"Dally" wrote in message
...
I found the same concept in the book "Fattitudes" by Willard.

I need to get that one from the library.

It was a really useful exercise for me to go through and list the benefits
of being fat. I did it online, actually, and it was horribly revealing.
Even worse because one of the guys on MFW saw it here and thought it was
hilarious and cross-posted it over to MFW so they could laugh at me.

All I can say to that is, consider the source. I have no use for that
newsgroup -- to me, a bunch of misanthropic, self-appointed experts who make
a perfect case study of why *not* to take the ECA stack. I can get better
information from any other source. "Don't walk away from negative people --
run."

The exercise is so useful because it makes you stare the issues straight
in the eye and not let them go unexamined on their way to undermine and
sabotage you. Every problem has a solution, but the solutions are
terribly difficult to work out if you can't even define the problem!

And this is what has frustrated my efforts over the years -- an inability to
define the problem. Good point.

I think we really have to acknowledge the truth that there are good things
about being fat. For example, you get to lie around on the couch eating
bon bons in the evening! I had to face the sad fact that I had to give up
lethargy and eating-for-entertainment if I wanted to stop being fat.
That's a significant choice and I have to make it over and over again.
Would that be possible if I didn't acknowledge the sacrifice? Wouldn't
resentment and sabotage occur if the loss weren't faced?

Yes! "Recreational eating" is a concept I learned in Overeaters Anonymous --
as I learned it, it doesn't mean that you never eat at social occasions (as
some people misinterpret), but that you don't sit around eating a bag or box
of whatever because it's "fun" and "feels good" -- i.e. eating to drown out
negative feelings we don't want to face or don't realize are there -- or
eating as a "hobby." Sitting on the couch and vegging out and numbing out.
And thinking it's fun and a reward. It's not.

By the way, I just finised reading "Passing for Thin" by Frances Kuffel
and it was an astonishingly good book.

I need to read that one too-- thanks for the reminder!

It's roughly broken down into three sections: "The Planet of Fat", "Leaving
the Planet of Fat" and "Arriving at the Planet of Girl." I never got as
obese as she did, and I don't have her food addiction issues in the same
sense, but nearly everything she wrote was familiar. It was an excellent
read.

I am going to look for it-- it sounds like "me." Thanks for sharing your
thoughts -- you often cause me to stop and think about the deeper issues of
getting/being/staying/reversing overweight.

Mary