisted of Nora Roberts novels and my imagination. At the age of 23, I would get winded climbing UP a flight of stairs and my knees would hurt climbing DOWN a flight of stairs. My acute phobia of elevators and escalators forced me to take a severe look at what I was letting my body become: Morbidly Obese. Not attractive.
I could go into how I was an emotional eater – if I felt an emotion, I was eating – or I could relate a period of my life where my self esteem tanked faster and further than our current economy, but neither are the reason I was fat. I was fat because I had no self respect. I didn’t respect my emotions enough to confront them head on, without the aid of food. I didn’t respect my own body, I didn’t respect my mind and I didn’t respect myself – my being, my heart & soul and all that other hippie shit.
And then one day, something finally clicked into place and I was able to follow a program that allowed me to lose 100 pounds and counting. Yes, the program was amazing and worked very well for me, but it wouldn’t have worked if I hadn’t been in the right place mentally.
As soon as I took responsibility for how I got myself into my size 20 pants, I finally had the tool to get myself out of them. It took time, and in fact, I haven’t reached my final goal – but I know I will. It was hard and I struggled daily and slipped often, but I always took responsibility.
Just as Shannon says on his personal finance blog: The credit card companies didn’t get you into debt… YOU did, and you’re the only person to get you out. Fancy that that is the same principal for weight loss.
