Soaring obesity rates have prompted a law professor in Canada to call for legislation to protect obese people from discrimination, stating that obesity should now be considered a disability. This is complete nonsense.
Labelling obesity as a disability is just another example of how we’re enabling the obesity epidemic. It is simple. Unless you have a true medical condition that causes weight gain, which is a very low percentage of people, your weight is your responsibility. You are responsible for your own choices. You are responsible for learning how to say no. Say no to unhealthy foods. Say no to laziness. Say no to lack of discipline.
Society loves to play the blame game and point fingers at the food manufacturers, restaurants, portion sizes, genetics and now the possibility of labelling obese people as disabled. This is ludicrous. People are literally dropping dead because of their weight, and we’re telling them that it’s OK, it’s a disability and you can’t fix the problem because you were meant to be this way. Millions of overweight people claim that their weight is not their fault. It is. No one can save you but you. You are the only one who can truly stop yourself from being obese. You have the control, if you want it.
It’s time to grow up emotionally and develop the mental toughness to stick to a diet and exercise plan once and for all. Stop waiting for the drug company’s magic pill. Stop waiting for your doctor to scold you. Stop waiting for the government to save you. No one is coming to the rescue. You’re not a child, and it’s time to stop eating like one. You must accept and decide that you are the one who can rescue yourself from a life of low energy, low self-esteem and disease. You are in control of deciding when enough is enough.
Anyone can be fit. You have to be willing to pay the price and do the work. Unless you are a genetic wonder who can eat everything in sight without gaining weight, the reality is you have to be willing to deal with some hunger to truly lose the weight that you need to lose. Getting used to being a little hungry is one of the prices you have to be willing to pay.
If you are obese, you need to face it, accept it and commit to change it if you want your life to improve. Changing discrimination laws will not help you lose a pound or become any healthier. Being fat is dangerous. It can lead to heart disease, cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, sexual dysfunction and a host of other debilitating and deadly diseases. But you can stop being fat whenever you make the decision to do so.
Stop making excuses. There’s no excuse for being obese. It’s a combination of laziness, failure to prepare, lack of
exercise, poor food choices, emotional eating and other self-induced habitual behaviours. You can make the choice to find a healthful and effective diet. You have to have the mental toughness to stay on that diet until you reach your goal weight. And that’s it, nothing more and nothing less.
If you want to get fit, there’s a price to pay. No one gets a free ride and no one negotiates their way out of doing the work and enduring the pain. The answer isn’t new human rights laws or labelling obesity as a disability. The answer is self-responsibility.
Read more on this topic in FAT-SHAMING: Why do I owe an excuse?>>
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Steve Siebold is author of Fat Loser! Mental Toughness Training for Dieters и Die Fat or Get Tough: 101 Differences in Thinking between Fat People and Fit People. For more information and to download five free chapters, visit www.fatloser.com и www.diefatbook.com. |
