August 2006 Archives
Nope. No lectures from me about how the upcoming obesity vaccine is the easy way out. I probably differ from other non-dieting gurus on this.
After all, if you were an alcoholic and you could get a pill to keep you sober, would you take the pill? Of course you would. Maybe you wouldn't kill anyone on the road. And you wouldn't have to abandon your family to go to endless AA meetings anymore.
Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get the picture.
The easy way out? You bet it is. And what a relief. So is dentistry instead of avoiding sugar. And so is a pill to lower your blood pressure instead of changing your diet, becoming an athlete, and meditating your stress away. So are allergy shots instead of moving to Arizona.
We all take the easy way out in every way we can, don't we? Isn't life hard enough? Let's solve the problems we do have control over. That's why I'm not against gastric bypass surgery, either. A friend of mine might have died of a heart attack the year he got his bypass surgery. I'm so glad he took the route he did.
Some things in life are so difficult that working through them is too much of a burden. Some folks go through life adjusting to their blindness, and then they get cornea transplants. Is that wimpy? I call it fortunate. Why CAN'T we have an obesity vaccine?
Of course, right now it's still under development, and it's not clear how soon it will be ready for public use, but it is real. It's not somebody's pipe dream.
Imagine our children never having to deal with obesity. Wouldn't you want that? Doesn't its possibility make your own life look unduly hard by comparison? The fact that it's on its way is reason for us to shed any excess guilt. Folks who struggle with obesity have hard lives--there's no way around that fact.
So shed the guilt. Then accept yourself exactly as you are. And find your hunger and fullness signals. It's all we have control over right now. Learning normal eating could even lead to weight reduction.
And remembering that one day there will be a cure is ample reason to go easy on yourself.
