Self-Esteem is a myth and a dangerous myth. I say this because this thing we call self-esteem is conditional. Everyone, well almost everyone deserves good things in life. Most people are worthy. How you feel about yourself should be based on your behavior and decency as a human being and not on the size of your bank account or your belly.
If you are a glutton it is not as much of a reflection on you but your beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. Many dieter blame this nebulous thing called low self-esteem for their failure when in reality they failures are tied to their beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.
If you are fat you did it to yourself in most cases. If you remain fat it is due to your behaviors and beliefs and attitude that dictate those behaviors. Losing weight often requires that you get real with the reasons for why you won't do what it required to lose weight ie control your calories.
I don't think it is a matter of won't do what is required to lose the weight, from my personal experience it is a matter of find it hard to do what is required. It is not always that simple to say why don't you do what is required to do this or that otherwise the whole of the human race would be 100% perfect.
I have read a book about low self esteem, it also defines a few other terms.
for example, efficacy is how good you are doing something, self-efficacy is how good you think you are.
low self esteem is a problem relating to mentally beating yourself up, having negative thoughts running through your head, not crediting yourself with your strong sides and achievements.
Partway through reading I guessed you were suggesting some people who do not have a low self-esteem problem, well - you think their self esteem is too high, that they need to be taken down a peg or two - now I'm not sure if you were ever going in that direction.
Low self-esteem does affect your beliefs, attitudes and behaviours. That is the point. The book I referred to above proposes a CBT treatment for low self-esteem to change your thoughts and actions so that you do not under-value yourself.
So long as emotions in your life are preventing you from being able to stick to your healthy eating or calorie controlled eating plan, it does not matter how good the plan is. You have to be mentally healthy enough to be able to follow it.
Self-esteem is not a myth, and it should be conditional TO A POINT. After all, you can and should build self-esteem by accomplishing personal goals, not by simply being alive and telling yourself how great you are.
Low self-esteem can definitely get in the way of positive change. It's a temptation to think that you can't better yourself. And it can be a cause and excuse for failure.
Also, I can't agree with the idea that most people deserve good things in life. Being a good person doesn't mean you deserve squat from the world. In fact, the idea that one deserves certain things in life is a dangerous one. Life and the world don't owe us anything.
Nir wrote: So long as emotions in your life are preventing you from being able to stick to your healthy eating or calorie controlled eating plan, it does not matter how good the plan is. You have to be mentally healthy enough to be able to follow it.
I think that's a big part of why regular exercise is so tied to weight loss. Not because exercise itself burns so many calories, but because it helps to lift one's mood and self-concept. It's also a fast way to begin feeling a sense of accomplishment, because it's easy to discernibly build cardio stamina by exercising regularly for just a couple of weeks.
PuffsPlus wrote:
Not because exercise itself burns so many calories, but because it helps to lift one's mood and self-concept. It's also a fast way to begin feeling a sense of accomplishment, because it's easy to discernibly build cardio stamina by exercising regularly for just a couple of weeks.
I believe that everyone is worthy of something big but they should believe first that they're worthy. I agree that attitude is the number one factor of what we are, who we are, and what we are right now. The WHYs of doing things are more important than the HOW. The bigger the WHY, the easier the HOW.
