the world looks different

Success stories are my favorite alleyway in MFP. Like a lot of others on this site I love reading about those who've been through the process and come out on the other side with fabulous results. I spend an inordinate amount of time reading these success stories and viewing the before/after pictures, and one impression keeps pounding into my head, one lesson that is driven home each day I see a fresh batch of posts, one resounding trumpet of news and encouragement:

DON"T COUNT YOURSELF OUT!

It seems that all kinds of people have been successful, from the morbidly obese to the moderately overweight, male and female, young and old, depressed and optimistic, happily and unhappily mated, hispanic, caucasian, black, asian, you name it race, creed, etc -- there are success stories here that YOU CAN RELATE TO.

One of the mental hurdles that dieters face is typology -- thinking that there are some types of people who are naturally skinny or can easily lose weight... "but not me". These success stories are myth-shattering and excuse-exploding. Whatever your situation in life, if you dig about in the success stories forum you will find one (or more) in a similar situation who has been able to put aside the barriers and make it happen.

Some folks lose it fast. Some lose it more slowly. Some exercise vigorously, some only diet. Some drop steadily, others plateau. Some fall of the wagon and get back on, others are steady and consistent. But once they get back into it and stick to it, it happens.

It makes me think of many things. I think about bears chowing down before the winter hibernation, building fat stores for the winter. Once they go into their long sleep, the absence of food starts its inevitable work on those fatty tissues. They go into the cave overstuffed and come out sleek. Less food, weight loss.

I think of a woman in a coma, without motion or awareness, not even trying, hooked to a feeding tube or a glucose bag. The doctors figure her necessary intake of calories and adjust the flow of nourishment. Her body continues to pump blood, breathe oxygen, metabolize macronutrients... this person is completely idle... but what would happen if the nutritionist dropped her calorie intake by 10%? Slowly, steadily, the patient's store of fat and muscle would break down to create the energy necessary to maintain her body's basic functions. Less food, weight loss.

I think (forgive me) of prisoners in a German concentration camp, their captors calculating how much food to give and withhold and how much to work the inmates... calculating the number of calories to keep them alive just enough to drag out their doom over time. Those people slowly became pencil thin and starved. The liberated survivors stare at us horrifically through those allied photos and films. It was grim, it was perverse, it was inhuman and damnable, but it also proved something -- calorie restriction for good or evil produces the results. Less food, weight loss.

Now that I've had some success myself and see it vividly and frequently here -- especially in pictures -- I see the world around me with new eyes. I used to see people in physical categories with little hope of change. Person A is skinny, person B is chubby, person C has big thighs, person D has cellulite, double chin, sagging arms, etc. etc. etc. These people were stuck, like me. Now each and every overweight person I see I can't help but imagine their frames shrinking, their stomachs retreating, their thighs dwindling, their extra chins dissolving, their skin becoming sleek, their hips narrowing, their fingers, wrists, and ankles losing puffiness, their energy levels increasing, their clothes getting loose, their muscles becoming toned and strong, their outlook changing, their despair being lifted.

I gotta tell ya, it's quite an experience in my mind to walk through a Wal-Mart these days.