I spend a lot of time working with people and it used to surprise me just how much they knew about diets! I knew a lady who could tell me the 'syn' values of literally any product I could ask her and yet she was very overweight. I used to wonder why, if she was so knowledgeable, that she wasn't slim.
And then one day I realised I was guilty of the same thing. I used to buy books and exercise equipment all the time when I was big. I remember paying £150 for an Atkins kit on the internet when it first came out and then didn't even open it. I just put it on the shelf next to all the other information I had but chose not to follow.
The reason people do it is because firstly, we like to be knowledgeable. It gives us purpose and self esteem by being able to advise others and offer an opinion, if you can help someone else then it makes you feel better about yourself.
The other reason, and the main reason, I used to do it is that if you are buying a book then you are planning and working towards being slim! Therefore you are on the journey to being slim and taking action so you feel good about it.
In early December I take around thirty phone calls from people wanting to book themselves a 1-2-1 session in January! The reason is that they feel then they are doing something about their weight and so they don't feel so bad about being overweight.
But you can have the whole british library in your study or have half the Argos catalogue in exercise equipment in your garage but unless you actually use it then you haven't actually made yourself slim!
Now I obviously only work with overweight people and the one problem with being overweight is that you cannot hide it. I can remember when I was 25 stone telling someone who was about 13 stone how to reduce their weight and now I think they must have been wondering what I was talking about.
But I will sit with someone who is many, many, stones overweight and listen while they justify their position and tell me that they eat virtually nothing, don't have carbs or fat, or that they only eat 1200 calories a day. The reality is that if you eat less calories than your body needs then you must lose weight.
Therefore, being educated is great! But I have not many anyone who doesn't know what healthy food is. I have never spoken to someone who thought chocolate was healtheir than broccoli, therefore we are all educated in what is ideal and what isn't'. Food labelling has never been better in this country and yet we as a nation are getting bigger by the year.
So my cry to arms this week is to say education is great! But if you are going to talk the talk, then walk the walk. Actually taking your own advice is the greatest sign that you were a truly educated dieter.
Have a fantastic week!
Mike ;-)
