I hear it and read it daily, from Oprah to Dr. Phil, from 3FC to friends, family and neighbors...but is it true?
As a formerly super obese person, I felt comforted in hearing that my weight issues stemmed from my predisposition to care for everyone except myself. I was fat because I didn't take time for me, but spent all my efforts caring for my family. But wait? How could that be? I certainly had time to eat 5000+ calories a day...isn't that *me time*? I certainly had time to read up on every weight loss pill, diet, and surgery. I had time to daydream about being thin, make charts , graphs, and journals that I never followed through on. I had time to take all the necessary long steps at personal hygiene that takes an enormous amount of time when you are an enormous person. I didn't encourage my kids to play sports because I didn't want to have to go to games, I didn't encourage my kids to exercise, because I didn't want to have to do it with them. I didn't want to have sex with my husband because I was to tired/fat/embarrassed. I didn't feel like cooking so we ate out at the greasy spoon a couple times a week, hit the drive through when we were in the city. Lets see...I did laundry and made sure homework was done and that's about it.
So who was I spending all this time taking care of? Do we REALLY get fat because we take care of everyone except ourselves? REALLY?