[quote]jasmincar wrote:
here is what you need to tell her:
Listen, if you don’t change now you are going to DIE. Do you understand? This is not a joke. You will DIE.[/quote]
I hear this works with smokers, too.
[quote]anonym wrote:
[quote]jasmincar wrote:
here is what you need to tell her:
Listen, if you don’t change now you are going to DIE. Do you understand? This is not a joke. You will DIE.[/quote]
I hear this works with smokers, too.[/quote]
Worked for my sister.
The statement ‘she doesn’t want it enough’ is just ignorance at it’s best.
I, like others , on this site who have battled obesity their whole lives know exactly how much they ‘want’ it. The problem as others have stated is in the psychology. We think that when we finally have the body of a god we’ll be finally perfect and happy. The trouble is that it seems so far away and I want to feel happy today.
So what do we do? For those of you who don’t have these issues it seems crystal clear: keep training, eat well and rest. And at a logical level you’d be correct, I myself know these things, but I violate my own rules. I know wheat and I don’t go together so why then do I get to the checkout of my supermarket only to find that I’ve bought a pack of dinner rolls to eat with my chicken or even worse a family block of chocolate or box of ice creams.
My wife has finally adjusted to the fact thy I cannot even afford to keep snacks like these in the house because I will eat the whole lot in one sitting. I too have learned (with professional help) that it’s not my over eating tendencies that are the problem but that I formerly believed that having a perfect physique would buy me happiness.
I still over eat but I over eat on fruit and veggies now, I’m happier because I workout for the love iteather than chasing an ideal and as a side benefit I’m burning fat and I’m seeing muscle I’ve never seen in my whole life.
OP, forget the nutritionist and GP’s and get your sister to a psychologist. You will do more than help her lose weight, you’ll be saving her life. If she’s a reader, I highly recommend ‘the happiness trap’ by Russ Harris. It changed my life.
Sorry guys /rant
^^ wow illuminating post, thanks for sharing
Isn’t the “core issue” also related to self-medicating, and how obese folks often do this with processed (read: engineered to be addictively delicious) snack foods?
Of course, we all self-medicate to deal with stresses of contemporary life - with food, psychoactive substances, and of course physical exercise (esp around these parts) being most common.
Furthermore, they’ve discovered that self-control is a limited resource. I think Chris Shugart wrote about this too. Anyway, you can only apply so much before you succumb to temptation and go eat those addictive engineered foods. Apparently the brain chemicals involved in will-power only last so long, which is why many obese people tend to lose control in the evening.
One thing that helps is to “clear the path” for yourself so there’s no will power involved. Like kairewa said, you keep the junk foods out of the house for one. I also prepare food in advance so there’s no decision making involved. Then I eat so many vegetables I can’t squeeze in anything addictive on top of it.
The problem with processed foods, for me at least, is that they are low on protein. So within 20 minute I would be looking for more. While fruit might be high carb and high in sugar, the caloric density compared with what I used to eat is amazing.
Someone told me once that you can’t get fat stuffing your face with fruit and veges and while dairy and wheat screw me badly, I seem to be able to eat any veges I like.
The greatest help I’ve had with my physique has had less to do with food or the fact that I love to lift heavy things and more to do with the fact that I moved from being goal focussed to value focussed.
That is, instead of worrying about hitting physique or weight goals, I relearned that I really enjoy being physically active and that my chosen form of excercise is how I express that passion.
The OP’s sister could gain a lot by taking pressure off herself and looking for opportunities to enjoy the activities she values rather than surrounding herself with methodologies to ‘fix her’
The nutritionist who prescribed such a low caloric intake should be smacked upside the head IMO
[quote]yorik wrote:
After my last post I started in on my latest book, “Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard” by Chip and Dan Heath. This was a recommendation from a reading list over at Berardi’s Precision Nutrition. I think Chris Shugart has referenced it too. Just the first chapter is very revealing. If you want to help your sister, I highly recommend reading this book.[/quote]
Thanks for this recommendation, Yorik, I zipped over to Amazon & ordered it.
OP, I’m sorry to hear about your sister’s struggles, it’s very difficult to watch someone you love destroy themselves.
I doubt it will do much good, as your sister & mom seem pretty entrenched in their beliefs on this subject, but you might consider telling them my story - I asked my doctor for nutritional advice once & he told me frankly that they don’t learn about nutrition in medical school. He said the research I’d been doing on my own was obviously good, and that I should keep trusting my own judgement, as I’d lost 40 pounds.
What I had done was read the information the Are You A Beginner II on this site & followed the advice in Berardi’s 7 Habits article and started picking up heavy things. Chris C & BBB are right, going for a walk with you is probably a better starting point for activity at this point.
If any of the info on the Beginner forum appeals to her & she joined T-Nation, I bet she’d find a lot of people here happy to support her.