Finsternis sends me another weight-loss book.

[pinback]

Let's dismiss for a moment the insanity of a 400+ pound man continuing to mail weight-loss books to a man who already lost all the weight he wanted to. His passive-aggressive messages attached to the book deliveries point out the single most important problem with people like him who cannot lose weight, and the single most important point to address if weight loss in your goal.

Here was the key passage:

You're welcome. It's by far the best all-in-one Keto book there is. If you want to know the story of how assholes have been lying to everyone for the past 70 years, and telling everyone to do completely the wrong thing healthwise, give it a read. I have nothing to prove, I just hate to see people get so lied to for so long and that the #1 way we are told to lose weight is the worst possible way. It explains SO much about why we have been getting fatter and fatter ever since this terrible advice started to spread. I picture you out there sweating your ass off jogging and I think "too bad....".

So, he is still promoting "Keto", but this paragraph highlights perfectly the deadly, ruinous assumption which will always prevent people from reaching their weight-loss goals if they are unable to drop it and discover its ultimate fallacy.

Of particular note is his description of ruefully imagining me out there "sweating my ass off jogging" (I didn't jog, I did a lot of walking and exercise-biking, but that's beside the point). This was, in his mind, the incorrect alternative to NOT jogging, sitting around, and eating meat and cheese all day. Though my method was inarguably effective, he considers it the "wrong" way, and the reason is that sitting around eating meat and cheese is pleasurable, and "jogging" is not, and here we get to the exact assumption that destroys virtually all weight-loss plans, and which he can never, ever understand. The assumption is that pleasure and happiness are inexorably entangled and intertwined, and there can never be one without the other.

This directly contradicts my experience, and the truth that I've spoken of before, which is that before weight-loss can be achieved and maintained, one must realize the falsity of that relationship, and separate the two. You are generally fat because you achieve happiness from pleasure. Once happiness is disentangled from pleasure, the compulsions which resulted in the weight gain in the first place will naturally dissolve. Jogging instead of eating no longer detracts a single iota of happiness from your life. You will not shake your head thinking "too bad" that you were sweating it out instead of shoving ham into your mouth. The two are EQUAL in terms of your happiness, and thus it is simple to choose the method that works best for you, whichever one it is.

I'm sure Keto works. Cutting calories and exercising also works. There can only be a "wrong way" if you continue to assume that one has a more deleterious effect on your happiness than the other.

And he will always be fat, because he can never let go of this illusion.

[AArdvark]

What the hell, I didn't know he was still in contact with you.

All I ever did was cut out (mostly) booze and eliminate sodapop, dropped fifteen pounds without even thinking about it. I have a friend that does the keto thing, I guess it works for her. keeps her from becoming more of a diabetic, so that's a plus. Food tastes like garbage though.

THE
TRASH BIN
GOURMET
AARDVARK

[Tdarcos]

Comments:

• Exercise alone will not cause weight loss if the calorie intake is too high. Drink 3— 800 calorie milkshakes, and you ain't gonna get anywhere near enough exercise to burn that off iunless you exercise strenuously several hours daily for 3-4 days
• Dieting should cause weight loss. If you eat fewer calories than your body burns as fuel, you will lose weight. Taken to extreme, this is how "starvation" diets work. Or rather, don't work, as they can be very unpleasant
• Beyond which, if you go into starvation mode, your body does too. Your basal metabolism will slow as your body becomes much more efficient in absorbing calories from whatever food it is getting.
• Exercise can be pleasurable. Some people run because of how good they feel, they can be getting endorphins, and in some cases, certain forms of exercise can create a kind of "zen—like" sense of peace. I've felt it sometimes when I bicycled 7 miles each way to and from college back in the late '70s—early '80s (bus fare was about $2 a day; bicycling was free since I already owned the bike.).
• Different people have different body types, and some people can have an extremely hard time losing weight. Women often find losing weight much harder than men do.
• Diets really need to be customized for the person's body type and metabolism. Get it right, the person loses weight and has a happy experience. Get it wrong and they're umhappy, can't lose weight, and are miserable because they suffer from the constant feeling of hunger or gain weight because they are so hungry they eat more or "graze."

[pinback]

What the hell, I didn't know he was still in contact with you.

That's the other interesting part. During our last interaction, he basically blocked me entirely, and said that was it, we would never speak again. This was about eight months ago. And it's true! We never spoke or contacted each other again. Except for when he sent me this new diet book.

I'd call it an olive branch, but I'm not sure olives are keto-approved.

[pinback]

[*]Diets really need to be customized for the person's body type and metabolism. Get it right, the person loses weight and has a happy experience. Get it wrong and they're umhappy, can't lose weight, and are miserable because they suffer from the constant feeling of hunger or gain weight because they are so hungry they eat more or "graze."

I have customized a diet plan for your body type and metabolism, which is that any time you go to eat something, have someone dump a bucket of water on you.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This directly contradicts my experience, and the truth that I've spoken of before, which is that before weight-loss can be achieved and maintained, one must realize the falsity of that relationship, and separate the two. You are generally fat because you achieve happiness from pleasure. Once happiness is disentangled from pleasure, the compulsions which resulted in the weight gain in the first place will naturally dissolve. Jogging instead of eating no longer detracts a single iota of happiness from your life. You will not shake your head thinking "too bad" that you were sweating it out instead of shoving ham into your mouth. The two are EQUAL in terms of your happiness, and thus it is simple to choose the method that works best for you, whichever one it is.

I am not 100% able to live this way, but this thinking does help. This was the self-help book I needed. Ok, now lemme scroll down and see if any large men have advice I can't avoid.