Man, I have gotten myself in trouble.
I have come to my senses multiple times since the first time I lost weight, at 17 I lost 40 pounds; from 245-205. Then it was 275-235 at 21, then 305-235 at 24, then 325-285 at 30, then 350-320 at 31. Always higher. Damn.
I have gotten bigger, filled out frame-wise a lot since 16, of course, but I should be about 240 with moderate muscle-tone. And at what my weight was to start, I will be trying to lose 170 pounds total, waaaayy over any amount I have lost before. Do I need to tell you it's a little daunting?
My favorite trick my mind plays is, "oh, c'mon, you're a big guy. You're supposed to be big. Big guys need food." (Grunt in appropriate places) That and firmly pushing any bad thoughts about what I was doing to myself out of my mind. Women suffer from society's unrealistic expectations about body image, then become depressed because they cannot attain it and give up causing an endless cycle of dieting. Men diet much less frequently because it is somehow more socially acceptable for men to be fat. I have literally only dieted on 3 of the 5 occasions listed above, the other 2 were just lifting and working out.
Society allows men to continue to deceive ourselves. Check that. It's not society's fault that I or anybody else is fat. We did this to ourselves. Society just does not point it out to us, even puts it in a favorable light occasionally. And so we are caught in a trap just as dangerous as what women are subjected to. We use this image of the stocky, happy guy, the AVERAGE JOE, to deceive ourselves horribly. We see ourselves as regular guys, and we are, but we have this hidden self that isn't. This self-destructive hidden self is part of everyone, we just have let it take over.
It's the part of ourselves that would be perfectly happy if we weighed 500 pounds and died of a stroke, all the while saying, "C'mon, big guys are supposed to be big. Big guys EAT!". The same way alcoholics say, "C'mon it's just a few drinks!"
Men always see themselves as being in better shape than they really are and women always think they are fatter than they really are. Stone truth. I guess Confucius missed that one. And so we men deceive ourselves until one day or over a few days something happens to shake us out of that lie. That voice has become a bigger and bigger part of our minds until it literally takes an earthquake to get through.
The problem is, you don't just have to defeat it once. Everyone who has lost weight, achieved their goals, then gained it back knows what I am talking about. "I will never be fat again!" Then we get tired of the grind of constantly watching what we eat, and slowly let that voice back in, little by little, using every excuse in the book, every life change, every holiday to give that lie more reign.
That's why we need healthy to become a lifestyle. Yes, we can let loose occasionally, but we always have to keep an eye on the lies we tell ourselves, to always honestly assess where we are, or we will gain it all back.
And more.
I didn't mean for this to be a blog about men's weight issues (the causes are the same, only the reason for lying to ourselves is different), just saying what's on my mind. I'm currently doing well, down 30 pounds in 7 weeks, but am struggling to make this a seamless part of my life. And it will be for a long time. I just need to remind myself how much better I feel after only 30 pounds, and what my goals are. Until next time-
I have come to my senses multiple times since the first time I lost weight, at 17 I lost 40 pounds; from 245-205. Then it was 275-235 at 21, then 305-235 at 24, then 325-285 at 30, then 350-320 at 31. Always higher. Damn.
I have gotten bigger, filled out frame-wise a lot since 16, of course, but I should be about 240 with moderate muscle-tone. And at what my weight was to start, I will be trying to lose 170 pounds total, waaaayy over any amount I have lost before. Do I need to tell you it's a little daunting?
My favorite trick my mind plays is, "oh, c'mon, you're a big guy. You're supposed to be big. Big guys need food." (Grunt in appropriate places) That and firmly pushing any bad thoughts about what I was doing to myself out of my mind. Women suffer from society's unrealistic expectations about body image, then become depressed because they cannot attain it and give up causing an endless cycle of dieting. Men diet much less frequently because it is somehow more socially acceptable for men to be fat. I have literally only dieted on 3 of the 5 occasions listed above, the other 2 were just lifting and working out.
Society allows men to continue to deceive ourselves. Check that. It's not society's fault that I or anybody else is fat. We did this to ourselves. Society just does not point it out to us, even puts it in a favorable light occasionally. And so we are caught in a trap just as dangerous as what women are subjected to. We use this image of the stocky, happy guy, the AVERAGE JOE, to deceive ourselves horribly. We see ourselves as regular guys, and we are, but we have this hidden self that isn't. This self-destructive hidden self is part of everyone, we just have let it take over.
It's the part of ourselves that would be perfectly happy if we weighed 500 pounds and died of a stroke, all the while saying, "C'mon, big guys are supposed to be big. Big guys EAT!". The same way alcoholics say, "C'mon it's just a few drinks!"
Men always see themselves as being in better shape than they really are and women always think they are fatter than they really are. Stone truth. I guess Confucius missed that one. And so we men deceive ourselves until one day or over a few days something happens to shake us out of that lie. That voice has become a bigger and bigger part of our minds until it literally takes an earthquake to get through.
The problem is, you don't just have to defeat it once. Everyone who has lost weight, achieved their goals, then gained it back knows what I am talking about. "I will never be fat again!" Then we get tired of the grind of constantly watching what we eat, and slowly let that voice back in, little by little, using every excuse in the book, every life change, every holiday to give that lie more reign.
That's why we need healthy to become a lifestyle. Yes, we can let loose occasionally, but we always have to keep an eye on the lies we tell ourselves, to always honestly assess where we are, or we will gain it all back.
And more.
I didn't mean for this to be a blog about men's weight issues (the causes are the same, only the reason for lying to ourselves is different), just saying what's on my mind. I'm currently doing well, down 30 pounds in 7 weeks, but am struggling to make this a seamless part of my life. And it will be for a long time. I just need to remind myself how much better I feel after only 30 pounds, and what my goals are. Until next time-
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