Living Large in a Small World

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Carrying excess body fat is not just an external (appearance) issue. Being overweight or obese is an internal (health) issue.

Every overweight or obese person I meet who doesn’t have any diagnosed medical issues and isn’t taking any prescribed medications — yet — thinks they’re healthy. They are not.

Excess visceral fat is not the foundation of or the companion to good health. Can you be very overweight and not have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and any or all of a long list of other medical issues? Yes, but not for long. Medical problems just haven’t manifested themselves yet . . . but they will the longer a person carries excess visceral fat. Nothing good ever comes in the long run from being overweight or obese: things are brewing and stewing and marinating inside the body that will light the fuse of all kinds of medical issues.

Additionally, if you are overweight or obese, do you ever think about or reflect on your brain health? And I don’t mean, necessarily, the physical brain itself; I’m referring to your mental, emotional, and psychological health. Isn’t that important?

First of all, if you are middle-aged and carrying around extra weight, be warned: Being overweight or obese can age your brain by 10 years. Additionally, there is an obesity-cholesterol-Alzheimer’s connection due to harmful tangles of protein inside the brain cells.

Secondly, isn’t the way we think and feel the foundation for everything we do and speak? Don’t our thoughts create our experiences? So, when someone tells me “I’m fat but my doctor tells me I’m healthy,” first I smile and then I probe further, and I always find that these same individuals admit to any or all the following:

✅ They hate attending social events because they’re embarrassed by their size; they think everyone is focused on them.
 

✅ Their weight inhibits them when it comes to dating or intimacy.
 

✅ They dread going shopping because they can’t buy what they would like to wear; they can only buy clothes that cover their body. Women also miss being able to wear tall, fashionable boots because they can’t close them.
 

✅ They no longer enjoy winter sports. They used to love skiing, sledding and ice skating but their weight makes them more unsteady, less sure of themselves.
 

✅ They no longer enjoy summer activities. They used to love hiking, but don’t anymore because their feet hurt and/or they get out of breath. They used to love to go water skiing but can’t now because of weight-related knee and ankle issues. They used to love going to the beach, but now refuse to put on a bathing suit.
 

. . . and other activities like traveling, playing golf, basketball, or baseball, working out, being as physically active with grandkids as they once were or would like to be . . . all have been adversely affected by their weight.

Is that mentally, emotionally, or psychologically healthy?

It’s no surprise, then, that one of the things I hear from new clients at our first visit get-together is that they feel left out. Oh, they may have spouses and kids and friends and all, but they know they don’t get out as much as they should for anything other than events that are, say, mandatory (like school events, for example). Additionally, many folks acknowledge that they are more observers than participants . . . and that there was a time in their lives when that wasn’t the case.

Clearly, their worlds have gotten smaller as they become larger.

Does that describe your world?

We humans are designed to connect, and I don’t mean from a sitting position at electronic devices connecting with people on social media!

If we can’t physically engage and bond with other people, we bond with the source of our problem or addiction.

Physically, then, it’s very difficult for overweight and obese individuals of any age to participate in many of the pastimes and activities that people enjoy that draws them together.

Emotionally, especially if they feel frustrated, angry, or upset, they find themselves more alone, with perhaps like-minded friends who are as lonely and unhappy with their weight and appearance as they are. (Misery loves company.)

If you’re overweight or obese, and see yourself transitioning from active to inactive, from participant to spectator, stop . . . catch yourself . . . do something about it.

Shrink your waistline and expand your world.

It does not have to be a small world, after all.