UK government obesity strategy

sportygal1971

Why can't there be government incentives? Free gym memberships, health and wellness programs or services. I want the freedom to see ads, to walk in a store and see soda and chips. Banning stuff doesn't make it go away. Can we say banning drugs has worked?
Speaking from America, people are overworked and overstressed, and don't have tools to drop weight. Sad, but American docs rather medicate you than give you tools to improve health.

Diatonic12

We can have the answers to absolutely everything and still not be able to do anything.

Each of us needs to take full responsibility for ourselves. No one can do this for us or motivate us or inspire us. It's too exhausting for friends and family to prop us UP. We live in the land of abundance and we have grown accustomed to immediate gratification by entertaining ourselves with playfoods.

When anyone says I'm going to need you to keep me accountable by doing this, that and the other. I need you to do this for me...they're usually long gone within a week or two. Sometimes, they're here one day and gone the next.

This is not a competition. Our body is the best friend we'll ever have in this life. It hangs in there for every food protocol and means of overcompensation that we put it through. We put our body through the paces and there it stands like a faithful friend trying to unravel all of the dieting dogma and mind warp we throw at it.

Obesity and diabetes go hand in hand. It's now one out of three. All of the diets in the world haven't fixed it because the antidote becomes the problem. I live out in the country. I simply take it back outside and it's all free.

It's not the body that's the problem, it's the brain.

When you find yourself at the crossroads because you've eaten it all back or you've reached the highest weight you've ever been in your entire lifetime, ask yourself some serious questions.

What was going through your brain while you were in the process of eating it all back. Why wasn't your brain able to stop you from going on that eating excursion. Not. One. Single. Time. It could be a day. A month. A year. A decade.

Why is your body required to endure some brutally strict food protocol with massive amounts of exercise to overcompensate for the brain. Why?

Why weren't you able to pull yourself back from the brink? You have to figure these things out without massive rationalization and excuses. If you don't, rebound weight gain with friends can show right back up on your doorstep when you're not looking.


It's not the body, it's the brain that needs retraining tools.

AnnPT77

sportygal1971 wrote: »

Why can't there be government incentives? Free gym memberships, health and wellness programs or services. I want the freedom to see ads, to walk in a store and see soda and chips. Banning stuff doesn't make it go away. Can we say banning drugs has worked?
Speaking from America, people are overworked and overstressed, and don't have tools to drop weight. Sad, but American docs rather medicate you than give you tools to improve health.

Part of that issue is that the typical consumer actively wants that quick-fix pill. Many doctors tell people to lose weight, exercise, or eat more healthfully, and the majority of people don't do it. Some other patients tell their doctor they'll lose weight, exercise, or improve their eating rather than take a drug, but they're back for the next check-up at the same or higher weight, and same health issues. (I personally did the latter for at least a couple of years, probably more, regarding statins.)

The visibly high level of emotion in my doctor and his nurse-assistant's astonished reaction when I came in around 30 pounds lighter after a 6-month period tells me that this is not a common thing they see. They weren't just congratulatory, they were *stunned*.

Any number of my friends "want to lose weight" but "just can't". I know enough about their lifestyles and attitudes to be fairly certain that the main reason they can't is that they don't *really* want to, enough to change habits. They're waiting for "easy". (I was in the same state for about 3 decades, so the signs are familiar.)

I can't really blame doctors when many of them go straight to the medication solution. Years of the above experience would wear a person down to "why bother" - maybe moreso if the doctor hasn't established a healthy routine for him/herself.

We can argue that the medical establishment has trained us to expect the quick pill fix, but at best it's a circular argument. We train them that we won't change behavior, so they should recommend the pill; their recommending the pill trains us to want and expect it.

Personally, I don't prefer to adopt viewpoints that paint me as a victim, when another interpretation is reasonably valid IMO. Victimhood as a viewpoint is disempowering, for me.

Edited: Typos

Theoldguy1

sportygal1971 wrote: »

Why can't there be government incentives? Free gym memberships, health and wellness programs or services. I want the freedom to see ads, to walk in a store and see soda and chips. Banning stuff doesn't make it go away. Can we say banning drugs has worked?
Speaking from America, people are overworked and overstressed, and don't have tools to drop weight. Sad, but American docs rather medicate you than give you tools to improve health.

Also speaking for the US.

Why can't there be some personal responsibility/accountability and lose the victim mentality? Putting less food in one's mouth and going for a walk are steps that most can do to control weight. Gym memberships can be had for $10 a month so not a barrier to entry for most (and places like the YMCA will have "scholarships who can't afford memberships).