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However, suppose everyone told her that in order to be a worthwhile person, she had to restrict her eating until she lost a lot of weight? Suppose she tried, and lost many pounds, but then went back to her old eating habits and regained the lost weight? Would people blame her then? Would she blame herself?
Our research shows that 90 percent of overweight people blame themselves for failure to keep off weight lost through dieting. And 90 percent of all persons who try to lose weight by dieting - meaning a short-term, nonpermanent change in eating habits - ultimately fail and regain. This adds up to a lot of failure and self-blame.
We feel that losing weight by dieting is not unlike breath holding. The body will take over control after a while, and it will start breathing (and eating) even if the mind doesn't want to. After holding your breath for as long as you can, a normal person will inhale a vast quantity of air for the oxygen deficit. After a prolonged diet, the body will take in a large number of calories to make up for caloric
The question for you is: should individuals continue to blame themselves and feel guilty for having a perfectly natural bodily reaction? The answer, obviously, is of course not.
Story #3: A Boulder in the Stream
The story is told of an impulsive young man who wanted to remove a large boulder from the middle of a stream so that his fishing boat could pass by. He was so impetuous that he ran into the stream and started heaving his body against the rock. It would not budge. The man grasped recklessly at the rock with his bare hands, cutting his hands and wrists. The rock moved only slightly. So intense became this man's passion to move the stone that he did not notice his increasing loss of blood. Soon his fatigue and loss of blood caused him to faint. He fell face down in the water and drowned. Many years later, the stream wore down the boulder into a few pebbles.
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