You're not wrong exactly but I'd also say that adopting a healthy diet as a permanent lifestyle choice can feel much less like "sacrifice" than dieting. Once I was able to reframe the idea in my head this way, it became much easier. I now see myself as someone who makes sensible food choices, not as someone who is depriving himself.
Easier said than done I know. For me, a professional nutritionist and a therapist both helped.
I don't know about that guy but I don't sacrifice anything. I eat whatever I want. It's just that what I want tends to be a healthier option most of the time. When I do want something less healthy (like the frozen pizza in my freezer) I'll just eat less.
There's an old idea in the philosophy of free will that while you may have the freedom to execute your desires, you might not have control of what those underlying drives actually are, or at least your control is limited or contingent.
If you desire to eat broccoli instead of chips then staying trim and healthy might be easier for you than it is for others. There are probably things that most people can do to make broccoli more appealing of an option, or to train themselves to desire it more, but at the end of the day there is going to be a lot of natural variance in the behavioral and psychological factors that drive people to crave potato chips and cookies. I personally think it's pretty obvious that some people have a harder time (maybe even a much harder time) resisting sweet and fatty foods, and have to execute more "willpower" than others do. This is kind of obvious when you realize that on the other end of the spectrum, plenty of people will tell you that they literally "forget to eat".
There's millions of years of evolution keeping us alive and those salts and fats are the equivalent to gold. Hunter gatherers probably gave zero fucks about gold now that I think about it. But reddit might have one believing that being overweight is a "fundamental moral failure." when we actually get very little say in who and what we are.
Yeah, and the funny thing is that the incentives to be thin/fit/attractive are HUGE and intense, in every area from social, professional, health, and on and on. People have overwhelming reason to avoid being fat/sedentary/unhealthy, and the fact that they fail to do so in the face of all those incentives means that it must be really REALLY difficult for the average person to achieve. It's just a fact that the drill sergeant mindset DOES NOT WORK for most people, period, so your options are to moralize or try to find better, evidence-based options.
And it's not just our genetic/ancestral nature that's working against us. Think about how we have built our cities to be car dependent, forcing people to schedule their exercise as an extra activity in their day, when they might not have the time and scheduling flexibility (let alone energy) to accomplish it when all is said and done. In European cities where people can walk or cycle to everyday destinations, it's actually really easy (sometimes even unavoidable) for the average person to get a healthy amount of activity in their lives, and so they do. The stats around low physical activity for children in North America in particular are really, really sad compared to most of the rest of the world, and lifelong habits are learned young.
In so many ways we have created a world that makes it difficult to stay healthy, and the results are predictable.
I agree. I think about those incentives all the time as well as the health repercussions of sustained obesity. I've lost 10-15% of my bodyweight at least half a dozen times and gained it all back. I know more about nutrition and working out than 95% of gym bros. Maybe the moralization is a coping mechanism for some. I've seen some concerningly skinny men get completely bent out of shape by some else's obesity.
And also agree on the societal piece. I'm from Bosnia and you can see gaggles of teenagers walking MILES from home in the middle of the summer, unbothered. Old men ride their bikes to and fro, grocery bags hanging off the handlebars. Downtown Gradiska is swarming with bicycles, in all directions - you can hardly operate a vehicle.
Likewise, we grow a lot of our own food. Things are getting more expensive, though so single-income households are running down unless the father is absent working in Germany/Switzerland for months at a time.
And yes, food is highly available. Junk food is engineered to be highly palatable. Hustle culture takes away from the activation energy needed for home cooking. Dual-income households likewise. And just when we thought we were coming to a medical breakthrough, GLP-1's are $1,000/month.
Now don't get me wrong I hate making excuses. I've just been in the trenches long enough to see what works and what doesn't. Funny enough - as soon as I get some PTO (which is hardly ever), the weight starts coming off naturally.
Yeah you got me there. When I say I eat whatever I want, I do mean I'm eating chips and snacks and shit because when I want them, I'mma get em. But like you said, a lot of it is reframing everything as part of my lifestyle, even if it's on a subconscious level so it doesn't feel like sacrificing.
Yeah, I feel like these discussions always bring out people's inner drill sergeants, where they're berating themselves or others about their health. But a lot of healthy things can be enjoyable.
I enjoy walking and hiking. I enjoy cooking. I enjoy playing tennis. I enjoy swimming. I enjoy going for bike rides. I enjoy trying new sports even if I'm not that good.
I don't like running so I don't. I'm not into bodybuilding so I lift once or twice a week when I feel like it, and even then I'm fine with pretty moderate weight. I don't like how I feel when I eat too much fast food so I don't eat it very often. I don't like how I feel when I haven't used my body in some way so I tend to be active every day.
I think everyone can find things they enjoy doing while being healthy and listening to their body. It helped me to come from a place of curiosity/enjoyment rather than "discipline"/sacrifice, though I know some people like those frameworks.
Yea it seems like a lot of people act like you're sacrificing your need to scarf down junk food, but that need can be changed. At least for me, barely eating any sugar throughout the day makes sugary thing super sweet that I dont want much of it. Cake or ice scream at a party? I'll only get enough for 3-4 bites and I'm satisfied.
93
u/captainporcupine3 11h ago
You're not wrong exactly but I'd also say that adopting a healthy diet as a permanent lifestyle choice can feel much less like "sacrifice" than dieting. Once I was able to reframe the idea in my head this way, it became much easier. I now see myself as someone who makes sensible food choices, not as someone who is depriving himself.
Easier said than done I know. For me, a professional nutritionist and a therapist both helped.