The MakeMeThinner Support Forum

[Carrie]

Ok, just for giggles - I thought I'd share with you my most outrageous/silly/dumb rationalization for why it was ok for me to be fat.

I actually thought once "Yah, but if I'm stranded on a deserted island or some survivor situation, I'm good to go for months with these reserves!"

sheesh

What's yours?

Carrie

[Nancy]

Aren'tcha glad to be able to give up some of those reserves now that you are Medifasting?

I know that now you'll have to deal with Fear of Deserts...

Hmm...Fear of Deserts could rival those Eatmares where we have Fear of Desserts!

[DutchChoc]

Carrie, I'm right where you've been with that idea. I've already calculated the potential harm of losing my "protective gear" in any forthcoming time of famine. Obviously if it was keeping me alive during these past six weeks on shakes, it was being put to use; however, it IS a use that is unlikely to be any real advantage. I voluntarily instigated this food shortage just to get rid of the stuff.

It's good hearing from you! I've been kinda wishing someone would take off into a fairly complex discussion and maybe this will be it. You always have good posts/ideas. I feel a bit like I'm in the outer limits of denial today. For one, I've been hungry frequently through shake 5 and this is feeling like a bit more work than usual. Even so, given a rather mundane day with significant numbers of negative thoughts and stimuli, it's only a "day", and I'm counting on a more usual day tomorrow.

[hawaiiwhatnot]

Carrie,

This is an interesting subject. I love the subject line too "The Outer Limits of Denial" Reminds me of that old old tv show, The Outer Limits. SCARRY!!!

My denial is the ability to see myself correctly. I wish I had the ability to see myself outside of myself. You know, like a dancer who's dancing could actually see themselves doing it and be just as graceful and beautiful as they want. Some people have that ability to look at themselves outside of themselves, but not me. I don't think I can even see myself correctly. I'm always looking for a more proper reflection, a better one. Like I'm never happy? I don't what that is about, but it has to do with body image, and maybe I played with Barbie dolls too much. Who knows. I struggle with it, but getting skinnier makes me so much happier. I'm getting better as I get older. Some things improve with age.

Camille

[explorthis]

Easy… Since I was always the “Jumbo” guy, and liked to eat “Jumbo”, I thought being large, and ordering large portions justified that, since I was Fat, it was OK to order BIG. Hey, big equals big, and this was my normal justification!

-Mike

[Nancy]

Dutch -

I've been hungry frequently through shake 5 and this is feeling like a bit more work than usual

Just a quickie - if you are feeling hungrier, methinks perhaps you need another shake per day. If you are consuming but five a day, you would do well with six or even seven if you are unusually active. If weight loss slows down somewhat and hunger rears its ugly head, it is a sign that you are in need of more shakes - are you slurpin' 55s or 70s? If it's 55, definitely have another shake - just space them out evenly throughout the day.

re: Jumbo Sizing it - I wanted to always "get my $'s worth."

I wanted to enjoy it all, just in case there wouldn't be any more of it at a later time.

I never looked at my full-length image in the mirror - just the necks and chins up...NOT a pretty sight...

[DutchChoc]

Yes, that's what I did -- had six today, and I'll be OK for now. I know I could be wrong, but I think it's directly proportional to whether I go get my exercise or not, which I've done the past three consecutive days. Today, taking a breather to slow that aspect down, if it's related. They're 55s... almost forgot to answer that.

Here's another fattitude from my stores -- being bigger than necessary somehow reduces the chance of attack and/or reduces general vulnerability by warding off predators.

[Landylue]

I had to laugh at the "jumbo" portion remark, Mike. I ordered a large chicken fried steak one time (35 years ago!) when I didn't think the small chicken fried steak would have been enough. I asked the waitress if the steak was a 'good size' piece of meat, and she assured me that "ALL the truckers ordered it!" So, to this day, it is still a joke between my husband and I when we refer to a 'truckers' portion.

As far as a justification for being fat, my honest to God number one reason was that your heart gets broken far less when you're not attractive to the opposite sex. You are lonlier, by far, but no one comes close enough to rip the heart right out of your chest.

By the way, DANG, Nancy, GREAT picture in those leather pants!

Landylue

[Nancy]

Landy said,

As far as a justification for being fat, my honest to God number one reason was that your heart gets broken far less when you're not attractive to the opposite sex. You are lonlier, by far, but no one comes close enough to rip the heart right out of your chest.

My weight ‘issues’ started just after a terrible incident that I encountered when I was a senior in high school. When I began to feel vulnerable, I created flab and then hid behind my flab.

When people got too close to me – men, in particular, I reached into the bag or bowl and I scarfed.

I think that I am finally over it. I have learned to displace my anger and fears in positive ways now – not self-destructive ways and have learned to trust men, to trust myself and am truly set free to be ME: Leopard Woman!

Fooders never ever changed my situation, didn’t erase the past event, and only made my life worse – MUCH worser!

Fooders tripled my chins, increased the size of my batwings and encased my organs in flab.

Some of you can relate to my situation; others will relate to stocking up in case of being stranded on Carrie’s Island, or to self-justify and live up to your image of being a Jumbo Jungle Stud like our dear Mike or just for some other sort of self-preservation protector of self.

Landy, why is it that we are willing to risk being lonely – deep down in our heart of hearts lonely – that we would rather be lonely and impose a type of self-exile than to be vulnerable and possibly need a heart transplant?

Often we live our lives in the "If only" mode, (You know, "If only that didn't happen, If only I had blahdy-blahdy-blah..") or the "What If" mode -"What if he...what if I...”

I have made a decision: It is NOT the easy or convenient life for which I search…but life lived to the edge of all my possibility! mary anne radmacher

I suppose if we were to know all the answers to our pressing question of WHY in the World AM I FAT? that we would never ever have allowed flab to happen.

I just know that in a very short moment of time, an undisciplined donkey-hearted selfish man changed the life of an innocent 16 year old girl.

He changed my life - how I felt about myself and how I viewed others.

I cannot change what happened to me that November night in 1965 but I do know this: I am the sum of all of my life’s experiences. I would not be the person that I am today were it not for that moment in time.

I made a decision to not be bitter but to become better. I made a decision to take control and no longer be a victim. God has helped me to extend forgiveness to a man who never asked me to forgive him.

Medifast happened to come along right when I needed it the most. It got me healthy. It is keeping me healthy, too. My passion and my purpose is to help others to get healthy - mind, body and soul.

Together we shall be victorious!


Raise a shaker jar, slurp and burp!

[DutchChoc]

From reading Geneen Roth's materials and thinking of myself, I've come to hold yet another opinion re the willingness to endure lonliness or the possibilities of limiting responses from the other sex. True, it can be self-protection, and on the flip side, really putting an idea out there, it can also be a form of self-absorption with "diet", "weight", blah, blah, blah -- anything that can keep us #1 in our own lives. Can anybody compete for our attention if that's a #1 concern?

[Nancy]

Geneen Roth's books and magazine articles have helped me a lot, Dutch.

I would love to meet her. I love her idea of always carrying chocolate with you.

I had just about finished my weight loss plan when I discovered her books.
I especially was helped by reading When Food is Love.

Food is not love.

[DutchChoc]

Right. That was my favorite, too. I think it was love for me, and I still find myself putting my food problem in the forefront of my life -- rather selfishly, I think. I kind of "insist" that it's an issue, and that has got to be annoying to others. Sorry you have a hurtful experience when you were young, too. I had the same, a kind of near-rape at 12, afterwhich I decided that being fat would leave others more disinterested (childishly under the influence of the erroneous myth that would discount rape = violence, not rape = sex).

[smartiegrrl]

Sorry that had to happen to both you ladies. *hugs* I had my own "experience" when I was 19 courtesy of the guy that my boss at the time had chosen to walk me home from his house. It was a sketchy neighborhood, but the only place I could afford to live at the time. I usually would walk home alone, however. My boss had this guy walk me home so that kind of thing *wouldn't* happen to me. The irony there is too much...

Anyways, my odd justification was that people took me more seriously. In an odd way it did happen. I work in IT and with mainly men. I noticed that once I was heavier, my co workers took my opinions more seriously. Clients believed I *really* was a nerd. I finally looked the part.

I aquired a strange confidence, ironically - I should have been beating myself up for ruining my health, instead I was happy that for once I didn't have to jump through hoops to prove my skills. I loved walking into a meeting and have people *listen* and actually impliment my ideas. Perhaps it was just that I was finally confident in my knowledge and the fat is simply incidental. I guess we'll find out. I *do* know that its not worth carrying around this extra weight, either way.

[DutchChoc]

Wow, smartiegirl, that's bitter irony. Having the wrong kind of help provided. Sorry for you, too.

Good for you for developing/having the confidence to carry yourself off as a strong woman and for being "positive" and assertive. Using talents should always come before a tendency to hide ourselves and our talents -- but some of us, like I, tend to feel more comfortable being extremely low-key in order NOT to get the attention. The consequence is, or seems to be, a reduced perception of skill on the part of the others, say clients/co-workers, even though it doesn't necessarily apply. Sometimes bravado and courage goes a long way to get us taken seriously, extra weight or not. There are factors to consider and things more beneficial to our success than a number on the scale. Losing weight just leaves me to deal with those. Congrats to you!