Ever since watching "Super Size Me," I've been reflecting on various different segments and the things I learned. One portion of the film that has repeatedly risen to the surface had to do with Jared, the Subway guy.
We all remember Jared, the man who walked to Subway every day to eat their sandwiches and lost a whole bunch of weight? He goes around and speaks at school assemblies about the importance of getting the weight off.
The "Super Size Me" documentary showed him speaking to a group of teens at a high school, and then out in the hallway. Then our film dudes talked with one of the teens and her mother after they met with Jared.
The girl was in tears. She was overweight and wanted so badly to lose the weight, but she couldn't afford to eat at Subway every day. She felt that her chances to lose weight had all been taken away from her because of that. Her mother nodded, agreeing with everything her daughter said.
Hold it ... hold on ... rewind ...
Can I explain something, please?
Jared didn't lose weight because he ate at Subway every day. Jared lost weight because he walked to get to the restaurant, and then he chose one of their low-fat sandwiches. Walking = exercise. Low-fat sandwich = healthy food choice. You don't have to be able to afford to eat at Subway every day in order to lose weight ... you can go for a nice, long walk, come back home, and make your own dang sandwich! Why was this poor teenage girl on the brink of a breakdown because she couldn't afford Subway? Why was no one pointing out to her that for a fraction of the cost of eating out, she could recreate at home the winning solution Jared found? Why was her mother, of all people, not seeing the very simplicity of this?
Jared was a fast food addict. He chose to lose his weight by eating at Subway because it soothed his desire to eat out, while being a better choice than his other favorite restaurants. Subway has no magic weight loss formula sprinkled in their cheese.
Weight loss is not a matter of being able to afford a gym membership and fancy freeze-dried mushrooms. Weight loss is not a matter of cash to pay a buff personal trainer and taking off to a spa once a month.
Weight loss is:
1. Exercise
2. Eating right
Those are the two main steps. Add in "getting enough sleep," "drinking enough water," and "making sure you don't have a medical condition that is keeping the weight on," and you are doing what it takes to lose the weight. You can do it on any economic plane.
And you can bet I sure wanted to reach through that television screen, grab those people, and say, "I'll teach you how to make a stinkin' sandwich!!!"
4 comments:
I LOVE everything you said here! Eating out can't be the solution to weightloss. Way to tell 'em! :o)
Yeah, Tristi! You hit the nail on the head. That is the secret, but why is it SO HARD??????
LOL
It's all about habit and developing new ones and knowing we're worth it.
I can't wait to see you at the conf. I've missed your sunny spirit.
It's so hard because it's time-consuming and the unhealthy food tastes so good! :)
We've got to learn to put ourselves on our priority lists and to appreciate flavors that are different from those we usually eat.
I watched Super Size Me. I agree with with everything you said.
Although, since watching Supersize Me, I have only eaten out at fast food restaurants probably 2-3 times, compared to the 10-12 times I probably would have during that time frame. And even then, I try to choose less of the deep fried stuff.
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