Friday, June 3, 2011

Suggestions Please

Hello All, I hope everyone is having a wonderful week!  I received the following email.  I was wondering if you might have some suggestions for this young lady.  Thanks!

Hi Carla,
I visited your blog and saw that you are into dieting/fitness. I think I've reached the lowest point in my life, so I really need your advice....
I've been struggling to lose weight ever since I graduated from college. I've tried diets, exercising, fasting... My problem is that I have literally no motivation and discipline.
I'm 35 years old, and both of my younger sisters already got married.. I feel like such a loser for being undesirable to men, and for gaining so much weight since college... some days, i just ask myself what's the point of it all? Even if I lost all this weight, I'll still look ugly and flabby =(
Do you have any advice you can give me on motivating myself to eat less and exercise more? It's such a vicious cycle.. I'd try and go on a diet, and be discouraged and end up eating junk food to comfort myself...
I hope you can be of some help - I really need it at this point. God Bless~~~~

9 comments:

  1. OH - wow - how can we email this lady? It breaks my heart to read this. But, then I read this again and wonder if it is for real - call me negative, but I have dealt with many "internet" invasions. If it is true to form, then she is worthy of making herself feel good. Lack of motivation or not, it is not a "diet", it is a lifestyle, wanted to have it and striving for it, slow or fast, she can do it!!! I have been overweight since I was in High School - I am now 43 and working towards making myself feel better, not to make others make me feel better.

    Wonder if any of that just helped? Having a rough day, so going to end on that note....

    MO

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  2. Wow, she really poured her heart out. Assuming she is for real, I would encourage her to stop dieting and to look for ways to make simple healthy changes to her lifestyle. Things that she can do every day for the rest of her life. It may be eating breakfast if she normally would skip it. Or drinking more water and eventually cutting back on pop, if that is her drink of choice. She could try adding a short walk to her day or a few days a week, even if it's only around the block. There are so many small changes that we can make in our daily habits that in the long run make a difference.

    That is the way that I got started. I didn't even start to exercise until I was 10 months into losing weight. I understand where she is coming from, I was miserable and hated myself when I was at 272 lbs. Encourage her not to look at losing a certain number of pounds by a certain date. But to focus on creating healthier habits. The healthier habits will result in weight loss, maybe not over night, but over the course of a couple of months she should see some results.

    Just a note to you: Don't take on the burden of being her rescuer. She needs to rescue herself, because nobody can make another person feel better or lose weight. We each have to choose to be responsible for our own actions. You could also guide her to some of the blogs that you have found inspirational.

    You are such a kind and caring lady. I hope that you have a great weekend!

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  3. I received the exact same email
    I feel a bit uncomfortable about that
    Dawn

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  4. Thanks ladies. I kinda wondered if others got this email too. Her email address looks kind of hinky too.

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  5. I still don't get it...Why?
    I feel quite sad...I took it totally at face value.
    Why?

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  6. I don't know Dawn. She may be sincere and sending emails to many people to see if anyone responds. But since her email address looks odd to me, I am not responding. I wanted to copy and paste the suggestions I get here and send them on to her, but am afraid to. And then again, she may be up to something to harm our computers, I just don't know.

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  7. I emailed since a number of times - in a nice way in case she was sincere but total silence, no word. I can only assume it was some kind of a joke or a scam. You're right, the address does seem odd but I never noticed at the time. If I'm too naive, wanting to help people and believe them then fine, I'll try not to change. I am wondering if putting my email address on my blog is all that wise tho
    Dawn

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  8. I recieved the exact same email as well, kinda freaky

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  9. I just took my email address off my blog, creepy!

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