When I was growing up, if you wanted to lose weight your choices were limited. There was Jack LaLanne on the television, maybe one or two "diet sodas", sherbert and ice-milk (to take the place of ice cream), and you could go to Weight Watchers meetings. But now, we have "low fat" this, and "sugar-free" that, tons of diet plans, some of which are endorsed by celebrities, vitamin stores, a multitude of various exercise shows on t.v. and DVDs, gyms in every community, and surgeries that will either suck your fat or staple your stomach. The weight loss business has blossomed into a multi-billion dollar industry.
Yet, after all this progress, we as a nation have gotten even heavier. How can this be? Well, I have my cynical, unprofessional opinions on that subject matter. I believe it is a combination of things. We do less physical work because of technological advances. It's scary out there so our children stay indoors and play video games, and we are an instant gratification society so we are easily duped into thinking that if we eat a steady diet of magic cookies for a couple weeks we will all turn into movie stars. Then there is the not so innocent art of deceptive advertising. It is like there are a lot of people out there, getting rich selling us "skinny in a bottle", that actually want us to remain fat. If we all got skinny they would lose their source of income. I'm sure I'm wrong but that is how I feel.
So we have to become skeptical when we hear about a new plan that is going to make us thinner in a short amount of time. There is no magic pill (believe me, I've tried them all). The only formula is to spend more calories than we take in and plan on losing 2 pounds a week. No lotion, wrap, or cookie is going to make us pencil thin. We have to do the work. Read the fine print on advertisements, you'll find it almost always says, results not typical, or this plan in conjunction with a sensible diet and exercise (just do the sensible diet and exercise and skip paying them the $50 a month), or the celebrity lost weight on diet plan "A", which is not available to the public, and we are selling you our diet plan "B".
Also, we have to be careful when shopping. Sugar Free usually means high in fat, Low Fat usually means high in sugar. There are 2 and a half servings in a 20 oz. bottle of coke. So be aware of serving amounts. I don't eat diet anything, no low fat foods, no sugar free foods. I only eat the original, high calorie foods. I just limit the amount I eat and I'm losing weight and I feel great.
Finally, and maybe the most evil practice of all, unscrupulous doctors. I can attest they are out there. I went to a doctor once for a simple check up. It was the first time I ever went to him. His nurse weighed me, took my height and blood pressure (which was normal). Dr., let's call him "scumbag", Dr. Scumbag comes in and feels my stomach, and proceeds to tell me that I weigh 315 pounds and says he is recommending surgery and that he had a friend in the same medical building that could preform it. Wow, first of all, at the time I only weighed around 275 pounds. He didn't ask me any questions about diet or exercise, (I was going to the gym 4 times a week). I didn't have any complications like high blood pressure or diabetes, and just like that he recommends surgery. Well, I left and never went back. Oh yeah, the kicker, he charged me $400 for an office visit. He is now in the weight loss business with his surgeon buddy, and I feel sorry for anyone that goes to them.
So be careful out there. There are a lot of people getting rich because we fail in losing weight. And they want to keep it that way. I don't, that's why I'm writing this blog.
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