Hey Gang!

Master Palangi here to introduce to you our very first guest author!  Sarah Greenberg has been part of our community for some time now and she’s got some interesting things to say about food.  Every time she sees me with a protein drink she rolls her eyes!  Remember that weekly message about the power of language?  Well this girl got what I was talking about and she ran with it!

Enjoy…

Are you familiar with the phrase, “I think, therefore I am”?

Whatever the philosopher Rene Descartes meant when he wrote that all those years ago has been debated ever since. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m here to tell you that it’s true. At least in this situation!

How many times have you said to yourself or whoever was so lucky to be with you at the time, “Man, I am FAT!” How many thousands upon THOUSANDS of times have you heard your sister, brother, aunts, uncles, friends, even random passers-by say “Oh my God I am so fat!” It’s pretty ubiquitous, eh? Especially in this shining beacon of beauty and big breasts, our beloved America. This is a tough place to live in if you feel fat, and an ever tougher place to live in if you plan to stay thin. We have many things here in America, one of them is an overabundance of food or, more specifically, edible commodities. But I digress.

How many of you noticed that I said to “feel fat” and not to “be fat”? That’s no accident, folks. These verbs cause our brains to act and react in very different ways, not all of them beneficial. Allow me explain with the following example:

I moved to China for 14 months for no good reason. My vague plans included such things as: find a job, find an apartment, become a SPONGE. Not for the faint of heart! One of the more fascinating things I learned in China was the language; Mandarin Chinese is simultaneously blunt and quite delicate. One turn of phrase that hit me like a truck was this: instead of saying “I am fat,” like we do in English, in Mandarin you say “I have fat.” WOAH!

Take a minute to mull that over. Imagine, if instead of feeling the permanency, the literal and figurative weight of saying “I AM fat,” you could merely state, “I HAVE fat”? REVELATION!!

The key word here is am, a form of to be. To be! We actually define ourselves, our very existence, as FAT. It’s as if that’s all we are, just fat. We identify ourselves by our weight and appearance, and we give others license to do the same. In the West, we even go so far as to moralize weight: fat is wrong, fat is bad. If you are fat, you must be lazy, or you must be sick, or less capable, or out of control, unattractive, or even unlovable. My fellow Americans, this is pretty shameful. We prematurely judge others by their appearance, and we make it difficult for ourselves to take pride in our bodies, in all of those other wonderful things that we are. We feel shame, we feel guilt, we feel like life would be so different and perfect, if only we were thin.

What a sham!

The word “fat” in Chinese does not lend itself a slew of moral and personal inadequacies. By the very nature of their language, the Chinese do not define themselves by flub; they merely and shamelessly acknowledge that yes, they are a bit overweight (if such is the case). Literally, they say, “I have a little fat.” And it’s totally OKAY. Now, I’m sure a chubby Chinese is not thrilled when they can’t fit into their clothes, but for goodness sake, they don’t go around feeling like a failed human being either. I remember listening to a group of Chinese women discussing their weight; it was so refreshing! One of the women was heavier than the others, and when she said as much, it was no big deal! It didn’t prompt her friends to coo and try to deny the facts (“Oh you are so not fat!”), or for her to look ashamed of herself. Why should she be? She just had a little fat! It wasn’t some moral pronouncement, she didn’t hate herself for it, and her friends looked like they couldn’t care less; she simply stated the obvious. She might as well have said, “I have long hair.” It was awesome.

To have is very different than to be. While we cannot go ahead and change the English language and American culture, we can change the way we perceive ourselves. Don’t get me wrong folks, being overweight is not ideal and being obese is downright dangerous, but let’s not add insult to injury. I know for a fact that of the many reasons for weight gain, low self-esteem is at the top of the list. When we are feeling down or rotten, a lot of us reach for the “wrong” things; you can easily lose yourself in a cycle of depression and weight gain. It’s just like everyone’s favorite fictional Scottish character said, “I eat because I’m unhappy, and I’m unhappy because I eat.” Truer words were never spoken.

Ladies and gentlemen, be KIND to yourselves. Refrain from saying nasty things about your body, refrain from putting nasty things IN your body. Forget protein bars and diet pills – self-respect is the most powerful weight loss supplement around.

Certified Health Counselor, Sarah Greenberg, writes the Enjoy Eating blog on her website, www.weenjoyeating.com. She works with men and women who are ready to get off diets, into their clothes, and on with their lives.