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First of all, is weight control healthy? Shouldn’t we just love our bodies unconditionally and feel confident? How skinny is too skinny? Is being fat bad? …

Nowadays, one has to be very careful in answering the above questions. Lots of political correctness involved here. I believe weight control is very necessary, and being physically fit is beautiful. After all, we control the length, color and curvature of our hairs (which are essentially some dead cells) - so why not our weight and shape?

All shapes are created equal;
but certain shapes are more equal and better received by the society.

If you cannot easily change the society, work on changing yourself. At least that was what I decided to do when being called “fat” the first time in my life (while I was in the high school).

It was hard but I have been doing well. Many friends asked me about the “tricks”. Here are some thoughts:

• Be consistent. keep it in mind that our actions can cancel each other. I recently went to a party and saw this lady who drank diet coke, ate sugarless candies, and claimed to workout every day. It made me wonder why she was over-weighted, until it came to the cake time - she picked up the largest chunk and started eating like a child! There are so many things one can do to completely offset the weight control efforts. A cup of coffee can be equivallent of a greasy burger; a can of soda can have a little “pile” of table sugar; a “healthy” vegi salad can be soaked in oily dressing… Know what you eat and drink, at all times. It’s not what you do, but the net result of what you do.
• Be knowledgable. There are too many experts on this subject that the advice is confusing, misleading, and even harmful. You have to understand there is no magic here. The bottom line is what is taken in must either get out or get stored inside. Three things to remember: (1) we have a requirement of essential nutritions, so never starve yourself. (2) the more you take in and the less you give out, the more likely you will gain weight. So eat wisely and exercise more. (3) there is something that is controlled by our genetics. Some people are more efficient in converting energy into fat storage. So be realistic and tackle your unique challenge.
• Be firm. It may not be easy. Make it a life long effort and learn to enjoy it.
• Don’t go extremes. For example, carb is loaded of sugars. Is it bad? Yes, if you eat a lot; no if you eat a little. Fruits have lots of vitamins and fibers. Is it good?  Yes if you eat moderately; no if you eat too much, as fruits also contain sugars. Fat is pretty bad, right? But we all need a little fat on a daily basis in order for certain vitamins to be absorbed and utilized by the body.

In a sense, it doesn’t matter what you eat - it’s the difference between the energy you eat in and the energy you release. The law of universe states that energy cannot be destroyed, but transform from one form to another.

    - if you release less than what you take in, you gain weight;
    - if you release more than what you take in, you lose weight;
    - if you release exactly what you take in, you change not.

And on top of everything, if you don’t take in the essential nutritions demanded by your body, your health will suffer.

It’s all up to you. It’s that simple.

Posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2007; filed under Weight Control. You can follow responses to this entry via the RSS 2.0 feed. You can also trackback from your own site.
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