Diet Denial

I was looking at one of the many message boards or forums, if you'd rather call them that, last night. It's amazing their specificity. You name the diet and you'll find a message board for it. Low carb, low fat, low calorie, low salt, the list is endless.

I have noticed one thing, at least, that they all share and that is denial. It comes in many forms, but it is always there. Case in point:

I spent the evening reading the posts on one dieters thread. Her journey to success. It was a journal of sorts that she posted to every few days and then her online friends would answer her posts with rousing cheers for your successes and heartfelt sorrow for her failures.

I read all seventeen pages which covered a thirteen month period. I know, I need a life. Anyway, she started this journey at about 177 pounds. Within this thirteen month period she went up the same twelve pounds to end up thirteen months later back at 177 pounds.

This isn't news. Many people, myself included, lose and gain the same pounds over and over again. What I found interesting were her posts, and this is where the denial comes into play.

Her posts came in two fashions. One were posts where she had lost weight, a pound or less. The other posts, which made up 95% of the posts were complaints about not losing weight and how the diet just simply was not working for her.

In all of her misery, her online pals gave her virtual hugs and admired her stick with it attitude. They weeped and moaned about her fate and how difficult she had it while trying too hard for so long to lose weight.

What no one seemed to mention or perhaps not even notice, as they did not have the perspective of looking over a year at once, was that those 95% of posts that complained of no weight loss also contained the confession of the extra sugar, bits and bites, and days of eating off her plan.

That bit of information seemed to be pushed aside as far as possible and ignored. Of course, here was the true reason she wasn't losing weight. It was right there in black and white if she or any of her buddies wanted to take the time to look and acknowledge the hard cold facts. With all the cheats and days off plan, she was never really truly on plan.

Instead, it was easier for her and everyone else to deny the obvious and sit back and pretend that she and they were helpless. For if they were to admit her faults, then they would have to admit their own.

From personal experience, I know that denial tastes much better when shared with company.

Have I Waited Too Long?

Yesterday, I happened upon a support message board for people that had or were going to have weight loss surgery. What struck me was that they had a memorial page for those members of the forum that had died. The members that had passed away seemed to have fallen into one of about four categories. They follow:

1 - They died waiting for their insurance companies to approve the surgery.
2 - They died as a result of complications from surgery.
3 - They died sometime after the surgery in a car accident.
4 - They died sometime after the surgery from cancer.

It was sad to see these people who had such high hopes for their life after surgery to end up not having a life at all. What struck me most were the people that had the surgery, lost the weight, and then ended up dying later due to a serious illness.

I have taken my health for granted. Yes, I have been overweight for years, but I have not developed any health issues due to the weight. I've been lucky and as I said, have taken for granted that my good fortune will continue.

What I have to wonder is how much of these people's extra weight played a part in their later developing a serious illness?  Certainly, anyone - heavy or not - can develop a life threatening illness, but I still wonder.

What I really wonder is have I waited too long?  I'm actually losing the weight as this is written, but have I waited too long?  I feel like the smoker that has smoked for thirty years who finally gives up smoking only to have to wonder if they did so in time before they set the ground work for lung cancer.

Will I finally lose this weight only to end up dying from some illness I have laid the ground work for all these years I have taken my health for granted?

I wonder.