I feel that I need to be truthful about some aspects of losing weight.
You always hear about the new lease on life people have after dropping the kilos. They can’t believe their old lifestyle, things are much better now! Missing out on dessert was tough but it was worth it to fit into this dress! Exercising is a natural high, I don’t miss beer at the pub at all!
Two words: Bull. Shit.
People want to be thin AND have their old lifestyle. There is no life-changing moment that makes the whole ordeal suddenly worthwhile. Yes, you want to wear that dress but you want to wear it whilst eating that damn cake.
I don’t eat food any more, I eat numbers (not even good numbers like 58008). I am officially that crazy person who only eats a certain amount of calories. I record every single thing that passes my lips. It works but it doesn’t mean I have to like it. I want to be able to go eat a Big Mac whenever I feel like it. Honestly, I die a little inside every time I see a thin person eating a burger. Why the hate, faulty metabolism? What did I ever do to you?
I will admit, however, exercising isn’t all bad.
I have not always felt this way. Far from it. I have incredibly strong opinions on the fact Physical Education is compulsory up to a certain age in a lot of schools. IT SHOULD NOT BE THIS WAY. By all means, educate children on healthy lifestyles, explain the risks of obesity, malnourishment, vitamin deficiencies, diabetes, etc. But not all children are designed for sport. I’m not just talking about the little fatties running around (or not running, as the case may be), there are the kids with social anxieties that freak out at the very thought of having their whole class watch as they pitch that baseball, the asthmatic who always comes last in cross country because it’s better to be last than dead, right? Bad eyes, poor coordination, weak bladder, who knows? Maybe they just don’t like running up and down a field with a ball.
I’m all for extracurricular activity but physical ‘education’ should come under the same branch as art, music, and even languages. More importantly, it should be an option, it shouldn’t be enforced. It’s that simple.
Personally, a combination of childhood obesity (I’m being dramatic, childhood “chubbiness”) and bad eyesight meant that I have grown up with an aversion to exercise. I have been hit in the head with sport balls too many times to count. I’ve had broken noses, concussions, and more than my fair share of trips to the doctors office to make sure the impact didn’t knock any brain cells out of my ears. I just never saw them coming. I think my favourite (and by favourite, I mean most scarring) memory of enforced exercise was summer swimming. As if going through puberty wasn’t hard enough, I got to feel fat AND blind at the same time. Yaaay!
“Okay Belle, now it’s your turn to dive in and pick up the coin from the bottom of the pool!”
“… What coin?”
“That one on the floor of the pool!”
“You realise I’m not wearing my glasses?”
“Yes.”
“Do you understand you are nothing more than a talking blob to me?”
… I had my period for three entire summers of high school P.E. I hate the education system, but I love my mother and her note-writing skills.
I believe I’ve also gotten off topic. My point, physical activity is for some people and not for others. As an adult I’m okay with it, but I’m not going to compare it to something awesome. I’d only be lying to myself and to other people inquiring about losing weight. Twenty minutes of abdominal exercises is not even remotely close to being as good as playing video games.
So, is it ‘worth it’?
All this effort just so I won’t be judged the next time I eat a burger in public? Is that really the only reason I’m doing this? Truthfully, I can’t say yet. I just don’t know. I can tell you that it’s hard. Don’t listen to what anyone else says because maybe what one person finds rewarding, another person deems disappointing.
Do things for you and just pretend everyone else is a P.E. teacher.
Ignore them.
October 28, 2010 at 22:14 |
So my solution to the whole enforced PE at school thing would be that if they want to make kids exercise, just make them exercise. Get them doing doing star jumps and stuff like that for 10 minutes twice a day. The current system where it’s all around sports and competitions just makes those of us who are socially anxious and maybe not as fit and coordinated as everyone else worry about coming last or, possibly even worse, making our team lose. If everyone is doing star jumps for 10 minutes straight and you get tired within 30 seconds and only put up a token effort after that, who’s going to care? And I’m pretty sure that 30 seconds would slowly increase over time until the kid could do the full 10 minutes.
No anxiety, no embarrassment, just 20 minutes of no frills exercise a day. And if you’ve been doing that every school day since you were 5, that will be normal to you, so you wont care.
There’s not even any need for stuff like crunches or pushups or whatever. Just plain old aerobic exercise.
Presto, problem solved.
(PS: Remember when you grinned and said to me “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.” and I called that BS and said that there’s totally stuff that tastes as good if not better? Does this blog post indicate that I turned out to be correct? Or am I reading too much in to things?)
October 28, 2010 at 22:39 |
I’ll let you know how that statement stands when I consider myself part of the lean team! ’til such time arises, I stand by my hypothesis :p
Also, I think I’m just REALLY influenced by McDonalds adverts..