I always thought I was destined to be fat, and that was the excuse I used to never do anything about it. My father was very close to being (or WAS) obese, and I learned my eating habits -- such as they were (not
) -- from him. Things like, "eat the whole darn birthday cake overnight," and "one Pringles container makes a meal"
.
Then, my fear/belief that I was destined to be fat was "confirmed" when I found my birthmother. She weighs 350+ lbs and needs a scooter to get around now. I was DEVASTATED because now I not only did I have a lifetime of horrid eating working against me, but now I had genetic "proof" that I was born to be obese. Which, I can tell you now, is complete crap. Not long after I found my birthmother, I got on the weightloss wagon and dropped 25 lbs in a year. I maintained that loss for 18 months and have now lost another 25 lbs.
We MAY have a genetic predisposition (I dunno), but in my opinion, it's more about the environment we grew up in and the environment we currently live in. I spent the first 17 years of my life watching my father eat entire logs of pepperoni, whole quarts of ice cream, and bags upon bags of chips. So
of course that's how I learned to eat. And when he died (of an aortic aneurism brought on by high blood pressure + his weight, by the way) I REALLY started eating like him.
I know now that I'm NOT destined to be fat, and I think it's really important to let go of the belief that you are. I've found that this whole thing has been 100% a mental battle, and if you hold on to negative beliefs and tell yourself it's out of your control because of genetics (or whatever), the battle will be SO much harder because you don't fully believe you can do it.