I have been up and down with weight; gradually the fluctuations have risen on the graph to where "up" is more up and "down" is less down. My list of comments here are not
advice, unless the reader desires them to be so. They are only opinions based on 4+ decades of experience.
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I think one's approach to intake satisfaction is set
very early in life, probably going back to infancy, as testing shows that breast-fed babies become healthier in life because they stop, and mother stops, when they have had enough. Bottle-feeding caretakers (at least in former times) had a tendency to overfeed-- "Come on-- you can finish this bottle!" So getting more than enough is conditioned then and there.
I think conditioning continues as a young child, though the tendency to want too much is already there. So it is very important to see that children eat their low-energy vegetables prepared without much fat in the way of butter, cheese, et al. Fried foods should be very limited, as should "snacking,"of course. "Happy Meals" and equivalencies with french fries and soda pop with other fats are an injustice-- that is, constantly tempting children with them along with toys and playgrounds and parties-- though parents who stuff their kids with these likely prepare the same kinds of food when they eat at home.
I think the effects of the desire to eat too much of the wrong kind of foods can easily be 'disguised' going through later childhood and adolescence, as the body uses a lot of energy, especially for athletes. So if one enters normal adulthood with a job that doesn't use much physical energy-- usually a
goal in industrialized nations-- and gets too 'busy' to work out regularly or to prepare healthy foods, and therefore eats out or buys takeout, weight will inevitably go up.
I think the converse of "Train up a child in the way he should go, and he will not depart from it" is equally valid, and weight control is one of the best examples thereof. A person can escape the desire for too much sugar, fat, and salt for a while-- but eventually the drive to do so diminishes with our modes of living and life's troubles. We can only force ourselves to do otherwise than our inbred tendencies 'so much' at once mentally, so returning to lousy eating habits shall accompany times of stress or disappointment... another reason to keep them from ever being 'installed' in a peron's psyche. This is why few people lose significant weight and 'keep it off.'
I think the "weight loss industry" is a fraudalent business. "Lose 30 pounds for $100, plus the cost of food."
Considering the above paragraph, this can work if things are going well otherwise, and you can focus on your weight problem and want to get something for what you're paying for. But there is a less the one-in-twenty chance that all this is going to come together contionuously for any signifiant length of time, and the old conditioning and its effects will come back. There is no big secret of HOW to lose weight, so why make some flamboyant entrepreneur richer for playing upon your inner battle of deep-rooted tendencies v. shallow-leafed ideals?
I think "copping out" is a normal reaction of sinful human beings, and doing so in regard to overeating has one of the least 'stigmas' to go along with it. There is such a desire to separate wrong from the effects of wrong that we may force ourselves to believe what is not true rather than face the reality of what we are doing; as by saying it is "impossible for me to lose weight;" "it's my metabolism;" "I don't eat more than old Slim Jim over there." The more honest may say "I'm just conditioned to overeat and be lazy." But it's copping out, just the same, which is not a Christian reaction. Unless we're perfect, we should work on what's not right. But again, we can only force ourselves to do so much; so we may have to work on eliminating other problems in order to focus on this one.
I think the only ones who have read all, or even most, of this post are the ones who struggle with weight control issues. And another problem with this is we read and analyze and think about it and listen to others so much that we confuse or overwhelm ourselves. There is nothing wrong with sharing opinions, but irresolution will lead us to more devil's food cake-- one kind of which we can have and eat it, too.
