SAD

I realize that often I am negative. That is just the way I am. I try to hold back my negative thoughts from others but in my diary I let it all "hang loose."
There is a woman who swims at the pool. This morning I saw her step on the scale. I just got so upset!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just couldn’t hold myself back. I mentioned to her daughter that I couldn’t understand why she was weighing herself.  She was there with her daughter. I don’t know how old this woman is but she lived through the HOLOCAUST. SHE WAS IN AUSHWITZ and possibly other concentration camps. Now why should she worry about her weight. Does she forget when she had nothing to eat? Does she forget when she weighed nothing?????????? I wish I could get rid of every scale in the world. We are just too obsessed with weight and how we look. It ruins young girls lives and many women. Now I am not condoning being FAT and OBESE.
I just wish that mothers would control the food they bring into the house. If it was all "healthy" then they wouldn’t have to monitor what their children are eating. If they kept their family active it would also help their children’s weight. PLEASE WOMEN THROW AWAY YOUR SCALES. BE ACTIVE. JOIN SOME SPORT THAT YOU WOULD ENJOY. TAKE WALKS WITH YOUR FAMILY AS A ROUTINE PART OF THE DAY. 
I guess the problem is that women and mothers are working and have little time for exercise etc. I am sad about this. I am sad that people constantly monitor what they eat. Each person has a set weight and no matter how much you diet and exercise you will probably always be the same weight.

Set-Point Theory

• According to the set-point theory, there is a control system built into every person dictating how much fat he or she should carry – a kind of thermostat for body fat. Some individuals have a high setting, others have a low one. According to this theory, body fat percentage and body weight are matters of internal controls that are set differently in different people.

• The set-point theory was originally developed in 1982 by Bennett and Gurin to explain why repeated dieting is unsuccessful in producing long-term change in body weight or shape. Going on a weight-loss diet is an attempt to overpower the set point, and the set point is a seemingly tireless opponent to the dieter.

• The ideal approach to weight control would be a safe method that lowers or raises the set point rather than simply resisting it. So far no one knows for sure how to change the set point, but some theories exist. Of these, regular exercise is the most promising: a sustained increase in physical activity seems to lower the setting (Wilmore et al. 1999).

• According to the set-point theory, the set point itself keeps weight fairly constant, presumably because it has more accurate information about the body’s fat stores than the conscious mind can obtain. At the same time, this system pressures the conscious mind to change behavior, producing feelings of hunger or satiety. Studies show that a person’s weight at the set point is optimal for efficient activity and a stable, optimistic mood. When the set point is driven too low, depression and lethargy may set in as a way of slowing the person down and reducing the number of calories expended.

• The set point, it would appear, is very good at supervising fat storage, but it cannot tell the difference between dieting and starvation. The dieter who begins a diet with a high set point experiences constant hunger, presumably as part of her body’s attempt to restore the status quo. Even dedicated dieters often find that they cannot lose as much weight as they would like. After an initial, relatively quick loss, dieters often become stuck at a plateau and then lose weight at a much slower rate, although they remain as hungry as ever.

• Dieting research demonstrates that the body has more than one way to defend its fat stores. Long-term caloric deprivation, in a way that is not clear, acts as a signal for the body to turn down its metabolic rate. Calories are burned more slowly, so that even a meager diet almost suffices to maintain weight. The body reacts to stringent dieting as thought famine has set in. Within a day or two after semi-starvation begins, the metabolic machinery shifts to a cautious regimen designed to conserve the calories it already has on board. Because of this innate biological response, dieting becomes progressively less effective, and (as generations of dieters have observed) a plateau is reached at which further weight loss seems all but impossible.

Adapted from Integrative Group Treatment for Bulimia Nervosa by Helen Riess, M.D. and Mary Dockray-Miller Questions about this topic? Contact the Center for Health Promotion and Wellness

So it’s time for lunch.  Have a healthy day.