Weight gain isn’t all about over-eating

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You know what I find incredibly irritating?

It’s all these health and weight loss gurus, health industry article writers, and others on the losing weight bandwagon who make comments like this –

“You have to figure out what causes you to overeat in the first place. Find the emotional component.”

These experts and wannabe experts make it sound like anyone who weighs more than is ideal for their height and body structure is a glutton or a pig shoveling food into their mouths non-stop.

Well, guess what?

All people who have a little extra weight (or sometimes even a lot) aren’t food hoarding slobs. I am NOT overweight because I eat too much. This has nothing to do with second helpings or fast food drive-by’s.

No, it’s called being a M O M.

Your OB/GYN will tell you to gain a certain amount of weight during pregnancy, that a certain amount is good for you and for the baby. It means things are developing nicely. So you do. Or maybe you gain 5-10 pounds more than you should have because you just can’t be as active as normal. While that’s not bad in and of itself in most cases, the problem is losing it afterwards.

Now, I did lose the majority of the weight I gained with The Teenager. Yes, I did gain more than I should have due to being more inactive and it took me a good 3 years to lose it. Of course, within months of finally losing it, along came G-man. And even though I didn’t gain as much as I did with The Teenager, I still had trouble losing it that time around as well. Even more trouble, actually, due my back injury.

With Little Girl and Short Dude I didn’t gain all that much – right about the recommended amount. Trouble is that over the years, I’ve become more inactive due the back injury. There is simply A LOT of stuff I cannot do even if I want to. I have restrictions even still on what I can do and it’s been over 10 years since the injury occurred.

For example, I am not supposed to vacuum, push a shopping cart, or lift more than 15-20 pounds. I can’t stand longer than 20 minutes at a time nor walk longer than about 20-25 minutes at a time without pain. Sometimes a tremendous amount of pain.

It’s not bad eating habits that got me here. So, changing eating habits is highly unlikely to help. We eat a mostly vegetarian diet – lots of fruits and vegetables, little to no red meat and very few processed foods. We eat lean meats and fish in moderation. We eat whole grains, drink lots of water and keep healthy snacks around.

And being told you’re overweight because you don’t know when to stop eating is aggravating and quite degrading. I’m tired of commercials and advertisements and programs with some stick thin idiot telling me I’m a slob, I’m eating too much, I’m a food shoveling pig and I need to put down the sweets.

Give me a break!

I’m trying to not let idiotic assumptions by supposed health experts dampen my spirits, but you know? That’s easier said than done.

Shouting at people about bad food habits, assuming they’re pigs because they could stand lose a few pounds is just plain rude.

And I’m tired of being treated that by an industry that makes billions a year pushing products that probably aren’t all that great for you, either.

If I’m going to lose weight, it won’t be by buying your products or services. It’ll be through hard work and a daily battle with myself that I’m worth it.

In the arena,

You must do the thing you think you cannot do. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Annie Anderson is a freelance copywriter and graphic designer specializing in the small business and real estate markets. Her tagline “Making your business, my business” means that she’ll take the utmost care when creating words and images for your business – just as if it were her own.