For a fair few years, many moons ago now, each week I played netball and soccer, went to soccer training, walked/jogged every night for an hour or more (up and down huge hills), went to the gym every other day, and walked whenever I could (took the stairs instead of the lift, parked my car at the far end of the shopping centre carpark etc.).
First I became a vegetarian, then a vegan, then a wheat-free vegan. It took me six months to lose a whole 5kg.
![The diet industry, and society at large, is trying to force us to be all one shape and size.](/web/20161121050809im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/q/v/4/0/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsqukj.png/1479284413866.jpg)
Sure, I was fitter than I had ever been in my life, but I also suffered the consequences. I tore cartilage in my left knee, broke a finger, jarred the rest of my fingers and toes, irritated tendons around my hip, was concussed a few times, got bursitis and tennis elbow, and by the end of the saga, I was completely exhausted. I had barely any iron or B12 left in my body and the final straw came when I collapsed on the treadmill at the gym.
All because I kept being told by society, and myself, that I was too fat and had to "do something about it", because being 20kg overweight in a society that glorifies thin as the ideal means that I am clearly evil and it's all my own fault. Obviously we fatties dine on Maccas for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with snacks of donuts, desserts of ice cream, and chocolate cake for morning and afternoon tea. Not a vegetable passes our lips. We don't exercise enough. We are not trying hard enough to lose the excess weight.
Oh, have you tried eating more meat and less carbs? You should just eat according to your blood type. Calories in, calories out; that's the only way. Have you tried the latest juice detox? Exercise a lot and stop eating pasta. Well, I lost weight by simply giving up sugar; you should try that, it's easy! I knew this guy who lost 30kg by walking around the block each night and not drinking beer anymore. Have you tried the latest raw food smoothie, complete with blueberries, almond milk, and kale (they're all superfoods, don't you know)? Latest research shows that butter and full-fat dairy products are good for you. I gave up meat and I lost 15kg! Have you tried fermented foods yet?
Maybe it's the timing? Have you tried eating like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch, and a pauper at dinner? Well, the latest research shows that you should have 5-6 smaller meals a day. My cousin's sister-in-law lost 30kg by simply skipping breakfast. Have you tried the 5:2? Apparently eating the French way is best: 3 full meals a day and no snacking. Fasting is the way of the future, after all.
What, you've tried all of that and more? Well, take my advice: you're obviously having too much sugar, fat, meat, beans, butter, oil, potatoes, bananas, carrots, cheese, grapes, bread, wine, nuts, coffee, processed foods, white flour, rice, avocados.
Take a walk every day for 30 minutes at least four times a week. Climb mountains and jog for three hours each evening. Oh no, don't you know that the latest research says that too much exercise is actually bad for you? Yoga worked for my girlfriend. I lost 20kg simply by taking up white water rafting on the weekends.
I'm tired. I'm tired of all this utter bollocks. The diet industry, and society at large, is trying to force us to be all one shape and size; much like asking a labrador to be a chihuahua, it ain't gonna happen. Can't we all just accept this and move on? Obesity is a difficult beast to understand; in fact, not even science – let alone doctors, nutritionists, gym bunnies, dieticians, naturopaths, and other "health experts", has all the answers.
All I know is that fat-blaming is not the answer. Do you really think that each and every person who is overweight doesn't know that they are overweight? Don't you think we have read all the latest research voraciously (probably the only thing we've ingested all day, really), and tried a million different ways to lose the excess kilos? Do you think we have not tried your "simple" way of losing weight? Do you think we haven't tried (and failed) every diet or "healthy eating" plan there is, and even tried making up ones of our own?
I am a labrador. Deal with it.
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