The Difficulties Of Overcoming Diabetes Health And Social Care Essay

By now you should be familiar with the most common reason for obesity: Overeating. When the consumption of food is much higher than the rate of calorie usage, anyone can easily turn obese. As you may have read in previous chapters, other causes for obesity include serious eating disorders, genetics and family history of the disease. In such cases, the mental game for an obesity victim gets difficult as feelings of helplessness arrive simply because he or she cannot control weight by just managing their diet or exercising. Moreover, diseases like hypothyroidism may cause obesity indirectly. That’s why people should be aware of whether their illnesses lead to obesity before trying to motivate themselves.

Before motivating yourself to lose weight, it’s always a good idea to get educated about how the human body works. Where the calories come from and how to get rid of them must be understood. After all, there is an explanation on why you lose weight and gain it back again and again – everybody has fat cells where excess fat is stored. When additional calories are consumed, fat cells will grow larger and accumulate for storage. When you lose weight, the additional fat cells don’t disappear together with the weight. This explains why some of us gain weight a lot quicker than others do.

Besides hereditary illnesses, some medications or drugs may also lead to obesity. Taking too much pain killers, mainly corticosteroids like those given for arthritis, and sedatives will cause your overall body fat levels to spike. If it’s really necessary to consume such drugs, you must be careful with the amount of consumption and keep track of any negative effect after using them. As you can see, there are several reasons responsible for obesity, and some may exist beyond your control. That’s why motivation is so important for obese individuals. Nonetheless, all the above symptoms can all be overcome at least partially by using motivational techniques.

WHAT MAKES OVERCOMING OBESITY SO DIFFICULT?

The Roadblocks

The growing number of obese people in the United States has lead the way for another issue to enter society through a hidden door. While obesity rates in the United States are mounting, things would be better if the general public accepted obesity sufferers more easily. This would undeniably help them find more motivation. Yale University scientists conducted a study and found that society is far less tolerant with the obese population than non-obese groups. Obese participants of the experiment felt more discriminated these days than they did a decade ago. Sadly enough, six hundred and twenty doctors were questioned and more than half of them felt that obese clients are “awkward”, “ugly”, “unattractive” and “non-compliant”. One third of them described obese people as lazy, weak-willed and sloppy. Professionals who specialize in offering obesity treatments are surprisingly among those showing negative attitudes towards obesity. This makes it all the more difficult for obesity sufferers and their loved ones to find motivation.

Discrimination and stigmatization can happen to obese people in every aspect of daily life. Even within the family, an obese kid may not even receive any academic encouragement. Parents will often provide less financial support to their obese children when it’s time for the child to go to private school or college. Studies include some teachers who say that becoming obese was one of the worst things that could ever happen. In the workplace, obese people are being discriminated in nearly all aspect of the employment, including employment processes, salary negotiation, and work related benefits.

Medical research has also determined that overweightness draws out more discrimination than other appearance related issues like age, race, and gender. More than twenty-five percent of individuals who were fifty percent above than ideal weight reported that their benefits were cut down by employers. These benefits include health insurance. A more astonishing study showed that some employers prefer hiring the unqualified, skinny man than the guy with far more credentials who is obese. Similarly, a study conducted in 1988 revealed students would choose to marry an embezzler, a shoplifter, a drug addict, a blind person or a handicapped person rather than a victim of obesity.

Obese groups have been blamed partially for causing the ridiculous fuel prices we have today, weight gain among friends, and global warming, according to Rebecca Puhl of The Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. Such bias and blame is unfortunately spreading at almost every corner of the world and will ultimately damage and hinder obese people as they struggle to tackle obesity on the mental front. Puhl goes on to say that there are legal protections for gender, race, or age-based discrimination, but none specifically exist to protect obese people from being discriminated. The blame game should be directed to the source of the problem– not the victims.

DENOUNCING NEGATIVE ATTITUDE AND DISCRIMINATION

The attitudes of anti-overweightness by various levels of society can be studied in many ways. Written surveys serve as good examples here, and a countless number of them have been handed out to physicians, nurses, and medical students. The negative attitudes portrayed on the surveys imply that obese people are lazy, very awkward, lack self-control, and that obesity is caused by serious flaws in character and people fail to lose weight because of not complying with clinical advice. The Implicit Associations Test (IAT) uses powerful techniques to measure implicit attitudes on obesity bias among health care professionals, including those specializing in obesity treatment. The study showed implicit discrimination against obese people, including those who are apparently devoted to treating obesity. Furthermore, these professionals aren’t consciously aware of their bias.

More than 1200 physicians took a survey assessing their attitudes, interventions and referral practices for obese people. Though these physicians are aware of their own role in helping obese people, they try not to intervene as much as they should and are unlikely to encourage obese people to go through rigorous weight loss programs. They are only willing to discuss weight management with overweight–but not obese–people.

Another survey revealed why physicians were ambivalent about obesity treatment: They claim to be short on time, have a lack of medical training, or experience some insurance reimbursement issues. Attitudes of physicians affect their client when it comes to seeking treatment. Negative attitudes may cause obesity victims to avoid getting health care treatment altogether, in addition to other outcomes of demotivation. Here are some facts from a study done among physicians on willingness to provide pelvic exams to obese ladies: 17 percent were reluctant to do the exams on severely obese clients, and 83 percent don’t want to provide the exam if they are unsure of your weight status. From the studies above, it showed that many obese people may not receive the necessary preventive health care treatments. Other studies show that more than 12 percent of obese ladies delayed or canceled their physician appointments. Ladies with higher BMI have a much higher rate of delaying or canceling appointments due to the embarrassment faced when being weighed. Again, this adds to why motivation is difficult to come by for you.

Obese populations are unfortunately internalizing societal anti-obese and pro-thin biases. It is as if they agree with society’s ideology that an imperfect body represents an imperfect mind. We should try to manage stigmatization by confirming negative stereotypes, providing socially acceptable explanations for being obese, avoidance of hateful situations, and promoting weight loss through medical or surgical treatments when necessary.

The Surgical Cover-Up Rand et al. reports that before undergoing bariatric (weight loss) surgery, around 85 percent of clients admitted the obesity prevented them from getting a job, 90% complained that their peers picked on them, and about 80 percent stopped going out to public places. Moreover, 77 percent of them reported experiencing depression daily. More than a year after surgery, all the surgery candidates believed the discrimination has toned down a bit, to the point where they were seldom, if at all, prejudiced. Ninety percent of them boosted their self-confidence and have led very cheerful lives after getting the procedure done.

It’s strange enough that with so many obese people in the world, there could be so much discrimination against them. Can this be explained with how obese people rate themselves and perceive their own body image? If you stare into a mirror and say, “Yes, I look horrible,” it really won’t help your cause all that much. This kind of self-assessment may or may not serve as sarcastic encouragement, but it won’t improve your overall situation either way.

Going Shopping

King et al, at Rice University conducted a study to evaluate how and why obese shoppers are likely to experience discrimination. By noting the sales clerks’ interactions, including eye contact with shoppers, investigators found that obese customers wearing casual clothes go through interpersonal discrimination more frequently than obese shoppers in professional attire. Both the casually dressed and professionally dressed customers were treated normally if they weren’t obese. In the second phase of study, the mystery shoppers carried either a diet cola or an ice cream drink. The results showed that obese shoppers who ate the ice cream or drank the soda experienced a greater amount of interpersonal discrimination than non-obese shoppers. These two phases of the experiment may serve as proof that obesity is perceived as social trouble and victims are stereotyped as being lazy and weak willed. When sales clerks encountered obese buyers, they would mostly ignore or sidestep these particular groups of customers.

The third phase of study was a generalized shopping survey. The survey asked about the shoppers’ experiences with the sales associates, how much they had planned to spend versus the amount actually spent, and their body type. Unsurprisingly, those who experienced biasness ended up spending less time and money than intended and chose not to return to the store in future. Besides picking out discriminatory practices, the study also served as a stark reminder for business owners to take note of their employees’ behaviors for ethical and financial purposes.

The research at Rice was done in individual and interpersonal settings, which is different from the traditional way of conducting these studies in large-scale environments like social gatherings. That is why it’s consistent with modern conceptualizations of prejudice. Research doesn’t really suggest that overweight people should control their obesity just to avoid getting stigmatized. Nor does it imply that obese people entirely bear the responsibility for reducing discrimination though they should learn how to avoid and protect themselves from negativity at all times. The research noted a certain level of damage from discrimination. As discussed earlier, obesity victims may be able to adopt some methods to avoid certain forms of discrimination and find motivation. For businesses that stigmatize obese people should turn proactive on taking some actions to reduce discrimination on their employees.

Under long-term discrimination and harassment in public places and even at home from members of family such as parents, brothers, sisters, own children and spouses, obese people will tend to suffer depression, stressed, low self-esteem. The worst of it can be suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Also, motivation can be difficult to come by if obese subjects handle their anxiety by overeating unhealthy food and avoiding physical activities. Puhl emphasized that obese people need to show to others that you can be successful, and ambitious for reaching their goals. She also noted that obese subjects should try to stay happy even with different kinds of body types.

GOING FOR THE GOLD

As obesity rates have been increasing in the US for the last thirty years, we should all look for ways to eliminate the current rates of obesity besides getting motivated enough to have a higher quality of life. Nearly all regions of the world are experiencing an increase in obesity rates regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, social status, and so forth. Obesity not only results in physical consequences, but also has psychological and social consequences in of all age groups of the population.

Finding Motivation In Any Environment

The situation in the US is laid out in different levels, including social, economic, environmental and individual. Harboring an environment that promotes unhealthy dieting, lack of physical activities, and food consumption in the US has been characterized as obesogenic. To penetrate healthy diet and practices into public of different levels, corrective public health approaches should be published in schools pamphlets, community groups, and work places. A more affordable and simple way to provide motivation here would be to support environmental change. Nonetheless, getting rid of obesogenic settings would be very difficult to achieve on a global scale.

Besides getting the change of environmental, individuals who are having obesity problems should find motivation primarily through weight loss. As change of diet, lifestyle can be suffering and difficult for most individuals who have adapted to their old living methods. Certain people are familiar with the right way to avoid obesity and other chronic diseases, yet they would prefer to have delicious but non-nutritious food. That’s why effort should be made to motivate you to decide and consistently stay motivated on weight loss. In fact, it can be very demotivating when regaining weight if it was an uphill battle to lose the weight in the first place.

Learning The Ropes

There are quite a few rules to keep you motivated and ready for weight loss:

Set a major goal and stay on track – break down your major goals into minor ones which you know you can keep. Initially, try to succeed in each of minor goals so you’re really prepared for the challenges associated with major objectives.

Always try to finish what you started. Easily giving up on things can turn into a really bad habit, so you should avoid stopping half way on a progressing project. Develop the habit of completing something you start out doing. Going back to the first rule, try to proceed with minor goals first, since they are generally easy to complete. This will create a future environment in which you’re able to take on larger projects and finish them accordingly.

Try to socialize with others of similar interest. People are generally affected by and learn from each other’s actions. Close friends with positive attitudes tend to influence people around them in a good way. Hang out with people who have similar goals and are very focused on what they really want in life. Mutual interaction is important for overcoming obesity.

‘Learn how to learn.’ People have the ability to teach themselves. Sometimes, depending on others for knowledge may cause more procrastination and lack of progress.

Use your natural talents to find motivation – Talent creates motivation that will eventually help you reach your weight loss goals. For example, if you can play soccer really well, continuing to do so will make you fit as time goes by.

Don’t be afraid to take certain risks, as failure can be great a learning tool. While losing weight may be a risk you take, worrying about not losing any could make you gain even more of it. But if you never try, how will you know the best way to get rid of your obesity?

To lose weight, you have to make a plan that is as realistic as possible. This plan should include a target weight that you wish to reach.

SELF-NOTES, MILESTONES, AND PRACTICALITY

Know Where You Stand

Ask yourself: “What is the minimum weight I want to lose, and how long do I intend to take?” Write down a list of steps you feel you can take on a piece of paper, and place it inside this book or in a diet magazine when you’re not using it. Once you finish the list, get started as soon as possible. Remember that, slow, gradual weight loss is in many ways better than getting thinner rapidly with high chance of the weight returning very soon when you resort to older eating patterns. Losing weight is just like having a long day’s work, and then getting rewarded with good health for it. It would feel more comfortable to just get “a free weekend pass” to losing weight, but obviously that never happens.

Milestones

If you end up getting enough motivation to lose a few pounds, it won’t hurt to get a little leeway by rewarding yourself with a rare large meal. This is to compensate yourself for going an entire week with proper eating habits. However, food is not generally encouraged as a treat for reaching your personal weight loss milestone. Remember that self-discipline is important to getting back on track during the weekdays while not overdoing anything on the weekends. Make it your job to keep active, since calories will burn evenly if your body remains in constant motion.

When walking can get you to where you want to go without too much effort, then walk rather than drive there. Take a few more steps and more calories will be burned. If there are friends or family members who need to lose weight also, then make plans with them for the weekend or other days off from work. You could have an informal weight loss contest and check the weights after a period like three months. If no friends or family members need to lose weight, the obese member can let everyone know about the weight loss plan and ask their help in monitoring on the progress. Having more active participants make the whole plan more interesting and challenging. After reaching a smaller goal, like losing 5 pounds, get yourself something related to weight that reminds you of reaching a major milestone. For instance, buy smaller sized clothing the next time you go shopping.

Practicality A good weight loss program should not be too rigid, or else it will make the whole progress too embarrassing with a tendency of failure. If your program is really strict and you stop abruptly, you will quickly gain back the weight and may require a lot of motivation just to start all over again. That’s one of the reasons why many obese people are unable to lose their weight for long term. In fact, maintaining body weight is a lifelong business. Obesity victims need to have a mindset of having a healthy lifestyle and think positively that all nutritious foods are great despite possibly lacking good taste. In the meantime, don’t worry yourself too much over what you let go–those junk foods or tantalizing items that you’re used to eating in your pastime. Objectives get unrealistic when you set standards way too high. Again, this causes you to revert to your old ways, and that’s someone we should always stay away from.

WHY GET MOTIVATED TO FIGHT OBESITY?

Fight Off Related Diseases

Motivation for obesity is essential for those who want to reduce the risk of high blood pressure, strokes, high cholesterol, and other chronic disease. Obesity is linked to six out of ten leading causes of death in the United States alone. According to statistics deaths occur from obesity was caused by cancer, stroke, and heart failure. Obesity is defined as having a bodyweight more than 20 percent greater than recommended weight. Studies show that when you are overweight, it puts them at risk of serious illnesses including heart disease and diabetes.

Things Can Worsen You can get demotivated when unable to determine the difference between appetite and hunger. Determining what your body really needs can help you set up a proper diet plan, while helping you to discover how appetite and hunger differs. Many of us eat even after our hunger has been satisfied simply because appetite takes over. Appetite is a strong desire or craving for food. Most of the foodstuff that stimulates your appetite is saturated in calories and fats. When you over-consume food, it can make you gain weight.

Better Nutrition

In every phase of life, good nutrition is important to your health. Nutrition is defined as a process which the body uses for certain provisions. A good nutrition promotes good health. When your body has the nutrients it needs, it has room to grow and develop. Without proper nutrients, your body lacks the ability to fight off dangerous diseases, such as heart failure.

Studies show that the average American eats their own weight in sugars every year. In 1996, the U.S. Department of Agriculture surveyed fifty-five hundred Americans. During the survey, the department found that during 1994, the average American ate seventy-three grams of fat daily. High-intake of saturated fats is associated with heart disease.

When you set up a proper diet plan, your body gets the proper nutrition it needs to function properly. Healthy nutrients encourage energy flow, by boosting the metabolism. You can feel and look your best when you eat healthy, and maintain your weight. Healthy nutrients encourage mental alertness, and smoother skin. More importantly, a healthy nutritional diet will help reduce the risk of certain cancers, heart disease, diabetes, strokes, and other chronic disease.

In order for your body to survive, it needs nutrients found in food supplies. Knowing the specific kinds of nutrients that cause or fight obesity helps you get motivated because it gives your weight-loss program a greater sense of purpose. Nutrients act as a number of life-sustaining functions. Nutrients are divided in to six major categories, (e.g. carbohydrates, water, minerals, vitamins, fats, and proteins). Carbohydrates essentially make up energy components of our daily diet, since it provides us with carbons, hydrogen, and oxygen. It is our food source and energy supply. Since our body is made up of 75% water, water is necessary to help us sustain life. Minerals are inorganic materials found in nature, they undoubtedly help you stay healthy. Vitamins are organic substances essentially needed to boost up your metabolism. You need vitamins to help you fight off viruses and disease.

Your body requires a good amount of fatty foods to survive. Fats are nutritional components found in foodstuff. Fats provide us with nine major calories per gram of energy. Fats provide us with the nutrients the body needs to sustain good health. Fats contain healthy vitamins including Vitamin A, D, E, and K. Finally, proteins are complex natural compounds. These compounds have a fibrous structure composed of amino acids. Proteins are essentially needed to help living cells ward off viruses. Since amino acids are important for cell growth, it is important that our body gets a balanced measure of proteins daily to sustain life.

Carbohydrates provide our body with a source of energy and nutrition. Being obese can interfere with the body’s ability to digest carbs. Carbohydrates are found in foodstuff, e.g. bread, pasta, and potatoes. Carbohydrates are essential to keep the body full of life. Yet, when you consume too many carbohydrates, it can cause obesity.

CHILDHOOD DISCOVERIES

What Makes It Tougher

Aside from adults who are obese, children who are used to eating too much face problems with getting motivated to lose weight. How obesity affects a kid depends heavily on his or her parents and other relatives’ feelings towards overweightness. It also depends on how acceptable obesity is within the family’s specific culture. If the overweight children’s family perceives overweight as a bad sign, they might keep teasing the individual about weight control. If you blame kids for being obese, they end up getting emotionally disturbed and might have very low self-esteem. In that case, there would be no way to find genuine motivation.

From A Youngster’s Standpoint Sometimes, it depends on how children themselves perceive their disease. Some kids don’t mind the extra weight, and it may let them feel like they are fitting in if the rest of the family is fat. Others may be really particular with their weight and get upset if they are a few pounds over. Girls are generally more concerned about weight and therefore, the relationship between weight and self-esteem is more profound than in boys.

Instilling Motivation In Obese Kids

Children remain under the guidance of parents and it can be at times easier to motivate them and change their perception. First of all, parents should pay attention to their kid’s weight fluctuations and daily activities. Are these kids getting used to watching television all day long, glued to video games, or pleased to be a full time internet surfer? If they are one of the above, you should try to find some physical activity for them. Try to advise them on what foods to eat and take a family walk after dinner. Even if the walk only goes for about 20 minutes, everyone will benefit for the long term. Think of some chores like sweeping, mowing the lawn, or gardening for the children to do when they are free.

It’s not advisable to let kids rest in front of the TV or computer. Figure out how many hours can be allowed for watching television or playing video games, and remember that children should also spend a reasonable amount of time for outdoor activities. Motivate them to invite their close friends to go for outdoor activities like hiking, camping or even help out doing some chores. Have them walk home to and from school or the bus stop with someone, instead of driving there.

If you have good neighbors, talk with other parents who live nearby to let the children walk together and let a different parent to accompany the children each time. To motivate kids to lose weight, parents themselves should have a routine to exercise and let the children see for themselves that exercising regularly is really all part of a daily routine. Children will more than likely adopt this routine for the rest of their lives. To make things a bit more interesting, teach your kids how to play board games while they are really young. Have them fly a kite, ride a skateboard, or even simpler, use a jump rope. If the kids have a pet, give them some quality time to spend with it.

Obese children need to be encouraged to do their best and ignore how others perceive them. Despite getting picked on by schoolmates, obese kids have to be optimistic about the future and make the best out of everything they have in front of them. The key is to avoid things that you know the kids won’t have any control over. Slowly, the children will build up their own confidence and understand that they can still do something successfully, rather than letting others get to them just because they’re overweight.

NO SHORTCUTS: MOTIVATION FOR GROWNUPS

Living with obesity is a reality that may come at a great personal cost. For children, it depends greatly on how parents perceive them, motivate and help them to get through. Adults have to face consequences due to their own lifestyle choices. Some may be obese due to hereditary or some rare illness which lead to hormonal imbalances that are obviously not their fault. If the obesity isn’t due to your own actions, don’t be afraid of telling the reason for your obesity to others. This may make them accept obese people into their lives a lot more easily. Tell them you’ve put in a lot of effort to reduce your weight and, if they are healthcare professionals, ask them if there’s a better or new treatment to help get rid of the extra fat.

Sweetness Of Self-Esteem

The word “self-esteem” is mentioned very often in motivational articles, but what exactly does it mean? If you live with a lot of self-esteem, you live with confidence and satisfaction. Of course, not everyone will have self-esteem all the time. Sometimes, you feel frustrated and upset, and thus may present with a low self-esteem. Obese people should have self-esteem nonetheless to avoid overeating.

Here’s an interesting fact: at least fifty percent of obesity victims will turn to food rather than other activities when their self-esteem is really low. Basically, low self-esteem may be caused by a close relative, a particular object, or an event that took place a long time ago. Obese people, regardless of their weight or BMI, should know what can and cannot be changed about self-perceptions and the attitudes of the general public. In simpler terms, you should learn to accept the way he or she looks like. Let face it: you can feel much better when you’re satisfied with your physical identity.

Sometimes, obesity victims themselves indirectly allow people to put a ‘lazy’ label on them. Although no one’s appearance can be changed overnight (unless you go for bariatric surgery), obese people could always start out by making sure they have proper hygiene and tidy themselves up rather than have a clumsy look. Wear clean clothing and avoid giving off any strong body odors. This will make people more willing to interact with you all the time. This is obviously advised for normal weight people as well. Think about it: It’s really about having some fundamental etiquette. First impressions are very important, and while you can’t change your features a hundred percent, you at least have to boost your self-esteem in the long run.

Only a few manufacturers make extra-large clothes for the obesity market and even then there is lack of choices. This may be responsible for creating the low self-esteem found in many obese subjects. Some overweight people, especially females, might only be familiar with a single retailer that sells plus size clothing, such as Layne Bryant. It all depends on the situation and one’s self-esteem and the desire to actually attract other people’s attention. Is keeping a low profile in public the best way to go for you? Absolutely not, because it would defeat the whole reasoning behind why an obese individual should always dress right. The goal here is to avoid giving others negative impressions of you who obviously is overdoing something. Failure to present yourself in the right way will only bring in more stigmatization that will again lower your self-esteem. You have to understand how to deal with negativity before you find out the best way to motivate yourself, and toughening your self-esteem is a good starting point.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT?

Food Addictions Hinder Your Motivational Spirit

The main reason for obesity besides hereditary, is overeating. Therefore, you should avoid eating too much both in front of the public and at home. Eating out can ironically at times provide more motivation for losing weight than when staying at home all day. When out dining, like in a restaurant, there are usually other people there looking at you. You basically get only the amount of food you can order. At home however, you can dig into your fridge whenever you want, especially if you live alone.

Unfortunately judging by body size, people have already stereotyped that most obese people are addicted to food. If you continue to act out public assumptions, it makes it harder for you to lose weight while obese. To obese people, both the lack of diet control and stigmatization from others are unsurprisingly demotivating factors. Stigmatization will lower an obesity victim’s self-esteem, and reducing food consumption may depress them even more if they do in fact have a food addiction.

The Dangers Food addiction could lead to a self-destructive circle where some people will eat more and get increasingly depressed, putting on extra pounds and completely ignoring their weight. Obese groups who fall into this circle find it very difficult to change. Bottom line: you have to be aware of this unhealthy and destructive way of living at all times. You must gain a very strong will to fight off your urges and remember that taste buds aren’t the only thing you need to satisfy in life.

If you cannot find a way to get rid of your food addictions in a short period of time, try to focus on long term goals. Avoid having high calorie foods. High calorie foods can increase appetite and make you want more of everything you just finished eating. It sounds easy, but the quest to get motivated for fighting food addiction is a long and bumpy road for obese people. It is easy for a normal person to have diet control, but we have to realize that some obese people are really just addicted to food. Such an addiction is very difficult to overcome because when someone cuts down on food, this will also lower the consumption of important sugars and essential fats. An abrupt reduction of sugar in meals can lead to depression by altering serotonin (“happy hormone”) levels.

Therefore, self-motivation of obese people who have food addictions is not merely enough. You need to have more than just a positive attitude and personal responsibility. As an obese parent, your children will follow your lifestyle and eating habits. However, as a responsible person within a community, you have to realize that being obese involves many internal and external problems that have been mentioned in the earlier chapters. They themselves have been suffering from obesity and must avoid having their kids go through the same thing.

Obese parents should understand and know how to self motivate and lead their families to better physical, mental and emotional health. Unfortunately, single parents with food addictions may think that the best compensation for their kids not living with both their mom and dad is food. It’s almost as if food has been used to replace the love of another parent who is not there for the children. Soon, these children will have obesity problems that might stick with them for the remainder of life.

MOTIVATIONAL EXPERIENCES

Growing Support

Lynn Bennett grew up in in Carmel, Indiana and was an overweight kid. She was heavily picked on at school and didn’t have too many friends. Her closest friend was a physically disabled girl in school. The class that Lynn was most afraid in was gym. She was settled down for five years but unfortunately divorced and had to raise her two children all by herself. She was alone for many years with the children, and only after the children grew elder, they encouraged her to have her own social life. Starting in 1998, Lynn decided to meet someone who wouldn’t focus too much on her weight. When she went to local organizations for obese women she discovered a group of overweight people having fun, happily meeting people as if body size didn’t restrict them in any way. After the events, she read a lot of self-motivation books and listened to a few tapes. She decided to start a similar group in Indianapolis. Initially, this was an internet group, and in 2002 the organization grew to more than one thousand members consisting of people from all different weight ranges. Lynn set up a very nice picnic and had gatherings every following week.

Lynn discovered that many of the members didn’t have social life until they joined the club. Most of the members regained their confidence for socializing with people, and several of them even found their soul mates among the members. Though she was running the club quite successfully, she had a huge problem with finding sponsors to help her organization stay alive in the long term. Most of her events were popular and while she considered herself to be a lucky person, she was very surprised to know that some businesses that were selling big sized clothing weren’t willing to promote her group. As we can see, Lynn is a great example of self-motivation and improvement of social life in an obese individual. She not only helped herself, but she had motivated those having problems similar to hers.

Motivation The Natural Way

Steve Simpson slowly began gaining weight in 1986. He had personal reasons for not controlling his diet. From what he recalls, he ate a lot processed food, high calorie items, and moreover, skipped normal meals and kept eating at the wrong time of day. His body size peaked in July 2000. He had tried several different kinds of weight loss methods before and lost about thirty pounds, but quickly regained the weight. One day, several personnel from a fitness company came to his workplace for the purpose of creating an ad. They were looking for someone who was interested in a serious weight loss plan. Because Steve seemed like he was just the guy, they approached him and asked him to try their weight loss plan for a month. He was instructed not to tell anyone about the plan before it began.

After a month, he lost approximately twelve pounds and started to discuss the weight loss plan on the air. He continued to be on the weight-loss plan and successfully lost a total of one-hundred and ten pounds. This is an ideal example of weight loss in the absence of pills because obviously there was no medicine involved here. The program mainly instructed its participants on how to change their lifestyle and suggested what to eat. After losing just a few pounds, Steve already began to feel much more energy than he always had. He realized he had to carry so much fat on his body when walking around all those years that he felt exhausted all the time. Steve himself didn’t notice any change in his emotions or behavior, but friends around him told him that he had gained more confidence with himself. In fact, the weight loss plan helped him to understand how the human body works, and more importantly, gave him a little motivation for a whole lot of change.

Some diet plans don’t really mention how much food to take and how many calories you would gain after eating a specific type of food. Steve soon realized that having too much control on diet could make you feel very unhappy. He would eat a burger in the morning and later on in the day would only have fruits and vegetables to balance up the diet. Steve was content with his weight loss and he could now wear the same size jeans he wore when he was in high school. Even so, he hoped to lose a little more weight.

READING BETWEEN THE LINES: DIRECT VERSUS INDIRECT TALKS

The Communication Mesh With the advanced technology seen today, you can communicate with others through the internet without going out or bending over backwards to get information. You could get stressed without enough confidence to join a support group, or get a blog, forum or any online forum set up on the internet. Obesity victims can receive positive advice or talk specifically with others with the same agenda and team up to make a change in their lives. Through communication and discussion, you could gain some knowledge on how to handle your life and stay motivated.

Sometimes, it’s really not so easy to find someone to talk to for motivational purposes. Take the initiative to look for obese people who are in the same town or city as you are. If you share the same interests or hobbies, organize a couple of activities like a simple walk in the park. Start up a small reading group, dancer’s union, picnic, or travel club. Habits and hobbies are especially helpful if you can’t get motivated enough for exercises. The purpose of this is to redirect all your focus from food consumption.

To conclude, obesity is serious business, no matter where in the world you live. When you’re overweight, you increase your risk of heart failure, cancer, diabetes, and other life-threatening disease. Being overweight can also affect your quality of life, which is why it is important to consider motivation for obesity. Obesity in the US alone plays a large role in common health risks, and motivation is required to avoid these risks. When you find motivation to get rid of obesity, you also find a way to reduce the risk of diabetes, high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, cancer, atherosclerosis, hypertension, and others. Set up a good diet plan now, incorporate exercise into your daily life, and pitch in the unitary effort to eradicate obesity.