The Slimming Pool Weight Loss Blog: Hey, I was Eating That!
Monday, September 20, 2004
Mental Toughness for Weight Loss or Bully?
I had an e-mail with a link to something called Mental Toughness, so I checked it out and I cannot believe it. If you don't already disparage yourself enough, this is the program to get. It apparently is based on the premise that if they tell you how bad you are, you'll start to feel bad enough to decide to make a change.
For instance, here's a headline: "It's not the diet that's failing...It's YOU!"
Nice but wrong. Temporary diets do not work and never will. Nothing but what you do regularly is going to have a lasting impact, so to tell someone that it's not the diet but them is flat out stupid. Who in their right mind needs someone to tell them they are a failure? Apparently these folks get people to pay them money for this, under the guise of "mental toughness." That's not mental toughness. Mental toughness is learning to stop speaking in a cruel and disparaging manner to yourself. It is taking responsibility for your actions, yes, but not belittling yourself over a lapse in your eating plan. We are human beings here folks, not robots. Geeze.
So, a quick glance through the rest of his sales letter tells me that I'm fat, I'm lazy, I didn't stick to the last diet or I'd be thin, I'm delusional about how I really look, fat is ugly (so I guess that makes me ugly?), and that I should grow up. Does anyone like being treated like this?
It gets better. Clicking on the "Sign me Up. I don't want to be fat" button, I see this course is $497! Holy rip-off Batman!
Maybe I'm wrong and people like being treated this way, but frankly, I think it's horrible. The real problem with diet plans like this is that they perpetuate the illusion that unless you are perfect, you will not succeed. Oh, really? I'd love to meet these folks on the street. Chances are they are not perfect specimens themselves. No one is. Bet they're real fun to live with too! LOL.
You'll make the best progress in your weight loss efforts by allowing yourself a lapse when it occurs. It's no big deal. Just get right back in gear the next time you eat. One lapse does not a whole-day-lost make, unless you let it. It's when you feel you've failed that the, "I might as well just eat everything now since I already blew it," syndrome begins.
Without feeling like you must be perfect you give yourself permission to be human. Pull yourself up and stand tall. I believe you deserve better than what "mental toughness" is offering.
