Why don't people want to lose weight??

[ttdriver]

Sure I see the thin person in the mirror now that the fat goggles have gone away, but I still struggle to see myself as others do.

Yep, same here.

Betty

[Pam_C]

I could care less what I looked like. I had trained myself into saying that the only people that worry about it are doing it because everyone has their idea of what looks good. I had a husband who loved me and didn't care what everyone else thought. It was all about me. Then Daisy (my daughter) went running through wal mart and I chased after her and fell flat on my face in the express lane. Everyone laughed. What if we had been in the parking lot? She could have been hit and I could not have caught her. I spoke to the doctor and off I went down to Atkins land and have been here ever since.

[sidrah]

I don't think they want ot stay overweight. I think they are not afraid of being skinny, but afraid of failing at the trip to getting there and in turn, feeling like crap cause they failed again.

I would doubt you will find people who said they were afraid to be skinny if it was as easy as taking a pill and hopping up and down 5 times. It is not the end result that people fear, it is the getting there successfully that is hard. The difficulty makes is harder to succeed in the face of repeated failures. It's a slap in the face to fail and so it is easier not to be fat and filed, but jsut be fat.

[AllieCat0817]

It is hard. Anything worth having is worth working for.

[dreamof145]

I really believe that in order to do anything...you have to make a committment to yourself. I quit smoking 6 months before I started Atkins. Both were equally HARD to do, but both were for my health and I made the committment. I went into this knowing that it wasn't going to be a fly-by-night plan, that it was going to be a life-time committment. I was ready. I think until you are ready, all the good intentions in the world will fail. It takes a lot to change your life-style. Old habits are hard to break, so you have to really want the change and be willing to give up things that you've enjoyed.

Thank goodness if you follow the plan by the book...you get rid of the cravings. Thank goodness I listened to Dr. Atkins advice!!

Thank goodness there are others here at the ADBB who support and encourage you as you do make the changes.

For me...both were a lifesaver.

[shadewolf]

And who wants to own droppy mammarian appendages, saggy bottom and wibble wobble?

LoL you are so funny! That brightened my day

[bnzstar]

My humble opinion is that the vast majority of people try to avoid anything in life that might be difficult, uncomfortable and require lasting committment. It's something that's in all of us to varying degrees.

By that same token some people are only reactive and not proactive. They won't do certain things to prevent a problem...but when they hit rock bottom or hit crisis point then they'll decide to quit smoking, exercise, etc . And committment which requires a certain amount of consistency in behavior is generally why some people are succesful at weight loss (or anything else) is not a given for some people. They want this equation: work=reward= I can stop working now and keep getting the reward.. And there ain't much in life that works like that.

I'm guilty as ****. I will do everything I can to maintain between a 6-10 dress size (since it varies so much depending on designer), but I readily admit I aint willing to work hard enough to get a six pack, or that deep v thing at the pelvis, and a butt like granite.
I will work just hard enough to look thin on camera, get in my desired clothes and be able to see my chin and dimples ( I have round face that shows weight easily) see the space between my thighs, and have the inability to pinch an inch or jiggle anything, and an obvious indention between waist and hips and breasts---- but anything beyond that seems insurmountable to me. I just aint willng to go there--yet.

But for my best friend, just getting below 200 pounds, seems like the hardest thing in the world, so she puts it off and puts it off and makes excuses. She wants it but doesn't want to have to work for it, especially since she has to continue working to sustain the reward.

[Alienore]

This thread is a topic that interests me. I've been involved with Atkins since November of last year and although I am enjoying eating much more healthily than I have in YEARS - and I do mean years - I still every now and again reach for chocolate for a 'fix' and then afterwards think 'why am I doing this to myself'? I don't want to sabotage myself, I would love to be healthier but it is so very very hard to do this sometimes.

As I've said on a few other posts I have very low self-esteem and don't like myself very much at all. So it is hard to motivate myself to care about being healthy and eating sensibly and so on when part of me wonders why the **** am I doing this .... but the rest of me does want to be much more active and able than I have been in well over 20 years.

I need to work on motivating me so that I can get on with losing more weight as I keep on wobbling up and down the same couple of pounds and have done for a while.

Clothes are not motivation for me.... as long as I'm decently covered and what I'm wearing is clean that's all that matters to me. I've had what Cleochatra calls 'wibble wobble' for so long now that to me that is normal and I'm very much aware that it shouldn't be.

I'm so glad this forum is here and that people are here to talk to who UNDERSTAND what it's like trying to lose weight and keep it off and who won't patronise me like has happened before. I'll feel a lot better about me once I get the next three or four pounds off and with the exercise I'm doing on the 6week challenge I'm hoping that will happen soon - because then it will be much much easier to keep the momentum going.

Hope what I'm saying makes sense and that I'm not rambling on and talking rubbish.


Deborah

[mannamay]

My sister has the same problem...always getting down on herself, feels guilty a lot and not just with dieting, every second of her life she feels like she has to please to world. I am free spirited and at times, wish she could feel that as well and not worry about what everyone else sees or is thinking.

Amanda

[AllieCat0817]

My humble opinion is that the vast majority of people try to avoid anything in life that might be difficult, uncomfortable and require lasting committment. It's something that's in all of us to varying degrees.

By that same token some people are only reactive and not proactive. They won't do certain things to prevent a problem...but when they hit rock bottom or hit crisis point then they'll decide to quit smoking, exercise, etc . And committment which requires a certain amount of consistency in behavior is generally why some people are succesful at weight loss (or anything else) is not a given for some people. They want this equation: work=reward= I can stop working now and keep getting the reward.. And there ain't much in life that works like that.

I'm guilty as ****. I will do everything I can to maintain between a 6-10 dress size (since it varies so much depending on designer), but I readily admit I aint willing to work hard enough to get a six pack, or that deep v thing at the pelvis, and a butt like granite.
I will work just hard enough to look thin on camera, get in my desired clothes and be able to see my chin and dimples ( I have round face that shows weight easily) see the space between my thighs, and have the inability to pinch an inch or jiggle anything, and an obvious indention between waist and hips and breasts---- but anything beyond that seems insurmountable to me. I just aint willng to go there--yet.

But for my best friend, just getting below 200 pounds, seems like the hardest thing in the world, so she puts it off and puts it off and makes excuses. She wants it but doesn't want to have to work for it, especially since she has to continue working to sustain the reward.

So very well written. Super.

[Miss Seaneen]

It's absolutely bloody terrifying. I got bigger and bigger, but couldn't face it, wouldn't see it. I hit rock bottom and then decided something needed to be done. I thought, "Oh, it's only a diet, losing weight, it's easy". And then came the crashing realisation- "No more chocolate bars for you again, no more nipping out to the shops to buy a packet of crisps". And that gripped me in such white hot fear and despair which then led to- "This is only food. I am a slave to this." And that's more so what I wanted to do, break the cycle of being a slave to sugar. That was the terrifying part, realising you are actually addicted to something, that you MUST give it up in order to lose weight and be healthy. And when that throws you into despair, you realise you have a problem. You realise this isn't harmless indulgence, you are stuck in a cycle. And the only choices you have are to face up to it or ignore it. And ignoring it is easier.

[Miss Seaneen]

I'm guilty as ****. I will do everything I can to maintain between a 6-10 dress size (since it varies so much depending on designer), but I readily admit I aint willing to work hard enough to get a six pack, or that deep v thing at the pelvis, and a butt like granite.
I will work just hard enough to look thin on camera, get in my desired clothes and be able to see my chin and dimples ( I have round face that shows weight easily) see the space between my thighs, and have the inability to pinch an inch or jiggle anything, and an obvious indention between waist and hips and breasts---- but anything beyond that seems insurmountable to me. I just aint willng to go there--yet.

And agreed here. But I will be one day.

[ttdriver]

And then came the crashing realisation- "No more chocolate bars for you again, no more nipping out to the shops to buy a packet of crisps". And that gripped me in such white hot fear and despair which then led to- "This is only food. I am a slave to this." And that's more so what I wanted to do, break the cycle of being a slave to sugar. That was the terrifying part, realising you are actually addicted to something, that you MUST give it up in order to lose weight and be healthy.

Yep, having to give it up is a crashing realization all right! But once you do, you realize what true freedom feels like!

Betty

[dreamof145]

But, the good thing about Atkins is that...

On other DIETS, I always felt sorry for myself because I couldn't eat this or that, but with Atkins, I am thrilled that I can eat this way and not feel like I am being deprived. I am never hungry and sorry for myself.

[**Nikki**]

But, the good thing about Atkins is that...

On other DIETS, I always felt sorry for myself because I couldn't eat this or that, but with Atkins, I am thrilled that I can eat this way and not feel like I am being deprived. I am never hungry and sorry for myself.

I totally agree!!