GREAT EXPECTATIONS!

First order of business, I would like to acknowledge Charles Dickens as the inspiration for the title of this post.

The great thing about America is, if you have a dream, you can make it come true. The bad things about dreams are, sometimes they are unrealistically rooted in vanity and greed,  and sometimes we are just too impatient for them to happen. Marketers know this all too well and take full advantage. We want to believe that if we eat a "cookie diet"  that in a couple of weeks we are going to become thin and beautiful which will lead to a gorgeous spouse that will worship the very ground we walk on or that we will become rich and famous, which will then lead to a gorgeous, famous spouse that will lavish us with great affection. Hey, I am all for dreams, and I may be the biggest dreamer of them all, but I'm here to tell ya that if you eat a steady diet of cookies you won't become rich and famous anymore than I will become a world class basketball player if I slap a pair of Air Jordans on my feet. (let's face it, Michael Jordan could have beat 90% of the players in the NBA if he was wearing a pair of stiletto heels. Wow, now there's an image).

So be careful out there. There is no magic formula for losing weight. If you follow this blog, I'm confident you'll lose weight at a 2 pound a week rate. So, if in the mean time something comes along that promises you "instant skinny which will lead to fame",  if you have the money, please don't fall for it. I'm not saying that you'll live forever, or that'll you find the woman of your dreams, or that you''ll become a professional athlete, all I'm saying is, if you follow this blog  you will  lose the weight you've always wanted to lose, and you will feel better. And if we all feel better, maybe we'll treat each other better. That's all.

I like to use the analogy that people are like dogs. We all come in different shapes and sizes and colors. Life would be pretty boring if we all looked alike. Now, for example, take a Saint Bernard, a big fluffy dog which some people might consider over weight. Well, if that St. Bernard lost weight he would still be big and fluffy,  only now he could scale higher snow covered mountains at a faster clip while carrying an even bigger barrel of brandy under his chin, up to your frozen butt stuck in the ice. He is still not going to be out on a track chasing an electronic bunny so that you can loose a week's pay. But that is what marketers try to sell you. "Take our product and become the next runway model".  So be realistic about your dreams. When you lose weight,  you will be just a thinner version of you (and from where I'm sitting, that's not bad). If you are a "tool" now, you are still going to be a "tool" then, just a thinner "tool". So if you want a gorgeous spouse, or you want to be a famous movie star, those changes are going to have happen from within. Not from a magic pill that someone is trying to sell you.