If you are reading this without having first read the last blog post, then go read that one first and come back to this one.
I wrote my last post right as I was about to walk out of the door to go to the gym - which means I just had two hours at the gym to really process this topic and to expand more on it, as I feel I truly missed the real point of the topic in my last post. Let me explain...
We live in a culture that is both set on instant gratification and set in the way of learned helplessness. There is an expert on every corner for everything under the sun. At a time when we, more than ever before, can research things on our own, we assign that role to other people. And what do we get from that? The ability to not be responsible. If I depend on a program to tell me how to eat, then they are responsible when I fail. I won't say if I fail because the whole set up is done in such a way that the changes can't be permanent. I'm sorry to hammer on WW, but it truly is the worst offender - for many reasons. At least most of the others present the truth - they are based on medications or processed foods or something of the like, so there are no surprises when it comes out that it's somehow problematic. WW, on the other hand, convinces you to spend money to use their "expert" guidance when the information is readily available in 20 minutes or less on the internet. Seriously.
The other reason they are a worse offender is that is promotes dependency on their system without seeming to do so. At least with Jenny Craig someone can walk out with a weeks worth of meals to account for the money they spend. At Weight Watchers, they give you an outline of what you can and can't eat, but no insight as to why this is a better choice, therefore creating dependence. Yes, people who use WW make healthier choices - in theory - but they never learn why they are better choices, so the minute they can't log into the WW database for point values on food, they revert back to old eating habits (because this buffalo chicken salad with ranch dressing HAS to be better than a burger, right?) and find themselves back where they started. And because WW is what works (or so we think), once all of the weight is back on, then back to WW, lose the weight, and the cycle repeats - over and over and over.
Actually, I say that WW is the great offender, but in truth it is the WW consumer that is the worst offender. Without a consumer base, a product is nothing.
So, here we are, in a time and place where we can access more information then every before, and we dig our heads deeper in the sand. Why? Because when my health declines, or I find myself back in the same spot over and over again, I can put the responsibility somewhere other than the person staring back in the mirror. Of course, it's WW fault I have diabetes from eating unlimited fruit....they were the experts and should have known better than to give it a zero point value. Of course, it's the government's fault because they are the ones who regulate the food industry - and that is why...my kid is fat...and I have heart disease... and my mom has dementia/cancer/Parkinson's/etc and this person has this and that person has that....
I am a little fired up here, but this ignorance is real and it costs us billions in healthcare costs per year. And keeping us this way is a multi-billion dollar industry - food, medication, healthcare, supportive costs... If the system really protected us from these things, then how many people would be without a job and what an impact it would have on our economy. We have literally made a business out of being helpless. Think about it.
Have you ever taken the time to Google search each ingredient on your food label. For those who have kids, have you? Try it sometime. You might be every surprised at what you find. We are literally lab rats - consuming dozens of experimental products. And then wondering why we have the epidemics we have. I find it especially interesting that children's products are all processed, loaded with high fructose corn syrup and dyes, and no one has taken the time to determine whether this could be a factor in the rising rates of emotional and mental disorders in children....
At some point we have to take responsibility for this epidemic. To educate ourselves, stop eating crap, and definitely stop feeding it to our children. To stop expecting instant gratification and externalizing the blame when we suffer the resulting consequences. It shouldn't have to be, but being healthy in today's culture is WORK! It takes work. It takes commitment. It takes a willingness to educate yourself and go against the mainstream. It takes an understanding that lasting change usually isn't comfortable in the beginning - if it was it wouldn't last. Get it?
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