First watch this.
Now read this.
And this.
And, just for good measure, this too.
Close it down? Yeah, why not?
Some, but not me, might suggest much like Silvio did to Vesuvio in The Sopranos.
Short blog, and to the point.
Thursday 10 March 2011
Monday 7 March 2011
Suddenly, I'm 2/3 The Man I Used To Be
Look, I've been travelling too much hither and yon lately. I'm tired so I apologise now for being snitty and reproducing something I posted just now on the estimable Low Carber Forum.....
Checking through a bunch of my fave rave journals today, having seen barely a word from any of you for nearly three weeks, all I seem to be encountering is reason after reason for not engaging properly with the weight loss process.
Now, to take one example among many (and with big apologies for doing so, since I'm a real fan of the member who drug it up and threw it out there) I have no idea and less care who Tom Hanks' wife is, except she is clearly pampered, spoiled, cut off from reality, and Greek, and she will lose her big deal 15lbs that she's employing a personal trainer or something to shed on her behalf, or something; you know what I mean. Aforesaid Mrs H has gone and opened her gob about it in a public place, so she's got to deliver, otherwise she gets herself pilloried (for a UK example, take the tediously ping-ponging former telly-tart Anne Diamond).
So, those of us who - often with bloody good reason - see ourselves as fat can either not like it or not care. Actually, not caring is not true. As soon as we see ourselves as fat, we are upset, and any apparent insouciance is just a dumb denying pose.
If we don't like it, we have the choice of either engaging with the problem or paying lip service to the problem, dilettante dieting.
Me, I don't like it, at all, so I'm fixing it, with 134lbs dumped thus far - safely and healthily - in well under 8 months.
I'm no paragon and (today at least) I'm not blowing the trumpet to encourage plaudits. I don't have astonishing will-power and resolve. I'm not denying myself, making myself miserable, or having a bad time doing this thing.
It just works like this: do I want to spend a day longer than I need to worrying about and shedding this ridiculous lard? Do I want to get past all this and get on with my life? Do I want to confront and overcome the psychological issues and the piss-poor eating (and drinking) patterns which got me in this fine and greasy mess to begin with? Do I want to make some pretty damn' fundamental changes in my life to make certain I don't end up there again, again? Well, do I, or what?
The answer to all of these is a mind-numbingly obvious 'yes', and I genuinely fail to comprehend (and I accept it's my failing that I fail to comprehend) why anyone who dedicates a chunk of their precious, god-given, and frighteningly time-limited life to coming onto a forum like this and writing about their struggles with their fat condition, would find time to justify anything less than total commitment to their individual campaign, since, in my narrow and self-righteous view, anything less should be excoriated rather than tolerated.
Believe me, nobody, NOBODY, has ever been less puritanical than me. One of nature's natural cavaliers, I spit on roundhead tendencies wherever I find them, but PLEASE do something about grabbing this nettle and getting yourselves moving downwards.
The pluses in doing so are beyond number, while the negatives really hardly merit serious consideration. They are not even excuses. If they are evidence of a failure of confidence or self-esteem, I wish there was something I could do to reach every one of you and get you up, committed and moving - because I know how good you would feel getting the result I know you crave.
I really do understand about softly, softly, catchee monkee (but not, of course, Papa Nes who's quite properly skipping the 'farewell tour'). My fear is that, for any of us, such gradualism allows too much time, and thereby too many opportunities, to slip, and to justify, and to shrug off, and to fergeddaboutit.
I really do entreat you to regularly and critically examine how you're going about this thing, and to see where and how you can tighten up your act. Every pound gone is a rachetting up of your self-regard, and, since nothing ever succeeds like success, I promise your journey gets easier every day.
Don't need no credit card to ride this train. Just the power of (a little bit of self-) love.
Bloody hell! I didn't mean to, but I've just gone and writ myself a blog. Better run and post it before you all start hurling mud pies at me. Bet you're glad I came back, eh?
Well, I'm off again on Friday for a-g-e-s. But I'll have plenty of time to write....
Checking through a bunch of my fave rave journals today, having seen barely a word from any of you for nearly three weeks, all I seem to be encountering is reason after reason for not engaging properly with the weight loss process.
Now, to take one example among many (and with big apologies for doing so, since I'm a real fan of the member who drug it up and threw it out there) I have no idea and less care who Tom Hanks' wife is, except she is clearly pampered, spoiled, cut off from reality, and Greek, and she will lose her big deal 15lbs that she's employing a personal trainer or something to shed on her behalf, or something; you know what I mean. Aforesaid Mrs H has gone and opened her gob about it in a public place, so she's got to deliver, otherwise she gets herself pilloried (for a UK example, take the tediously ping-ponging former telly-tart Anne Diamond).
So, those of us who - often with bloody good reason - see ourselves as fat can either not like it or not care. Actually, not caring is not true. As soon as we see ourselves as fat, we are upset, and any apparent insouciance is just a dumb denying pose.
If we don't like it, we have the choice of either engaging with the problem or paying lip service to the problem, dilettante dieting.
Me, I don't like it, at all, so I'm fixing it, with 134lbs dumped thus far - safely and healthily - in well under 8 months.
I'm no paragon and (today at least) I'm not blowing the trumpet to encourage plaudits. I don't have astonishing will-power and resolve. I'm not denying myself, making myself miserable, or having a bad time doing this thing.
It just works like this: do I want to spend a day longer than I need to worrying about and shedding this ridiculous lard? Do I want to get past all this and get on with my life? Do I want to confront and overcome the psychological issues and the piss-poor eating (and drinking) patterns which got me in this fine and greasy mess to begin with? Do I want to make some pretty damn' fundamental changes in my life to make certain I don't end up there again, again? Well, do I, or what?
The answer to all of these is a mind-numbingly obvious 'yes', and I genuinely fail to comprehend (and I accept it's my failing that I fail to comprehend) why anyone who dedicates a chunk of their precious, god-given, and frighteningly time-limited life to coming onto a forum like this and writing about their struggles with their fat condition, would find time to justify anything less than total commitment to their individual campaign, since, in my narrow and self-righteous view, anything less should be excoriated rather than tolerated.
Believe me, nobody, NOBODY, has ever been less puritanical than me. One of nature's natural cavaliers, I spit on roundhead tendencies wherever I find them, but PLEASE do something about grabbing this nettle and getting yourselves moving downwards.
The pluses in doing so are beyond number, while the negatives really hardly merit serious consideration. They are not even excuses. If they are evidence of a failure of confidence or self-esteem, I wish there was something I could do to reach every one of you and get you up, committed and moving - because I know how good you would feel getting the result I know you crave.
I really do understand about softly, softly, catchee monkee (but not, of course, Papa Nes who's quite properly skipping the 'farewell tour'). My fear is that, for any of us, such gradualism allows too much time, and thereby too many opportunities, to slip, and to justify, and to shrug off, and to fergeddaboutit.
I really do entreat you to regularly and critically examine how you're going about this thing, and to see where and how you can tighten up your act. Every pound gone is a rachetting up of your self-regard, and, since nothing ever succeeds like success, I promise your journey gets easier every day.
Don't need no credit card to ride this train. Just the power of (a little bit of self-) love.
Bloody hell! I didn't mean to, but I've just gone and writ myself a blog. Better run and post it before you all start hurling mud pies at me. Bet you're glad I came back, eh?
Well, I'm off again on Friday for a-g-e-s. But I'll have plenty of time to write....
Wednesday 16 February 2011
Making Sense Of One's Self
In Charles Humming's excellent, intelligent and highly recommended new spy novel The Trinity Six, I encounter an unfamiliar quotation from Dostoyevsky, whom, we must all recognise, new a thing or two and more than most about the dark and complex workings of the human heart.
Try this on for size, and see if it doesn't speak to everyone who's got in a mess with food, drink, weight, and is now struggling with weightloss which they want to make stick:
'If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.'
I know that old Pops Staples said something similar (and none the worse for that), but I was really struck by the power of that verb; 'compel'.
We who have been held in thrall by the destructive power of our compulsions, must learn to harness that power positively to build our self-esteem and compel others to recognise what us unique and wonderful about each and every one of us, instead of carelessly, pointlessly frittering away our energy in a life-long orgy of self-destruction and delusion.
Viewed from this angle, it us clear that this thing isn't just about cutting out French fries or saying no to cake. That's looking at and treating the symptoms, whereas the causes lie elsewhere, and therein lurks the challenge.
Quite simply; if we don't engage with the underlying issues, then ultimately we will fail, and not just in respect of weightloss, but as human beings, since until that coffin lid is nailed down tight, we will never succeed in sloughing off the pupa skin of a self-obsessed and damaged childhood and emerge as mature functioning adults.
I'm willing to give it a go. How about you?
Try this on for size, and see if it doesn't speak to everyone who's got in a mess with food, drink, weight, and is now struggling with weightloss which they want to make stick:
'If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.'
I know that old Pops Staples said something similar (and none the worse for that), but I was really struck by the power of that verb; 'compel'.
We who have been held in thrall by the destructive power of our compulsions, must learn to harness that power positively to build our self-esteem and compel others to recognise what us unique and wonderful about each and every one of us, instead of carelessly, pointlessly frittering away our energy in a life-long orgy of self-destruction and delusion.
Viewed from this angle, it us clear that this thing isn't just about cutting out French fries or saying no to cake. That's looking at and treating the symptoms, whereas the causes lie elsewhere, and therein lurks the challenge.
Quite simply; if we don't engage with the underlying issues, then ultimately we will fail, and not just in respect of weightloss, but as human beings, since until that coffin lid is nailed down tight, we will never succeed in sloughing off the pupa skin of a self-obsessed and damaged childhood and emerge as mature functioning adults.
I'm willing to give it a go. How about you?
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