describe obesity in your opinion ?

@saynow111

Between the ages of 1 and 7, our brains are being programmed by our environments and parents. If our parents valued education we lean towards valuing an education, too. Our parents and environments limit or expand our horizons on every front.

Throw in some good teachers and mentors and our personalities take on their meaningful contributions. All of them. Their beliefs become programmed into our unconscious minds when we are very young children. Sigh and alas, the same is true for characteristics of dysfunctional families. The apples don't fall far from the trees.

All of this applies to our relationship with food. Those first seven years are vital to our relationship with food. For example, after a big weight loss we can try to convince ourselves that we will never fall back into our old eating patterns until we do.

The honeymoon effect after the big weight loss is over. Again. Our behaviors with food are programmed into our subconscious mind. They influence or undermine all of our efforts moving forward. Our subconscious programming affects every area of our life and the way we handle every relationship with others. @saynow111, so much of this stuff is mental.

We find ourselves at the crossroads when our prior food programming no longer meshes with our goals or what we really want out of life. No one has all of the answers but here's the silver lining. We don't have to go at it alone. Connection matters. We can find teachers and mentors, coaches and trainers and medical professionals that can help us fill in all of the holes and gaps in our thinking about food and exercise.

We can learn to moderate ourselves with food. We can pull ourselves out of the deeper holes we keep digging for ourselves with food. We can. It takes focus and a strong desire to change. How bad do we really want it? When you reach that crossroads, you're going to take the bull by the horns and get it done.

Your past relationship with food will no longer serve you. You're ready for your change to come.

Obesity = uncomfortable & unhealthy & unsightly, the latter the least important. The 1st 2 are why I'd never gain more than 10-lbs before righting myself. Besides, I refuse to buy larger clothes... it's too expensive to have multiple sized wardrobes & buying the next size up every few months is the incentive to keep gaining.

In the few times I've gained 10-lbs, always after surgery which left me immobile for some time, I endure too tight clothing & being uncomfortable as incentive to lose the weight fast & fit into all my current clothing bought with my hard earned dollars.

It's simple for me because I have strong self control with everything, but also come from a tall, lean family, so being overweight isn't in my genetic makeup. But, we sometimes sway the opposite way... being too thin. Both my sisters had eating disorders.

Harkening back to what @Diatonic12 said, I grew up in a family with far too many people & far too little money, with a mum who never stopped screaming that the kids ate too much so it was imminent that we'd all starve to death. It was never ending & the message was clear that we didn't deserve much of < fill in any word about any subject >

To this day, I feel guilty eating too much... & sometimes, just eating.

It took me a long time to find balance in some areas of my life... with others, there's little.

@TarryTaffyTwo

It's that early programming that gives us a big pinch or conflicts with our goals. Some of us will wrestle against it but we can overcome it. Our early programming doesn't have to hold us back. It's a choice. There's only choices and consequences. You're correct, we have to find our balance.