Ulterior Motives

Living life as an overweight person is very difficult. We have all the same stresses as everyone else. We have bills to pay. A lot of us have children to raise, and a million miniscule tasks that add up to a major workload. But according to society, all these pressures pale in comparison to what our main focus should be: losing the weight.

Everywhere we look, we are bombarded by the message that we are not good enough. Sometimes members of our families, our friends, and even our mates cannot resist the temptation to tell us we need to change. We are constantly told that our weight is a problem and that we need to do something about it.

I think it’s time that we all start telling that pressure to take a hike. If you are in reasonably good health – normal blood pressure, normal cholesterol levels, no diabetes, no major aches and pains – accept yourself the way you are. This doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try to lose weight if you want to. But it’s very important that you go about it in a healthy way, and that you are doing it strictly because YOU want to do it. Your intention to lose weight has to be a loving and nurturing act on your own behalf, not a desperate attempt to meet the demands of everyone around you. Putting yourself on a “I’m going to lose weight if it kills me” diet is guaranteed failure, because it is drenched in negative energy. Negative energy cannot sustain anything positive; it sputters out and fizzles quickly. Truly positive energy lingers and grows even stronger.

We need to start questioning the motives of the people around us who are giving us these messages. Ask yourself, Why is it so important to them that you lose weight? Or, more specifically: Why is it so important for them to TELL you that you need to lose weight? The truth is, people who are bent on alerting you to your imperfections do it to make themselves feel better about their own imperfections. They feel frustrated and out of control in their own lives, and in order to ease that frustration, they focus it on you and tell you that YOU need to change.

Try telling the eternal critics in your life that you have access to plenty of mirrors, and that you see yourself in them every day. Then tell them that they need to look in their own mirrors, and start living up to their own potential. It might not stop them from opening their big mouths, but it might make them think.