Fitness is not a measure of worth.

People who choose exercise activities, meaning various types of movement or fitness, as a hobby are no more praiseworthy than people who choose anything else as a hobby.

Fitness by any definition is not an obligation.

There is also no personal obligation to have a thin, or a “normal-weight", body.

Seeking weight-loss is not the same thing as living with healthy habits, and thin or "not fat" isn’t the same thing as "Healthy".

There are healthy and unhealthy people at every size, so reaching a certain body size is neither a guarantee of health, nor a sure preventative or cure for disease. Body Size and Health are two different things and people can, and often do, pursue one without the other.

In fact, seeking "Health" is not a moral, social, or personal obligation. People can choose to prioritize and pursue health at whatever level they want. Their choice to seek health by “engaging in a healthy lifestyle” doesn’t guarantee them personal health. It also doesn’t make them better than people who don’t choose to prioritize or pursue health.

There are also different kinds of health. and all of them aren't available to everyone.  For example: Mental health and Physical health are two different things, and these two types of health don’t necessarily go together.

What does "healthy" even mean?

Healthy is simply the opposite of  diseased or dead.  Human beings are born, they live, and they die.  The human body is designed to wear out.  Even the most "healthy" bodies become "unhealthy" as they get old, and eventually every body ceases its function. Sudden or lingering, death comes to everyone, and except for death-by-accident, people of all ages become sick and then die.

While the term "healthy", refers to the general condition of a person's mind and body, usually meaning to be free from illness, injury or pain, that term is now loosely used to refer to various substances, activities, and ideas that allegedly promote that general condition.

However, despite all claims to the contrary, most things ...  including personal values ...  that are sold to us by the diet (and fitness) industry are the exact opposite of “healthy”.

   
I am now in my 8th maintenance year.
This morning the scale says I'm 122.4 lbs (BMI = 23.9)

 To see what Maintenance is like for me. Click the links below:  

About Me

Running Down the Up Escalator

"He was born on the finish line, so he thinks he won the race."

This quote is So VERY applicable to naturally thin people,.... and also to those people who have never lived well inside the border of Obesity,.... who give weight-loss advice to those of us who are personally living with the issue of Obesity.

While this quote amuses me, I find it important to never lose sight of this TRUTH:
Whatever method one chooses for weight-loss, with regards to issues of weight-loss and maintenance of that weight-loss, there is NO Finish Line.

At this point I consider weight-loss Advice from people who have not personally spent considerable time in the state of Obesity …no matter how "well-meaning" that advice may be … to be uninformed, ignorant chatter, which I find tiresome, offensive, and unwelcome. 

Much of the Conventional Wisdom one hears repeated again and again, year after year, decade after decade,…including what is currently taught to medical professionals via nutritional textbooks... originated from Marketing Interests, and that information isn't helpful to resolve our obesity issues.

We are all different and there is no one-size-fits-all, BUT….I do feel certain that: Whatever one does to lose weight must be continued FOREVER in order to maintain that weight-loss.

                        
A common MYTH is the idea that
…with enough effort…,
it is possible for everyone to be able
to reach the same goals.

However,
not all goals are reachable
for all people.

The existence of this Myth tends to be overlooked or forgotten when it comes to weight and what our bodies can accomplish.

As a result of this blindness or memory loss, overweight or obese people are wrongfully perceived as morally inferior and weak and lazy. Efforts to Diet become internalized “attempts at redemption.”

Our culture contains an enormous Diet Industry. This is a particular form of economic and commercial activity involving the marketing of food, equipment, and drugs etc. as well as the marketing of information, and services from “experts”.

The term Diet Industry “Experts” involves a wide range of information givers, which includes “successful dieters”; trainers; dietitians; nutritionists; therapists, doctors and other medical professionals; hospitals; drug companies; scientists; educators; authors; publishers; journalists; politicians; and various organizations of all types, including “health care” organizations.

Unfortunately, a close look at the Diet Industry shows that even successfully following any Diet, … even those diets that we choose to call: a “Lifestyle Change”, a “Way-of-Eating” Plan, a “non-diet” plan, … doesn’t really bring us a permanent Solution for long-term weight-control.

However, long-term weight-control has never been a requirement or even a primary goal of the Diet Industry, nor the motivation behind it. Any study of the Diet Industry shows that it is a “triumph of capitalist success in selling promises to desperate people”.

One of the ways the Diet Industry sustains itself is by subtly connecting people to “ideals” of body-weight – even though those ideals are unattainable or unsustainable for the vast majority of the population.

 A Yorkshire Terrier and a German Shepherd are both black and tan, and they both are of the same “species.” That doesn’t mean one can become the other’s size and weight – “if they just try hard enough!”

We are not all the same.
We do not all look the same.
We cannot all look the same, no matter how hard we might try.

This such a difficult concept to get people to understand and to remember.  It is the OPPOSITE of the lie that our Culture tells us every single day. The Diet Industry, in particular, would like us to keep believing that if we just do the right things, each of us can wake up one day with a Body that looks like a fashion, fitness, or other advertising model who is pictured online, or in magazines, television or movies. 

 It is important for each of us to understand and remember that this is a MYTH.
Although this might be true for a VERY small percentage of people with the right genetic makeup, it is simply not true in general. It is simply NOT TRUE for almost Everyone. 

We need to rise above this MYTH. In order to find peace, we need to ACCEPT our own genetic, physical, psychological, cultural, and behavioral differences. We each need to learn how to live with our own self, and to be happy with the specific body that each of us individually has.

I recently made changes to my Weight Range Maintenance Plan.

Previously the top black "Unacceptable" area was 126 lbs and over,
       (now the "Unacceptable" area is 130 lbs and over);
and the red "LoseWeight" area was 125-120,
       (now the "LoseWeight" area is 129-126 lbs)

The use of a visual image is an effective way to set specific goal-weight-range numbers into my mind and heart. I tell about how I created this graphic, and why, in a previous article, "Setting A Goal Range". 
See that article to see the original chart and the maintenance weights that I originally set for myself.

Over time I've adjusted the graphic to reflect my current realities.  See "Change in my Weight Range Maintenance Plan" for my previous changes to these numbers and the reason for making them. 

During this entire past year, despite consistent and continual ongoing low-calorie eating, together with keeping accurate daily records of my food intake in the computer food journal DietPower,  my weight has refused to drop down to my former maintenance levels. 

My body will not allow me to be as active here in my late 60s, and it also appears to need a great deal LESS food than it did in past years. Therefore I am again changing my Weight Range Maintenance Plan to reflect my current reality.

  See "Records: My Past 8 Years" for a detailed understanding of the relationship between my food-intake and my body-weight.  I am still keeping these type of records, and one of these days, I will do another post with updated information.