You Can't Wish Weight Loss Success on Anyone

We all want to be healthy, don't we?

We say we do, but if that is true, then why do we ever allow ourselves to become obese?

And once we find ourselves in that situation...somehow magically (black magic, it would seem) transported into this immense body, why don't we simply make the changes necessary to achieve our weight loss goals?

And, better yet...how come our husband (or wife, or best friend or kids) don't?

If you know someone who is obese then you probably have asked yourself something like, why doesn't he/she lose weight? After all, you love them...you want them around for a long time. You may even have great fear for their health and their life because of their weight.

No matter how much you love them, you cannot will them to take responsibility for their lives. You cannot convince them to lose weight. You can't bargain with God to have them see the light and change their ways.

And that's a good thing.

That's good because that means we are each 100% responsible for our own lives...we aren't victims of someone else's wishes and desires.

After all, if I could wish someone to thinness then I could wish them to fatness, too!

So while you can't force someone else to be healthy, you can love them and help them to feel loved and valued. And you can hold in your heart the vision of them as you want to see them...healthy, energetic, vibrant. And you can be sure that you are modeling the behaviors that will enable them (and yourself) to have that healthy body, too.

Then it is up to them if they want to pick up that image or wallow in their false mirror of fatness.

We just never know what is going on in someone else's life...what demons they are facing...what pain they are experiencing.

Until the time is right for them, they won't have success at weight loss, as hard as they try. They might have temporary success...but the weight will just come back unless the issues behind the weight are resolved...and statistically the chances are they will end up heavier than when they started if they try to diet their way to slenderness.

Worrying about their health is natural because you care about them. But worrying about it, talking about it, does not help either of you.

Love and encourage...model healthy behavior...be joyful, happy and healthy yourself...and see them as whole and healthy people.

Then leave it up to them to live into that!