This post started as a comment that I was going to submit at Fatmanunleashed it was loosely related to being overweight and having a sense of humor about it.

Now, I consider myself to have a great sense of humor and can crack a joke about almost anything. I can take a joke as well as I can dish it out. But being overweight and joking about it just masks the problem, which I have done for years.

I have been the butt of many fat jokes. They used to really bug me, I would get upset and depressed about it all the time. Privately of course. To everyone else I seemed to have a great sense of humor about it, laughing along and playing it up.

The worst part was that I just accepted that role as the fat guy. The guy who eats out all the time. The guy who never exercises and the guy who you could call a “fat ass” to his face and be met with a smile, a laugh or a dumb response “yup, that’s me”

Are You Calling Me Fat?

I changed it by understanding that I honestly do not give a crap about what they think. I mean really not care, no mind tricks, no positive talk, none of that. Does their opinion of me really change the way I live or the people I love? Nope. So then why bother giving any thought or emotion to them.

I followed that up with a change in my attitude and my reaction to the jokes that were directed my way. They were no longer met with a dumb little laugh and a smile. People needed to see that there were new boundaries that I had set. I would no longer welcome the put downs.

I didn’t want people to feel sorry for me or even feel sympathetic to my plight. I wanted them to see me as I was starting to see myself. Stronger more determined and starting to take control of the situation.

The response I got was tremendous, instead of jokes I got encouragement, real advice and invitations to participate in more physical activities. Activities that I wouldn’t have otherwise been considered to participate in.

I started to take my health and weight seriously. That was instrumental in making a lifestyle change. That is really what this is all about, isn’t it.

Butt of the Joke

Overweight people are an easy target to be made fun of. Many people do it as a way to deflect the attention on to someone else. Because if people were to really take a closer look at the person making the joke they would see that they have problems that are similar or worse than the person they are making fun of. (make sense?)

I’m not saying that you need to be angry or lash out at the people making the jokes, but that doesn’t mean you should encourage them or accept the behavior either.

What are your thoughts? Are you the butt of the joke all the time?

Just a quick post to let you know that I’m doing the 100 push-up challange.

I hope that most of you have already heard about the one hundred push-up challange going on at hundredpushups.com. It’s an online plan with the goal of getting you to be able to complete 100 pushups in a row within 6 weeks (give or take a week).

Push ups are a great way to track your progress and test your strength. I started this challange last week with my intial test being 63 straight push-ups. Although my form was questionable on the last few. I have completed week one and let me tell you it’s not as easy as I thought it would be. I managed to complete 51 for my fifth level as my max by the end of the week.

That’s a lot less than my intial test but still more than half way to reaching the 100 push up mark.

Proper form is essential in doing these. Don’t cheat and only go half way down or do the girl push up (unless you’re a girl). This is how you complete a proper classic push-up.

hundredpushups.com is also a great resource for finding other bloggers that are also striving to hit the 100 push-up mark. You can find them under the Take the Challange section.

So go to hundredpushups.com and sign up, print out the workout schedule and complete the intital test. Then leave a comment here and let me know how many you can do

I have read a lot of weight loss sites, blogs and self improvement sites that use the tagline “it’s not your fault“. Meaning that whatever your problem is that some how you are not responsible for the consequences. I personally think that is a load of BS.

The more I explore the reasonings behind my weight gain and the weight gain of others, the more I realize how much of a role our thinking and mindset has to do with it all.

Our culture is centered around blame. We blame our boss for us not earning enough money, our government for not providing enough services and taxing us too much and more specifically towards weight gain; we blame people, situations, food and drug companies etc..

This Applies To 90% Of Overweight People

The fact is that you alone are responsible for your weight gain. No one else forced that unhealthy food (either in content or quantity) into your mouth. No one else made you sit on the couch in front of the TV instead of exercising. And no one else should or will care about you regaining your health and losing the weight as much as you.

No matter what your current situation there were choices that you had to make to get where you are today. Everyday choices like eating out instead of making your lunches at home, skipping breakfast, skipping workouts and not paying attention to what you’re eating over time add up.

Accepting Responsibility Is Empowering

Accepting Responsibility is NOT blaming yourself. It’s understanding that this is the situation I have gotten myself into and now I have to get myself out of it.

Once you stop blaming other people and less than ideal situations for your weight gain and understand that ultimately you were the one that got yourself into this situation, you can start to make some real progress towards losing the weight.

Now that you know the cause you can explore the options to correct it. The good news is that you are not alone in trying to fix the problem. There are many great online weight loss sites that offer great advice, tips and support to help you reach your goals and keep you motivated along the way.

Here are a few to help you get started.

Iowa Avenue
Weight Loss Forum
Andrew is getting fit
John is Fit
Fatmanunleashed
The Menu Coach Chronicles
Weight Loss Weapons

Another great way to keep you on the right track is to start your own blog and make yourself accountable to not stop until you reach your goal.

Free Blogging programs

Word Press
Blogger

If you’re really serious and want to make a commitment to keeping track of your weight loss journey you can sign up and get your blog hosted by a hosting company. I use PowWeb for this site and wordpress as my blogging platform. It costs $5.77 a month and a you get a FREE domain name.

Nothing against the free sites but I’ve found that if I’m paying for a service I am sure as hell going to use it. Here is a perfect example, my first free site I started that I never used.
The Diet Starts Monday

What are your thoughts on this? Have you accepted responsibility for your choices?

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