People, on the whole, like to have someone to blame. We like to be able to hold people accountable for their actions. More often, people like to have a scapegoat. Someone who can take the blame to make their life easier to accept. Whilst I wouldn't wish to place weight gain in the same category, one could argue that this accountability bears similarities with the Nuremberg war trials or the famous Milgram experiment. 'I was only following orders'.
When a person attempts to consider why it is that they gained weight initially it is easy for people to blame the people and environment around them. I cannot deny that the habits which I developed as a child, those which I had no real control over as a dependent on the adults around me, have impacted the weight I am today. But to say that this is the whole picture would be deeply ignorant of me. I cannot sit here and say that my path was chosen when I was 4 years old. That's the coward's way out and will simply not work for me. At least not any more.
When I was a teenager and people asked me why I was the weight that I was I instantly sprang for an excuse. I'd lie about having an underactive thyroid or issues with my metabolism caused by some mysterious illness that I no doubt picked out of the most recent medical text book I managed to scan over whilst in a doctor's office. I never once, as a teenager, accepted that there were decisions that I was making that would have a negative impact on my weight. I believed that it was just 'puppy fat' and that by the time I came to adolescence it would all magically just melt off. Again, I must stress that this acceptance is no easy task and certainly is not one that can be (only) dealt with by 'eating less and moving more', the good old government adage. I'm going to be controversial here and say that obesity is as much a psychological eating disorder as Anorexia Nervosa or Bulimia Nervosa. It's also much like depression. Whilst treating the symptoms are a short term goal, you will not have won the war until you treat the cause. People, on the whole, do not gain weight purely because they choose to eat too much and move too little. Like it or not, there is ALWAYS a reason; both for why people choose their lifestyle in the first place and for why the decision to change their lifestyle often meets with a psychological barrier.
I have polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Whilst this condition itself is not something I understand all that clearly, one of the major symptoms, as well as the major contributor to the condition, is weight gain. I flash back to when my weight gain really became a major issue. Puberty. I would love to be able to tell myself that my weight gain was purely as a result of the PCOS and that losing weight is more difficult as someone suffering from this condition but I just can't. The triggers and environment around me do not define who I am, and it is once again simply a way of backing away from taking responsibility for one's own life.
I will write a full blog later on whether or not it's the parents' fault. Though my opinion on this is clear. You do not need to be held down by the decisions of your parents and to continue to use that as an excuse is purely an easy way out. That does not mean that parents shouldn't be providing healthy options and incentives in their children.
Once more I reference Super Size Me from the other day. One of the first statements in the documentary is the lawsuit of two young women against McDonald's for making them the way they are. Whilst I'm sure that their unhealthy lifestyle was a huge contributor it is once again ignoring the main issue. There is a reason that they or their parents chose to frequent McDonald's and we must live with the consequences of our own actions. No matter how unfavourable those consequences may be. Of course fast food outlets should have a responsibility to give people the choice of the healthy option, but if a person chooses to go down the path of fast food meal three times a day they cannot claim that a company made them do it. Advertising (at least in liberal countries) should not be a form of dictatorship.
Finally, I wish to pick on the government some more. In the last week my local council has had the responsibility of healthy lifestyle advertisement handed back to them, rather than being the charge of the NHS. Those in power are asking for what the answer is to our current obesity epidemic. The truth is, there will always be people who are just bigger than others but when the issue clearly comes down to the environment in which they live, there is work that can be done. People eat at fast food restaurants because it is cheap and efficient. People are forced into weight loss programs without first being given any grounding on how to cook or source healthier food in a cost effective and time efficient way. Fat abuse is still one of the forms of national bullying that is seen as acceptable. How are our children expected to develop the self worth needed to care about their lifestyle when from a young age they are told they are fat by their peers, doctors and (god forbid) teachers? Anthropologically, food is a universal comfort. Even slender people acknowledge feeling comfort in a particular item of food. How are we so surprised that the much abused, often self loathing overweight person would reach to something that gives them comfort so easily. I'm talking about changing the entire view of the public to the overweight person. Only once we give people the room to be accepted for who they are, with the issues that they have or do not have, can we possibly hope to make any real difference. And if a person doesn't want yourself or is (heaven forbid) HAPPY the way they are then leave well enough alone. No one cares if you have an issue with someone else being happy and seeking to break this down in order to stop the rise of the obese person will only work to perpetuate the current, unhelpful, view.
As such, perhaps it is best not to look at who is to blame here. Dwelling on naming an antagonist who can be a scapegoat solves nothing. Know your past, accept your present and take responsibility for your future, whether or not that means any great physical or emotional transformation. No one else can (or should).
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