Fat is an Industry

Nobody who is not obese can know what that kind of suffering is like. Movies like Shallow Hall should be applauded for attempting to allow a thin audience to see what it’s like to be fat, and I think this kind of movie always falls a bit short of the real thing because there is no way to wrap up into one movie all the innuendoes of feeling that a fat person suffers.

The suffering includes emotions I wish on no one: fear, doubt, insecurity, less-than, not-good-enough – I believe I can stop here, because if you are fat, you know all the rest that go on that list and why beat a dead horse.

I get so angry when I watch those manipulative commercials on the television. They prey on our bad feelings. Those bad feelings of ours are the very thing that make fat an industry. They are the very things that you might consider correcting so that you no longer are tempted to pour more money down what I think is a bottomless pit without real solution for your problem.

Have you noticed that the commercial for the pill that used to cost $150 and is now only $75 has no testimonials saying it works? Have you wondered why? I have fruitlessly spent a lot of money on pills and clubs and spas and books and those supermarket magazines that promise THE CURE-ALL every issue. Surely you are able to see their marketing pattern behind the headlines?

You can strengthen your inner self so that you are not tempted to waste your money. If you will candidly do a mental inventory and write down a list of the bad-feeling emotions from which you suffer, you have a starting place to begin to be able to funnel your money into more enjoyable things for yourself.

If you can then look at each item on the list and think your way through from the line item to it’s exact opposite, you will set yourself free. Let’s look at an example so you can see what I mean.

My own list contained a lot of fears by many different names and one huge doubt – the doubt that I was good enough. We’ll use that one for our example. What is the opposite of the doubt that I was good enough? Being good enough, right? I asked myself what the steps between the two might be and then I asked myself lots of questions. I wrote down all my answers.

• Do I have to become good or is there some part of me that is already good?
• What are the already parts of me that are good?
• How long is that list?
• If I’m not good, is it possible to become good?
• What would I have to do to become good?
• Am I willing to do whatever it takes?
• What if I have to give up on some of my favorite comfort things?
• Can I live with giving them up and feeling uncomfortable?
• What would be the payoff for feeling uncomfortable temporarily?
• How do I know it would be temporary?
• What if it’s forever? Argggghhhhh!
• Why do I have this doubt?
• Am I blaming it on someone else or did I grow it myself?
• If I blame it on someone else, who accepted their ideas?
• If I grew it myself, am I willing to yank it out by the roots, this baby of mine?
• Can I make a list of the things I know I am good about?
• Can I recognize when I’m doubting myself and then can I stop doing it?

For me, the savior has always been Asking Questions. When I want to make corrections in my life, and I start asking myself questions, I eventually reach a settled sense of understanding and salvation from my previous erring ideas. I have learned that the only thing I had to do to find peace, acceptance and love was to change the previous ideas I had held as true because it was those ideas that made me uncomfortable.

Please use my questions and provide some answers for yourself. As you do this work, you will become more comfortable within yourself and you will not feel the need to spend your money on outside resources that have no permanent healing power.