It’s a new year, and I know there are many of you who are taking the plunge into losing weight and getting fit. This is an arduous task that I equivocate to jumping from an airplane, feet first – but many fall flat on their face instead of landing on their feet. Over a year ago, I really settled into a groove with managing my weight and getting all of my numbers under control (blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, BMI) and I can honestly tell you that nothing makes me feel younger than staying in shape. But as I look around, I realize that more and more people are losing the battle with weight loss and their self-esteem is taking a plunge because of it.
I often wonder how overweight individuals feel when someone calls them fat, or when they see someone else who everyone considers to be skinny. Do they feel downcast, ashamed, riddled with self-pity that only makes them waddle into more of a downward spiral. Does lead to them engaging in more emotional eating in order to satisfy some inner craving to be accepted? I would, wouldn’t you? Let’s face it, no one wakes up every day and says to themselves, “You know what, today I’d like to me made fun of, teased, or gawked at.” It just doesn’t happen.
So why do people overeat? Some people are so emotionally scared that they eat food as an escape. Others overeat because of cultural norms. While some people are mere victims of their own family values, which teaches them to always clean their plates and consume foods that are high in saturated fats because that is all they can afford. Socioeconomics plays a key factor in the quality of the food people eat. We now know that it’s not just the quantity of the food we eat that dictates our weight gain, but the quality of the food. In some cases, quality is more of a factor.
I know I can’t change the world over night concerning these two circumstances, but I want to implore you (the reader) to try and do something for me. I want you to join hands with me and make an attempt to stop calling people fat. People are not fat. They may have an excess amount of or a redundancy of fatty tissue, but they are not fat. Overweight folks have muscles, bones, and most of all feelings, just like those who are not overweight. It may seem like a matter of semantics in which I am speaking, but people have to begin thinking differently if they are to overcome their shortcomings. Overweight family: you are not fat. You have fat on you yes, but you are angel, sent from God with purpose. You have the ability within you to accomplish so much more than you have. It starts with getting your health right, then being used to help others. If you are able to accomplish those things, then the sky is the limit. Don’t be a victim of the identity that society has placed on you.
Your identity is so much more than a visual image or a set of digits on a scale. You are a living being of purpose. Once you get yourself together and start conquering the goals you set, you will walk in victory and embrace with passion the destiny God has mapped out for you.
