Scale It Down

What do you do when you want to become successful at something?

When you want to become successful at something, you seek out what others have done to become successful before you and start from there. For some reason, when the goal is weight control, we forget how that simple formula works. And when we do emulate someone, it's usually to copy their crazy diet tips for the purpose of weight loss only. So we decided to go directly to the source and talk to some thin people who grew up without weight problems and continued to maintain normal weight ranges well into adulthood and middle age. (And by 'thin people', we mean anyone who maintains a normal level of weight - not the model anorexic types.) Here's what we found out…

Thin people work at not having a weight problem

Well if that doesn't put the kabosh on the old reliable mega metabolism theory, we don't know what will! They actually told us that in between all those chips and ice cream cones, they consistently do one or more of the following things: 1) Eat healthy foods the majority of the time 2) Are always aware of what they're eating 3) Compensate immediately for over-indulgences 4) Maintain a steady exercise program.

Food is not an emotional thing

Can you believe people really think that way? Food and emotion go hand in hand as far as overweight people are concerned. We bury our sorrows, celebrate our accomplishments and build social events around food. We're more concerned about what eats are going to be served than what activity we're going to be doing or seeing - we rate an event by food. Sound familiar? Believe it or not, thin people don't think this way. They don't even think twice about the quantity of foods served either. Incredible, huh?

Junk food & desserts were something special you might have once in a while as a kid

There's definitely no emotion in this statement. Special, precludes the pig out mentality we grew up with. Pop was never part of their daily diets either. Amazing! Thinking back to our childhood, we had some pretty spesh habits of our own. One in particular, was an after school ritual that entailed a bike ride to the local Convenient store. We'd buy a pop, a bag of chips, a Hostess snack pie, a pint of chocolate milk and a magazine. Then we'd sit on a stoop at the end of the sidewalk in front of the store, wolfing down our treats while we perused and giggled over the magazine - usually the latest issue of Tiger Beat or True Confessions. What were we thinking, packing calories like that into an afternoon snack? Obviously, we weren't!

Their mothers didn't make a big deal out of cooking

Can't you just see your mom go into shock about now? These moms cooked low calorie meals most of the time, and some people went as far to say that their mothers' meals just weren't too much to rave about in general - down rite boring and void of butter, oils, sauces and sweets. No wonder food wasn't a big deal to them!

One young woman told us her mother used to serve meals on a "color rule" basis - you had to have the right mix of color on your plate. That meant you had to have at least one brown, (for meat) and at least one green, orange, or yellow, (for vegetables) BEFORE you could have a white (for rice or potatoes). Needless to say, mashed potatoes and gravy never took center stage in that household.

Thin people are very picky about what they eat and how they eat it

Some will only eat cheese on a burger and never as a chunk, let alone on top of a cracker. Others would never have chips with a meal, because chips only went with dip outside of a meal - as that special treat you'd have once in a while.

Statements like these are just mind boggling to those of us who crave cheese in any form and consider chips to be one of the all time dining staples in life.

Time is never a constraint for thin people

Thin people never think there isn't enough time in their busy schedules to watch their weight and keep up an exercise regime. And then there's the rest of us. Do the following statements sound familiar? I want to lose weight, [big sigh] but I just don't have to time to think about it right now OR I know I've got to start exercising, [bigger sigh] but I'm just too busy. (We're embarrassed to say we relied upon these excuses way too many times over the years.) Try saying these statements out loud to yourself a few times - they really do sound ridiculous.

Final Tale

We know, information like this is tough to swallow second hand. So why not put your own Sherlock cap on? Start interrogating the thin people you know. And yes, there might be someone you'll find who eats really bad, doesn't exercise and is skinny as a rail. Why is that? No, it's not that they have been blessed with mega metabolism, it's usually because they never eat (even tho' when they do it's junk ) unless they're HUNGRY. Now, that's a concept!