You're viewing a single thread.
Yeah, seems obvious but when your entire childhood is filled with shame because "there are starving kids in Africa so finish your plate", it's not so simple. Or when you realize that eating is the basically the only joy you have in life, it's not so simple. Or when you have to take medications for your mental health and the side effects are that you over eat, it's not so simple. Or when you have no time to exercise bc both you and your wife have to work to afford anything in this stupid economy, it's not so simple.
Simple doesn't mean easy. Running a marathon is simple, you just keep running until you get there. Yet the majority can't do it.
For each of the scenarios you presented, there is a simple solution:
- "there are starving kids in Africa so finish your plate" - put less food on your plate
- eating is the basically the only joy you have - expand your hobbies to find meaning elsewhere
- medication... side effects - count calories
- no time to exercise bc both you and your wife have to work - make exercise part of your commute
Each of those are simple solutions, but they aren't easy to implement. I get it, I don't do the above nearly as much as I should; I know what I should do, but actually doing them is another story.
Keep it up, you can do it. :)
My parents stopped with that line (but Siberia for some reason) when I asked them to mail it to those kids so it doesn’t go to waste then.
Still took me to around 10 years old I think.
Also if everyone around you is eating disordered in the same way, you might never figure it out because you have no contrast (like OP).
Also shift work messes up your eating too. So, so many ways for it to go wrong.
It is fucking simple.
If this is insurmountable you are a lost cause unless you go get therapy.
Figure out how to not impress this attitude on your children. If you can't, don't have children.
Simple.
Who pissed in your cheerios?
me, it was me :)
Nobody, I usually fast until noon.
These are problems that are solved long term, and they are simple to fix. Maybe not for yourself, but the next generation needs a sustainable paradigm to live with.
Plan your meals with your doctor, if medication is causing it. Make sure you know if there's alternate medication and find out if those side effects are more or less palatable than weight gain.
Reduce your reliance on work that costs you your personal health. Start giving less until you have enough for yourself. Don't allow work to get in the way of your life on anything but a fixed temporary basis.
Sure, these things are difficult to do if you don't have the habit, but they are simple. It's less difficult to teach your children to internalise these things.
It's not about you. It's about the society around you. Push the values you want your kids to grow up with.
This defeatist stuff about how you were taught it when you were young therefore you can't be fixed has such a blazingly simple solution.
hey man, people have struggles. just because you don't have those struggles, and i don't have those struggles, doesn't mean they're not valid struggles for the people who do have them. a bit of understanding can go a long way. or as one of my favorite musicians once said, "a little goddamn compassion never hurt a motherfucker."
and regardless of my personal opinion on having kids, i don't see what it has to do with this conversation.